About S.Gorsky's book "The Wives of Ivan the Terrible"

          Translated from Russian by Gloria Girton and Olga Koutchmy

   The XVI century was a time of tremendous change in economic and political
life of many states in Western Europe. It was the beginning of accumulation
of capital, of the development of manufacturing, of commercial production, 
and of looking for new markets.
   The situation was slightly different in Eastern Europe where the formation
of the centralized states was still continuing. For two centuries Moscow had 
been consolidating her control over the territories of Vladimir-Suzdal,
Novgorod, Pskov, Murom-Riazan, and Smolensk. The main goal of the Great Moscow
Dukes was the unification of the country and the struggle against the rebel
local Princes.
   The domestic policy of Ivan the Terrible changed frequently and was often
contradictory during his reign. The reason was not only the real processes 
that were going on in the country, but also the influence of the Czar's
personality.
   Ivan Vassilievitch was descended from the Rurich dynasty. His father had
been the Grand Duke of Moscow, Vassily III who had inherited two third of his
property from his father Ivan III (1462-1505).
   Vassily's first marriage to Solomonia Saburova was sterile, so following
the custom of the time, she was sent to a monastery. Vassily's second wife was
Elena Glinsky, a beautiful and well educated princess from the Great Latvian
dukedom and a relative of the last serbian despots. After his marriage to Elena
certain customs and ideas from Western Europe were introduced in the Kremlin.
   On the 25th of August, 1530, Elena gave birth to Ivan. According to a popular
legend, throughout the country thunder and lightning marked the birth. Three
years later, Elena gave birth to the second son, Yuri. Soon after his birth,
the Grand Duke Vassily III fell seriously ill and died on December,3,1533.
According to the testament of Vassily III, the Great dukedome should have be
passed to his son Ivan; but because he was too yang, two regents were designated:
Michail Glinsky and Dimitry Belsky. The real power however was in the hands of 
Ivan's mother, Elena Glinsky. A great political influence had the Duke I.Telepnev-
Obolensky who, according to popular rumor, was a lover of the Russian Ruler.
   The Elena Glinsky's government led the policy similar to the previous Great
Dukes' policy, which principal aim was the struggle against the rebel Princes'
opposition and the unification of all russian lands under the Moscow' control.
   The opposition to Elena Glinsky was strong and, according to the historiens'
hypotesis, she was poisoned on 1538. I.Telepnev-Obolensky was sent to a prison
and disappeared. Ivan and Yuri became orphans.
   The power in Russia passed to the Counsil of Boyars where two political groups
were continuously in struggle: the leader of the first group was Ivan Belsky
and the leaders of the second one were the Dukes Shuisky. It was the beginning
of the times when the power in Russia passed from one political group to another
what caused the chaos, the division of the land and the wealth, and had negative
influence on the domestic and foreign situation in Russia. 
 From early childhood Ivan had never known affection or kindness. No one
was interested in him when he was a child. In his letter to Andrey Kurbsky he
remembered that he and his younger brother Yuri were treated like poor people;
they were poorly fed and clothed; they had no liberty at all, and everything
they did, they were forced to do by violence; often what they had to do was
too difficult for young children.
   Russia was exhausted because of the boyards' tyranny, and the future Czar
had learned only the lessons of indifference, cruelty and violence. The
atmosphere of the struggle for power shaped him into an extremly quick-tempered,
nervous and cruel man. And very soon his court understood that joking with him
was impossible. In 1543 he was angry with his first counsel Andrey Shuisky and
ordered his servants to seize him, but they overdid their task and instead of
putting him in prison, they strangled him. Ivan was very happy with such an end 
to his hated regent. "And from this time the boyards began to fear the Czar",-
wrote a contemporary author.
   On January, 16, 1547, Ivan Vassilievitch was crowned Czar. The coronation
had far-reaching consequences: from that time The Moscow Ruler was called not
only the Grand Duke but also the Czar. In a special coronation declaration,
written by Metropolitan Makary, the divine origin of the Moscow Czar's power 
and his succession from the Byzantine Emperor were emphasized; this declaration 
raised his authority to a tremendous height.
