Extract
[...] In a speech to the fathers of the Stoglav, Ivan the Terrible will declare notably am your son, instruct me, teach me all the pious practices, tell me how praiseworthy it is for a tsar to be religious, to establish in the kingdom just laws, to live in faith and purity 1 Traditional historiography highlights the role of the priest Silvester as Ivan IV's mentor. This influence of the sovereign's religious education and piety, often depicted with hyperkeratosis on the forehead due to numerous prayers. In this logic, he links the 1547 Moscow fire to his sins, leading him to publicly repent on Red Square, where he promised to govern in the people's interest. Macarius, then metropolitan of Moscow, will indeed contribute significantly to the strengthening of the Church and the improvement of its organization. [...]
[...] This separation is also territorial: the tsar equips himself with a new palace, symbol of this new order and administers himself certain territories, leaving the others to the princes and boyars. The city of Moscow is notably divided in two with a demarcation at the level of the Neglinnaia which borders one of the sides of the Kremlin. Transition : Following this renewal of the sphere of power and its actors, Ivan the Terrible applies himself to eliminate those who, in his opinion, would be likely to lead the army or overthrow him, without sparing his own family and resulting in 1570 in the particularly violent expedition to Novgorod, the arrest of Archbishop Pimen and a purge within the same of theopritchnina. [...]
[...] "Reinventing the Russian Monarchy in the 1550s: Ivan the Terrible, the Dynasty, and the Church."" The Slavonic and East European Review (2007) : 271-293. - Gonneau, Pierre. Ivan the Terrible or the Trade of Tyrant. Tallandier, 2014. - Heller, Michel. History of Russia and its Empire. Flammarion, 1999. - History of Russia under the Tsars. [...]
[...] At this stage of events, many boyars attempted to flee to neighboring Lithuania, including Prince Andrei Kurbsky, a general very close to the tsar, who would spend the rest of his life fighting his former sovereign and friend. B. The establishment of the Oprichnina This system of repression marked by Ivan IV's suspicion of conspiracy and treason reached its climax in the establishment of theopritchnina. The establishment of this institution occurred after a pretended withdrawal of the tsar. He announced in 1564 that he wanted to renounce the throne by denouncing the boyards and the clergy, while specifying that he had no grievances against the population. [...]
[...] These elements weakening Ivan's trust in his entourage were exacerbated by the sudden death of his wife, Anastasia, in 1560. He held his former advisors, Sylvester and Adachev, responsible for a plot. Here began the tsar's arbitrary justice, which would characterize the rest of his reign; he had them condemned to exile and prison through an unprecedented, extraordinary procedure that did not allow the accused to be judged. Two other princes were executed due to simple disapproval of Ivan the Terrible's behavior. [...]
