Cousin Jesse's Peeps: Ivan the Terrible

In terms of interesting people, Ivan Vasilyevich or Ivan the Terrible, comes across as an intriguing personality, because of his power and strength as the very first Tsar of Russia. So he is kind of like the George Washington of Russia, but only with a far more interesting nickname than old wooden tooth, cherry tree chopping George. The nickname terrible is very misleading and when it is translated it actually means Ivan the Awesome, but everyone knows that words mean different things in different cultures. But then again he was terrible toward anyone that was against him or in the way.

What makes Ivan the Terrible such an interesting person, is that he was able to take a backwoods medieval society in Russia and get it on the right track to becoming an empire. At the age of three Ivan IV was given the throne and was raised to be a ruler by boyars (Russian nobles)that were fighting for control of power and this had an impact on Ivan when he grew up. Especially when he was not respected by these boyars and was often neglected and tortured by them. This might of been a reason for why he became such a ruthless ruler and went from torturing animals as a child to torturing and executing anyone that was in his way. The experience of being a witness to the boyars fighting for power while he was a child, might have led to Ivan having such mistrust toward the boyars as an adult when he became "Tsar of All Russia".

What kind of a ruler was Ivan Vasilyevich? In this time period you had to be a ruthless ruler in order to remain a ruler, but intelligence was very important as well. Ivan was a very devoted and strong leader that expanded the Russian borders to a billion acres and he modernized the military. He was able to build up the empire of Russia and rule as Tsar for just over fifty years, from 1533 to 1584. During this long reign he went from good times to bad times and was able to let out his ruthlessness on any enemies that he felt threatened by. Many suspect that Ivan had a mental illness and was very prone to violent fits. So vicious was Ivan the Terrible, that he accidentally killed his own eldest son with a blow to the head with his staff. Ivan led the way for future horrific rulers, like Napoleon, Stalin, Hitler and others; with his reign of terror that included a loyal militia that dressed in all black and killed anyone that opposed the Tsar's rule.



The Tsar had many great accomplishments as a ruler, which include revisions of the code of law, unified the people with force and through assembly of the land, attempted to unify the religion of the nation and brought along the printing press. He had the difficulty of trying to open up trade through the sea with a country that was land locked and he was able to open up trade in the White Sea. What makes Ivan the Terrible such an interesting ruler was how he was able to build up an empire from a primitive nation that had no identity or cultural unification. He was able to pave the pathway for Peter and Catherine the Great to build up the Russian nation into a significant country.