This was put down to pagan magic and a crucifix containing a fragment of the True Cross was brought to the scene. There was no more bad weather after that. The siege dragged on and when Tartar prisoners were tied to stakes close to the walls in the hope that their pleas might persuade the defenders to surrender, the Tartar bowmen silenced them by shooting them.
The Tartar defenders were overwhelmed, many were slaughtered and Kazan was put to the sack. In Kazan the Muslim population was expelled and Russian colonists were moved in, mosques were replaced by Russian Orthodox churches and the Tartars of the surrounding country were pressed to convert to Christianity.
Four years later, in , Ivan annexed the Khanate of Astrakhan, further south-east, which made the whole Volga a Russian river and gave Muscovy complete control of the important trade-route to the Caspian Sea. While his initial efforts were successful, Ivan the Terrible's methods disrupted the economy and culture. He seized private lands and redistributed them among his supported, and created a police force dressed all in black, astride black horses, that existed more to crush dissent than to keep the peace.
Thusly, Ivan was not a popular leader, and his unpopularity would continue to grow over the next several years. Upon the death of his first wife in , Ivan IV went into a deep depression and his behavior became more erratic.
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, but 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. Over the next 24 years, Ivan IV conducted a reign of terror, displacing and destroying the major boyar families in the region, and earning the moniker by which he's now best known.
He's also known by the nickname "Grozny," which roughly translates as "formidable or sparking terror or fear. Basil's Cathedral. It was also during this time that he created the Oprichniki, the first official secret Russian police force. In , with his health failing, Ivan the Terrible became obsessed with death, calling upon witches and soothsayers to sustain him, but to no avail.
The end came on March 18, , when Ivan died of an apparent stroke. He had willed the kingdom to his unfit son, Feodor, whose rule spiraled Russia into the catastrophic Time of Troubles, leading to the establishment of the Romanov Dynasty. When Ivan the Terrible died, he left the country in disarrary, with deep political and social scars.
Russia would not merge from the chaos until the reign of Peter the Great more than a century later. Russian filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein's two-part epic about the infamous leader, Ivan Groznyi , , is considered one of the finest films of the Soviet era.
We strive for accuracy and fairness. There were roving gangs of bandits everywhere and large areas were deserted. As so often in human history, tyranny was found preferable to anarchy and, at last, late in an effective coalition of Russian lords summoned a national assembly to select a new tsar. He was not present at the assembly, but a deputation found him staying in a monastery, where he seemed horrified at the news and professed himself unworthy to take on such a heavy responsibility.
That was what he said at least, but he was persuaded that it was his duty to take charge and save his country from total collapse and he returned to Moscow to be crowned in the beautiful Cathedral of the Assumption in the Kremlin. It took years of determined effort to bring peace and prosperity back to the country, but it was achieved. Treaties were signed with the Poles and Swedes, order was restored, trade encouraged and industries developed.
A major role was played by Philaret Romanov, who was appointed Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia in , while Tsar Mikhail was, or successfully posed as, a gently impractical, sweet-natured figurehead until his death, in , on the day after his 49th birthday after a reign of 32 years. His son Alexei succeeded him and the Romanovs would rule Russia for over years all told, until the revolution of
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