Conclusion let's say that the good glory of John. Domestic historians about Tsar Ivan IV the Terrible

Ivan's personality

As the chronicles write, Ivan's appearance amazed everyone. He was tall and slender, had broad shoulders, strong muscles, a developed chest, fine hair, a Roman nose, and small gray penetrating eyes. In his youth, his face was pleasant, but with age he changed greatly; the features of his face were distorted and acquired a fierce expression, almost not a single hair remained on his head and beard, which could be a consequence of the rage boiling in his soul. K. Valishevsky adds an even larger mustache to the appearance of Ivan the Terrible and says that his reddish beard turned gray by the end of his reign, and he shaved his head.

The character of Ivan, notes N.M. Karamzin, with his virtue in youth and the fierceness of a tyrant in maturity and old age, remains a mystery, although other similar examples can be found in history. N.M. Karamzin, however, tries to find a benefit for future generations in the example of the brutal reign of Ivan IV. "The life of a tyrant is a disaster for mankind," says the historian, "but his story is always useful for sovereigns and peoples: to instill disgust for evil is to instill love for virtue."

It is appropriate to quote in full the words of N.M. Karamzin, reflecting his view of the presence of Ivan the Terrible: “In conclusion, we say that good glory Ioannova survived his bad glory in the people's memory: the groanings ceased, the sacrifices decayed, and the old traditions were eclipsed by the newest; but the name Ioannovo shone on the Code of Law and resembled the acquisition of the three Mongol kingdoms: evidence of terrible deeds lay in the book depositories, and the people honored in him the famous culprit of our state power, our public education; rejected or forgot the name of the Tormentor, given to him by his contemporaries, and according to dark rumors about the cruelty of Ioannova still calls him only Terrible ... ".

The right of modern historians to agree with this point of view or not, but it exists, reflects the opinion of a certain part of the population and becomes, in the end, a philosophical concept.

This text is an introductory fragment. From the author's book

The mistake of Ivan the Terrible Ivan IV was a striking figure of the domination of early moderate authoritarianism and its decline at the same time. His attempt to solve the mediation problem is characterized by two essential elements. First, he strove to go beyond the flaccid inversion, resorting to those

From the author's book

Bastions of Ivan Sytin It's a shame to admit, but I got involved in publishing while skipping school. Here is how it was. At first, I wandered aimlessly around Serpukhovka - just on the eve of May 1st - and with a hidden smile looked at the portraits of the leaders of the party and

From the author's book

The Code of Laws and the Laws of Ivan III According to the legislation contained in the Code of Laws of 1497, the chief judge was Grand Duke with kids. But the right to judge was also given to the boyars, governors and local boyar children, who, however, could not judge without the headman and the best people,

From the author's book

The court of Ivan III The princes of the Rurikovich and St. Vladimir clan served Ivan on an equal basis with other subjects and bore the titles of boyars, butlers, and attendants. As an inheritance from his father, Vasily the Dark, Ivan at first had only four grand-ducal boyars. In 1480, Ivan already had 19 boyars

From the author's book

The wife of Ivan III Vasilievich The wife of Ivan III Maria died prematurely and suddenly at a young age in the absence of her husband. She was buried by the mother of the Grand Duke and the Metropolitan in the Kremlin Church of the Ascension, where, since the time of Vasily Dmitrievich, they began to bury all the princesses. Death of Mary

From the author's book

Ivan's wife After the death of Anastasia, Ivan's close circle began to tell him that he was looking for a new bride. “Do you always cry for your spouse? You will find another, equally lovely; but you can harm your priceless health by immoderation in sorrow. " Ivan

From the author's book

Fools of Ivan the Terrible Ivan kept fools and fools at his court. From the fact that jesters were often not smart enough, their jokes were distinguished by obscenity and cynicism. In those days, one or more jesters were kept in every more or less wealthy house. Ivan had them

From the author's book

Death of Ivan IV Ivan was strong in body and could live enough long life, but, as N.M. Karamzin, “... remorse without remorse, vile delights of filthy voluptuousness, torment of shame, malice powerless in the failures of weapons, finally, the hellish execution of filicide

From the author's book

Belief and Faith of Ivan Karamazov Religious and philosophical literature has firmly established the opinion that the main character of Dostoevsky's novels written after 1864 is "a self-incriminating atheist" and that the slogan "everything is allowed", to which many of his heroes

Domestic historians about Tsar Ivan IV the Terrible. N.M. Karamzin

N. M. KARAMZIN

FROM "THE HISTORY OF THE RUSSIAN STATE"

Published according to: N.M. Karamzin Legends of the ages. M., 1988.T. IX. Pp. 563-572, 636-646.

<...>We begin to describe the terrible change in the soul of the king and in the fate of the kingdom.

Both modern Russians and foreigners who were then in Moscow portray this young, thirty-year-old crown bearer as an example of pious, wise monarchs zealous for the glory and happiness of the state. This is how the first ones explain: "The custom of John is to keep oneself pure before God. And in the temple and in solitary prayer, and in the council of the boyars and among the people, he has one feeling:" Yes, I rule, as the Almighty ordered to rule over his true anointed ones! " the security of everyone and the general, the integrity of the states entrusted to him, the triumph of faith, the freedom of Christians is his everlasting thought. Burdened with deeds, he knows no other pleasures except a peaceful conscience, except the pleasure of fulfilling his duty; he does not want the usual coolness of the tsars ... and to the people - loving, rewarding everyone according to their dignity - with generosity, eradicating poverty, and evil - with an example of good, this God-born king wishes on the day of the Last Judgment to hear the voice of mercy: "You are the king of righteousness!" even you gave me! "Foreign observers, the British, who came to Russia for trade, praise him no less." John, they write, eclipsed his ancestors with both power and virtue; has many enemies and humbles them. Lithuania, Poland, Sweden, Denmark, Livonia, Crimea, Nogai are horrified by the Russian name. In relation to his subjects, he is surprisingly condescending, affable; loves to talk to them, often gives them dinners in the palace and, despite the fact, knows how to be imperative; will tell the boyar: "Go!" - and the boyar runs; express vexation to the nobleman - and the nobleman in despair; hides, yearns in solitude, lets go of his hair as a sign of sorrow, until the king announces his forgiveness. In short, there is no people in Europe more loyal to their sovereign than Russians, whom they both fear and love. Always ready to listen to complaints and help, John enters into everything, decides everything; does not get bored with deeds and does not have fun with either animal catching or music, engaging in only two thoughts: how to serve God and how to exterminate the enemies of Russia! "

Is it probable that the beloved sovereign, the adored could, from such a height of goodness, happiness, glory, plunge into the abyss of the horrors of tyranny? But the evidence of good and evil is equally convincing, irrefutable; it only remains to imagine this amazing phenomenon in its gradual changes.

