Cruelty of Ivan the Terrible

Ivan IV. of Russia, called the Terrible, was the son of Vassili V. When his father died he was but a child; and his mother Helena, contrary to the Russian custom, made herself regent, and for four years held her position, putting down all opposition with terrible cruelty.

In 1537 she was poisoned; and the regency was seized by the Shuiski, a powerful family who had received many humiliations at the hands of the grand princes, and who now avenged themselves by heaping all manner of insults on the young Ivan. They punished all opposition to their power with relentless cruelty; and Ivan saw his friends dragged from his presence, and put to death, notwithstanding his entreaties.

In 1543, when the Czar was fourteen years old, the Shuiski were overthrown by the Gluiski, another prominent family, who pursued the same course of cruelty and despotism, but thrust the Czar forward, and robbed and killed and tortured in his name.

They applauded and encouraged the development of his naturally cruel nature. It became his favorite amusement to torture wild animals, and to throw tame ones down from the summit of his palace.

In 1547 the Gluiski were driven out and massacred by the people of Moscow, and for the next thirteen years Russia enjoyed peace and quiet.

In 1560 the Czarina Anastasia, to whom Ivan was much attached, died; and at about the same time Ivan was seized with a terrible illness which nearly proved fatal, but from which he recovered, though he showed symptoms of insanity, and would break forth into frightful fits of rage on the slightest provocation.

He delighted to inflict suffering on his people; and in Novgorod, in the year 1570, he put sixty thousand of his subjects to death.

"He butchered with his own hand a throng of the unfortunate people whom he heaped together in a vast enclosure; and when at last his strength failed to second his fury, he gave up the remainder to his select guard, to his slaves, and to his dogs."

In Moscow five hundred of the most illustrious of the nobles were tortured and put to death.

Women were not spared any more than men, and hundreds of them were hung in their own doorways.

At length a number of subjects, headed by his eldest son, presented a supplication for mercy, which greatly enraged Ivan; and with a single blow of his iron-bound staff he laid his son dead at his feet. His remorse for this deed greatly hastened his death, which occurred in 1584.

In spite of his madness and tyranny, Ivan IV. did more for the greatness of Russia than any of his predecessors.

He organized the first standing army, concluded commercial treaties with England, and induced many Englishmen and Germans to settle in his empire.

In 1569 he set up the first printing-office in Moscow. He was the first ruler to assume the title of czar.

Rurik is justly regarded as the founder of the Russian Empire, A. D. 862: he gave the country the name of Russia from the tribe to which he belonged.

Rurik reigned for fifteen years with Novgorod as his capital, and died 879.

During the reign of his successors, Russia was divided into numerous principalities. Ivan III, called "Ivan the Great," succeeded in re-uniting Russia, and was the first to assume the title of "Autocrat of all the Russias." His statesmanship was of the Macchiavellian order, but resulted in the establishment of his authority over the whole of Russia. He died in 1505, aged sixty-seven years.