1 00:00:00,280 --> 00:00:02,679 Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio. 2 00:00:04,519 --> 00:00:08,320 Speaker 1: Hello and welcome to This Day in History Class, a 3 00:00:08,440 --> 00:00:11,680 Speaker 1: show that shines a light on the ups and downs 4 00:00:11,880 --> 00:00:17,160 Speaker 1: of everyday history. I'm Gay Bluesier, and today we're examining 5 00:00:17,200 --> 00:00:20,720 Speaker 1: the reign of Ivan the Terrible, including all the awful 6 00:00:20,760 --> 00:00:24,239 Speaker 1: things he did to earn such as sinister nickname. As 7 00:00:24,280 --> 00:00:30,160 Speaker 1: a warning, today's episode features descriptions of violence toward men, women, children, 8 00:00:30,360 --> 00:00:42,879 Speaker 1: and animals, which some listeners may rightfully find disturbing. The 9 00:00:43,000 --> 00:00:48,840 Speaker 1: day was January sixteenth, fifteen forty seven. Sixteen year old 10 00:00:48,960 --> 00:00:54,080 Speaker 1: Ivan Vasilievich was proclaimed the first Czar of Russia. At 11 00:00:54,080 --> 00:00:57,600 Speaker 1: the time, Russia was a patchwork of territories, each of 12 00:00:57,640 --> 00:01:00,840 Speaker 1: which was ruled more or less independently by its own 13 00:01:00,960 --> 00:01:04,920 Speaker 1: duke or prince. The main duty of these princes was 14 00:01:04,959 --> 00:01:08,759 Speaker 1: to collect taxes for the true rulers of Russia, the 15 00:01:08,800 --> 00:01:12,319 Speaker 1: Mongol invaders, who had seized control more than three hundred 16 00:01:12,400 --> 00:01:17,160 Speaker 1: years ago. Ivan Vasilievitch, also known as Ivan the Fourth, 17 00:01:17,520 --> 00:01:21,160 Speaker 1: was supposed to become one of those glorified middlemen, having 18 00:01:21,200 --> 00:01:24,520 Speaker 1: inherited the title of Grand Prince of Moscow from his 19 00:01:24,640 --> 00:01:29,200 Speaker 1: late father. However, on the day of his coronation, Ivan 20 00:01:29,240 --> 00:01:32,919 Speaker 1: decided to aim a little bit higher and instead crowned 21 00:01:32,959 --> 00:01:36,759 Speaker 1: himself the ruler of all of Russia. It was a 22 00:01:36,760 --> 00:01:39,960 Speaker 1: bold move, but Ivan felt confident he could pull it 23 00:01:40,000 --> 00:01:43,040 Speaker 1: off because of the sorry state of affairs in Russia. 24 00:01:43,480 --> 00:01:48,040 Speaker 1: After centuries of ironclad rule, the Mongol Empire was finally 25 00:01:48,040 --> 00:01:51,600 Speaker 1: in decline and its grip on Russia had begun to loosen. 26 00:01:52,040 --> 00:01:55,560 Speaker 1: But so far, none of the boy Yars the noble 27 00:01:55,600 --> 00:01:58,720 Speaker 1: families of Russia had been brave enough to push out 28 00:01:58,760 --> 00:02:01,920 Speaker 1: the Mongol Horde and take charge of the country themselves. 29 00:02:02,400 --> 00:02:05,560 Speaker 1: They were more interested in lining their pockets and preserving 30 00:02:05,600 --> 00:02:08,560 Speaker 1: their own power than they were in unifying the country. 