Discussions about Russian History > Imperial Russian History

Ivan the Terrible - Bloodiest Tsar?

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C.J._Griffin:
I think Ivan the Terrible would be it. Reading about the horrific atrocities his forces committed at Novgorod make your hair stand up on the back of your neck:

"Every day for five weeks a thousand citizens were brought into the main square where they were systematically tortured and slaughtered. The Oprichniki variously flogged their victims, broke their limbs, cut out their tongues, slit their nostrils, castrated them and roasted them over slow fires. Then they were flung into the icy waters of the River Volkhov, whole families at a time. Those who rose to the surface were dispatched with boat hooks, lances and axes by the Oprichniki in boats. By the end there were so many bodies clogging the Volkhov, that it overflowed its banks." - The Most Evil Men and Women in History by Miranda Twiss, pg 107

But I've seen Peter the Great mentioned on these boards as Russia's most "evil" Tsar. I know he was a brutal autocrat (like all the Tsars) but was he really worse than bloody Ivan?

Annie:
It HAS to be Ivan! I also read once that Stalin was said to have been the bloodiest leader, killing more Russians than any Tsar since Ivan the Terrible, so no one beat him until Stalin.

Elisabeth:
I think Ivan was by far the bloodiest, a genuine psychopath. Peter the Great would probably come in second place, however, given the wars fought during his reign and the tremendous brutality with which he enacted so many of his reforms.

C.J._Griffin:

--- Quote ---It HAS to be Ivan! I also read once that Stalin was said to have been the bloodiest leader, killing more Russians than any Tsar since Ivan the Terrible, so no one beat him until Stalin.
--- End quote ---


Well considering Stalin murdered over 20 million people I'd say he's definitely Russia's bloodiest leader. But I have not seens any estimates on Ivan's mass murders (or any other Tsar for that matter), except that tens of thousands were butchered at Novgorod in about a week.

Stalin also idolozed Ivan the Terrible, during the hight of the Great Terror of 1937-38, Stalin is supposed to have said:

"Who's going to remember all this riffraff in ten or twenty years' time? No one. Who remembers the names now of the boyars Ivan the Terrible got rid of? No one...The people had to know he was getting rid of all his enemies. In the end, they all got what they deserved." - quoted in Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar by Simon Sebag Montefiore, pg 231

Elisabeth:
C.J., you probably already know this story, but I'll share it with everyone else:

When Eisenstein was making his great film about Ivan the Terrible, Stalin told him that while Ivan was an admirable ruler he was nevertheless "weak," because "God got in his way" ("Emy meshal Bog").

He was referring of course to Ivan's bouts of remorse and prayers for his victims.

Pretty scary.

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