Ivan_the_Terrible

Ivan the terrible wedged a forty-year war on his own country, Russia. He devised cruel sadistic punishments in his personal torture chamber. He watched Prisoners filleted boiled and even fried. Execution and torture were routine in sixteenth century Europe. With Ivan it went beyond the standard routines he was a strict, even brutal ruler. Ivan destroyed villages, towns, and an entire city; he stabbed his son to death in a fit of rage, all in the name of God. In 1533 the death of Vasily III set the Russian state into chaos. As Grand Duke of Moscow, he controlled the country and its rival noble families. Ivan his son and heir to the thrown was just three years old the day his father died. Five years later the nobility murdered Ivan’s Mother with a poison. He spent his childhood in terror armed men stalked the corridors of his palace as the royal factions fought for supremacy. Ivan was an emotional wreck. An eight-year-old boy feeling abandoned by his mother and father scared for his life as he is surrounded by violence of the factions fighting for power. Fear consumed his every moment. Despite his fears, he escaped unharmed. He started to believe that God was saving him. With the lack of human contact he was pushed to immersed himself in reading. Ivan read Old Testament and ancient books, obsessed with the respect and power of past rulers. The Old Testament is very bloody, with surpluses of killing, massacring and destroying. Here is where Ivan learned that a ruler is strong severe and brutal. Identity and purpose was found for Ivan in Christianity. The Russian Orthodox believed that in the fifteenth century Russia had become the true center of Christianity, orthodoxy was the true faith, and the ruler of Russia was the protector of orthodoxy. In other words Ivan saw the ruler of Russia to be the ruler of all rulers, the most important. Ivan’s worship was increasingly excessive, bang his head against the ground to religious idols caused him to for a callus on his head, and this became a life long habit. Ivan started to develop sadistic interests, one of his “hobbies” was to take dogs, cat, bear, and small creatures to the top of tall towers and throw them to the ground. Torture started fascinating Ivan, as he plucked the feathers from birds and slit their stomachs open. At age thirteen, Ivan became fed up with the Boyars (upper nobility in Russia from the 10th through the 17th cent. The boyars occupied the highest state offices and through a council advised the prince.) Leading Noble families were invited to a Christmas noble banquette, Ivan turned on them in a furious speech, and he demanded their leader, Andrei Shuisky, be executed immediately. Shuisky was dragged out, thrown to hunting dogs and “savaged to death.” The Murder of Shuisky was the beginning of Ivan’s cruel policy, the policy of the physical destruction of his political enemies. The murder was also his first step to absolute power, absolute power based on terror. By the age of sixteen Ivan was brutalized, paranoid and resentful. Intoxicated by his newly discovered power he took steps to increase his authority. January 1547 Ivan announced his coronation, his father was Grand Duke, but Ivan demanded to be crowned Czar. This claimed secrete dependency from the roman emperors and placed him above his fellow nobility. This new title was not good news for the Boyars because they knew this gave him additional power, a sacred power. The worst was the Boyars could not protest to this either because it was a “national dream” to have an independent King. After his coronation Ivan held a National Virgin Competition, Russian girls over the age of twelve were paraded in front of Ivan for him to choose a Russian wife, he chose Anastasia Romanov. The marriage was a happy one for Ivan and Russia, the marriage kept Ivan’s cruelty in check, for a while. Anastasia was seen as the missing piece of the puzzle, she made him happy. That year a series of fires hit Moscow Leaving hundreds dead and thousands homeless, Ivan took it as punishment from God for neglecting his people. In a pact Red Square, Ivan promised to protect his people in the name of God. His sense of spiritual responsibility was very developed and this is why Ivan felt personally responsible to any failure of Russia. Ivan reformed the State, Church and Army, withdrew power from the nobility and united his country. He conquered the eastern Muslim city Kazan, claiming a religious victory. In the west he opened trading routes in England, Ivan was experiencing a golden age that was not going to last. August 1560 Anastasia died mysteriously, Ivan went mad with grief and was convinced she had been poisoned like his mother had been. Anastasias death was a tragedy for not only Ivan but the nation, now that she was gone