Grumblefish
15-08-2003, 05:37 AM
It has come to my attention that many people here are under the mistaken impression that Ivan the Terrible really was a terrible person, or even had the title of terrible for that matter. Ivan Grozny, as his real title goes, means something along the lines of "Ivan the formidable", and has strong connotations of majestic power, which is a title much more suited to Ivan. Ivan the Terrible, however, does indeed sound bad, and I forgive those with negative feelings towards Ivan for this failing, as it is not your fault that you were tricked by the ruthless propaganda against this great, democratic statesman.
To dispell any thoughts of this thread being flame bait, I assure you all that I am being serious, and I hope to prove that by the content of this thread. Ivan really was a good man at heart, and did all in his power to serve the church, which he was indoctrinated into, and help his people by getting them into the Lord's good books. He was a loving family man, and I intend to expatiate on these remarks. Now, the question of this being a troll thread answered, and it is sad it had to be answered at all, let me get on with the thread. I will begin with his youth, but will try not to make this too much of a biography thread. I hope those with disagreements will respond in the fashion I have made this thread in, and not derail it too irreversibly.
Ivan Grozny
Born in 1530 to the Grand Duke of Moscow, Ivan looked set to have a grand future ahead of him. Unfortunately, his father died in '33, and he was left under the regency of his Mother. His mother did her best to shield her precious and kind-hearted son from the hardships of rule, but she too passed away in '38, leaving Ivan alone under the regency of constantly changing boyar families (as they slaughtered each other) to fend for himself in a court dominated by the ruthless, power-hungry princes/boyars (whichever you prefer). Ivan was powerless to help as he witnessed murders and other vicious acts on a regular basis, and the Russian political world was in turmoil, until his sixteenth birthday came along. Standing up at a banquet, at which many of the boyars whom had tortured him so were also attending, he declared his right to rule, and demanded that the most blood-thirsty boyar be rightfully punished for his brutal transgressions. Truly, the reign of a humane saint had begun, but alas, even men woven from the finest cloth can become tainted and led astray by those of lesser morals.
Ivan's reign is commonly split in two pieces, a before and after of when Ivan apparently turned "terrible", but to me it seems his life was a logical progression and should be told as one piece. Fundamentally, Ivan ever so rarely changed inside. He only grew through experience, constantly keeping his former beliefs, namely the undying loyalty to his people and the church they trusted. Ivan started off by truly being a pious and loving man, heavily religious, and he repeatedly called upon the church to criticise harshly all the things he did that would be viewed upon poorly by God. As a teenager, he had two prominant church officials help him compose a list of transgressions made by almost all major religious officials, and made a serious effort to purify the church for the best. Church officials had been known to spend their gains on prostitutes and booze regularly, and Ivan, as a god-loving christian (who was told by the church that he had a personal relationship with god, although more on that later), could not allow such horrid acts to continue. Truly, at least in his early years of rule, his kingdom was doing wonderfully, and he was accepted and loved by his subjects.
Unfortunately, things took a turn for the worse, as Ivan sat on death's bed, struck down by a strange malady. As he lay there, desperately writing a will that would serve the country's people best, his boyars, nay, beloved friends, reverted back to their old ways, arguing and threatening just like they had when Ivan was a powerless boy. Ivan managed to recover, being told once more by the church he trusted that he had a close, unique relationship with god, and realised that he could never trust the other officials, former friends, again. It was for the good of the kingdom's people that he took revenge, and he showed respect to the lord by paying a great penance. Warned that if he was to pay this penance, a close relation would die, Ivan pressed on, determined to show his faith in the Lord. Verily, Ivan's son died, as did his wife, a terrible shock to this already disheartened man.
As one can plainly see, Ivan truly was a gentleman of the highest order. Pious and loving, he cared ultimately for what was in the people's best interest, shown by him risking his family's life by paying penance to the lord as thanks for his recovery and as a sign of respect (one must remember that a prophet was a serious person in the fifteen hundreds). Ivan's main fault was instilled in him by the wicked christian church, as he was told that the nature of his own close relationship with God was that his emotions and health stemmed from God's own. If Ivan felt satisfied and pleased, then God was happy and appeased, and if God was hurt and upset, then Ivan felt rotten and distraught.
What one must ask himself now is, is a great man led to horrible beliefs by others truly a horrible man if he continues to stand true to his words and morals? Ivan rarely murdered without true, justified purpose (as defined by the church, the authority which he and the majority of his subjects, thus democratic in nature, trusted), and he never raped and tortured without reason and rationale (as by the church, yet again the authority which he and the majority of his subjects, thus democratic in nature, trusted). Ivan was a man of great character and strength, but can he be faulted when people he held in high-esteem moulded him into what many of you interpret to be a macabre devil? Gullibility is not a fair adjective for his faith in the church, for what reason was there not to follow the church's teachings? He was invested with his subjects best interests, and the majority of them were of christian faith, and willed him to act in his best religious capacity. What many percieve as Ivan's transgressions are actualy those of the church for abominating his religious ideals, which he stuck true to for all his days, save on but two occasions.
