Ivan groznyj. Comparable to Europe?

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Why is Ivan the Terrible of all Russian tsars especially hated by the old and modern anti-system? Why so many lies and filth were poured out on the Great Russian Tsar?

Today Russia is in conditions similar to those that were during the accession of Ivan the Terrible: significant territories of the Russian Empire (Little Russia, Belaya Rus, Northern Kazakhstan) were torn away from the Center; instead of the former boyars, oligarchs are at the helm of the state; in the Church heretics and philocatholics are striving for power; Russia is threatened by strong external enemies. In the Baltics, like the Livonian Order, there are NATO troops, in Ukraine the Uniates are ruling the ball, in the south the Ottomans are rattling their weapons, in the east - instead of the Tatar hordes - the Chinese. The question is again about the very existence of the Russian state and the Russian people. The preservation of the integrity of Russia and the national identity of the Russian people is inseparable from the issue of power, because all challenges to us can be resolved only by having a strong power! Precisely because we are talking about power, Tsar John the Terrible is subjected to such censure today.

The gentlemen who ruined the USSR, and nearly destroyed Russia in the 90s, accuse the Tsar (who, upon accession to the throne, inherited 2, 8 million sq. Km, and as a result of his rule, the territory of the state almost doubled - to 5.4 million sq. Km - slightly more than the rest of Europe.) in all mortal sins: filicide, despotism and bloodthirstiness, adultery, etc. "Murderer, satrap, maniac"

The rootedness of the myths associated with the name of Ivan the Terrible in our minds shows what influence the false history has on our people and how actively the anti-system works in the direction of discrediting our past.

COMPARE WITH EUROPE?

Let's turn to historical comparisons with Western European monarchs reigning at the SAME TIME as Grozny.

In Europe, which is considered a model of virtue and justice, approximately during the period that coincides with the reign of Ivan the Terrible, 378 thousand people were executed, and in Russia under Ivan the Terrible 5-7 thousand were executed, including for criminal offenses.

Under the laws of Henry VIII, as a result of the so-called enclosures, crowds of beggars and vagabonds appeared in England. Community lands - pastures and forests - began to be of considerable value. They bred sheep to sell their wool for cloth production. And the ruined peasants suddenly became lumpen without any means of subsistence.

Deprived of their homes and livelihoods, the peasants were considered vagabonds - immoral people who did not want to work. The laws of Henry VIII say very clearly: “we deign to collect alms only for the old and poor beggars, while the rest, who are fit for work, are subject to scourging, with the swearing of an oath obligation to return to their homeland and engage in labor; caught a third time - to be executed as a criminal."

As a result, according to the laws of Henry VIII, only 72 thousand peasants forcibly driven from the land were hanged for "vagrancy". This is 2/3 of the population of the then 100-thousandth London!

Ivan the Terrible is also accused of mistreating his wives. The cruelty took place. But by imprisoning their wives in monasteries, the Terrible Tsar at least did not take their lives. Whereas Henry the Eighth, for example, the English king, who was born 21 years earlier than Tsar Ivan and was also a polygamist, got rid of the annoying legal companions of life in one proven way - by execution.

In Germany, during the suppression of the peasant uprising in 1525, more than 100 thousand people were executed.

In 1558-1603 Queen Elizabeth ruled in England. But in the textbooks "for some reason" they do not name the number of "heretics" who were exterminated during the reign of Elizabeth. As evidenced by Grant's encyclopedic dictionary, during the years of Elizabeth's reign in England, 89 (!) Thousand people were executed. How many people were expelled overseas is difficult to say. Historians call numbers from 100 to 300 thousand.

Elizaveta is a contemporary of Ivan the Terrible; at one time he even thought of marrying her. But in European historiography, Ivan the Terrible is a monster on the throne, and Elizabeth is a great queen, under whom many wonderful and wonderful things have been accomplished.

Oliver Cromwell was the most progressive democrat at that time. Under him, England was declared a republic, and all kinds of reforms were carried out.

According to the calculations of Irish historians, every seventh Irishman was killed - both women and children and the elderly.

However, sometimes even more terrible figures are given: a fifth or a quarter of the innocent Irish were killed.

Was that time? Probably … But Cromwell is a contemporary of Alexei Mikhailovich Quiet, the second tsar from the Romanov dynasty. In Russia, for some reason, the time was different. After another uprising in 1688-1691, the Irish were deprived of all political rights simply for being Catholics. Education in the Irish language was banned on pain of death. For the head of a teacher who secretly taught to speak and write in Irish, they paid the same amount as for the head of a wolf.

Again, there was nothing even remotely similar in Russia during the reign of the Romanov dynasty. Neither the deprivation of civil rights for the Old Believers, nor the prohibition to study in Tatar or Mordvinian. Savages …

In France, things were no better. The war between Protestant Huguenots (Calvinists) and Catholics gave rise to incredible bitterness, and the crowned persons differed little from others … they had more opportunities.

