Ivan IV the Terrible (1530-1584) was a psychopath. He poured blood over his country and watched the suffering of his fellow citizens without blinking an eye. In his cruelty, he went so far as to murder his own son.
Ivan the Terrible murdered his son…
If there were psychoanalysts in the time of Ivan the Terrible, they would immediately point to the roots of the ruler's cruelty - an unhappy childhood. Ivan lost his father at three and his mother at eight. On behalf of the minor heir, the country was ruled by a regency council composed of seven boyars competing for influence and power. Ivan and Yuri - his retarded younger brother, were treated as a crutch and not always able to eat their fill.
The boy grows up in constant fear. Do greedy boyars want to murder him? Isn't a salesman hiding behind a curtain with a dagger in his hand? Or maybe they gave him poisoned water to drink? Ivan lived outside the Kremlin walls, not knowing what was going on outside. He was surrounded by spies and no contact with his peers was allowed. As a teenager, he relieved tension by torturing birds, throwing dogs off the Kremlin walls and watching the orgy organized by boyar sons.
Paranoia and cruelty
Then the future ruler dreamed of absolute power, for which he was ready to use the most drastic measures and bathe Russia in blood. He ascended the throne at the age of 16 and immediately began exterminating those who were dissatisfied with his rule. When a group of townspeople from Pskov came to the Kremlin to complain about the strict government, Ivan the Terrible ordered to pour alcohol on them and set them on fire. When a fire ravaged Moscow in 1547, the enraged crowds rushed to the Kremlin. Then the tsar ordered a bloody crackdown on the leaders of the revolt.
Ivan IV the Terrible was a psychopath and cruel
As time passed, Ivan became truly paranoid - he saw enemies and spies everywhere. In order to deal with the alleged opponents, on February 4, 1565, he established a special formation - opponents. The formation consisted of 6,000 people, and its members, clad in malevolent blacks, had the right to kill and rob anyone suspected of being hostile to the tsar. Opryczniki was not bound by law or tradition, they only obeyed Ivan the Terrible.
The first executions take place on the day of establishing the formation in the Red Square. Seven boyars were beheaded. Prince Dymitr Czerwinow was impaled and died for 24 hours. Often, tsarist enemies were killed at their place of residence along with their family members and servants.
Prince Semyon Rostowski, who had been a salt in the tsar's eye for many years, the ophthalmologists took him to the ice-hole and chopped off his head. The body was thrown into the water; the monarch's head was taken. Torture and executions took place in Słoboda Aleksandrowska, Ivan's residence. People were skinned there, boiled alive, baked in a huge frying pan, their fingernails were pulled out, and their fingernails were cut in many ways. Once, the tsar had a man sewn up in a bearskin and set hungry hunting dogs on him, and then he enjoyed watching the uneven fight. He also had gladiatorial fights:he sent seven spear-wielding monks to fight the seven bears.
Ivan the Terrible relished the sight of someone else's suffering
[He] takes pleasure (...) watching the slow dying of suffering in the streams of blood, listening to the crackling of bones, howling and panting from the gaping mouth. (...) Every time a human rag exhales, he feels a strange delight in a love spasm
- writes Henri Troyat, biographer of the Terrible.
Bloody shambles in Nowogród
In 1570, Ivan committed his cruelest crimes - he razed the city of Novgorod to the ground. What prompted the tsar to this atrocity? First, the monarch - enraged after the defeat in the Livonian War - began to suspect the Novgorod authorities of setting up a conspiracy to move over to the Polish-Lithuanian state. Secondly, Groźny did not like the democratic way of governing the city, which - in his opinion - should have been subordinated to the central authority.
The oprichnina became the tool of terror.
First, the tsarist army surrounded Novgorod with a tight cordon so that no one could get out of the city. And then the shambles began. First, the oppressors plundered the local churches and orders, and then murdered all the clergy. Then the rest of the inhabitants of Novgorod were dealt with. Not only men, but also women and children were subject to torture. The victims were flogged with a knout, their limbs, ears and noses were cut off. Stomachs were ripped open, castrated, boiled or baked alive. Babies were tied to their mothers and thrown into the Volkhov River.
The pogrom of the city lasted 6 weeks! During this time - according to various data - from 15,000 to 60,000 inhabitants of Novgorod died, which was razed to the ground.
Childkiller
As a real psychopath, Ivan the Terrible was unable to develop a close relationship with his relatives. His distrust also extended to his own heir - Ivan, born in 1554. The son of the Terrible was educated and well-mannered, but also had psychopathic tendencies. This made him enjoy violence and learning about the history of the saints of the Orthodox Church.
How did the Tsarevich Ivan's murder come about? Historians present different versions of his death. There is even no agreement as to the date of the event - November 9, 14 or 19, 1581? Apparently, one November evening, the father and son were sitting in the Kremlin in the company of the Tsarevich's pregnant wife. At one point, the Tsar began to criticize his daughter-in-law's clothes, which led to a violent quarrel between the two Ivans. According to another version, the tsar wanted to ... sleep with his daughter-in-law, while the tsarevich was jealous of his wife. Some argue that the Tsar and his son had political arguments.
Ivan the Terrible mocks Ivan Fedorov, the leader of the boyars, who is seated on the throne in tsarist disguise. In a moment, Ivan stabs Fedorov with the knife.
Whatever the cause of the violent quarrel, the Terrible was furious with his son's insolence and struck him in the head with an iron-shod staff. The Tsarevitch fell to the floor. He had a fractured skull and the court doctors failed to save him. After five (nine) days, according to another version, he died.
Only then did the Grozny realize that he was putting his dynasty in jeopardy by his rage. His second son, Fyodor, was developmentally retarded and could not rule. It is said that the tsar "pulled his hair out of his head and beard like a madman, lamented and wailed". He scratched the walls with his nails and shouted the name of the son who was buried in the Arkhangelsk Cathedral in the Kremlin.
Ivan's death had changed the Terrible. The ruler began to meditate on the crimes committed. He also made a list of the people he had killed. He ordered monks in monasteries to pray for the souls of the murdered. But these belated remorse could not bring back to life those who had been destroyed by Ivan IV the Terrible.