   In February of the same year, Ivan IV married Anastassia Romanovna, the 
okolnitchi ( the highest position (tchin) for a boyar in Ancient Russia )
Roman Yurievitch Zakharov's daughter.
   Ivan the Terrible had three sons by his marriage to Anastassia : Dimitry
(1548-1553), Ivan (1554-1581), and Fodor (1557-1598). Anastassia died in 1560. 
The cause of her death is unknown. Andrey Kurbsky wrote about her ten-month-long
illness; other authors have said that she was ill for only a few days and supposed
that she had been poisoned. Ivan suffered painfully from the
loss of his wife, but ...for only one week. After such a short mourning, the search
for a new fiance began.
   The 1650's were the most successful in Ivan IV's
reign. The Czar began an important program of reform. He created a government,
the "Elected Rada"; its members were Alexei Adashev, Protopop (the Principal Priest)
Sylvestre, Andrey Kurbsky, Ivan Sheremetiev, and others. The "Elected Rada" tried 
through its reforms, to centralize the administration, and the finances and
to fight against the intractable peasantry. Soon after the coronation, a
new set of laws, the "Sudobnik of 1550," was adopted. The government carried out
an active foreign policy. First of all, it was necessary to protect Russia 
from the menacing remains of the Golden Horde: the Kazan, Astrakhan Khanat,
and the Nagaisk Horde settled along the middle and lower Volga. At the end of the
1650's, after several battles, the Great River, all along
her course, became a part of Russia's territory. The next goal of Ivan's foreign 
policy was the Baltic region, because such access to the Baltic sea, which never froze,
was needed for the successful economic and cultural development of Russia.
   The Livonian Order was an obstacle for Russian trade because it didn't execute
the contracts with the Moscow Dukes. In 1558 the Livonian War began; it led to the
abolition of the Livonian Order, as well as to the defeat of Russia in 1583.
   At the beginning of the sixties, the foreign policy of the Czar changed. His
unbridled character began to show- his suspicion and his blind rage against his 
supposed enemies. He suspected his court of treason and conspiracy. His former 
brothers-in-arms, the members of the "Elected Rada," were set aside and ended
their lives in prison or were executed.   
   The year 1564 was the beginning of the "opritchnina" in Russia. Its origin and
the "opritchnina" itself are very simplified in S.Gorsky's book and mostly only
their superficial side is shown. Ivan IV's main goal was the 
annihilation of all resistance to his power and the establishment of a monarchy.
   He considered his principal enemy to be his closest relative, Duke Vladimir
Andreevitch Starsky, who could claim power over Moscovy, and also Novgorod, the
city of Russian opposition to the Czar. Duke Staritsky was poisoned and everyone
who was suspected to be somehow close to him was executed.
   Novgorod was also demolished. In the winter of 1569 the "opritchniki" army
( called "the deepest darkness" by contemporaries ) began the expedition.
To keep his project secret Ivan ordered his army to execute anyone whom they met on
the road. On their way the "opritchiki" ruined Tver, Medin, Vishni Volotchek, 
Torjok, and other cities and their suburbs. Novgorod especially  suffered a lot.
According to a contemporary writer, the massacre continued for 5 weeks and there
was rarely a day when the number of people "sent to another world", was fewer
than 500-600. Sometimes the number of victims grew to 1500 people. The citizens
were brought to be executed by the hundreds and were tortured by being burned in
a slow fire, after which
they were drowned. The bloodcovered people were attached to a sledge and pushed down
the steep banks into the rapid flow of the never frozen river Volkhov.
Babies were attached to their mothers. The "opritchniki" with their pikes
were standing in their boats to insure that nobody survived. The cause of such cruel
punishment was an anonymous letter in which the citizens of Novgorod were accused
of treason and of the desire to surrender to the Polish King. 
   The "opritchnina" is a very complex phenomenon, and all historians both before
and after the Revolution have noted that it is not easy to understand it fully.
The barabarous, cruel methods employed against political enemies (often imaginary)
left on the events of that time an ominous, bloody mark. The terribles scenes 
depicted by the author of the book "The Wives of Ivan the Terrible", are not 
imagined and not exaggerated; the same description can be found in documents
written by the foreigners who visited the Russia of that time, in the ancient
chronicles, and in the stories of contemporaries.
