You don’t end up with a name like that for nothing, and in Ivan’s case killing thousands of people, including his own son, made him pretty terrible.
IVAN THE INFANT
Ivan was born in 1530, the son of Grand Prince Vasily III of Moscow. His father died when Ivan was three, and Ivan became Grand Prince of Moscow. Since he was a bit young, his mother took over for him – until she died just five years later (possibly from poisoning). After that, nobles known as ‘boyars’ struggled amongst themselves for power and treated Ivan very badly. But he managed to survive and hang on to his title, and when he was sixteen he was crowned Tsar of All the Russias, the first ever leader of the whole of Russia.
CONQUERING
Ivan changed the way the government was run, hoping to reduce the powers of the boyars and promote nobles who were loyal to him in their place. He also did a bit of conquering with some success, but wasted many troops and a lot of money fighting the Livonian War, which went on for 24 years without Ivan conquering anything.
TERRIBLE TIMES
Ivan was annoyed about the Livonian War and very cross indeed with some of the boyars, who had proved disloyal once again. So he gave himself special powers over particular areas of the country, formed a bodyguard (of about 1,000 men at first, but it grew much larger) and began executing the boyars he didn’t like or who had plotted against him. He was especially suspicious of the nobles of the city of Novgorod, so he ordered his bodyguard to destroy it – they destroyed the whole city and killed thousands of people. Ivan the Terrible’s reign of terror lasted seven years, during which he had at least 3,000 people executed.
IVAN JUNIOR
Ivan the Terrible’s son and heir to the throne was also called Ivan. Unfortunately, in a violent argument, Ivan the Terrible killed Ivan junior by bashing him with a staff. Three years later, in 1584, Ivan died.
