Ivan Fedorov, a courtier in Ivan the IV’s court was accused of plotting against the first Tsar
of Russia, Ivan the IV. Against all expectations, Ivan gave Fedorov a royal welcome in his court.
He forced the trembling plotter to don the royal robes, handed him the royal scepter,
and pushed him to sit on the royal throne. Ivan the IV then bowed to Fedorov and told him “Only
I have the power in the entire Russia to make you sit on this throne and so only I can unseat you.”
And then Ivan the Terrible stabbed Fedorov several times to death in front of everyone.
You have to give him props! Even contemporary literature maestro Shakespeare couldn’t think
of such imaginative ways to kill his characters in Othello and Macbeth. Welcome to Nutty History, and
today let’s find out all the creepy things Ivan the IV did to earn the title of “The Terrible”.
Crowned at the mere age of 13, and promoted to full power at the age of 16, Ivan was a product
of a horrible childhood and dirty politics. His father, Grand Prince of Moscow, Vasili the III
died when Ivan was only three years old. Throughout his childhood, Ivan Vasilyvech was at
mercy of power-hungry boyars or elites who wanted to use him to expand their influence and wealth.
His mother Yelena was also killed, allegedly by poison, making him the sole heir to the throne.
But Ivan was still too young to rule and remained dependent at the mercy of the Boyars until the
age of thirteen. Hungry for power and control, the boyars ill-treated Ivan and Yurii and the neglect
made Ivan resentful of the entire system. In his letter to his close friend Prince Andrei Kurbsky,
Ivan cried about the torment he had to suffer at the hands of the nobility responsible for
taking care of him. He detailed how he was denied proper food, and clothes, and a decent childhood.
Often left locked up in rooms, Ivan spent his time reading many books. While the Boyars bickered and
conspired with each other and neglecting the ruler to be, Ivan educated himself and developed hate
against all of them. Too young to set things straight and too angry to sit down quietly,
Ivan channeled his wrath on little animals. He would pull out bird’s feathers one by one while
they were alive, reveling in their pain and agony. He also enjoyed watching the dogs and
cats fall from great heights after he threw them out of his windows. By the time he was thirteen,
Ivan had created a list of targets like Arya from Game of Thrones intending vengeance. The
very first name on that list was the Shuisky family. At that time, the Shuiskys were the de
facto rulers of Russia after coming out on top in the power struggle with the Belskeys. This victory
has also ensured their custody of young Ivan and his younger, deaf brother, Yurii. However,
the years of abuse and torment they caused to Ivan and his sibling became their undoing
when 13-year-old Ivan openly accused Prince Andrei, head of the Shuisky family of mismanaging
the country in a feast and ordering the guards to arrest him. Now what happened next is arguable
because there are two versions. The most credible story out there is that Prince Andrei was taken
down to the dungeon and beaten relentlessly by the jailors until life gave up on him.
However, in hushed voices, the nobility talked about how Andrei was thrown down in a pit full
of hungry hunting dogs, who tore the Boyar apart limb to limb and then in many more pieces.
The grudge Ivan harbored for Russia’s elites, didn’t stop with the Shuiskys.
Though, when full power was transferred to him at the age of sixteen, he did try to
be a reasonable and benevolent ruler. His first years as a monarch brought peace and prosperity.
His rulings included reforms to the penal code, the establishment of the standing army, and the
introduction of self-governance. A fan of books, Ivan also introduced printing presses in Russia
and he ordered the construction of the magnificent St. Basil’s Cathedral after the conquest of the
Tartar region of Kazan. However, perhaps the darkness inside Ivan the IV wasn’t entirely
suppressed. As the legend goes that after the completion of St. Basil’s Cathedral, Ivan the IV
ordered it's architect blinded so he could never recreate or top the brilliance of St. Basil’s ever
again. But this might be an urban myth similar to the hoax of Emperor Shahjahan ordering the arms
chopped off of the builders who constructed the Taj Mahal. Both stories have no base of evidence
but one might wonder where did the rumor begin. Ivan the Terrible didn’t continue to
be a compassionate ruler. His title is a massive spoiler about how things did turn out in the end.
But the real story is quite heartbreaking. Remember Ivan’s childhood friend Prince Kurbsky?
The very dear friend to whom Ivan opened up about his difficult childhood? Well, despite such a
strong bond between the two of them Kurbsky stabbed Ivan in the back during his campaign
in Lithuania and was the reason why Ivan faced an embarrassing defeat. Ivan returned home to
find solace and gather his strength but cruel fate had something different planned for him. In 1560,
Ivan’s love of his life, his first wife Anastasia died unexpectedly. Already down on his luck,
this tragedy broke Ivan’s humanity forever. He was convinced that the entire nobility was out to
get him and they were behind the poisoning of his wife. He decided to remove himself from Moscow and
abdicate the throne but on one condition. He proposed to divide the nations into two parts,
one to be ruled by nobility and the other by himself with no oversight. Unable to rule the
country without him but hungry for more power, the Russian nobility agreed to this arrangement.
