50 Fun Facts About Ivan the Terrible

Ivan the Terrible was the first Russian ruler crowned with which title?

He was crowned at 16 in the Cathedral of the Dormition, with the cap of Monomakh placed on his head.

The Russian word 'grozny' in Ivan's epithet is better translated as what?

'Terrible' is an archaic rendering meaning 'inspiring fear'; the epithet is not recorded in his lifetime and only caught on in the 18th century.

How old was Ivan when he succeeded his father as Grand Prince of Moscow?

His father Vasili III died of blood poisoning from an abscess on his leg.

Ivan's grandmother Sophia Palaiologina belonged to the imperial family of which fallen power?

She was a niece of Constantine XI, the last Byzantine emperor, which fed Moscow's claim to be the 'Third Rome'.

Ivan's mother Elena Glinskaya, who ruled as regent, died in 1538; what do many believe happened to her?

Ivan later wrote that the Shuisky and Belsky boyars then brought him and his brother up 'like vagrants'.

On what date was Ivan crowned tsar?

Two weeks later he married Anastasia Romanovna, the first Russian tsaritsa.

Ivan's first wife, Anastasia Romanovna, belonged to which family that would later rule Russia?

Her death in 1560, which some contemporaries blamed on poison, is thought to have darkened his temperament permanently.

Ivan liked to claim descent from a brother of which Roman emperor?

The Tale of the Princes of Vladimir traced Rurik back to a mythical Prus, brother of Augustus, and Ivan stressed his 'German' rather than Russian blood.

What was the name of the revised legal code Ivan issued in 1550?

The same reforming period produced the Zemsky Sobor, regarded as Russia's first parliament of estates.

What was Russia's first standing army, established by Ivan, called?

They carried modern firearms and helped win the Battle of Molodi against the Tatars in 1572.

The 1551 church assembly that standardised rituals across Russia is known by what name?

In Russian it is the Stoglavy Sobor.

When a gravely ill Ivan asked the boyars in 1553 to swear to his infant son, what did many do?

They assumed he would die; his recovery left him permanently distrustful of the nobility.

What did Ivan introduce to Russia in 1553 by founding the Moscow Print Yard?

Traditional scribes burned the Print Yard down, and the printers fled to Lithuania.

Which Moscow landmark did Ivan build to commemorate the capture of Kazan?

The legend about the fate of the architect is false: Postnik Yakovlev went on to build the Kazan Kremlin walls.

By legend, what did Ivan do to Saint Basil's architect so he could never build anything as beautiful again?

In reality Postnik Yakovlev kept working for Ivan into the 1560s and even added a chapel to the cathedral after Ivan's death.

Which close adviser defected to Lithuania in 1564 and then exchanged famous letters with Ivan?

Harvard's Edward Keenan argued the letters are 17th-century forgeries, but most scholars still accept them.

In December 1564 Ivan left Moscow for Aleksandrova Sloboda and sent two letters announcing what?

The boyars begged him back; his price was absolute power to execute traitors and seize their estates.

What was the name of the separate territory Ivan carved out under his exclusive rule from 1565?

The rest of the state, ruled by the Boyar Council, was the zemshchina, 'the land'.

How many men made up Ivan's personal guard, the oprichniki, when it was first formed?

They were headed by Malyuta Skuratov and included the German adventurer Heinrich von Staden.

Which senior churchman was killed on Ivan's orders during the purges of the 1560s?

He was canonised in 1652, which is why the Orthodox Church later opposed a campaign to make Ivan himself a saint.

Which wealthy city did the oprichniki sack in 1570 on suspicion its nobles would defect to Lithuania?

Victims were tied to sleighs and run into the freezing Volkhov; modern estimates put the dead at 2,000 to 3,000.

In what year did Ivan formally abolish his separate realm and disband its black-clad guard?

The oprichniki had failed badly against the Crimean Tatars' raid of 1571.

In 1575 Ivan unexpectedly proclaimed which Tatar statesman Grand Prince of All Russia for about a year?

Ivan kept real control and used the puppet to confiscate monastery lands while publicly pretending to object.

Which English navigator reached Ivan's court in 1553 via the White Sea, opening Anglo-Russian trade?

Ivan let the Muscovy Company trade throughout his reign without paying customs fees.