In the 16th century, the so-called Fire Chamber was established by King Henry (Henri) II at the Paris Parliament. Over the course of three years, she denounced about 600 Protestant Calvinists and Huguenots, many of whom were burned to death.

The cruelty and deceit of Catherine de Medici are well known: to eliminate opponents, everything was used - both a knife and poison. Up to 30 people were killed "personally" by the "poisonous queen", without any religious or political reasons. So, the usual small palace intrigues.

On the conscience of Catherine de Medici and her son Charles IX - the events of the night of St. Bartholomew on August 24, 1572, later - the infamous St. Bartholomew's Night. The French king Charles IX personally participated in the massacre of St. Bartholomew's Night, when in one night from 24 to 25 August 1572 about 2 thousand people were killed in Paris alone. Then in France, about 30 thousand Protestants were killed in two weeks.

The terrible massacre forced the Huguenots to defend themselves. 4 Huguenot wars tore apart France until the Edict of Nantes in 1598 and took away up to 100 thousand people. And there was no force in the country that would call Charles IX "Bloody", and Catherine de Medici "Poisoner" or "Sadist".

During the reign of John IV, they were sentenced to death for: murder, rape, sodomy, kidnapping, arson of a residential building with people, robbery of a temple, high treason.

For comparison: during the reign of the pro-Western Tsar Peter the Great, more than 120 types of crimes were punished by death!

Every death sentence under John IV was personally approved by the Tsar. The death sentence to the princes and boyars was approved by the Boyar Duma.

Nevertheless, Ivan the Terrible was made a symbol of despotism. Moreover, the spearhead of the accusations is directed not only at the personality of the Tsar, but also at Russia and the Russians.

At the same time, Western rulers - contemporaries of Ivan the Terrible - are highly revered historical figures. But Tsar John is perceived as a tyrant and despot.

Here is an important point in the ideology of all Western states - in the literature for the general reader to describe only the positive aspects of history and reflect the achievements of their country and people. To mention bloodiness as a "dotted line" … But in Russia there is no such attitude! We ourselves easily speak badly about ourselves and do not interfere with foreigners. They revile us, but we assent. This is despite the fact that Russian history is not MORE, but significantly LESS bloody than the history of European countries!

The myth of Russian cruelty, fanned by its western neighbors, found fertile soil in its native land. A long-standing foreign policy of concession and compromise with the West has reinforced this myth.

Oprichnina

Yes, the 16th century in Russia was marked by the repressions of Ivan the Terrible.

When the young Grand Duke was crowned king, the Boyar Duma did not expect great independence from him. But gradually the sovereign got out of the control of the boyars and concentrated absolute power in his hands. The king, sought to control the boyar's willfulness, prone to corruption, self-interest and treason. Since the boyars began to serve not God, but mammon, and thought only about their rights and privileges. The people viewed the struggle of Ivan the Terrible with the boyars as "bringing out treason."

Central to the history of that time is his oprichnina. In a political sense, the oprichnina was what is now called a state of emergency. The tsar was given the right, without advice from the Boyar Duma, to judge and execute traitors and heretics, requisition their property, and send them into exile. The consecrated cathedral, together with the Boyar Duma, approved these special powers.

The guardsmen resembled a military monastic order, designed to protect the unity of the state and the purity of faith. The Aleksandrovskaya Sloboda was rebuilt and looked like a monastery. Upon admission to the oprichnaya service, an oath was taken, reminiscent of the monastery's vow of renunciation of everything worldly. Life there was regulated by a charter drawn up personally by John, and was stricter than in many real monasteries.

For 7 years a "fire of ferocity" was blazing in the Moscow state. For 7 years, according to various estimates, from 5 to 7 thousand people became victims of this time of troubles. But during the entire period of John's reign, the population grew by 30-50% and amounted to 10-12 million people.

The state goal of the oprichnina was the destruction of the noble boyars, focused on separatism and specific claims, and its replacement by the nobility - a new class of service people, awarded by the sovereign exclusively for loyal service to the state.

The desire to create an army directly subordinate to the Tsar was also associated with the fact that the boyar families, claiming power, had their own hired armed detachments.

Ivan the Terrible had reasons to "scorch" at the boyars. When John was 3 years old, under strange circumstances, on December 3, 1533, his father, Grand Duke Vasily III, died, after another 4 years his mother, Grand Duchess Elena Glinskaya (April 3, 1538 of the year).

An eight-year-old boy was orphaned. The "boyar kingdom" began, the time of the struggle for power between the princes Shuisky (Rurikovich) and Belsky (Gediminovich). From 1538 to 1543, Moscow was a place of violence and bloodshed, conspiracies and coups. In this confusion, the child seemed to be forgotten, which saved his life. They forgot to feed the child, change his shirt, roughly shove him away, shouted at him.

Ivan's life and the history of Russia could have turned out differently, if not for the tragic ending of the first, 17-year-old happy marriage with his beautiful wife Anastasia Romanova. All his life Ivan was sure: his first and beloved wife was poisoned! For a long time, historians have unanimously regarded this belief as a manifestation of mental illness. Allegedly, the tsar was suspicious beyond measure, he saw sedition even where there was no trace of it.

