preview

Ivan The Terrible Research Paper

Decent Essays

Drink. Anger. Sorrow. Drink. An endless cycle of the first Tsar of Russia, often all at once. A sick and twisted beginning, torturing animals, raping women, and drinking himself to death, the Grand Prince of Russia started here to end in almost the exact same place he started. Ivan the Terrible was true to his name, the first dictator of Russia was a cruel part of history that is never to be forgotten.
Born in the Rurik Dynasty, Ivan’s father was Vasili III who died when he was only a toddler. His mother, Elena Glinskaya, took his father’s place on the throne. Many had questioned her authority to rule, she was poisoned 5 years later when he was 8. Since then he had a deep-rooted paranoia towards the Boyars, a noble rank beneath prince, convinced that they had something to do with it. Left to the care of them he was often molested and neglected. Ivan, the Grand Prince of Russia, had to beg for food and clothes inside his own palace. Abuse, both verbal and physical, was common for the Prince. Unable to take his anger out on those who defiled him, he took to torturing small animals. “. . . he tore feathers off birds, pierced their eyes and slit open their bodies.” This gruesome pastime only grew …show more content…

He created the Oprichniki. He personally selected men, most of the criminal background, to swear an oath to him, to do as he asked. “The mere sight of the Oprichniki instilled fear: they dressed in black and rode black horses.” Breaking into churches while people worshipped, and abduct or murder the priest on the spot. Ivan had found himself to the abbot, or a friar, and the Oprichniki his monks. Performing sacrilegious masses that would be followed by “extended orgies of sex, rape, and torture”. Ivan also had peasant women strip from their clothes so that the Oprichniki could have target practice. Together, he and his “monks” ruled the Moscovian country in terror but he, Committed far worse crimes than

Get Access