The Presidential Library explores a history of crowned Tsar of All the Russias Ivan the Terrible and a significance of his reign to the country
January 16, 2017, marks 470 years since Ivan the Terrible (in Russian Grozny, as keeping enemies in fear, powerful, formidable) was crowned as Tsar of All the Russias. The Presidential Library digital stock has accumulated a wide array of historical researches of the period of XIX-XX centuries, dedicated to this significant event and its influence on the development of the Russian state.
The Grand Prince of Moscow Ivan IV Vasilyevich was orphaned in young age and the physical custody of him was given to the boyars council. As a historian Kliuchevsky mentions in his Russian history course, “he was naturally gifted with a ready, a flexible and a little sarcastic wit, really Muscovite, Great Russian mind. But the circumstances, in which he had to spend his childhood, spoiled him, offered him an unnatural and painful development. He has grown up in an atmosphere of the boyars’ abuse of rights. The court intrigues, the scenes of arbitrariness, which the boyars’ parties feuding were marked with, became the first impressions of young Ivan.”
From an electronic copy of the rare edition of 1914 “Tsar Ivan the Terrible and his times” from the Presidential Library stock we have learned that “Ivan as fare back as in his very early years read almost everything then can be read in the time: the holy scripture books, the church and Roman history, Russian chronicles, the apostolic fathers’ writings. Ivan was searching such excerptions in whatever he has read, where the greatness of the imperial power was mentioned, the lawless servants, unfaithful slaves - all these young monarch applied to his position and deep inside his heart harbored a resentment against those who made him feel humiliated.”
In 1543 13-year-old Prince acted seriously for the first time, perpetrated carnage over his offenders the Shuisky boyars and four years later announced the court his desire to get married, but before “to claim the ancestry according to ancient rite being crowned as Tsar.” Thus, Ivan wanted to take the title, which has not been officially recognized before him.
“Tsar and the Emperor in Russia at that time were synonymous. However, the title of Tsar has lost a little of its greatness by the fact that many of the Tatar princes, who were already part of a large tributary of the Moscow prince or simply the moguls of his regions, also called themselves the Tsars. But the Byzantine emperors also bore that title, and they after all were the rulers of that great Eastern Empire, which was thought to get re-established in the new capital of the Orthodox world,” – K. F. Valishevsky explains in his work about The Origin of modern Russia; Ivan the Terrible, published in 1912. Tsar and autocrat in ancient Russia called “the sovereign independent from any other ruler, not paying tribute to anyone. <...> Taking the title of Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich wanted to demonstrate that he considers himself the protector of the Universe Orthodoxy, independent of anyone, a single ruler of the entire Russian land, anointed of the Lord,” emphasized in the above-mentioned book “Tsar Ivan the Terrible and his times.”
A fateful for Russia event took place on January 16, 1547, in the Moscow Cathedral of the Dormition. At the official ceremony of coronation were used, in particular, such attributes as the Monomakh's Cap, the cross of life-giving wood and the ruler’s scepter. K. F. Valishevsky writes: “Everything was done to give it as much brilliance and solemnity. With a huge crowd of people at the solemn ringing of the bells the church and the throne were kind of joining in a this exclusive celebration: the bishops, the priests, the monks were offering their prayers to God and asking him to strengthen their new Tsar with the spirit of justice and truth, while the boyars at the same time were showering the throne with a rain of gold coins, which was the emblem of the abundance of the benefits which were wished him.” “Since that time the Russian monarchs, aside from foreign powers, were called the Tsars within the country, in all cases and papers, bearing the titles of Grand Princes, blessed by antiquity,” - according to published in 1868 Tsar Ivan the Terrible historical essay.
A 17-year-old prince's decision was the beginning of the epoch of the formation of the Russian state. “The reign of Ivan IV, Grozny occupies an extremely important place in our history. It was a time of complete overturn in the political system of Russia, namely, the final transformation of fragmented into small fiefdoms Russia into the Moscow state. <...> It already was not an independent principality, but the cohesive solid state, in which society was divided into classes, which are due to carry out a variety of state duties” - wrote T. Lind in the 1900-year edition of “Ivan the Terrible” from the Presidential Library stock.
Taking in 1547 the reins of government, Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich proceeded to its reformation. The reforms of military service, public administration was conducted, including incorporation of the elements of self-government at the local level, the first Assembly of the Land Zemsky Sobor took place. The changes were made in the judicial system - the Tsar’s Legal Code, which, apart from defining the court system in Russia with its proceeding, also included new civil and criminal laws, was released in 1550. By the autocrat order the ecclesiastical code, also known as “Stoglav,” was drafted, electronic version of each is available on the Presidential Library website.
In addition, the new state under the rule of Ivan Vasilyevich succeeding with protection its borders, expanded them, which more importantly: Kazan and Astrakhan khanates were conquered, the lends of West Siberia, Bashkiria and the Nogai Horde were annexed. In memory of the conquest of Kazan Khanate in 1555 Tsar ordered to build in Moscow a church, which still remains on Red Square - the main place of the nation, known as the Church of St. Basil.