Which foreign monarch did Ivan once propose marriage to?

He also asked her for asylum should he lose his throne; she agreed, provided he paid his own way.

Which Tatar khanate on the Volga did Ivan conquer in October 1552?

His army of foreign engineers and 150 cannon cut the water supply and breached the walls after a five-week siege.

What was the prefabricated wooden fortress floated down the Volga for the 1552 Kazan campaign called?

It was assembled near the enemy capital as the main place of arms.

Which khanate at the Volga's mouth did Ivan's troops take in 1554–56, giving Russia the river?

According to Janet Martin, subjugating the Muslim khanates 'transformed Muscovy into an empire'.

After beating the Tatars, Ivan had which symbol placed beneath the cross on church domes?

The crescent beneath the cross remains a common feature on Russian church domes.

How long did the Livonian War, launched by Ivan in 1558 for access to the Baltic, last?

It ended in defeat, the loss of Ingria and no Baltic outlet.

Which Polish-Lithuanian king besieged Pskov with an army of around 100,000 in 1581?

He had already taken Polotsk in 1579 and Velikiye Luki in 1580.

In 1571 a Crimean-Ottoman army did what to Moscow while most Russian forces were away in Livonia?

Estimates of the dead range from 10,000 to 80,000; the capital had only about 6,000 defenders.

Which Russian commander won at Molodi in 1572, only to be killed by Ivan the next year?

Ivan had sat out the battle far to the north.

Which merchant family did Ivan grant a 1558 charter to colonise the Kama River lands?

They hired the Cossack Yermak to defend their frontier, which grew into the first Russian expedition into Siberia.

Which Cossack leader began the conquest of Siberia in 1580 with about 540 men?

He proclaimed his conquests part of Russia, to his merchant sponsors' dismay, but died before reinforcements arrived.

How many wives did Ivan have, despite the Church banning even a fourth marriage?

Only four were recognised by the Church; three were allegedly poisoned by rivals.

Ivan's third wife, Marfa Sobakina, died how soon after their October 1571 wedding?

Her death fed the pattern of brides allegedly poisoned by rival boyar families.

How is Ivan generally believed to have killed his eldest son and heir in November 1581?

The quarrel began when Ivan scolded his heavily pregnant daughter-in-law for her dress; she miscarried within hours.

Which painter's celebrated 1885 canvas shows Ivan cradling his dying son?

The painting captures the tsar's immediate horror and remorse after the fatal blow.

Which Soviet composer set Ivan's own liturgical hymn to music on the first Soviet-produced CD in 1988?

Ivan was a poet and composer of real talent; the disc marked the millennium of Christianity in Russia.

What was Ivan doing when he died of a stroke in March 1584?

His opponent was Bogdan Belsky; the throne passed to his weak-minded son Feodor.

When Feodor, Ivan's successor, died childless in 1598, what period of Russian history began?

It also ended the Rurik dynasty, which had ruled since the 9th century.

Which substance did Soviet scientists find in excess when they exhumed Ivan in 1963?

They attributed it to ointments he used for his joints; the exam disproved syphilis, arsenic poisoning and strangling.

How tall was Ivan found to be at his death?

He weighed 85 to 90 kg and had developed bone diseases that left him barely able to move.

According to a 1567 ambassador's description, what colour was Ivan's beard?

Like most Russians of the time, he shaved his head with a razor.

Which Soviet director made a two-part film about Ivan under Stalin's personal supervision?

Stalin praised Part 1 but was angered by the sequel's portrait of a man with a conscience.

According to Stalin, one of Ivan's mistakes was that he did not 'finish off' whom?

He told Eisenstein that a film could show Ivan's cruelty but must show why it was essential.

In which Russian city was the first ever statue of Ivan the Terrible unveiled in 2016?

It marked the 450th anniversary of the city, founded as a fortress under Ivan; the opposition saw echoes of Stalin's era.

Which actor played Ivan the Terrible in Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian (2009)?

Ivan spends the film insisting he should be called 'Ivan the Awesome'.

By tradition, which building at Kolomenskoye was raised to celebrate Ivan's birth in 1530?

The infant was baptised at the Trinity Lavra of St Sergius, with two elders of the Joseph-Volokolamsk Monastery as godfathers.