History will not resolve the issue of human moral freedom; but, assuming this in his judgment about deeds and characters, he explains both, firstly, by the natural properties of people, and secondly, by the circumstances or impressions of objects acting on the soul. John was born with ardent passions, with a strong imagination, with a mind even sharper than firm or solid. Bad upbringing, having spoiled his natural inclinations, left him a way to correct himself in faith alone: ​​for the most impudent depravers of kings did not dare then touch this holy feeling. Friends of the Fatherland and blessings in extraordinary circumstances were able to touch her with salutary horrors, to strike his heart; they snatched the young man from the nets of bliss and, with the help of the pious, meek Anastasia, carried him along the path of virtue. The unfortunate consequences of John's illness upset this wonderful union , weakened the power of friendship, made a change. The sovereign has matured: passions ripen with intelligence, and pride acts even more strongly in perfect years. Let the trust of John to the mind of the former instructors not diminish; but his confidence in himself increased: grateful to them for their wise advice, the sovereign ceased to feel the need for further guidance, and all the more felt the burden of compulsion when, without changing the old habit, they spoke boldly, decisively in all cases and did not think to please his human weakness ... Such straightforwardness seemed to him obscene rudeness, offensive to the monarch. For example, Adashev and Sylvester did not approve of the Livonian War, arguing that it is necessary first of all to eradicate the infidels, the evil enemies of Russia and Christ; that although the Livonians are not of the Greek confession, Christians are not dangerous for us either; that God blesses only just wars, necessary for the integrity and freedom of states. The courtyard was filled with people devoted to these two favorites; but Anastasia's brothers did not love them, nor did many ordinary envious people who could not tolerate anyone higher than themselves. The latter did not sleep, guessed the disposition of John's heart and inspired him that Sylvester and Adashev were cunning hypocrites: preaching heavenly virtue, they want worldly benefits; stand high in front of the throne and do not allow the people to see the tsar, wishing to appropriate the successes, the glory of his reign, and at the same time hinder these successes, advising the sovereign to be moderate in happiness: for they are inwardly afraid of them, thinking that an excess of glory can give him just a sense of greatness, dangerous to their lust for power. They said: "Who are these people who dare to prescribe laws to the great and wise king, not only in public affairs, but also in domestic affairs, family matters, in the very way of life; who dare to tell him how to deal with his wife, how much to drink and eat in moderation?" For Sylvester, the mentor of John's conscience, always demanded from him abstinence, moderation in physical pleasures, to which the young monarch had a strong inclination. John did not appease slander, for he was already bored with the excessively strict moral teachings of his favorites and wanted freedom; he did not think of abandoning virtue: he only wanted to get rid of the teachers and prove that he could do without them. There were moments in which his natural ardor poured out in immodest words, in threats. They write that soon after the conquest of Kazan, he, in anger at one governor, said to the nobles: "Now I am no longer afraid of you!" But the generosity shown to them after the illness completely calmed their hearts. Thirteen flourishing years of life, spent in the zealous fulfillment of holy royal duties, seemed to testify to unchanging faithfulness in the love of good. Although the sovereign had already changed in his feelings for favorites, he did not change noticeably in the rules. Deanery reigned in the Kremlin Palace, zeal and bold frankness in the Duma. Only in ambiguous matters, where truth or goodness was not obvious, did John like to contradict his counselors. This was the case until the spring of 1560.

At this time, the sovereign's coldness towards Adashev and towards Sylvester was so clearly revealed that they saw the need to retire from the court. The first, having occupied until then the most important place in the Duma and always used in negotiations with the European powers, still wanted to serve the tsar in a different way: he took the rank of voivode and went to Livonia; and Sylvester, having given the emperor a blessing from the bottom of his heart, was imprisoned in one deserted monastery. Their friends were bereaved, their enemies triumphed; praised the wisdom of the king and said: "Now you are already a true autocrat, the anointed of God; you are one rule over the earth: you opened your eyes and behold your kingdom freely." But the overthrown favorites still seemed terrible to them. Contrary to the well-known sovereign disfavor, Adashev was honored in the army; the Livonian citizens themselves showed excellent respect for him; everything was subject to his intelligence and virtue. No less Sylvester, already a humble monk, shone with Christian virtues in the desert: the monks were surprised to see in him an example of piety, love, and meekness. The king could learn about repenting, returning the exiles: it was necessary to complete the blow and make the sovereign so unjust, so guilty against these men, that he could no longer even think of a sincere peace with them. The death of the queen gave an occasion.

