Ivan the Terrible: First Tsar of Russia

From the publisher. Ivan IV, "the Terrible" (1533-1584), is one of the key figures in Russian history, yet he has remained among the most neglected. Notorious for pioneering a policy of unrestrained terror -- and for killing his own son -- he has been credited with establishing autocracy in Russia. This is the first attempt to write a biography of Ivan from birth to death, to study his policies, his marriages, his atrocities, and his disordered personality, and to link them as a coherent whole. Isabel de Madariaga situates Ivan within the background of Russian political developments in the sixteenth century. And, with revealing comparisons with English, Spanish, and other European courts, she sets him within the international context of his time. The biography includes a new account of the role of astrology and magic at Ivan's court and provides fresh insights into his foreign policy. Facing up to problems of authenticity (much of Ivan's archive was destroyed by fire in 1626) and controversies which have paralyzed western scholarship, de Madariaga seeks to present Russia as viewed from the Kremlin rather than from abroad and to comprehend the full tragedy of Ivan's reign.;The historical background -- The reign of Vasily III -- Ivan's birth, childhood, adolescence, coronation, and marriage -- The era of Aleksei Adashev -- The "government of compromise" -- The conquest of Kazan -- The dynastic crisis of 1553 : domestic and military policy, and the arrival of the English -- The War in Livonia and the end of the "Chosen Council" -- The death of Anastasia, and Ivan's second marriage -- Tsar Ivan and Prince Andrei Kurbsky -- The setting up of the Oprichnina -- War in Livonia and the Zemskii Sobor of 1566 -- The Boyar Plot : (1) the letters to King Sigismund -- The Boyar Plot : (2) the executions of Ivan Fedorov, Metropolitan Filipp and Vladimir Staritsa -- Armageddon -- Foreign policy and the Tatar invasions -- The end of the Oprichnina, and the succession to the Polish-Lithuanian crown -- Grand Prince Simeon Bekbulatovich -- Peace negotiations -- The truce of Iam Zapol'sky -- The death of Ivan -- Ivan's legacy to Russia.