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Ivan IV was born August 25, 1530 in Kolomenskoye, which is very close to Moscow.
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He was made the grand prince of Moscow on December 4, 1533.
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In 1547 he proclaimed to be tsar of Russia, Ivan was the first to do so.
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In February 1547, Ivan married Anastasiya Romanovna, his first wife.
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In 1556 the khanate of Astrakhan, located at the mouth of the Volga, was seized without contest. From that moment onward, the Volga became a Russian river, and the trade route to the Caspian Sea was rendered nonthreatening.
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In 1558 he went to war in an attempt to establish Russian rule over Livonia because Russia would no longer be landlocked.
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In 1564, Andrey Kurbsky, defected to Poland, which made Ivan disgruntled and that is when he started the Oprichnina.
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In 1565, he formed the Oprichnina, which was like a secret service. You would not want to mess with them.
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During the 1570s he married five wives in succession in only nine years.
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In 1571, the Tatars burned Moscow leaving only the Kremlin standing.
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In 1572, the Oprichnina was dismantled after failing to complete Ivan’s needs.
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In 1575, Ivan the Terrible did not try at all to rule and let Simeon Bekbulatovich, a Tatar prince.
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After an argument with his son Ivan in 1581, he killed him.
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He died on March 18, 1584 of an apparent stroke, his health was failing and that finished him off.