The Story of Moscow

the T

readie wisdom, cruell, bl

which Ivan the Terrible reigned over Muscovy is a unique period in the history of Russia. And not that of Russia only, for in no country at any time have so many and diverse outrages been perpetrated at one man's command. Disas

members of princely houses in vassalage in Moscow but with aspirations to the throne. These men, mostly relations of the Tsar, were insistent upon the rules of precedence, both for the gratification of their own vanity, and as of possible importance in the event of

, and possibly was instrumental in thwarting the plots of the Glinski. At Helena's command two of her relatives were executed for conspiring against the infant Tsar. She enclosed the Kitai Gorod with a wall of stone; improved the defences of Mos

s of the most powerful factions about the court. They were neglected; Ivan himself said of this period, "we two were

ttach themselves to anyone. If Ivan felt drawn to anyone, or any per

Ivan learned to read, and spelled through all the books he could obtain. From these old chronicles,-from those of the Kings of Israel, to the doings of his own ancestors-he seems to have obtained the idea of the powers of sovereignty. A close observer he noticed that although ordinarily he was treated as of little account, when any act of state had

ses in the Kitai Gorod. On the 20th of the same month the streets of the artisans along the Yauza suffered, and on the 21st June, during a high wind, a fire started on the far side of the Neglinnaia, in the Arbat, and this spread to the Kremlin and destroyed there the whole of the wooden buildings. The inhabitants could save nothing, and the night was made more hideous by frequent explosions as the fire reached one powder magazine and another. The palaces, the tribunals, the treasuries, armouries, warehouses, all were destroyed

Hills so as not to see the distress of the people. The survivors, their beards burnt, their faces blackene

r administered the law and dictated the policy of the country. In Anastasia they had an able assistant and firm friend. Their first act was directed towards limiting the power of the Tsar; at their behest he called together an assembly of the people to advise him. They compiled a code of laws, the Sudebnik, and the Stoglaf, this last the decrees of the co

provisions and was used as a base for the besiegers. After a stubborn resistance Ivan's army of 150,000 took the town, and slaughtered the defenders. On this occasion Ivan is said to have d

son Dmitri, whom he nominated his successor. Some refused, others hesitated: Zakharin-Yurief alone, was earnest and ready in his allegiance. He was a near kinsman of the Tsarina and so, more than any, was interested in the welfare of Dmitri. Others intri

he overheard on his sick bed. He never forgave. His wife, Anastasia, als

dvice contrary to that so earnestly and frequently dinned into his ears by Sylvester and Adashef. "If you wish to become absolute monarch," said Vassian,

ther himself," he answered, "cou

the Volga again, completed the conquest of Kazan, and his troops pre

succession. Under the administration of Adashef, the outlying parts of the Tsar's dominions were so effectually governed that when the English ships first appeared

retired within a short time of Anastasia's death. For bad generalship in Lithuania, Adashef was imprisoned in the fortress of Dorpat, where he died shortly afterwards. Sylvester was ready enough

these into seven cycles; it is a purely arbitrary division-with the exception of the thirteen years 1547-1560, during whic

ther was slain simply because he remonstrated with the Tsar for such a display of cruelty. Ivan always used the

ined on absol

d the face or person of any man he met by the way, or that looked at him, would command h

ed him on the Krasn? Kriltso, and there, with his sharp staff, pinned to the floor the foot of Chibanov, who never stirred a muscle during the whole time the long letter was read aloud. Then Chibanov was put to the torture, to ob

who blasphemes his maker, meets with forgiveness amongst men, he who reviles the Tsar is sure to lose his head." Ivan chose as his companions the worst people

ut the shepherd? Let him punish all who deserve it: has he not the power over life and death? The stat

followed by murders and outrages worse than before. Randolph, who in 1568, was in Muscovy on an embassy from England, with which country Ivan wished to be on the best

eads to be laid on the streets, to see who durst behold them or lament their deaths. The Chancellor he caused to be ex

ligious followers, disguised in the cloaks they wore when sallying forth to rapine and outrage, repaired to the Uspenski Sobor for a b

re laws, and justice, and compassion shown to men, but in Russia now is nothing of this kind. The lives and goods of citizens are without defence. Everywhere pillage, on all sides murder, and each and all these crimes are committed in the name of the Tsar. There is a judge on high-how shall you present yo

an did so, and Philip was accused of lying. The boyard, Alexis Basmanov, with a troop of armed men and having the Tsar's fiat in his hand, arrested Philip whilst officiating at High Mass in the Uspenski Sobor, and read out that by the decree of the clergy, Philip was deposed from his high office. The people were surprised and stupefied. The soldiers seized Philip, tore his vestments from him, and chased him from the church with besoms. He was first taken