31 00:02:08,880 --> 00:02:12,359 Speaker 1: So when Ivan finally came of age in fifteen forty seven, 32 00:02:12,680 --> 00:02:16,640 Speaker 1: he decided to do it himself. He didn't expect any 33 00:02:16,680 --> 00:02:19,840 Speaker 1: of his rival princes to mount a serious challenge to 34 00:02:19,919 --> 00:02:22,680 Speaker 1: his rule, but if they had, he would have welcomed 35 00:02:22,680 --> 00:02:26,440 Speaker 1: the chance to take them off the board. Ivan despised 36 00:02:26,520 --> 00:02:30,520 Speaker 1: the entire Boyar class, and for good reason. He and 37 00:02:30,560 --> 00:02:34,480 Speaker 1: his younger brother Yuri, had been orphaned at a young age. 38 00:02:34,480 --> 00:02:37,680 Speaker 1: His father died of an infection and his mother followed 39 00:02:37,720 --> 00:02:42,440 Speaker 1: a few years later, possibly through assassination by poison. This 40 00:02:42,560 --> 00:02:46,440 Speaker 1: left Ivan and Yori to be raised by the local aristocracy, 41 00:02:46,800 --> 00:02:49,840 Speaker 1: a group that did not have the boy's best interests 42 00:02:49,840 --> 00:02:53,400 Speaker 1: at heart. They knew that Ivan was destined to rule 43 00:02:53,480 --> 00:02:56,560 Speaker 1: over them one day, but since killing him outright would 44 00:02:56,560 --> 00:03:00,639 Speaker 1: have drawn too much attention, they settled for child abuse instead, 45 00:03:01,040 --> 00:03:04,440 Speaker 1: hoping that the toxic environment they provided for him would 46 00:03:04,480 --> 00:03:07,880 Speaker 1: result in a weak, ineffectual leader whom they could keep 47 00:03:07,960 --> 00:03:11,320 Speaker 1: under their thumb. With that end in mind, they locked 48 00:03:11,320 --> 00:03:14,120 Speaker 1: the young boy in small spaces for days at a 49 00:03:14,160 --> 00:03:18,080 Speaker 1: time and would beat him severely with little or no cause. 50 00:03:19,040 --> 00:03:22,600 Speaker 1: Although Ivan was said to be a sensitive and intelligent child, 51 00:03:22,840 --> 00:03:26,079 Speaker 1: the cruelty and neglect he was exposed to made him 52 00:03:26,080 --> 00:03:30,480 Speaker 1: increasingly angry and paranoid. He became convinced that his boyar 53 00:03:30,639 --> 00:03:34,680 Speaker 1: caretakers were responsible for his mother's death, and vowed to 54 00:03:34,720 --> 00:03:37,920 Speaker 1: aventure once he was old enough to take the throne. 55 00:03:37,960 --> 00:03:41,280 Speaker 1: In the meantime, he reportedly took out his frustrations on 56 00:03:41,400 --> 00:03:45,040 Speaker 1: small animals, pulling the feathers out of live birds, and 57 00:03:45,160 --> 00:03:49,640 Speaker 1: hurling dogs and cats out of windows. After spending eight 58 00:03:49,840 --> 00:03:53,600 Speaker 1: years locked into this abusive cycle, the day of Ivan's 59 00:03:53,600 --> 00:03:57,880 Speaker 1: coronation finally came at the cathedral of the Dor Mission 60 00:03:58,080 --> 00:04:01,160 Speaker 1: in Moscow. The sixteen year old old boy stepped up 61 00:04:01,200 --> 00:04:05,400 Speaker 1: to the altar and received the distinctive monomach's cap, the 62 00:04:05,440 --> 00:04:08,840 Speaker 1: golden crown of jewels trimmed with fur that had been 63 00:04:08,840 --> 00:04:12,720 Speaker 1: worn by the grand princes of Moscow for centuries. He 64 00:04:12,800 --> 00:04:15,960 Speaker 1: then promptly demanded that he be called the Tsar of 65 00:04:16,080 --> 00:04:19,640 Speaker 1: all the Russias, a statement of his intent to unite 66 00:04:19,720 --> 00:04:25,080 Speaker 1: the country's fractured territories into one vast modern empire. His 67 00:04:25,200 --> 00:04:28,360 Speaker 1: choice of title Tsar was meant to signal that his 68 00:04:28,720 --> 00:04:32,200 Speaker 1: was a divine appointment. Up until then, the word was 69 00:04:32,279 --> 00:04:36,000 Speaker 1: chiefly associated with royalty in the Old Testament of the Bible, 70 00:04:36,320 --> 00:04:40,040 Speaker 1: so by applying it to himself, Ivan was cleverly asserting 71 00:04:40,080 --> 00:04:43,400 Speaker 1: a connection between the Church and the monarchy, a sure 72 00:04:43,440 --> 00:04:46,320 Speaker 1: fire way to lend credibility to his rule in the 73 00:04:46,360 --> 00:04:50,440 Speaker 1: eyes of the public. At first, Ivan the Fourth's reign 74 00:04:50,680 --> 00:04:55,600 Speaker 1: was relatively peaceful, even constructive. Two weeks after his surprise 75 00:04:55,800 --> 00:05:00,120 Speaker 1: rise to power, he married his first wife, Anastagia. Then 76 00:05:00,440 --> 00:05:02,640 Speaker 1: he set to work on bringing his country up to 77 00:05:02,720 --> 00:05:05,279 Speaker 1: speed with the rest of Europe, with the help of 78 00:05:05,320 --> 00:05:09,520 Speaker 1: a hand picked council of advisors, Ivan instituted reforms on 79 00:05:09,560 --> 00:05:13,640 Speaker 1: the country's penal code, tax collection, and judicial system. He 80 00:05:13,720 --> 00:05:17,600 Speaker 1: also introduced a new legal code aimed at standardizing the 81 00:05:17,640 --> 00:05:21,280 Speaker 1: common laws of the different regions, and he created local 82 00:05:21,400 --> 00:05:24,920 Speaker 1: self governing councils to oversee daily life in the far 83 00:05:25,000 --> 00:05:28,839 Speaker 1: flung corners of the country. In addition, Ivan made some 84 00:05:29,080 --> 00:05:33,440 Speaker 1: unexpected contributions to the arts. He ordered the construction of 85 00:05:33,480 --> 00:05:36,919 Speaker 1: the Moscow Print Yard, which introduced the first printing presses 86 00:05:36,960 --> 00:05:40,880 Speaker 1: to Russia in fifteen fifty three, and he commissioned some 87 00:05:40,920 --> 00:05:44,880 Speaker 1: of the country's most iconic and beloved architecture, including Saint 88 00:05:44,920 --> 00:05:49,040 Speaker 1: Basil's Cathedral in Moscow. There's a long running rumor that 89 00:05:49,080 --> 00:05:52,240 Speaker 1: Ivan was so pleased with the finished cathedral that he 90 00:05:52,320 --> 00:05:55,400 Speaker 1: had the architect blinded so that he could never produce 91 00:05:55,440 --> 00:05:59,520 Speaker 1: anything to rival its beauty, but there's no real evidence 92 00:05:59,560 --> 00:06:02,920 Speaker 1: to support the claim, and most historians now think it 93 00:06:03,080 --> 00:06:07,240 Speaker 1: never happened. During the most productive period of his nearly 94 00:06:07,360 --> 00:06:11,719 Speaker 1: forty year reign, Ivan also raised a formidable standing army, 95 00:06:11,839 --> 00:06:15,560 Speaker 1: which quickly became the lynchpin of his foreign policy. He 96 00:06:15,600 --> 00:06:19,680 Speaker 1: wielded his military might both to repel the Mongol Horde 97 00:06:19,800 --> 00:06:24,039 Speaker 1: and ultimately to conquer all the remaining independent regions of Russia. 98 00:06:24,680 --> 00:06:27,560 Speaker 1: By the time he was finished three decades later, the 99 00:06:27,680 --> 00:06:32,359 Speaker 1: nation had expanded into a sweeping, multicultural melting pot whose 100 00:06:32,440 --> 00:06:36,800 Speaker 1: territory encompassed more than one and a half million square miles. 