Ivan returned to rule and without wasting any time, he began working against his rivals.
He created his own police named Oprichnina to imprison and execute anyone without a trial.
This secret police would charge anybody for treason against Tsar Ivan the IV and had the power
to persecute and kill as well. Of all subjects, the brutal Oprichniks had an intense disliking
for aristocrats. The Oprichniks rode on the streets of towns and villages with severed heads
of dogs attached to their saddles symbolizing that they were out sniffing for the traitors.
The favorite execution methods employed by the Oprichina included boiling alive,
impalement, being roasted over an open fire, or being torn limb from limb by horses. To live in
the territory ruled over by Ivan and the Oprichina was to live in a permanent state of fear,
as was amply demonstrated by the terrible fate that fell on Novgorod.
After the death of his first wife Anastasia, Ivan’s mind became shrouded with paranoia,
conspiracies, and anxiety. He began mistrusting every single courtier
and nobility in Russia and treated them with nothing but disgust and a sadistic attitude.
Moreover, wars with Sweden, Lithuania, and Poland deteriorated his mental state further.
The Oprichnina enabled his vision for punishing his rivals and snuffing out the opposition.
In 1568, Ivan evicted thousands from Novgorod and the neighboring town of Pskov just because
he was suspecting a rebellion. The Oprichnina executed over a hundred and fifty boyar council
members and noblemen in Moscow for being rightly or wrongly accused of conspiring against the Tsar
or simply protesting the horrors committed by the Oprichnina. However, that wasn’t enough for Ivan,
a year later he assembled all of his army and Oprichnina and marched down to Novgorod in 1570.
Ivan was convinced in his head that the city’s leaders and clergy were conspiring
with Polish and Swedes to dethrone him. So, Ivan invaded the city. For over a
month the soldiers murdered, defiled, tortured, and robbed the inhabitants.
The soldiers attacked the churches and monasteries and looted them, killing monks and priests. The
archbishop was dragged onto the streets as Ivan had something special planned for him.
He sewed the archbishop into a bear’s skin and asked him to run, then he released hungry hunting
dogs after him. Let’s just say it was not a pretty death! But that was nowhere close to the end,
all merchants and traders were hanged or killed. Ivan had no mercy for women or children either.
Most of them ended up being thrown into the icy Volkhov river with soldiers killing anyone
successfully swimming their way to the banks and making a run for it. Those who escaped executions
were banished from the city to walk in the snow until they froze themselves to death.
No one knows how many died, but it was estimated that some 100,000 people were killed in Novgorod,
thanks to the orgy of violence and bloodshed unleashed by Ivan the Terrible. It would take
centuries for Novgorod to fully recover from the attack. On his way back, Ivan burned down 90% of
the fields in the city. This caused the famine to follow and that killed as many people once again.
One might think that with everything that happened with his parents and his wife,
Ivan would have been extra protective of his family. But in reality, even his family wasn’t
safe from his wrath. Ivan the IV left Henry the VIII miles behind by marrying eight times
and all of his wives met unfortunate ends. Five of them were murdered, and three of them ended
up imprisoned with only his last wife managing to see the light of day again only because she
somehow managed to outlive him. Although he wasn’t directly responsible for the death of his wives,
him being in their life did play a part in it. At one time Queen Elizabeth the First,
the last monarch of Tudor lineage, was a possible suitor for Ivan the IV. Despite the fact that she
died a virgin and ended her bloodline with it, we have to say that she totally dodged a bullet here.
Things could have turned out very differently as Elizabeth did send her ambassadors to measure Ivan
for her. However, Ivan didn’t take the meet even slightly seriously and he began playing
with Lord Kennilworth's famously long beard. Needless to say, the ambassadors left with
a very poor impression resulting in no wedding bells. Things got darker in Ivan’s house as his
mental state deteriorated. When Anastasia died, Ivan descended into a fit of rage. Inconsolable,
he thrashed the whole palace down, smashing almost every bit of furnishing he could lay his hands on.
Later on, his own fury became the cause of multiple deaths in his family. In 1581,
he walked on to his pregnant and undressed daughter-in-law. Furious by her lack of dignity,
Ivan began thrashing her to the extent that the poor woman miscarried. When Ivan’s son
Ivan Ivanovic found out, he confronted his father only to receive a sharp baton thrown
at his head. Unfortunately, the contact was made by the pointy end of the baton and the
injury resulted in Prince Ivan falling gravely ill and succumbing soon after. Ivan the IV,
despite his flaws, was considered a champion of the poor and powerless for hating the nobility.
His title “The Terrible” could be considered a mistranslation but his deeds indeed justify it.
He accomplished growing Russia from a small medieval state to a billion-acre empire
but also left it into economic shambles which the empire couldn’t recover until the reign of
Peter the Great. But nothing matches his love for violence, bloodthirst, and macabre. Tell us in
the comments what you deem as Ivan’s creepiest action of all. And do let us know which other
leader or ruler shall we cover in this series. As always, thanks for watching, Nutty History!