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Ivan Iv ( 1530-1584 )

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Ivan IV (1530-1584) was proclaimed Grand Prince of Moscow in 1533 and from 1547 until his death, the first to be crowned Tsar of Russia. During his reign, Ivan established autocracy, expanded Russia’s territory, and centralized its government. Ivan The Terrible earned his name through his unstable personality, containing bloodlust, paranoia and violent outbursts that would ultimately hurt his own country. On his deathbed, the Grand Prince of Moscow, Vasily III, told his wife, Princess Elena Glinskaya, that his first son, Ivan IV, would inherit the throne after he dies and she would serve as regent until he came of age, since he was three at the time. After his father’s burial, Ivan IV “was proclaimed the true Sovereign of all Russia” (Payne and Romanoff 24). After a successful five year reign, Elena died surprisingly from either a heart attack or poison. Vasily Shuisky took the regency and showed no sympathy to Ivan. He threw his mother’s lover, Ivan Obolensky, into prison and ordered his nurse, Agrafena Cheliadnina, into a nunnery. The feuding boyar families of Belsky and Shuisky battled over power while Ivan was left neglected and served only to be a figurehead to whomever was in control of the Regency. On December 29, 1943, the current Regent, Andrey Shuisky, was arrested on the orders of Ivan. Instead of following the regular course of events that were supposed to happen after an arrest in Kremlin Palace, Ivan ordered that his prisoner’s fate should be decided by the

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