John was torn to pieces by grief: everyone around him shed tears, either from true pity, or to please the sad king - and in those tears a vile slander appeared under the guise of zeal, love, as if horrified by the discovery of unheard-of villainy. "Sovereign!" They said to John. "You are in despair, Russia is also, and two monsters are triumphant: the virtuous queen was exterminated by Sylvester and Adashev, her secret enemies and sorcerers: for without sorcery they could not have dominated your mind for so long." Provided evidence that did not convince even the most gullible; but the sovereign knew that Anastasia, from the time of his illness, had not loved either Sylvester or Adashev; thought that they also disliked her, and accepted slander, perhaps, wishing to justify his disfavor towards them, if not by correct evidence of their villainy, then at least by suspicion. Having learned about this denunciation, the exiles wrote to the king, demanding a trial and a confrontation with the accusers. The latter was not wanted by their enemies, presenting to him that they are poisonous like basilisks, they can again charm him with one glance and, beloved by the people, the army, all citizens, make a rebellion; that fear will close the mouth of the informers. The sovereign ordered the accused to be tried in absentia: the metropolitan, bishops, boyars, many other spiritual and secular officials gathered for this in the palace. Among the judges were treacherous monks, Vassian Vesky, Misail Sukin, the main villains of the Sylvester family. Read not one, but many accusations, explained by John himself in a letter to Prince Andrei Kurbsky. “For the salvation of my soul,” the tsar writes, “I brought Priest Sylvester closer to me, hoping that in his dignity and mind he would be a companion for my good; Adashev to rule the kingdom without a tsar, despised by them. They again instilled a spirit of willfulness in the boyars; distributed towns and volosts to like-minded people; put whoever they wanted in the thought; took all the places as their saints. I was a slave on the throne. Can I describe what I have endured. in these days of humiliation and shame? to travel to holy monasteries; they are not allowed to punish the Germans ... These iniquities are joined by treason: when I suffered in a serious illness, they, forgetting loyalty and oath, in the rapture of autocracy, wanted to pass on mine, to take another king, and not touched, not corrected by our generosity, in the cruelty of their hearts, what did they pay us for this? With new insults: they hated, slandered Tsarina Anastasia, and in everything they volunteered to Prince Vladimir Andreevich. And is it so surprising that I finally decided not to be an infant in years of courage and to overthrow the yoke imposed on the kingdom by the crafty priest and ungrateful servant Alexy? "And so on. Note that John does not blame them for Anastasia's death and thus testifies to the absurd lie of this denunciation All other reproaches are partly dubious, partly reckless in the mouth of a thirty-year-old autocrat, who, by admitting his former bondage, reveals the secret of his pitiful weakness.Adashev and Sylvester could, like people, be blinded by ambition; but the sovereign with this immodest accusation gave them the glory of the most beautiful in the history of the reign. he ruled without them; and if not John, but his favorites ruled Russia from 1547 to 1560: then for the happiness of their subjects and the tsar it would be necessary for these virtuous men not to leave the state feed: it is better to do good by force than to do evil by will. that John, wanting to blame them, slanders himself; it is much more likely that he sincerely loved the good, having learned it flattery, and, finally, carried away by passions, only curbed, not eradicated, he betrayed the rules of generosity communicated to him by wise instructors: for it is easier to change than to force himself for so long - and to whom? An autocratic sovereign who, in one word, could always break this imaginary chain of bondage. Adashev, as an adviser not approving of the Livonian war, served John as a subject, as a minister and a warrior, as a zealous instrument for her success: consequently, the sovereign commanded and, despite his complaints, was not a slave to favorites.

After hearing the paper about the crimes of Adashev and Sylvester, some of the judges announced that these villains had been caught and deserved to be executed; others, with downcast eyes, were silent. Here the elder, Metropolitan Macarius, confirmed by the proximity of death and the dignity of primacy in the duty to speak the truth, told the tsar that it was necessary to summon and listen to those who were convicted. All conscientious nobles agreed with this opinion, but the host of destroyers, in the words of Kurbsky, cried out against it, proving that people condemned by the feeling of a wise and merciful sovereign cannot provide any legal justification; that their presence and intrigues are dangerous; that the tranquility of the tsar and the fatherland requires an immediate solution in this important matter. And so they decided that the accused were guilty. It was only necessary to determine the execution, and the sovereign, still wanting to have the appearance of mercy, tempered it: they sent Sylvester to the wild island of the White Sea, to the secluded monastery of Solovetsky, and ordered Adashev to live in the newly subjugated Fellin, whom he then promoted with his mind and orders; but the firmness and calmness of this man annoyed the evil persecutors: he was imprisoned in Dorpat, where he died in fever two months later, to the joy of his enemies, who told the king that the exposed traitor had poisoned himself with poison ... A husband, unforgettable in our history, the beauty of the age and mankind, according to the likely legend of his friends: for this famous temporary worker appeared together with the tsar's virtue and died with it ... An amazing phenomenon in the then circumstances of Russia, explained by the only immeasurable power of sincere charity, whose divine inspiration illuminates the mind, natural in the very darkness of ignorance , and rather science, or rather scientific wisdom, guides people to greatness. - Obliged to the mercy of Ioannova some excess, Adashev knew one luxury of good deeds: he fed the poor, kept ten lepers in his house and washed them with his own hands, diligently fulfilling the duty of a Christian and always remembering the poverty of mankind.

Henceforth evil began and thus. There were no longer the two main actors in John's blessed reign; but their friends, thoughts and rules remained: it was necessary, having destroyed Adashev, to destroy his spirit, dangerous for the slanderers of virtue, contrary to the sovereign himself in these new circumstances. They demanded an oath from all boyars and noble people not to adhere to the side of the distant, punished traitors and to be loyal to the sovereign. They swore allegiance, some with joy, others with sadness, guessing the consequences, which were revealed immediately. Everything that was previously considered a dignity and a way to please the king became reprehensible, resembling Adashev and Sylvester. They said to John: "Do you always cry for your spouse? You will find another, equally lovely, but you can damage your priceless health by immoderation in sorrow. God and the people demand that you seek earthly consolation in earthly sorrow." John sincerely loved his wife, but had a lightness in his disposition that did not agree with the deep impressions of grief. He listened to the comforters without anger - and eight days after the death of Anastasia, the metropolitan, saints, boyars solemnly invited him to look for a bride: the laws of decency were not strict then. Having distributed to the churches and for the poor several thousand rubles in memory of the deceased, having sent rich alms to Jerusalem, to Greece, the emperor announced on August 18 that he intended to marry the sister of the Polish king.

Since that time, the weeping in the palace has ceased. They began to amuse the tsar, at first with pleasant conversation, with jokes, and soon with light feasts; reminded each other that wine gladdens the heart; laughed at the old practice of moderation; called fasting hypocrisy. The palace already seemed cramped for these noisy gatherings: the young princes, the brother of Ioannov Yuri and the Kazan Tsar Alexander, were transferred to special houses. New fun and games were invented every day, in which sobriety, the most importance, the most decency were considered obscenity. Many more boyars and dignitaries could not suddenly change their customs; they sat at a light meal with a hazy face, avoided the cup, did not drink and sighed: they were ridiculed, humiliated: they poured wine on their heads. Among the new favorites of the sovereign were boyar Alexy Basmanov, his son the kravch Fyodor, Prince Afanasy Vyazemsky, Vasily Gryaznoy, Malyuta Skuratov-Belsky, ready to do anything to satisfy their ambition. Previously, under the guise of good behavior, they were lost in the crowd of ordinary courtiers, but then they stepped forward and, out of the sympathy of evil, crept into John's soul, pleasing to him with some kind of lightness of mind, artificial gaiety, boastful zeal to fulfill, to prevent his will as divine, without any consideration with other rules that restrain both good kings and good servants of the king, the first - in their desires, the second - in the fulfillment of these. Old friends Ioannova expressed love for the sovereign and for virtue; new ones - only to the sovereign, and seemed all the more kind. They conspired with two or three monks who had earned the power of attorney to John, people cunning, crafty, with whom it was necessary to condescending teaching to encourage the timid conscience of the tsar and by their presence, as it were, to justify the rampage of his noisy feasts. Kurbsky especially names here the Chudovsky Archimandrite Leukius, the main courtier saint. Vice leads to vice: the woman-loving John, heated with wine, forgot chastity and, waiting for a new wife for eternal, only love, looked for temporary objects to satisfy coarse sensual lusts. The imaginary, transparent veil of secrecy does not hide the crown-bearer's weaknesses: people in amazement asked each other by what disastrous inspiration the sovereign, hitherto an example of abstinence and spiritual purity, could humiliate himself to debauchery?