101 00:06:37,760 --> 00:06:42,839 Speaker 1: Despite his overall success in creating a larger, more centralized Russia, 102 00:06:42,960 --> 00:06:46,480 Speaker 1: it's Ivan the Fourth's brutal methods that he's most remembered 103 00:06:46,520 --> 00:06:50,680 Speaker 1: for today, because while his behavior was always erratic, he 104 00:06:50,760 --> 00:06:54,720 Speaker 1: became completely unstable following the death of his first wife 105 00:06:54,839 --> 00:06:59,080 Speaker 1: in fifteen sixty. He reportedly sank into a deep depression 106 00:06:59,320 --> 00:07:01,520 Speaker 1: and began to suspect that she may have been the 107 00:07:01,560 --> 00:07:05,760 Speaker 1: target of a boyar plot, just like his mother. Troubled 108 00:07:05,760 --> 00:07:09,560 Speaker 1: by the prospect, Ivan left Moscow and began suggesting that 109 00:07:09,640 --> 00:07:13,560 Speaker 1: he might even abdicate the throne. He was probably bluffing, 110 00:07:13,760 --> 00:07:16,440 Speaker 1: but since the nobles of Moscow had no one else 111 00:07:16,480 --> 00:07:20,440 Speaker 1: to lead them, they begged him to come back. Ivan agreed, 112 00:07:20,680 --> 00:07:24,720 Speaker 1: but on one condition. He wanted absolute power over the 113 00:07:24,720 --> 00:07:29,400 Speaker 1: surrounding region, including the authority to punish traitors and criminals 114 00:07:29,600 --> 00:07:34,040 Speaker 1: in whatever way he saw fit. The desperate Boyars hastily 115 00:07:34,080 --> 00:07:38,680 Speaker 1: agreed and came to regret it almost immediately. For the 116 00:07:38,720 --> 00:07:42,320 Speaker 1: next two and a half decades, Ivan the Fourth embarked 117 00:07:42,320 --> 00:07:46,880 Speaker 1: on a campaign of merciless retribution, earning himself the famous 118 00:07:46,920 --> 00:07:51,600 Speaker 1: Moniker by which he's known today, Ivan the Terrible. In Russian, 119 00:07:51,880 --> 00:07:55,880 Speaker 1: the title people used to describe him was Grosny, which 120 00:07:55,880 --> 00:07:59,360 Speaker 1: has a meaning closer to fearsome more menacing, But when 121 00:07:59,400 --> 00:08:03,080 Speaker 1: you lay out the list of Ivan's misdeeds, terrible fits 122 00:08:03,080 --> 00:08:06,760 Speaker 1: the bill just as well. With his power now unchecked, 123 00:08:06,960 --> 00:08:10,240 Speaker 1: Ivan proceeded to claim his long awaited revenge on the 124 00:08:10,280 --> 00:08:13,600 Speaker 1: nobles who had slighted him in the past. He seized 125 00:08:13,600 --> 00:08:16,880 Speaker 1: their private lands and divvied them up among his supporters, 126 00:08:17,280 --> 00:08:20,600 Speaker 1: and when entire cities sought to break free from his control, 127 00:08:20,760 --> 00:08:24,520 Speaker 1: he sent his secret police to wipe out every last dissenter. 128 00:08:25,360 --> 00:08:29,640 Speaker 1: That gang of lethal enforcers was known as the Appreachnik. 129 00:08:30,000 --> 00:08:33,200 Speaker 1: They dressed all in black and rode on black horses 130 00:08:33,400 --> 00:08:36,840 Speaker 1: with the severed heads of dogs dangling from their saddles, 131 00:08:37,320 --> 00:08:39,800 Speaker 1: a message to the public that they were not there 132 00:08:39,840 --> 00:08:42,920 Speaker 1: to keep the peace, but to sniff out and execute 133 00:08:43,080 --> 00:08:47,840 Speaker 1: anyone who opposed the Czar. Ivan employed all the usual 134 00:08:47,920 --> 00:08:52,920 Speaker 1: punishments of the era, including decapitation, hanging, and impaling, but 135 00:08:52,960 --> 00:08:56,400 Speaker 1: he also developed new ways of inflicting pain, such as 136 00:08:56,520 --> 00:08:59,680 Speaker 1: roasting the condemned on a spit or throwing them into 137 00:08:59,679 --> 00:09:03,680 Speaker 1: bear pits. As you might imagine, Ivan the