   Ivan the Terrible tried by military force, by fear of executions and by 
massacres to establish his unique power throughout the country. But because of the 
absence of economic unity and the bad communications in such an enormous country, it was
extremely difficult to establish political union.
   S.Gorsky didn't aim to give an analysis of the Czar's rule in his book. His
aim was to show the private life of Ivan the Terrible.
   It is necessary to notice that the information about the wives of Ivan the 
Terrible is mostly legendary, and the author depicts them with a certain degree 
of artistic imagination and sometimes he makes mistakes. For example,
S.Gorsky gives the name of Marfa Saburova to the third wife, although her real
name was Marfa Sobakina. (He probably confused her name with that of Evdokia Saburova, 
the first wife of Ivan Ivanovitch, the son of Ivan the Terrible). The case of the
drowned Maria Dolgorukaya is sometimes related to other of Ivan's mistresses. 
   It is well known that Anna Vassiltchikova was killed on the order of Ivan the Terrible, 
and Vassilissa Melentieva who was burried alive in S.Gorsky's book, was confined in a 
monastery.
   The last "legitimate" marriage of Ivan IV was remarkable because Maria Nagaya
gave him a son, Dimitry, who would have become Czar, but he perished in odd
circumstances later.
   The book you have in your hands is not without the author's invention. The book
doesn't claim to be complete in its historical description; nevertheless, it gives 
certain information, reproducing to some extent the atmosphere of that epoch
when the head of the Russian state was a man whose name raised terror in his 
contemporaries and made those who came later shudder.
   None of the researchers, working on Ivan the Terrible's epoch, have answered the
questions: why did the Czar so abuse his people? Why did such a brilliant beginning
of his reign end so ingloriously?
   Some historians have tried to excuse the despot by looking for other historical
examples in Western Europe, invoking the crualty of that time, and accusing those 
who surrounded Ivan. This point of view was especially popular in the 1940s and
at the beginning of the 1950s when soviet historians depicted Ivan the Terrible 
as a Great statesman of his epoch and actively supported by his people.
   What kind of "support" can one talk about, when those who suffered most of all,
were simple people- peasants and bonded servants! At the end of the "Great Czar"'s reign the
country was devastated by destruction and war. Many cities became deserted. It is
known that 89% of the houses in Mojaisk and 92% of the houses in Kolomna were empty; 93% of
the land in the region of Novgorod, the richest region of Russia before Ivan IV's reign,
was not used.
   Most of the researchers, both before the Revolution and those of Soviet times,
viewed the reign of Ivan the Terrible negatively. Especially remarkable was the 
opinion of V.O.Klutchevsky who, although he regarded the beginning of the Czar's
reign  positively, compared the final results of his reign with those of the Tatar Jug and 
of the disastreous ancient times when Russia was divided into many rival dukedoms.
   The last attempt to explain the savage, immoderate(need a stronger word) behavior of the Czar was not
historical research, but a legal medical expertise of Ivan the Terrible's remains
as well as of the remains of his son Ivan, who was killed by the Czar in 1581. The
specialists concluded that the Czar and his heir were not an example of moral
behavior for their people and had had venereal illnesses, which were treated by using
"kalamel," a mercury ointment, and "sulema," a mercury chloride ointment.  The 
longtime use of these preparations led to "mercurism," chronic mercury 
poisoning.
   The symptomps of this illness are irritability, a decrease in efficiency, and a 
permanent psychic tension. When the illness progresses, the fingers begin to 
jerk involuntary, and the ill person becomes extremely suspicious, his depression
changes to a violent state of overexcitement. The authors of this medical expertise,
V.Zviagin, B.Piskarev and D.Alekseev, supposed that such an illness was the primary
cause of Ivan the Terrible's crualty to his people in the second part of
his reign.
   As a conclusion, I would like to repeate the words of V.O.Klutchevsky:
"The Czar sacrified himself, his dynasty and the welfare of the state to
enmity and despotism. One can compare him to a blind giant who, in trying
to annihilate his ennemy, overturns on himself the house on whose roof the enemy
was hiding."
                            Ivantchenko N.V.
                            "Doctor in historical sciences"