This, undoubtedly, the great evil produced even more terrible. The libertines, pointing to the sad faces of the important boyars, whispered to the tsar: "Here are your ill-wills! Contrary to the oath given by them, they live by Adashev's custom, sow harmful rumors, excite the minds, want the old willfulness." Such poisonous slander poisoned John's heart, already restless in the sense of its vices; his gaze was dim; formidable words burst from their lips. Accusing the boyars of evil intentions, of treachery, of stubborn attachment to the hated memory of imaginary traitors, he decided to be strict and became a tormentor, whom we can hardly find equal in the most Tacitic chronicles! Not all of a sudden, of course, the soul, once benevolent, became furious: the successes of good and evil are gradual; but the chroniclers could not penetrate into her interior; they could not see in her a struggle of conscience with rebellious passions; they saw only terrible deeds and called the tyranny of John an alien storm, as if sent from the depths of hell to disturb, torment Russia. It began with the persecution of all of Adashev's neighbors: they were deprived of their property, exiled to distant places. The people regretted the innocent, cursing the caress, the new Tsarist advisers; but the king was angry and wanted to subdue insolence with cruel measures. A noble wife, Maria, was famous in Moscow for the Christian virtues and friendship of Adashev: they said that she hates and thinks of the tsar's sorcery: she was executed along with her five sons; and soon many others, accused of the same: the well-known military exploits of the devious Danil Adashev, Alexiev's brother, with his twelve-year-old son, three Satins, whose sister was behind Alexy, and his relative, Ivan Shishkin, with his wife and children. Prince Dmitry Obolensky-Ovchinin, the son of a voivode who died a prisoner in Lithuania, died for an immodest word. Offended by the arrogance of the young favorite of the Tsar Fyodor Basmanov, Prince Dmitry told him: "We serve the Tsar with useful labors, and you - with the vile deeds of Sodom!" Basmanov brought a complaint to John, who, in a frenzy of anger, at dinner stabbed the unfortunate prince with a knife in his heart; others write that he ordered to strangle him.

Boyarin, Prince Mikhail Repnin was also a victim of generous courage. Seeing an obscene game in the courtyard, where the king, intoxicated with strong honey, danced with his favorites in masks, this nobleman wept with grief. John wanted to put a mask on him: Repnin tore it out, trampled it underfoot and said: "Should the Emperor be a buffoon? At least I, a boyar and councilor of the thought, cannot be mad." The king drove him out and after a few days ordered to kill him who was standing in the holy temple in prayer; the blood of this virtuous man stained the church platform. Pleasing the unfortunate disposition of the soul of Ioannova, crowds of informers appeared. Overheard quiet conversations in families, between friends; they looked at the faces, guessed the mystery of their thoughts, and the vile slanderers were not afraid to invent crimes, for the sovereign liked the denunciations and the judge did not demand faithful evidence. So, without guilt, without trial, they killed Prince Yuri Kashin, a member of the Duma, and his brother; Prince Dmitry Kurlyatev, a friend of the Adashevs, was involuntarily shaved and soon killed with the whole family; the paramount nobleman, a noble servant of the sovereign, the winner of the Kazan people, Prince Mikhail Vorotynsky, with his wife, son and daughter, was exiled to Beloozero. The horror of the Crimeans, the governor, the boyar Ivan Sheremetev was thrown into a stuffy dungeon, tortured, bound with heavy chains. The king came to him and calmly asked: "Where is your treasury? You were reputed to be a rich man." - "Sovereign! - answered the half-dead sufferer. - I sent her by the hands of the poor to my Christ the Savior!" Released from prison, he was present in the Duma for several more years; finally, he took refuge from the world in the Belozerskaya desert, but did not hide from persecution: John wrote to the monks there that they were unnecessarily honoring this former nobleman, as if to annoy the king. His brother, Nikita Sheremetev, also a Duma councilor and voivode, wounded in the battles for the fatherland, was strangled.

Moscow froze in fear. Blood was pouring; victims groaned in dungeons and monasteries; but ... tyranny was still ripening: the present terrified the future! There is no rectification for the tormentor, always more and more suspicious, more and more ferocious; bloodsucking does not satisfy, but intensifies the thirst for blood: it becomes the fiercest of passions. - It is curious to see how this sovereign, a zealous adherent of Christian law to the end of his life, wanted to reconcile his divine teaching with his unheard-of cruelty: then he justified it in the form of justice, claiming that all her martyrs were traitors, sorcerers, enemies of Christ and Russia; then he humbly blamed himself before God and people, called himself a vile murderer of the innocent, ordered him to pray for them in holy churches, but consoled himself with the hope that sincere repentance would be his salvation and that he, having laid off his earthly greatness, in the peaceful monastery of St. Kirill Belozersky will eventually become an exemplary monk! So John wrote to Prince Andrei Kurbsky and to the heads of his beloved monasteries, as a testimony that the voice of an implacable conscience disturbed the murky sleep of his soul, preparing it for a sudden, terrible awakening in the grave!<...>

