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May 13, 2005

Ivan the Terrible: a Russian hero

Ivan the Terrible, the Russian tsar from 1533 (age 3) to 1584, is part evil tyrant, part national hero, not unlike many Russian leaders. Living in the Russian imperial court could not have been easy, certainly not as a child-tzar as his family variously murdered each other, leaving the child a beggar in his own palace and emotionally isolated. The boy, as rightful claimant of the throne, lived in constant fear of being killed by rivals. Ivan took out his loneliness on animals (throwing them from the Krelmin walls), peasant women (going on rape and killing sprees), and eventually those closest to him. Ivan and his retainers even formed a pseudo-monastic order:

They regularly performed sacrilegious masses [from 3AM to 8PM] that were followed by extended orgies of sex, rape and torture. Frequently Ivan would act as master of the rituals, in which, with sharp and hissing-hot pincers, ribs were torn out of men's chests. Drunken licentiousness was alternated with passionate acts of repentance. After throwing himself down before the altar with such vehemence that his forehead would be bloody and covered with bruises, Ivan would rise and read sermons on the Christian virtues to his drunken retainers. [via]

Yet Ivan was also remarkably effective militarily, including retaking Kazan from the Muslims and attacking Livonia, as well as his massacre and torture of 60,000 people at Russia's cultural capital of Novgorod. (Some 200 were brought to Moscow and tortured to death in Red Square.) In his better moods, Ivan patronized the arts by commissioning such well-known cathedrals as St. Basil's on Red Square and the Church of the Beheading of John the Baptist. The tzar became so loved that when he declared his intention to abdicate in 1564, mobs descended on the Kremlin to demand his return.

Ivan lived his last years as an old man, isolated, lonely, and deeply unhappy; he did not know the limits of his ability to harm himself. On 15 Nov 1581, he beat his son's pregnant wife, causing a miscarriage. His son and heir, one of few people with whom he had a good relationship, argued with his father. Ivan the Terrible flew into a fit of rage, grabbed his iron-tipped staff, and plunged it through his son's head. One of the most amazing artworks in Russia captures the fear of the elderly tzar when he realized what he had wrought, cradling his nearly-dead son in his arms, bold eyes looking towards heaven, as fearful as King Lear. A little web picture can't do the wall-sized painting justice:

Following his murder of his son, Ivan fell into a deep despair that no amount of rape, torture, or masochism could eliminate. His two heirs were imbecilic and sickly, and gradually his health declined such that he foamed at the mouth, his testicles swelled, and his skin peeled. In his final year, Ivan made a list of all he had killed, paying monks to recite prayers for their souls. When soothsayers foretold of his death on March 18, 1584, Ivan swore to have them burned alive if they were wrong, but the old tzar kicked the bucket that very day. He was buried wearing a monk's habit.

Posted by adrianjo at May 13, 2005 06:24 PM

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