Fourth was 138 00:09:03,800 --> 00:09:08,199 Speaker 1: not a popular leader, not among noble families, peasant families, 139 00:09:08,400 --> 00:09:11,760 Speaker 1: or even his own family. In fact, one of Ivan's 140 00:09:11,880 --> 00:09:14,880 Speaker 1: last and most vile acts was the killing of his 141 00:09:15,040 --> 00:09:19,680 Speaker 1: son and his unborn grandson. In fifteen eighty one, three 142 00:09:19,800 --> 00:09:23,280 Speaker 1: years before his death, Ivan beat his pregnant daughter in 143 00:09:23,360 --> 00:09:27,760 Speaker 1: law for wearing clothing he deemed too revealing. The assault 144 00:09:27,920 --> 00:09:31,320 Speaker 1: caused her to miscarry, and when Ivan's son confronted his 145 00:09:31,360 --> 00:09:34,480 Speaker 1: father about what he'd done, the ruler flew into yet 146 00:09:34,520 --> 00:09:38,720 Speaker 1: another fit of rage. He always carried a sharpened club 147 00:09:38,960 --> 00:09:41,880 Speaker 1: or scepter at his waist, which he used to strike 148 00:09:41,960 --> 00:09:46,119 Speaker 1: anyone who displeased him. Faced with what he viewed as insolence, 149 00:09:46,400 --> 00:09:49,319 Speaker 1: Ivan hit his son on the temple, and he died 150 00:09:49,360 --> 00:09:53,560 Speaker 1: from the wound a short time later. Those senseless acts 151 00:09:53,600 --> 00:09:57,440 Speaker 1: of violence against his own family wound up dooming Ivan's 152 00:09:57,520 --> 00:10:01,760 Speaker 1: legacy once and for all. On March eighteenth, fifteen eighty four, 153 00:10:02,120 --> 00:10:05,120 Speaker 1: Ivan the Fourth died from a stroke while playing chess 154 00:10:05,320 --> 00:10:08,640 Speaker 1: at the age of fifty three. Because he had killed 155 00:10:08,679 --> 00:10:12,360 Speaker 1: his firstborn son, his crown passed to his more simple 156 00:10:12,440 --> 00:10:17,280 Speaker 1: minded son Feodor, who himself would die childless just fifteen 157 00:10:17,360 --> 00:10:22,000 Speaker 1: years later. The lack of a legitimate air plunged Russia 158 00:10:22,040 --> 00:10:25,520 Speaker 1: into a catastrophic period of anarchy that came to be 159 00:10:25,600 --> 00:10:29,280 Speaker 1: known as the Time of Troubles. All of the social 160 00:10:29,360 --> 00:10:32,840 Speaker 1: and political reform that Ivan the Fourth had made prior 161 00:10:32,920 --> 00:10:36,720 Speaker 1: to his reign of terror was suddenly swept away, leaving 162 00:10:36,800 --> 00:10:43,360 Speaker 1: nothing to remember him by but his savagery. I'm Gabe 163 00:10:43,400 --> 00:10:47,080 Speaker 1: Lucier and hopefully you now know a little more about 164 00:10:47,120 --> 00:10:50,920 Speaker 1: history today than you did yesterday. If you have a 165 00:10:50,960 --> 00:10:55,200 Speaker 1: second and you're so inclined, consider following us on Twitter, Facebook, 166 00:10:55,280 --> 00:10:59,600 Speaker 1: and Instagram. You can find us at TDI HC Show. 167 00:11:00,280 --> 00:11:03,640 Speaker 1: You can also rate and review the show on Apple Podcasts, 168 00:11:03,760 --> 00:11:06,760 Speaker 1: or you can send your feedback directly by writing to 169 00:11:06,840 --> 00:11:11,520 Speaker 1: This Day at iHeartMedia dot com. Thanks to Chandler Mays 170 00:11:11,600 --> 00:11:14,600 Speaker 1: for producing the show, and thank you for listening. I'll 171 00:11:14,600 --> 00:11:17,960 Speaker 1: see you back here again tomorrow for a lighter day 172 00:11:18,240 --> 00:11:19,200 Speaker 1: in history class