Ivan The Terrible Essay

Ivan the terrible, or Ivan IV Vasilyevich was the ruler of Russia from 1547-84. He is responsible for much of the advancement of Russia during the late 16th century. During his reign, he expanded his empire, brought about changes in government policy and opened the country to trade and economic relationships with the outside world.

I picked Ivan the Terrible as the subject of my paper due to his importance in bringing drastic changes to the Russian empire. Ivan expanded the sphere of influence of the Russian empire increasing the importance of the political and social changes made by him. In the words of historian Alexander Yanov, "Ivan the Formidable and the origins of the modern Russian political structure are indissolubly connected."

Like

He brought about several changes such as introducing the printing press and writing a new law code. But, probably the most impactful period in his reign was oprichnina. The oprichnina was a result of Ivan’s growing hostility towards his advisors and the boyars. In this period Ivan divided Moscow and the surrounding areas into two separate parts. Ivan took the most prosperous areas for his private domain and the other area became the public domain. In the private domain Ivan began terrorizing the boyars, merchants and really anyone with any significant possessions. As a result of this persecution the political power of the ruling families was crushed and many left the area leaving it without any capable administrators. As the economic situation continued its downward spiral many of the peasants began to leave the area. In response to this exodus of peasants, Ivan passed another reform that lead to a form of legal serfdom. The oprichnina lasted until 1572 when Ivan finally changed his practices.

One of the most important actions was his opening of Russian ports to the outside world. During his rule Ivan pushed the arts, and actually recruited Russian craftsmen to come into Russia teaching the people the arts and allowing Russians to begin creating works worth trading with the outside world. But, if the borders were still closed trade would be nearly impossible. Ivan set up a rather close relationship with England, and by opening up several ports along the Russian border he gave the English merchants access to Russian goods. To help with trade Ivan set up Muscovy Company, the company was a combination of Russian rulers and English merchants that were allowed to trade through out Ivans reign without paying any of the normal customs fees. The company was prominent until 1698