<...> We proceed to describe the solemn, great hour ... We saw the life of Ioannov: we will see its end, equally amazing, desired for humanity, but terrible for the imagination: for the tyrant died as he lived - destroying people, although in modern legends he is not named the last victims. Is it possible to believe in immortality and not be horrified by such a death? .. This terrible hour, long predicted to John and conscience and innocent martyrs, quietly approached him, who had not yet reached a ripe old age, still vigorous in spirit, ardent in the lusts of his heart. Strong built, John hoped for longevity; but what bodily fortress can withstand the fierce excitement of the passions that overwhelm the dark life of the tyrant? The everlasting thrill of anger and fear, remorse of conscience without repentance, the vile delights of the disgusting voluptuousness, the torment of shame, anger powerless in the failures of weapons, finally, the infernal execution of filicide exhausted the measure of Ioannov's forces: he sometimes felt painful languor, the forerunner of blow and destruction, but fought and did not weaken noticeably until the winter of 1584. At this time, a comet appeared with a cross-shaped heavenly sign between the church of John the Great and the Annunciation: the curious tsar went out onto the red porch, looked for a long time, changed his face and said to those around him: "This is the sign of my death!" Alarmed by this thought, he was looking, as they say, astrologers, imaginary magi, in Russia and Lapland, gathered them up to sixty, gave them a house in Moscow, sent his favorite Belsky every day, to talk with them about the comet and soon fell ill dangerous: the whole his insides began to rot, and his body began to swell. They assure that astrologers predicted his inevitable death in a few days, precisely on March 18, but that John told them to be silent, threatening to burn them all at the stake if they were immodest. During the month of February he was still busy with business; but on March 10 it was ordered to stop the Lithuanian ambassador on his way to Moscow, for the sake of the sovereign's illness. Even John himself gave this order; still hoping for recovery, however, he called the boyars and ordered them to write a will; declared Tsarevich Theodore heir to the throne and monarch; elected famous husbands, Prince Ivan Petrovich Shuisky (glorious for the defense of Pskov), Ivan Fedorovich Mstislavsky (son of the grand duke Vasily's niece), Nikita Romanovich Yuryev (brother of the first tsarina, virtuous Anastasia), Boris Godunov and Belsky as advisers and guardians the young Theodore (weak in body and soul) is the burden of state concerns; to the infant Dimitri and his mother he appointed the city of Uglich as an inheritance and entrusted his upbringing to Belsky alone; expressed gratitude to all the boyars and governors: he called them his friends and associates in the conquest of the kingdoms of the infidels, in the victories won over the Livonian knights, over the khan and the sultan; persuaded Theodore to reign piously, with love and mercy; advised him and the five main nobles to withdraw from the war with the Christian powers; spoke about the unfortunate consequences of the Lithuanian and Swedish wars; regretted the exhaustion of Russia; ordered to reduce taxes, release all prisoners, even Lithuanian and German prisoners. It seemed that, getting ready to leave the throne and the light, he wanted to be reconciled with conscience, with humanity, with God - he was sober in his soul, being hitherto intoxicated with evil, and wanted to save the young son from his disastrous delusions; it seemed that a ray of holy truth on the threshold of the grave finally illuminated this gloomy, cold heart; that repentance also worked in him when the angel of death invisibly appeared to him with the message of eternity ...

But at a time when the court was silent in grief (for every dying crown-bearer is sincerely and hypocritically grieved by the court); when Christian love touched the heart of the people; when, forgetting the ferocity of John, the citizens of the capital prayed in churches for the Tsar's recovery; when the most disgraced families, widows and orphans of people innocently beaten ... what did he do, touching the coffin? In moments of relief, he ordered himself to be carried in armchairs to the ward where his wondrous treasures lay; examined the precious stones and on March 15 showed them with pleasure to the Englishman Horsey, describing the dignity of diamonds and yachts in the learned language of a connoisseur! .. Can one still believe the most terrible legend? The daughter-in-law, the wife of Feodorov, came to the sick man with tender consolations and fled with disgust from his voluptuous shamelessness! .. Did the sinner repent? Did you think about the imminent formidable judgment of the Almighty?

Already the strength of the sick person was disappearing; thoughts were darkened: lying on his bed in unconsciousness, John loudly called his murdered son to him, saw him in his imagination, spoke to him affectionately ... On March 17 he felt better from the action of a warm bath, so he ordered the Lithuanian ambassador to immediately go from Mozhaisk to the capital and the next day (according to Gorsey) he said to Belsky: "Announce execution to the liars, astrologers: now, according to their fables, I must die, and I feel much more cheerful." “But the day has not yet passed,” the astrologers replied. A bath was again made for the patient: he stayed in it for about three hours, lay down on the bed, got up, asked for a chessboard, and, sitting in a dressing gown on the bed, placed the checkers himself; wanted to play with Belsky ... suddenly fell down and closed his eyes forever, while the doctors rubbed him with strong liquids, and the metropolitan - fulfilling, probably, the long-known will of Ioannov - read the tonsure prayers over the dying man named Jonah in monasticism ... For a minute a deep silence reigned in the palace and in the capital: they waited for what would happen, without daring to ask. John lay already dead, but still terrible for the coming courtiers, who for a long time did not believe their eyes and did not announce his death. When the decisive word: "The sovereign is gone!" - heard in the Kremlin, the people screamed loudly ... Is it because, as they write, that he knew the weakness of Feodorov and was afraid of its bad consequences for the state, or by paying the Christian debt of pity to the deceased monarch, albeit a cruel one? .. On the third day, a magnificent burial took place in church of st. Michael the Archangel; tears flowed; sorrow was depicted on their faces, and the earth quietly accepted the corpse of John into its bowels! The human judgment was silent before the divine - and for contemporaries the veil fell on the theater: memory and coffins remained for posterity!

Between other difficult experiences of fate, beyond the calamities of the specific system, beyond the yoke of the Mughals, Russia had to experience the threat of the autocrat-tormentor: she resisted with love for autocracy, for she believed that God would send an ulcer, an earthquake, and tyrants; she did not break the iron scepter in the hands of the Ioannovs and for twenty-four years she bore the destroyer, armed only with prayer and patience, so that, in the best times, she could have Peter the Great, Catherine II (history does not like to name the living). In magnanimous humility, the sufferers died on the place of execution, like the Greeks in Thermopylae, for their fatherland, for faith and loyalty, without even a thought of rebellion. It is in vain that some foreign historians, excusing the cruelty of Ioannov, wrote about conspiracies, supposedly destroyed by her: these conspiracies existed only in the vague mind of the tsar, according to all the evidence of our chronicles and state papers. The clergy, the boyars, the famous citizens would not have summoned the beast from the den of the Aleksandrovskaya settlement if they were plotting treason, which would be as absurd as witchcraft. No, the tiger drank in the blood of the lambs - and the victims, dying in innocence, with their last glance at the poor land demanded justice, a touching memory from their contemporaries and posterity!

