Czar ivan the terrible biography nazi symbol

Ivan the terrible death cause

Crowned as the first tsar of Russia, he controlled the largest nation on Earth but in his later years, executed thousands and, in rage, killed his own son. In addition, Moscow became the capital of the Holy Russian Empire. In the same year, Ivan married Anastasia Romanov. He married several more times after her death in , but this first marriage seems to have been the happiest.

The Romanov dynasty ruled Russia from to , and traces its claim to the throne through Anastasia's brother, Nikitu. Ivan ruled with a deep-seated paranoia and ruthlessness; it's said that he gouged out the eyes of the architects who built St. Basil's so that a cathedral of such beauty could never again be created. The czar's power became absolute when Ivan the Terrible succeeded in conquering the remaining independent principalities, such as Siberia.

The state also assigned a master to the peasants who worked the lands around an estate, setting in stone the system of serfdom. Ivan organised the Streltsy members of the army elite to govern his districts and the Oprichniki the first police force to suppress boyar ruling-class nobles rebellion. He confiscated the property of the boyars and granted state property to those who served him.

Since his soldiers were tenured to the state for life, their land grants became hereditary and they formed a new ruling elite.