Here is just such a fact … When the royal tomb was opened in the 1960s, experts from the forensic medical examination bureau found traces of mercury in the bones of the queen and in her perfectly preserved dark blond braid, exceeding the norm by several dozen times. Even scraps of a shroud at the bottom of the sarcophagus turned out to be contaminated. In the Middle Ages, it was mercury salts that were the main method of eliminating enemies at European courts, famous for their intrigues.

Conspiracies and treason began to persecute the Tsar and the royal family:

- in March 1553, during the Tsar's grave illness, the Tsar's cousin Vladimir Staritsky tried to organize a coup d'etat in order to seize power.

- in the summer of 1554 he tried to escape to Lithuania, but Prince S. Lobanov-Rostovsky, a member of the Boyar Duma, was captured. He and his relatives - the princes of Rostov, Lobanov and Priimkov, were going to surrender to the Polish king and entered into negotiations with him to discuss the terms of treason.

- the Tsar was especially shocked by the flight to Lithuania and the entry into the Polish army, which took part in the war against Russia, of Prince Andrei Kurbsky, whom he valued not only as a governor and statesman, but also as a personal friend.

- March 1553 Tsarevich Dmitry dies.

- In 1569, a serious conspiracy against the Royal family was discovered. "In the notes of foreigners there is a mention of a conspiracy allegedly prepared by the Tsar's cousin Vladimir Staritsky and that he wanted to exterminate the entire royal family with poison, for which he bribed (for 50 rubles) one of the royal cooks"

- in the same 1569, the Tsar's second wife, Maria Temryukovna, dies, and the Tsar believes that she was also poisoned.

The situation was quite different with the poisoning of the Terrible Tsar and his eldest son (whom the Terrible allegedly killed with a staff). They were hounded slowly, maybe 10 or more years..

No wonder Tsarevich John was sickly and thought about death already - at the age of 16. The presence in his body of a dose of mercury, 32 times higher than the norm, hardly leaves any doubt about the reason for this mysterious "pain"

“Those historians who would insist on the boundless rage of Ivan the Terrible should think about how anti-state the upper classes, a significant part of the boyars and clergy were at that time: the plan to attempt on the life of the Tsar was closely connected with giving back to the enemy not only again the conquered territory, but also the old Russian lands and the riches of the Moscow state; it was about an internal undermining, about intervention, about the division of a great state.”R. Yu. Winner (1922)

Over time, the boyars, with the help of the oprichnina, were cured of class arrogance, harnessed to the general tax. But it was not completely cured. And later, in the reign of Theodore Ioannovich (1584-1598), and in the reign of Godunov (1598-1605), some of the boyars continued to "pull on themselves." This naturally led to betrayal, and on September 21, 1610, fearing a popular uprising, the boyar elite secretly at night let the invaders into Moscow - 800 German Landsknechts and the 3,500th Polish detachment of Gonsevsky.

I. V. Stalin - Ivan the Terrible was very cruel. It is possible to show that he was cruel, but it is necessary to show why it is necessary to be cruel.

One of Ivan the Terrible's mistakes was that he did not slaughter five large feudal families. If he destroyed these five boyar families, then there would be no Time of Troubles at all. And Ivan the Terrible executed someone and then repented and prayed for a long time. God prevented him in this matter … It was necessary to be even more decisive."

During the reign of Ivan Vasilyevich, the Moscow state turned into a Great Kingdom and important administrative reforms were carried out:

Were attached to Moscow:

1. Kazan Khanate (now the territory of Chuvashia, Tatarstan and Ulyanovsk region). In 1550-1551 Ivan the Terrible personally took part in the Kazan campaigns. In 1552 Kazan was conquered, thousands of Christian captives were freed and the security of the eastern borders was ensured. At the same time, John acquired the nickname “Terrible”: “It is impossible for the Tsar to be without a thunderstorm. Like a horse under the King without a bridle, so is a kingdom without a thunderstorm”;

2. Astrakhan Khanate (now the territory of the Astrakhan and Volgograd regions, as well as Kalmykia). The Astrakhan Khanate was conquered in 1556;

3. Inhabited northern Chernozem region (the territory of Oryol, Kursk, Lipetsk, Tambov regions);

4. The Northern and Central Urals, as well as the Western part of Siberia were conquered.

5. Grozny sent the first letter of commendation to the Don Cossacks on January 13 (new style), 1570.

6. He took under his rule the first peoples of the North Caucasus, whose princes wished to serve the Tsar;

7. Grozny carried out judicial reform, adopted the Code of Law “Comparison of the Code of Laws shows that the legislation of Ivan IV was more humane than the previous and subsequent ones. The tsar not only stood guard over the law, but also did not violate the established customs”;

8. Created a system of local self-government (introduced zemstvo self-government);

9. Created a regular army (in 1556 the Tsar issued a general code on the military service of landowners and estates);