26th August: Ivan the terrible

Ivan the Terrible was born in 1530, on this date in the old style calendar. 10 things you might not know about Ivan the Terrible:

1. His correct title was Ivan IV Vasilyevich, Tsar of All the Russias. The name Ivan the Terrible is the nearest translation of his nickname in Russian, "grozny", which in fact means something a little different from our current day word, "terrible". It actually means formidable or threatening, tough, strict, authoritative.
2. Ivan became Prince of Moscow at just three years old, when his father died of complications from a boil on his leg. His mother was made regent, but she too died when Ivan was just eight, and it is suspected she was poisoned by assassins.
3. Ivan was married seven times (although his last three marriages were not recognised by the church and one of them could even have been made up in the 19th century). He believed his first wife had been assassinated, and it's thought her death might have affected his mental health. Two subsequent wives were packed off to monasteries, and one was later made a saint.
4. Ivan introduced printing to Russia. This move was not popular with the scribes, who burned the printing press down and the printers had to flee to Lithuania - but this proved to be a temporary blip on the road of progress!
5. It was Ivan who commissioned St Basil's Cathedral. There is a legend which says that Ivan was so impressed with it that he had the architect, Postnik Yakovlev, blinded so that he would never design anything that might surpass it. This isn't true - Postnik Yakovlev is known to have been still designing after Ivan's death.
6. Ivan tried to abdicate once. He was so fed up with the behaviour of the aristocracy and clergy that he left Moscow and went to Aleksandrova Sloboda, and sent two letters announcing that he was abdicating. The Boyars were unable to make any decisions without him, and begged him to come back. Ivan agreed to return on condition of being granted absolute power. He demanded that he should be able to execute and confiscate the estates of traitors without interference from the boyar council or church.
7. Ivan fostered close ties with England, initially through trade - the Muscovy Company was allowed to trade in Russia without having to pay customs fees. Through them, Ivan established a correspondence with Queen Elizabeth I, hoping for a military alliance. When the boyars were causing trouble, Ivan asked Elizabeth for a guarantee of asylum in England should he have to flee.
8. Ivan killed his son and chosen heir in a fit of temper. Ivan had beaten his son's wife for wearing immodest clothing. She was pregnant at the time and may have suffered a miscarriage as a result. This made Ivan Jr. very angry. He confronted his father, they argued, and in the course of the argument, Ivan Sr. hit his son with a pointed staff, killing him. This meant Ivan's younger son, Feodor, who wasn't suited to tsarship, and who would die without an heir, inherited the throne when Ivan died of a stroke during a game of Chess.
9. Ivan wrote the lyrics for the first Soviet produced CD. He'd written an Orthodox liturgical hymn, Stichiron No. 1 in Honour of St. Peter, and this, and excerpts from some of his letters, were put to music by Soviet composer Rodion Shchedrin. The recording was released in 1988, marking the millennium of Christianity in Russia.
10. There is a movement in Russia today that would like to have Ivan canonised as a saint. The church is not interested.