Ivan killed because it made him happy, and by virtue of his teachings it made God happy. What greater good can the first Tzar do than make his kingdom beloved by the Lord himself? When Ivan was saddened, he knew God was angry, and he fought to the best of his abilities to make God happy once more. He strived with all his heart and soul, Ivan sweat blood to please the Lord and save his subjects from eternal damnation, he was selfless and true to those he cared for. Over the course of his entire life, he made only two true sins when taken in context of his mis-education, and these he paid for dearly of his own accord. How can someone mock this magnanimous man, this saint whose mind was so pure, his very ideals so righteous, that he'd torture himself for the rest of his eternity for but two sins over the course of an entire lifetime?
So now, it is with great sadness that I list Ivan's two failings, and end this thread with a picture of a great man, the likes of which this world has so rarely seen. Ivan's first sin was that of punching his son's beloved in the stomach, causing her a miscarriage. He did this out of sheer rashness and anger, and felt no joy or love from the action. He failed to go by extension of the act to killing her, ceasing all efforts to bring good from what he had done by trying to please God (through pleasing himself, as the glorious church had said). He had killed the unborn baby, and sought no positive ending to the situation, he took no measures to bring good about and rectify what had happened. It was a pointless killing, devoid of any rationale, and completely outside the bounds of his true beliefs. It was a knee-jerk reaction, and Ivan punished himself until his dying days for it.
His second sin was that of murdering his most precious son, the man whom he shared his best and worst experiences with, also named Ivan. Ivan junior approached his father aggressively one day, berating him ceaselessly for striking his wife and killing his unborn child. Eventually Ivan senior could take his son's words no longer, and struck out furiously with his stave, striking him repeatedly around the head, until his most dearly loved son collapsed to the ground, a hole in his temple bearing merciless testimony to Ivan's last sin. Ivan immediately felt over-powering remorse for his actions, clutching his son to his chest, howling for help and forgiveness, for in breaking his son's skull asunder he had broken his very own spirit, leaving himself nothing but despair and anguish. Ivan's son did not die there in his arms, but soon after as Ivan stayed by his bedside day and night, and Ivan was never to be the same again. Ivan Grozny was never a bad person, and he could forgive and love like no other, but the one man he couldn't forgive was the one most important in this tale. Ivan died, broken hearted and lonely, in 1584, undeniably the world's greatest saint from birth until death.
To dispell any thoughts of this thread being flame bait, I assure you all that I am being serious, and I hope to prove that by the content of this thread. Ivan really was a good man at heart, and did all in his power to serve the church, which he was indoctrinated into, and help his people by getting them into the Lord's good books. He was a loving family man, and I intend to expatiate on these remarks. Now, the question of this being a troll thread answered, and it is sad it had to be answered at all, let me get on with the thread. I will begin with his youth, but will try not to make this too much of a biography thread. I hope those with disagreements will respond in the fashion I have made this thread in, and not derail it too irreversibly.
Ivan Grozny
Born in 1530 to the Grand Duke of Moscow, Ivan looked set to have a grand future ahead of him. Unfortunately, his father died in '33, and he was left under the regency of his Mother. His mother did her best to shield her precious and kind-hearted son from the hardships of rule, but she too passed away in '38, leaving Ivan alone under the regency of constantly changing boyar families (as they slaughtered each other) to fend for himself in a court dominated by the ruthless, power-hungry princes/boyars (whichever you prefer). Ivan was powerless to help as he witnessed murders and other vicious acts on a regular basis, and the Russian political world was in turmoil, until his sixteenth birthday came along. Standing up at a banquet, at which many of the boyars whom had tortured him so were also attending, he declared his right to rule, and demanded that the most blood-thirsty boyar be rightfully punished for his brutal transgressions. Truly, the reign of a humane saint had begun, but alas, even men woven from the finest cloth can become tainted and led astray by those of lesser morals.
Ivan's reign is commonly split in two pieces, a before and after of when Ivan apparently turned "terrible", but to me it seems his life was a logical progression and should be told as one piece. Fundamentally, Ivan ever so rarely changed inside. He only grew through experience, constantly keeping his former beliefs, namely the undying loyalty to his people and the church they trusted. Ivan started off by truly being a pious and loving man, heavily religious, and he repeatedly called upon the church to criticise harshly all the things he did that would be viewed upon poorly by God. As a teenager, he had two prominant church officials help him compose a list of transgressions made by almost all major religious officials, and made a serious effort to purify the church for the best. Church officials had been known to spend their gains on prostitutes and booze regularly, and Ivan, as a god-loving christian (who was told by the church that he had a personal relationship with god, although more on that later), could not allow such horrid acts to continue. Truly, at least in his early years of rule, his kingdom was doing wonderfully, and he was accepted and loved by his subjects.
