Ivan the Terrible. Childhood and adolescence of the ruler of all Russia

Ivan the Terrible, on the one hand, is a wise reformer, an outstanding and talented leader of the Moscow state, on the other - a bloody tyrant, a real murderer who subjected his subjects to monstrous repressions. How did the formation of the personality of one of the most extraordinary rulers, which had a significant influence on the course of Russian history, took place? Probably, the reasons for the suspicion, self-will, vindictiveness and unjustified cruelty of Ivan IV lie in the events that happened to him in childhood and adolescence. What was the childhood of the ruler?

According to legend, on August 25, 1530, at the very moment when Ivan the Terrible - the first-born of Grand Duke Vasily III and his second wife Elena Glinskaya - appeared in the whole kingdom, a terrible storm broke out in which contemporaries saw a bad omen. The baby was named Ivan in honor of the predecessor of Jesus Christ - John the Baptist. Ivan also wore the grandfather of the little prince. His father, Prince Vasily, lived only three years after the birth of the heir.

The court chronicles state that Vasily III, blessed with death, blessed the offspring for the government, and his wife, whom he considered to be courageous and wise, punished Ivan until his adulthood, to keep the state "under his son." There is one more source, pointing out that Prince Vasily did not transfer control to the princess, but to the boyars. This version seems more plausible, because he did not have the right to break ancient traditions and centuries-old customs that did not allow women to participate in the affairs of government. At the bedside of the patient, the board was handed over to the boyars - the "seventh" tutelary council, which was headed by the appanage prince Andrey Staritsky. Soon after the day when the Grand Duke left his life, the efforts of the boyars, the three-year-old Ivan was crowned. The nominal rule of Ivan the Terrible began.

Briefly describe the thirteen years that have passed between the coronation and the wedding of the kingdom, it is quite difficult. Ivan was an 8-year-old boy when his mother Elena Glinskaya died. Feelings of orphanhood and loneliness have developed in it the habit of constantly looking around and listening.

Ivan the Terrible, surrounded during the ceremonies with a regal luxury and servile humility, in daily life fully experienced the embarrassment in everything, indifference and disregard from the boyars and princes. Children's hardships were exacerbated by the brutal struggle for the power of boyar groups, accompanied by murders, intrigues and violence.

The childhood of Ivan the Terrible became in the meantime, when unattractive features of his character were formed: concealment, suspiciousness, pretense, duplicity and cruelty. At the age of 12, the embittered teenager tortured and maimed the animals, tossing them from high tiers, at 13 gave orders to kill one of the boyars. According to a contemporary, from the age of 15, the future king had a new fun - to gallop with young men on horseback through the streets and markets, to beat and rob ordinary people.

Tsar of all Russia, Ivan the Terrible became in January 1547, when the Assumption Cathedral hosted a wedding for the kingdom - a solemn ceremony, borrowed from Byzantium. The future sovereign at the wedding dressed in royal clothes and laid on him a crown. Thus ended the childhood and adolescence of the first tsar of the Russian kingdom.