, their bodily strength and lack of morals, they recognised no master but Ivan, and by him were privileged to rob and slay the people as they wished, providing they were at hand to kill anyone in particular whom he might want

ule of the western kings than the Russian autocrat. A hired traitor placed a forged letter behind an image in Novgorod Church, and disclosed the plot to Ivan, whose agents found the compromising letter, which contained overtures to the Lithuanians; Ivan started to subdue the town. The ?pritchniks preceded him. Klin, a thriving town near Moscow, was sacked; t

of his stay. Some were burned, some racked to death, others drowned in the Volkhof, run in on sledges or thrown in from the bridge-soldiers in boats spearing those who swam. Infants were empaled before the eyes of their mothers, husbands butchered along with their wives. Novgorod, at that time larger and of greater commercial importance than Moscow, was so injured that she has never since acquired the rank of even a third-rate town. On leaving it, Ivan

thousand men, in the end had to retreat in shame. Losing more men before Narva, he put in execution there "the most bloody and cruellest massacre that ever was heard of in any age," giving the spoil of the town to his Tartars. Following the custom of

RM

s some respite from his attentions. The English then there were much impressed by the cruelties

of the frozen weather, tying and binding them by three and four together at their horses' tails: dragging them, some alive, some dead, all bloodying the way

n was determined that the tocsin should never again be heard over the fallen city. The bell he caused to be hanged in the turret on the Kremlin wall near

was instrumental in getting the lives of many spared, and they were settled in a suburb of Moscow where they lived at peace with the citizens but were still

: the Tsar appeared on horseback, accompanied by his dutiful son, the boyards, some princes, and quite a legion of hangmen. Behind these came some hundreds of the condemned, many like spectres; others torn, bleeding, and so feeble they scarce could walk. Ivan halted near the scaffolds and looked around, then at once commanded the ?pritchniks to find where the people were and drag them into the light of day. In his impatience he even himself ran about here and there, calling the Muscovites to come forward and see the specta

on the head, then continued reading: 'And this thy second crime, not less heinous than thy first, O ungrateful and perfidious one! Thou hast written to the Sultan of Turkey, that he may take Astrakhan and Kazan,' whereupon he struck the condemned wretch twice, and continued: 'Also thou hast called upon the Khan of the Krim Tartars to enter and devastate Russia: this thy third crime.' Viskovati called God to witness that he was innocent, that he had always serv

ours two hundred had been put to death, and then, the carnage over, the hangmen, their clothes covered with blood, and their gory, steaming knives in their hands, surrounded the Tsar and shouted huzzah. 'Goida! Goida! Long live the Tsar! Ivan for ever! Goida! Goida!' And so shouting they went round the market-place that Ivan might examine the mutilated remains, the piled-up corpses, the actual evidences of the slaughter. Enough of bloodshed for the one day? Not a bit of it. Ivan, satiated for the moment with the slaughter, would gloat over the grief of the survi

were less gruesome, posses

ry sharp spike in the end, which, in discourse he would strike through his boyard's feet, and if they could bear it without flinching, he would f

an promised to return, and did so with a great company and many presents, acting also as godson to the man's child, whose birth he had witnessed.

his garden was a rarity, and so presented that to Ivan, who took the present so kindly that he commanded a hundred of his followers to buy sandals of the man at a crown a pair. A boyard seeing him so wel

all up one by one, and, when they had done, gave them wine and bade them heed how they laughed before an emperor again. He sent for a nobleman of Kasan, who was called Plesheare, which is "Bald," and the Vayvod mistaking the word, thought he sent for a hundred bald pates and therefore got together as ma

at which Ivan sternly demanded how he durst do so, having heard how he chastised the French ambassador. Sir Jeremy answered, 'I am the ambassador of the invincible Queen of E

o his boyards, 'Which of you would

an regularly summoned to mass this strange company, all clad like brothers of a monastery, and himself officiated. His prostrations were no sham, for his forehead bore the marks of its severe knockings on the floor, but in the middle of a mass he would pause to give som