Unfortunately, things took a turn for the worse, as Ivan sat on death's bed, struck down by a strange malady. As he lay there, desperately writing a will that would serve the country's people best, his boyars, nay, beloved friends, reverted back to their old ways, arguing and threatening just like they had when Ivan was a powerless boy. Ivan managed to recover, being told once more by the church he trusted that he had a close, unique relationship with god, and realised that he could never trust the other officials, former friends, again. It was for the good of the kingdom's people that he took revenge, and he showed respect to the lord by paying a great penance. Warned that if he was to pay this penance, a close relation would die, Ivan pressed on, determined to show his faith in the Lord. Verily, Ivan's son died, as did his wife, a terrible shock to this already disheartened man.
As one can plainly see, Ivan truly was a gentleman of the highest order. Pious and loving, he cared ultimately for what was in the people's best interest, shown by him risking his family's life by paying penance to the lord as thanks for his recovery and as a sign of respect (one must remember that a prophet was a serious person in the fifteen hundreds). Ivan's main fault was instilled in him by the wicked christian church, as he was told that the nature of his own close relationship with God was that his emotions and health stemmed from God's own. If Ivan felt satisfied and pleased, then God was happy and appeased, and if God was hurt and upset, then Ivan felt rotten and distraught.
What one must ask himself now is, is a great man led to horrible beliefs by others truly a horrible man if he continues to stand true to his words and morals? Ivan rarely murdered without true, justified purpose (as defined by the church, the authority which he and the majority of his subjects, thus democratic in nature, trusted), and he never raped and tortured without reason and rationale (as by the church, yet again the authority which he and the majority of his subjects, thus democratic in nature, trusted). Ivan was a man of great character and strength, but can he be faulted when people he held in high-esteem moulded him into what many of you interpret to be a macabre devil? Gullibility is not a fair adjective for his faith in the church, for what reason was there not to follow the church's teachings? He was invested with his subjects best interests, and the majority of them were of christian faith, and willed him to act in his best religious capacity. What many percieve as Ivan's transgressions are actualy those of the church for abominating his religious ideals, which he stuck true to for all his days, save on but two occasions.
Ivan killed because it made him happy, and by virtue of his teachings it made God happy. What greater good can the first Tzar do than make his kingdom beloved by the Lord himself? When Ivan was saddened, he knew God was angry, and he fought to the best of his abilities to make God happy once more. He strived with all his heart and soul, Ivan sweat blood to please the Lord and save his subjects from eternal damnation, he was selfless and true to those he cared for. Over the course of his entire life, he made only two true sins when taken in context of his mis-education, and these he paid for dearly of his own accord. How can someone mock this magnanimous man, this saint whose mind was so pure, his very ideals so righteous, that he'd torture himself for the rest of his eternity for but two sins over the course of an entire lifetime?
So now, it is with great sadness that I list Ivan's two failings, and end this thread with a picture of a great man, the likes of which this world has so rarely seen. Ivan's first sin was that of punching his son's beloved in the stomach, causing her a miscarriage. He did this out of sheer rashness and anger, and felt no joy or love from the action. He failed to go by extension of the act to killing her, ceasing all efforts to bring good from what he had done by trying to please God (through pleasing himself, as the glorious church had said). He had killed the unborn baby, and sought no positive ending to the situation, he took no measures to bring good about and rectify what had happened. It was a pointless killing, devoid of any rationale, and completely outside the bounds of his true beliefs. It was a knee-jerk reaction, and Ivan punished himself until his dying days for it.
His second sin was that of murdering his most precious son, the man whom he shared his best and worst experiences with, also named Ivan. Ivan junior approached his father aggressively one day, berating him ceaselessly for striking his wife and killing his unborn child. Eventually Ivan senior could take his son's words no longer, and struck out furiously with his stave, striking him repeatedly around the head, until his most dearly loved son collapsed to the ground, a hole in his temple bearing merciless testimony to Ivan's last sin. Ivan immediately felt over-powering remorse for his actions, clutching his son to his chest, howling for help and forgiveness, for in breaking his son's skull asunder he had broken his very own spirit, leaving himself nothing but despair and anguish. Ivan's son did not die there in his arms, but soon after as Ivan stayed by his bedside day and night, and Ivan was never to be the same again. Ivan Grozny was never a bad person, and he could forgive and love like no other, but the one man he couldn't forgive was the one most important in this tale. Ivan died, broken hearted and lonely, in 1584, undeniably the world's greatest saint from birth until death.