As a young child, Ivan IV was a victim of the same caprice and cruelty that would later characterize his own reign. After his mother\u2019s \u201chaughty and arbitrary\u201d\u00a0 ((RS 101)))\u00a0 regime, the young Ivan lived under chaotic boyar rule where \u201cimprisonments, exiles, executions, and murders proliferated.\u201d ((RS 133))\u00a0 The boyars who had served Ivan as an autocrat while his mother was alive became neglectful and cruel of the young heir in his private life. Ivan seized his rule at age 13 and insisted that he be crowned as tsar (rather than Grand Prince) at age 16. Though he enjoyed a happy marriage to Anasatsia of the Romanov boyar family, Ivan\u2019s personal traumas continued. Soon after his wedding a great fire razed Moscow, leading to riots that killed his uncle and nearly killed Ivan himself. Riasanovsky and Steinberg call the riot \u201cone of the psychological crises that were periodically to mark his explosive reign.\u201d<\/p>\n
I found Ivan\u2019s psychology intriguing, since he \u2013 like Mao Zedong and Josef Stalin \u2013 was a fearsome ruler who grew up in a home marked by violence and trauma. Ivan\u2019s psychological profile seems to be a topic of interest in Russian history, since the 1897 portrait by Victor Vasnetov is characterized as a \u201cpsychological portrait.\u201d The actions that characterized his Reign of Terror (such as the founding of the oprichniki<\/em>) don\u2019t seem so much like sadistic punishments of his people as a they do a measure of personal protection.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Discussion questions:<\/p>\n What were Ivan\u2019s motivations for his Reign of Terror? What events in his life made him paranoid and fearful for his personal safety and hegemony?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As a young child, Ivan IV was a victim of the same caprice and cruelty that would later characterize his own reign. After his mother\u2019s \u201chaughty and arbitrary\u201d\u00a0 ((RS 101)))\u00a0 regime, the young Ivan lived under chaotic boyar rule where … Continue reading