Despite all the speculative explanations, the character of John, a hero of virtue in his youth, a violent bloodsucker in years of courage and old age, is a mystery to the mind, and we would doubt the truth of the most reliable news about him if the chronicles of other peoples did not show us equally amazing examples; if Caligula, the model of sovereigns and a monster, if Nero, the pet of the wise Seneca, an object of love, an object of disgust, did not reign in Rome. They were pagans; but Louis XI was a Christian, not yielding to John either in ferocity or in outward piety, with which they wanted to atone for their iniquities: both were devout from fear, both bloodthirsty and woman-loving, like the Asiatic and Roman torturers. Fiends outside the laws, outside the rules and probabilities of reason: these terrible meteors, these fornication fires of unbridled passions illuminate for us, in the space of centuries, the abyss of possible human depravity, but seeing we shudder! The life of a tyrant is a disaster for mankind, but his history is always useful for sovereigns and peoples: to instill disgust for evil is to instill a love of virtue - and the glory of the time when a writer armed with truth can, in an autocratic rule, put such a ruler to shame, may he not already like him in the future! The graves are insensitive; but the living fear eternal damnation in history, which, without correcting the villains, sometimes warns of atrocities, always possible, for wild passions rage in the ages of civil education, led the mind to remain silent or to justify its frenzy with a slavish voice.

Thus, John had an excellent mind, not alien to education and knowledge, combined with an extraordinary gift of speech, in order to shamelessly subservience to the most vile lusts. Having a rare memory, he knew by heart the Bible, the history of Greek, Roman, our fatherland, in order to absurdly interpret them in favor of tyranny; he boasted of his firmness and power over himself, being able to laugh loudly in the hours of fear and inner anxiety; boasted of mercy and generosity, enriching his favorites with the property of disgraced boyars and citizens; boasted of justice, punishing together, with equal pleasure, merit and crime; boasted of the royal spirit, respect for sovereign honor, ordering to chop the elephant sent from Persia to Moscow, who did not want to kneel in front of him, and severely punishing the poor courtiers who dared to play checkers or cards better than the sovereign; boasted, finally, the profound wisdom of the state, according to the system, according to the eras, with some cold-blooded size exterminating the famous royal power- raising to their level new genera, vile and with a destructive hand touching the most future times: for a cloud of informers, slanderers, infidels, educated by them, like a cloud of smooth-bearing insects, having disappeared, left an evil seed among the people; and if the yoke of Batyevo humiliated the spirit of the Russians, then, no doubt, the reign of Ioannovo did not raise it.

But let us give justice to the tyrant: John in the most extremes of evil is, as it were, a ghost of a great monarch, zealous, indefatigable, often insightful in state activities; although, having always loved to equate himself in valor with Alexander the Great, he had not a shadow of courage in his soul, but remained a conqueror; in foreign policy he unswervingly followed the great intentions of his grandfather; he loved the truth in the courts, he himself often dealt with litigations, listened to complaints, read all kinds of paper, decided immediately; executed the oppressors of the people, shameless dignitaries, covetous people, bodily and with shame (he dressed them in magnificent clothes, put them on a chariot and ordered the knackers to carry them from street to street); did not tolerate disgusting drunkenness (only on holy week and on Christmas Day were people allowed to have fun in taverns; drunkards were sent to prison at any other time). Not liking a bold reproach, John sometimes did not like gross flattery: present the proof. The governors, princes Joseph Shcherbaty and Yuri Boryatinsky, redeemed by the tsar from Lithuanian captivity, were honored with his mercy, gifts and honor to dine with him. He asked them about Lithuania: Shcherbaty spoke the truth; Boryatinsky lied shamelessly, assuring that the king had neither an army nor fortresses and trembled in the name of John. "Poor king!" Said the king quietly, nodding his head. "How pitiful you are to me!" - and suddenly, grabbing the staff, broke it into small chips about Boryatinsky, saying: "Here's to you, shameless, for a gross lie!" - John was famous for the prudent tolerance of faith (with the exception of the Jewish one); although, having allowed the Lutherans and Calvinists to have a church in Moscow, five years later he ordered to burn one and the other (fearing temptation, did you hear about the displeasure of the people?): however, he did not prevent them from gathering for worship in the homes of pastors; he loved to argue with learned Germans about the law and endured contradictions: so (in 1570) he had a solemn debate in the Kremlin Palace with the Lutheran theologian Rocita, convicting him of heresy: Rocyta sat in front of him on an elevated place covered with rich carpets; spoke boldly, he justified the dogmas of the Augsburg confession, received signs of royal favor and wrote a book about this curious conversation. The German preacher Kaspar, wishing to please John, was baptized in Moscow according to the rituals of our Church and together with him, to the annoyance of his fellow citizens, joked at Luther; but none of them complained of oppression. They lived quietly in Moscow, in the new German settlement on the banks of the Yauza, enriching themselves with crafts and arts. John showed respect for the arts and sciences, caressing the enlightened foreigners: he did not found academies, but promoted public education by multiplying church schools, where the laity learned to read and write, the law, even history, especially preparing to be people of command, to the shame of the boyars, who were not yet able to then write. - Finally, John is famous in history as a legislator and a state educator.