war into the country of his enemies and brought fresh lands under his dominion. Yermak, an outlaw, conquered Siberia and made of it a gift to the Tsar. Anthony Jenkinson, on behalf of the

es and buildings outside the Kremlin. The town suffered worse than in the great conflagrations of 1547, but the Tartars, satisfied with the spoil, withdrew. They subsequently sent envoys to I

ilievich, his vassal, and Grand Duke over Russia by his permission, to know how he did like the scourge of his displeasure by sword, fire and famine? Had sent him for remedy (pulling out a foul, rusty knife) to cut his throat withal." They hasted him forth from the room, and would have taken off his gown and cap, but he and his company strove with them so stoutly. The Emperor fell into such an agony; sent for his ghostly father; tore his own hair and beard for madness! Then

cow. But for Ivan's newly-found friends the English, his enemies in east and west would have conquered him. The English, much to the disgust of Swedes and P

company Schlitte back to Moscow, but the Governments, anticipating danger to their territory if the Russ became enlightened, refused permission. Only a few det

Kremlin; later he had another constructed outside, between the Nikitskaia and the Arbat. For a long time he lived in neither, preferring a wretche

Ivan's command, and at the expense of Kazan, to commemorate the conquest of that town, which fell on the first of October 1552.

rch should be "the crowning effort of his wonderful genius," put out his eyes. There is no ev

, one or other of which may be found on many buildings in "wooden Russia." In the chapter on "Ecclesiastical Moscow" the reader will find further information on this point. It appears to embody the salient features of many styles, eastern and western, and

, a fourth to a melon; a fifth is in folds, another has spiral gonflements-none are plain. A covered gallery extends from north to south, with roofed and spired stairways leading up to the church level, and a narrow passage and outside wall enclose the remaining chapels. The quaint belfry with its Russo-Gothic spire and bright roofing, being unlike aught else, is in keeping with the general design. Outside, the central dome is brightly gilt, the others are painted in gaudy colours, and the whole of

I BLA

a" (Bad Jacky); when the Tsar offered him money he let it fall to the floor, blew on his fingers, said the coins burned, and asked Ivan why he had his gold from hell. Then he would tell Ivan that on his forehead were already growing the horns of a goat-that he was becoming a devil really-then hold him up to the ridicule of the court and the people-and Ivan, enraged, dared not strike him dow

Destroy that Mosque"-instead they quartered themselves there. It has been many times repair

re all unpleasant, reminiscent of the excesses of Ivan, the weaknesses of his immediate successors. Worse, it lacks sincerity: intuitively one knows that suc

t of midnight that there does duty for darkness. Standing in the shadow of the Kremlin wall, on soil saturated fathoms deep with the blood of innocent martyrs, examine the building closely and call to memory the people by whom and for whom it was produced. Then and then only may the conception of this fungus-lik

clergy could not help themselves. Ivan, who was fond of the semblance of justice, after his expedition north appointed a baptized Tartar, one Simeon Bekbulatov, to be Tsar in his place, then himself abdicated. But he took care to make Simeon do as he wished, and he kept the power. The people obeyed Simeon, to a certain extent, but the Tsar's chief object in this was to legalise his seizure of ecclesiastical revenues. Simeon made certain agreements, but not having made those in force, which had been recognised

dragged forth and drowned in the Cheksna. His own sister-in-law, the widow of his early playmate Yuri, was also kil

lga was reached. His guards said that there they must water their horses. "Ah," said Rostevsk

is waist and he was hauled from one side of a river to the other and back a

to pieces. He poured spirits over the heads of delegates, then set their beards on fire. On one occasion his men brought a lot of women of Moscow, and stripping all naked prese

o death. Another, as I remember, Ivan Obrossimov, was hanged naked on a gibbet by the hair of his head; the skin and flesh of his body from top to toe cut off and minced with knives into small gobbets, by four palatsniks (chamberla

