3 minutes 47 seconds
🇬🇧 English
Speaker 1
00:00
There are many kings in history who were known as the Great. Tsar Ivan IV of Russia does not hold this epithet and is commonly known as Ivan the Terrible. This raises the obvious question, how terrible was Ivan the Terrible? Terrible is a translation of the Russian word grozny.
Speaker 1
00:14
Grozny does mean terrible, but not in the modern sense with its moral undertones. So what did he do? Well, Ivan IV was actually the first Tsar of Russia and his reign, which was a long 1, was 1 of tremendous reform which saw him create many lasting Russian institutions such as the Russian army which he started from a corps of professional full-time soldiers called the Streltsy. He also founded Russia's first parliament, made up of the high-ranking nobility called the Zemsky Sobor.
Speaker 1
00:37
He married a Romanov princess, began the Russian expansion into Siberia, and commissioned the very fancy St. Basil's Cathedral. Sounds good, right? Well, yes, but Ivan was also responsible for certain less good things.
Speaker 1
00:47
Ivan's first wife died in 1560 and some believe that this was his breaking point. After this, Ivan's reign was 1 of transformation and widespread warfare. This was followed by famine, discontent and potentially rebellion. So the Sardin were split up.
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