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Ivan the Terrible, full name Ivan Chetvyorty Vasilyevich, is born in Kolomenskoye, Russia.
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Immediately following his father’s death, Vasili III, the three-year-old Ivan was proclaimed grand prince of Moscow. Ivan's mother rules on his behalf.
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The void left by Ivan's parents are constantly fought over among the clans of the warrior cast, commonly referred to as "boyars". This causes both mental and emotional distress for Ivan in his childhood.
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Ivan's mother, Elena Glinskaya, dies (allegedly by poison), leaving an 8-year-old Ivan orphaned.
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Ivan marries Anastasia Romanova the same year he gets crowned as Tsar, all at the age of 16.
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Ivan is the first to be proclaimed tsar of Russia.
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Ivan appoints a council of advisers, a consensus-building assembly who helped institute his reforms. During this period, he introduced self-government in rural regions, reformed tax collection, and instituted statutory law and church reform.
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In a fit of rage, Ivan the Terrible kills his son, Ivan Ivanovich, by beating him to death with a cane. This was done at a confrontation between Ivan the Terrible and his son, which was regarding Ivan's physical abuse of his daughter in law (Ivan Ivanovich's wife) and her eventual miscarriage. The tension from this encounter (and many more prior to this) manifested in one of Ivan's most devastating acts.
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Ivan institutes regulations on the obligations of the boyar class in service of the crown. In foreign policy, Ivan had two main goals: to resist the Mongol Golden Horde and to gain access to the Baltic Sea. Ivan aimed to conquer all remaining independent regions and create a larger, more centralized Russia.
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Ivan's first wife, Anastasia Romanova, tragically dies. This increases Ivan's suspicions of the boyars, and warps Ivan into an even more aggressive and irritable ruler.
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Following the death of his wife, Ivan starts destroying and displacing the major boyar families in the region. This earned him the name "Grozny", meaning "formidable or sparking terror or fear".
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Ivan creates his own police force called the "Oprichnik". This force is used to track and kill anyone that Ivan deems an enemy
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With Ivan's health slowly declining, he makes the decision of investing in soothsayers and witches in hopes of rejuvenating his health and sustaining him.
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Ivan dies from an apparent stroke, leaving his kingdom to Feodor, a leader who was deemed to be unfit by most.
