Ivan the Terrible

Ivan the Terrible

MLA Documentation

"Ivan IV biography." bio. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Feb. 2013.

Link

Ivan the Terrible

Summary

This site has useful information about Ivan IV. It tells about his personality and how he had outbreaks of rage. There isn’t much about his earl life, however. Though it does tell about his parents and that they died when he was young, leaving him in the hands of the nobility who neglected him. There is also useful information about how his he established the Russian territory and government during his reign.

Main Evidence

Evidence indicates Ivan was a sensitive, intelligent boy, neglected and occasionally scorned by members of the nobility who looked after him after his parents’ death. The environment nurtured his hatred for the boyar class, whom he suspected of being involved in his mother’s death.

Upon the death of his first wife in 1560, Ivan IV went into a deep depression. His suspicion that she had been murdered by the boyars only deepened his paranoia. He left Moscow suddenly and threatened to abdicate the throne. Leaderless, the Muscovites pleaded for his return. He agreed, on the condition that he be granted absolute power of the region surrounding Moscow, known as the oprichnina. He also demanded the authority to punish traitors and law breakers with execution and confiscation of property.

Ivan IV would conduct terror and destroy the boyar families for the next 24 years. He beat his pregnant daughter-in-law and caused her to have a miscarriage. His son found out that he was responsible for her death so they got in an argument and it ended with Ivan killing his own son.

In 1584, with his health failing, Ivan IV became obsessed with death, calling upon witches and soothsayers to sustain him, but to no avail.

He died on March 18, 1584 of a stroke.

Fallacies

None

Source Quality

This was a good source because it had the information I needed about Ivan and what he created and that he punished people. I would have liked to find out more about what he did to gain followers and what some of his reasons were for punishing all those people. I would suggest this site to other people because it was helpful and well organized.