There is no doubt that the truly great John III, having published the "Civil Code", set up different governments for the better action of the autocratic power: apart from the ancient boyar duma, in the affairs of this time, mention is made of the Kazenny Dvor, of orders; but we do not know anything else, having already clear, reliable news about many massacres and judicial places that existed in Moscow under John IV. The main orders, or cheti, were called ambassadorial, discharge, local, Kazan: the first was especially in charge of foreign affairs, or diplomatic, the second - military, the third - the lands distributed to officials and boyar children for their service, the fourth - the affairs of the kingdom of Kazan, Astrakhan, Siberian and all the cities of the Volga; the first three orders, in addition to the designated positions, also dealt with the reprisal of regional cities: a strange confusion! Complaints, litigations, investigations came to the Cheti from the regions, where the governors tried and judged with their tiuns and elders, who were helped by the sotsk and ten in the districts; from the couple where the most famous state dignitaries sat, every important criminal, most civil matter went to the boyar duma, so that without the tsar's approval no one was executed, no one was deprived of their wealth. Only the governors of Smolensk, Pskov, Novgorod and Kazan, who were replaced almost every year, could punish criminals in extreme cases. New laws, institutions, taxes were always announced through orders. Property, or patrimony, royal, in which many cities were included, had its own punishment. Moreover, huts (or orders) are also named: Streletskaya, Yamskaya, Palace, Treasury, Robbery, Zemsky Dvor, or Moscow Government, Big Parish, or State Treasury, Bronny, or Armory, Order, Lively, or Reserve, and Serious Court , where litigations about serfs were resolved. Both in these and in the regional governments or courts, the main actors were literate clerks, who were used in the affairs of ambassadors, military men, in sieges, for writing and for advice, to the envy and displeasure of the military nobility. Being able not only to read and write better than others, but knowing firmly also the laws, traditions, rituals, clerks or clerks were a special kind of servants of the state, a degree lower than noblemen and higher than tenants or deliberate children of boyars, guests or eminent merchants; and the Duma clerks were inferior in dignity only to the state advisers: boyars, devious and new Duma nobles, established by John in 1572 to introduce into the Duma dignitaries who were excellent in intelligence, although not noble by birth: for, despite all the abuses of unlimited power, he sometimes respected ancient customs: for example, he did not want to give the boyars the darling of his soul, Malyuta Skuratov, fearing to humiliate this supreme dignity with such a quick rise of an artistic man. By multiplying the number of clerks and giving them more importance in state structure John, as a skillful ruler, formed even new degrees of celebrity for the nobles and princes, dividing the first into two articles, into noblemen of the same age and younger, and the second into simple and service princes; to the number of courtiers he added stewards, who, serving at the table of the sovereign, also sent military posts, being more dignified than the younger nobles. - We wrote about the military institutions of this active reign: with his cowardice, shaming our banners in the field, John left Russia an army that she did not have before: better organized and more numerous than before; he exterminated the most glorious voivode, but did not destroy valor in the soldiers, who most of all showed it in misfortunes, so that our immortal enemy Batory told Possevin with surprise how they did not think about life in the defense of cities: they stood in cold blood in the places of those killed or blown up by the action of a tunnel and blocks the breasts with the chest; fighting day and night, they eat one bread; die of hunger, but do not give up, so as not to betray the king-sovereign; how the wives themselves take courage with them, or extinguish the fire, or from the heights of the walls throwing logs and stones at the enemies. In the field, these warriors loyal to the fatherland were distinguished, if not by their art, then by their wonderful patience, enduring frosts, blizzards and bad weather under light traces and in huts. - In the most ancient categories, only the governors were named: in the categories of this time, heads are usually named, or private leaders, who, together with the first, answered the tsar for every deed.

John, as we said, supplemented his grandfather's "Civil Code" in the legal code, including new laws, but without changing the system or the spirit of the old ...

To the praiseworthy deeds of this reign also belongs the construction of many new cities for the safety of our borders. In addition to Laishev, Cheboksary, Kozmodemyansk, Volkhov, Orel and other fortresses, which we mentioned, John founded Donkov, Epifan, Venev, Chern, Kokshansk, Tetyushi, Alatyr, Arzamas. But, erecting beautiful strongholds in the forests and in the steppes, he saw with sorrow until the end of his life the ruins and wastelands in Moscow, burned by the khan in 1571, so that, according to Possevin's calculus, about 1581 there were no more than thirty thousand inhabitants , six times less than before, as another foreign writer says, having heard something from Moscow old-timers in early XVII century. The walls of the new fortresses were wooden, poured inside with earth and sand, or tightly woven from brushwood; and stone only in the capital, Aleksandrovskaya Sloboda, Tula, Kolomna, Zaraysk, Staritsa, Yaroslavl, Nizhny, Belozersk, Porkhov, Novgorod, Pskov.

The proliferation of cities also favored the extraordinary successes of trade, which more and more multiplied the royal incomes (which in 1588 amounted to six million silver rubles today). Not only on the import of foreign products or on the production of our products, but even on food brought to the cities, there was a significant duty, sometimes paid off by the inhabitants. The Novgorod customs charter of 1571 says that from all goods imported by foreign guests and valued by people by the jury, the treasury takes seven money per ruble: Russian merchants paid 4, and Novgorod - 1 money: from meat, cattle, fish, caviar, honey , salt (German and long-tailed), onions, nuts, apples, except for the special collection from carts, ships, sleighs. They paid for imported precious metals, as well as for everything else; and their export was considered a crime. It is noteworthy that the sovereign's goods were not exempt from duty. Ducking was punished with heavy penalties. - At this time, the ancient capital of Rurikov, although among the ruins, was beginning to revive again with trade activities, taking advantage of the proximity of Narva, where we traded with the whole of Europe; but soon plunged into dead silence, when Russia, in the disasters of the Lithuanian and Swedish war lost this very important pier. Moreover, our Dvinsk trade flourished, in which the British had to share the benefits with the Dutch, German, and French merchants, bringing us sugar, wine, salt, berries, tin, cloth, lace and exchanging furs, hemp, flax, ropes for them, wool, wax, honey, tallow, leather, iron, wood. French merchants who brought a friendly letter from Henry III to John were allowed to trade in Kola, and Spanish or Dutch merchants - in the Pudojer mouth: the most famous of these guests was called Ivan the Virgin White-bearded, delivered precious stones to the king and enjoyed his special favor, to the displeasure of the British. In a conversation with Elizabeth's ambassador, Baus, John complained that London merchants did not bring anything good to us; took off the ring from his hand, pointed to the emerald of his cap and boasted that the Virgo had given him the first for 60 rubles, and the second for a thousand: what Baus marveled at when he estimated the ring at 300 rubles, and the emerald at 40,000. we are a notable amount of bread. "This blessed land (writes Kobekzel about Russia) abounds in everything necessary for human life, having no real need for any foreign works." - The conquest of Kazan and Astrakhan strengthened our Asian exchange.

Having enriched the treasury with commercial city and zemstvo taxes, and also with the appropriation of church estates in order to increase the army, set up arsenals (where at least two thousand siege and field guns were always ready), build fortresses, chambers, temples, John liked to use surplus income for luxury: we talked about the surprise of foreigners who saw pearls in the Moscow treasury, mountains of gold and silver in the palace, brilliant meetings, dinners, during which 600 or 700 guests were fed up with not only abundant, but also expensive dishes, fruits for five or six hours and wines of hot, distant climates: once, in addition to famous people, 2000 Nogai allies, who were going to the Livonian war, dined in the Kremlin chambers. In the solemn exits and exits of the sovereigns, everything also represented the image of Asian splendor: the squads of bodyguards doused in gold, the wealth of their weapons, the decoration of horses. So, on December 12, John usually rode out of town on horseback to see the action of a firearms shell: in front of him were several hundred princes, governors, dignitaries, three in a row; before the dignitaries - 5,000 selected archers, five in a row. Among the vast snowy plain, on a high platform 200 or more fathoms long, there were guns and warriors, firing at the target, breaking fortifications, wooden, showered with earth, and ice. In church celebrations, as we have seen, John also appeared to the people with striking splendor, knowing how to give himself even more grandeur with a kind of artificial humility and with a worldly splendor combining the appearance of Christian virtues: treating nobles and ambassadors on bright holidays, he poured rich alms on the poor.

