Ivan the Terrible

by Henri Troyat

Release Date: 28 August, 2001

Edition: Paperback

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The Russian Dracula

In density of content this book is hardly more informative than a chapter in a year-long course in Russian history. It is therefore greatly disappointing. This appears in part due to Troyat's being a professional writer rather than an historian, but in part due to poverty of original sources, as he notes. There is a consistent theme in this book, that Russian Orthodox Christianity produced the monster and, more exactly, it created people's willingness to accept the monster's actions. More generally, the theme may be stated as the proposition than once people separate themselves from realizing the true relationship between logic and natural law, they are left open to all sorts of nonsense. One element of the psyche of Ivan which deserves the attention it gets, that Ivan actively and consciously engaged in kindness and cruelties he knew to be totally undeserved, therefore emulating his image of God, with Whom, according to the author, he identified himself. The reader is left to the inevitable realization that this is the antithesis of justice. While this appears to be what was in Ivan's mind, the book lacks scholarly proof. There are unwarranted novelistics aspects to the book. The author has Ivan believing that a genetic mixing of the Russian and the Mongol peoples would result in an eugenic improvement of the Russian people, but he gives no evidence that Ivan ever had such a thought. There is no documentation given that Ivan believed his first, beloved wife was murdered. The author presents Ivan's leaving Moscow and threatening to leave the crown as pure stratagem in order to gain unquestioned power and undo the boyars, which seems probable, but no evidence is provided. The character, intellect and cunning of Boris Godunov are touched upon, though slightly. In the end, the saga of Ivan the Terrible and the moral (if there is one) of this book is to lead the reader to see more clearly the value of limited, constitutional government. One aspect of Russian character comes through, though unstated: The ready willingness of the nobility, though not to populace, to rid themselves of weak Czars like Ivan VI, Peter III, Alexander II, Nicholas II contrasted against the lack of even an attempt by a Russian to kill Ivan the Terrible. Only one, condemned, Livonian German is reported to have tried to kill Ivan. In this way, also, Ivan IV seems much like Stalin.

A Medieval Stalin

Lately I have been reading a lot about Russian and Soviet history and one thing that becomes very clear, is that for centuries the Russian people have had to endure some of the most barbaric, inhuman rules ever to roam the earth. During the mid-1500's, Ivan the Terrible decimated cities simply out of boredom or jealously. People around him died for no other reason than he wanted them to. The Russian populace endured almost unbelievable cruelty, yet always believed in their "father" and never really questioned his authority or even his sanity.
Author Troyat does a magnificent job of making Ivan a real person. Orphaned at a young age and mistreated by the boyars around him, Ivan spent his adult life as a pious mass murderer. Ordained by God to rule as he pleased, Ivan never questioned his cruelty and went to this death blaming others for the events that he himself caused. I have read several other Troyat biographies of famous Russians, and his is one of his best.