there was no one to stop him form his cruel policy. Ivan’s old cruelty came back; whole families Noble were wiped out, from elderly women to young boys. Many of the Noble men who fought in Ivan’s army were tortured right beside their children. Ivan was re-married seven times but never found peace again. Anastasias death cause Ivan and Gods relationship to change, he saw God as cruel and irrational now so he felt he should be the same. Ivan suffered from a progressive bone disease, this caused his spine to shrink causing him agony, for relief he turned to mercury, and this made him violent and unpredictable. Ivan carried a long wooden staff with a sharp point to wound or kill (pretty much a spear), this and his anger were not a good combination. 1565 Ivan decides to step down as Czar, this terrifies and confuses the people of Russia. He claimed it was because of unrest amongst the “Boyars and Clergy.” Historians say that this statement was more of a threat to scare the people into allowing him to get what he wanted all along, complete control to where he had to answer to no one. Russia as a country chose him because its either dictatorship or chaos, for Russia there is no in between. The people of Russia saw the chaos during Ivan’s childhood, the much rather the dictatorship. Eventually the Clergy and Boyars begged for him to stay, he agreed to but under his conditions, absolute power to purge his nation without judgment or criticism from anyone. Claiming authority above the church Ivan was the sole interpreter of God. He then created his own elite terror force, the Oprichniki. The Czar split Russia in two; one half to be ran by the Boyars and the other, the rich, to be terrorized by the Oprichniki. Everything about them were to trigger fear, they had black robes black horses with dog heads draped over them to signify that they would hunt down their enemies. Many were criminals such as rapists and murderers hand selected by Ivan because of their cruelty. Ivan selected the most aggressive 300 and moved them into his palace in Alexandrov he called this his monastery. Ivan had a schedule for the Opritchniki, at three in the morning the had church service, for four hours Ivan sang and prayed, after a meal and nap they attended Ivan’s personal torture chambers. In the chambers Hell was recreated, the Czar deliberately selected biblical punishments. These punishments were said to be seen as just in Ivan’s mind because he felt it was religious. At times Ivan led the torture sessions removing ribs with red-hot pincers. Witnesses to this have described Ivan leaving “beaming with contentment.” Ivan’s men at night would bring in peasant girls; they were whipped, raped and used for target practice. Up to 10,000 Nobles died at the hands of the Oprichniki, many more were forcibly relocated. Their land was ceased and settled by the Oprichniki themselves. Few challenged his rule, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church asked him to forgive men wrongly accused for rebellion, he was imprisoned and murdered for sorcery. Ivan was merciless with opposition. When he heard rumors that the city of Novgorod was planning a rebellion, he decided to punish the entire population. In five weeks he oversaw the torture of over fifteen thousand people. Ivan thought of punishments for those brought to him with his fifteen year old son. Ivan would use “giant frying pans” to fry confessions out of people before they killed them. They believed you should admit your wrong doings before death. Ivan often joined in on the torture. A German mercenary stated “ Mounting a horse and brandishing a spear he charged and ran people through as his son watched the entertainment.” The Novgorod massacre is looked on as an evil man indulging his sadistic mind. Men women and children were tied to sleighs and dragged into the river, they were tortured and mutilated. Ivan demanded mass trials because he felt there was a national conspiracy. Those executed were executed in red square where in front of Ivan’s new cathedral, St. Basil. Ivan’s brutality is shown when he makes the people of Moscow watch. One former adviser was hanged by his feet while Ivan and his men hacked off chunks of flesh. Ivan’s family was not even safe from his terror, his favorite son who would be the heir to his throne upset Ivan and while enraged Ivan stabbed him in the skull with his staff. A few days after the incident his son died. For the rest of Ivan’s life he felt only guilt and grief, in remorse he made a list of all those he has sentenced to death and sent money to monasteries for prayer for them. He was re-crisoned as a monk and would spend his remaining years in the monastery. Ivan died at the age of fifty-four, he collapsed during a game of chess. After Ivan died Russia was left in chaos.