Tophet, where the faithless Egyptians did sa

ss, brought to behold that woeful sight. And she, a good matronly woman, given to one hundred gunners who did her to death. Her body lying naked in the Place, Ivan commanded his huntsman to br

t scarcity, Ivan caused it to be made known that at a certain hour alms would be distributed at his palace. A great crowd of needy people assembled, and seven

father's body. On that same day another prince was impaled and four others beheaded. Many were hung up by the feet, hacked with knives, and whilst still living, plunged into a c

ballad which recounts how the Tsar got all the boyards together to say a mass for the dead Tsarevich and in mourning, "or all I will boil in a cauldron." Nikita Serebrenni, hiding the Tsarevich behind t

sar Ivan V

for the half

old of th

y that wick

him to the

all most c

oned. No wonder Horsey called them "a base and servile people, without courage." In his turn "Elizius Bomelius" suffered a cruel death. When Theodorof was accused of aspiring to the crown, Ivan

ich. He robbed any and all. Even the English merchants, whose good esteem he prized, were forced to furnish him with what he wished, on credit

ridors-as unlike all other palaces as Vasili Blajenni is unlike other churches. Of his enormit

offence at a remark of one of his jesters, he ran his knife into the little fellow's chest; then called a doctor, telling him he had u

ing with the favoured Boris Godunov about precedence, was exiled. After some years he was again summoned to

ce I killed that foolish jester, no one knows how to amuse me. I see that the Boyard Morozof wants the post. I have promised to show him a favour-I

tinkling bells, Morozof pushed him aside. 'Stand back! Do not dare, outcast, to touch Boyard Morozof! Your fathers cleaned out my ancestor's ke

ght in saying that the Boyard will have his joke. I hav

avski drove back the Krim-Tartars, and chased the Tartars away from Moscow. I defended you when a child; fought for your rights and the rights of your m

tted for a jester. Put on the cloak! And you fe

oloured cap, and retreating, bowed low before him. 'N

ch as the Basmanovs. Make way for the new jester, and listen, all of you, how he will amuse Ivan Vasilievich!' He made a gesture of command: the opritchniks stood aside, and with his bells tinklin

thought of it before. You are covered with blood, yet you chant and ring the holy bells and would like to perform the mass. What else shall I say to amuse you, Tsar? This: whilst you are masquerading thus with your opritchniks, wallowing in blood, Sigismund with his Poles will fall on you in the west, and from the east will come the Khan, and you will have left none alive to defend Moscow. The holy churches of God will be entered and burned by the infidel, all the holy relics will be taken: you,-you-the Tsar of all the Russias, will have to kneel at the feet of the Khan, and ask leave to kiss his stirrup!' Morozof ceased. None dared interrupt; all held their breath in agonising suspense. Ivan, pale, with flashing eyes, and foaming with rage, listened to all attentively, bent forward, as though fearing to lose a single word. Morozof gazed proudly around him. 'Do you want me to divert you further, Tsar? I will. One faithful subject, of high birth, still remained to you. You had not yet

flashed fire, his white beard fell on a chest scarred with many wounds now hidden beneat

ndreds and thousands you have murdered-men, women and little children, all of whom you have tortured and killed, all will stand before God appealing against you, their murderer. On that dreadful day I, too, shall appear in this same dre

withdrew. None dared to stop him. He passed through the hall with great digni

popularity. He turned on Ivan savagely and struck him repeatedly with the iron-shod "sceptre" he always carried; the last blow knocked the young man

0 in all are to be prayed for; 986 of these are mentioned by name, the others are cited as-"with his wife," "with sons," "with wife and children," "Kazarim Dubrovski and his two sons and

ober 28, 1571, and on November 13 of the same year she died. Her brother, Michael, the Tsar impaled shortly afterwards. Ivan's marriage with Natalia Bulkatov was not recognised by the Church. Anna Koltoski he took next, but he forced her into a nunnery later, where she lived until 1626. Anna Vasilichekov and one Mstislavski succeeded, but only one was recognised,-which one is disputed. Vassilissa Melentief, a great beauty, was his next cho

s; Finns who certainly foretold the day, if not the hour, of his death. The appearance of a comet greatly terrified him-the once m

rrible). His evil deeds are forgotten by the people, whilst the enrichment of his country by others of his day is counted t

sh and foul that the student may read long and investigate very closely before making sure that Ivan was human. His lusts had not the saving grace of humour; his fear even was sulphurous. Neither circumstances nor events either mitigate or condone his cruelties. Throughout his life he was actuated by one impulse only, to gratify and preserve himself. Those who believe that the occasion makes the man must feel that the fifty-years rule of this despot upsets that theory. Never was there such need for a Cromwell-the country could not produce a man, much less a liberator. Doubtless the action of previous rulers, the centuries of thraldom to Tartars, the thorough teaching of the Christian doctrine of obedie

o other time would his rule be permitted. The mere possibility of a recurrence of such a time of terror would determine every thinking being to die ch