In conclusion, let us say that the good glory of Ioannov outlived his bad glory in the people's memory: the groanings ceased, the sacrifices decayed, and the old traditions were eclipsed by the newest; but the name Ioannovo shone on the Code of Law and resembled the acquisition of the three kingdoms of the Mughal: evidence of terrible deeds lay in the book depositories, and the people for centuries saw Kazan, Astrakhan, Siberia as living monuments of the tsar-conqueror; honored in him the famous culprit of our state power, our civic education; rejected or forgot the name of the torturer given to him by his contemporaries, and according to dark rumors about Ioannova's cruelty, he still calls him only Terrible, not distinguishing between the grandson and his grandfather, the so-called ancient Russia more to praise than to reproach. History is more vindictive than the people!

Bibliography

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“In conclusion, let us say that the good glory of Ioannov has outlived his bad glory in the people's memory: the groanings ceased, the sacrifices decayed, and the old traditions were eclipsed by the newest; but the name of John shone on the Code of Law and resembled the acquisitions of the three Mongol kingdoms; evidence of terrible deeds lay in the book depositories, and the people for centuries saw Kazan, Astrakhan, Siberia as living monuments of the conqueror tsar, honored in him the famous culprit of our state power, our civic education; rejected or forgot the name tormentor, given to him by his contemporaries, and, according to dark rumors about the cruelty of Ioannov, still calls him only Grozny, not distinguishing between grandson and grandfather, so called by ancient Russia more in praise than in reproach. History is more vindictive than the people! "

From these thoughts it is a little embarrassing to return to the house for an afternoon snack with varenets and steaming crumpets, to the cloudless complacency of old Tevyashov, to the caresses of Natasha.

After all, if you look at it, fate prepared for him a peaceful, unhurried life of a middle-class landowner in rural worries about mowing - the hay would not rot, the drought would not ruin the harvest, and he, in spite of fate and fate, soars above the base prose of life. A poet by the grace of God! No wonder he was admitted to the Society of Lovers of Russian Literature. No wonder Gnedich himself, the head of the society, pockmarked, dignified, unsmiling Gnedich, spoke favorably about the poem "Kurbsky", and soon he was transferred from associate members to full members of the Free Society of Lovers of Russian Literature. And in "Russian Invalid" editor Voeikov, publishing "Death of Ermak", accompanied it with the following postscript:

"The composition of a young poet, still little known, but who will soon become alongside the old and glorious."

“Death of Ermak” was also suggested by Karamzin. An amazing talent for this great scientist is to inspire an artist with one detail for a whole picture. Springboard. You cannot name it otherwise. Karamzin says:

“Ermak learned about the proximity of the enemy and, as if tired of life, plunged into a deep sleep with his daring knights, without supervision, without guards. It was pouring heavy rain, the river and the wind were noisy, all the more putting the Cossacks to sleep; and the enemy was awake on the other side of the river. " And then it poured out at once:

The storm roared, the rain rustled;

Lightning flew in the gloom;

Thunder roared without interruption,

And the winds raged in the wilds ...

It is both surprising and strange that a thought arises behind a picture, and not a thought is ornamented by a picture. Then the most important thing went easily and freely:

Companions of his labors,

Victories and thunderous glory

Among the outstretched tents

We slept carelessly near the oak grove.

"Oh, sleep, sleep," the hero thought,

Friends, under the roaring storm;

At dawn my voice will be heard,

Calling for glory or death!

You need rest; sweet Dreams

And in a storm he will calm the brave;

In dreams he will remind glory

And the forces of the warriors will double.

Who did not spare his life

In robberies, mining gold,

He will think about her,

Dying for Holy Russia?

Flush with your own and enemy's blood

All the crimes of a violent life

And deserved for victories

Blessings of the Fatherland

Death cannot be terrible for us;

We have done our job:

Siberia has been conquered by the tsar,

And we did not live idly in the world! "

He read verses aloud in the boundless desert steppe, enjoying the sonority of his voice, loneliness, not trembling, not shy, as it happened in front of the audience, when a shadow of weariness or indifferent thoughtfulness suddenly ran over a friendly face.

At home, after breakfast, he complacently and lazily wrote letters to friends, praising peace and loneliness, and even, although it was unusual for him, pretending to be a sort of romantic hermit who prefers proud solitude to the bustle of the capital, quiet reading to riotous friendship. Confessions fit into poetry just as easily.

While bragging about the joys of solitude, he, at the same time, enthusiastically lists the names of his contemporaries, writers, to his old Ostrogozh friend Bedraga, mentally plunging back into the Petersburg literary whirlpool:

He, with a book in his hands,

Sits under the shade of the trees

And in fiery verses

Or in prose, pure, smooth,

A stranger to grief and worries

Delights are sweet drinks.

That Pushkin is wayward,

Parnassian our mischief,

With "Ruslan and Lyudmila",

That is Batyushkov, frisky,

Light-winged dreamer

That is Baratynsky dear,

Or with thunder of sonorous strings,

And the honor and glory of the Ross,

Like a marvelous giant

Soaring Lomonosov,

Il Ozerov, Knyazhnin,

Il T but cit-Karamzin

With his the ninth volume;

Or darling Krylov

With a rattle and Mom,

Il Gnedich and Kostrov

With old man Homer,

Or Jean-Jacques Rousseau

With the prankster Voltaire,

Voeikov-Boileau,

Zhukovsky is incomparable,

Il Dmitriev venerable,

Or his favorite

Milonov is a scourge of vices,

Or the decrepit Sumarokov,

Or "Darling" creator,

Favorite of muses and graces,

Or our important Horace,

Poets' sample,

Or a sweet singer

Neledinsky sad,

Or Panaev dear

With its idyll

In the quiet of the lonely

Give alternately

Dreams to my soul.

These verses, composed easily, almost thoughtlessly, composed of a list of names and very approximate epithets, were only part of a long poem "The Desert". In it, he described his days in Podgorny, hunting, working with a spade in the garden, lunches, dinners, sleeping on a "lonely bed." The plant life of the thoughtless landowner, described with such complacency, was a trick, a self-consolation. In all conscience, the main pleasure he gave was just the middle of the poem, where, after the listing of names and careless epithets, pictures of hateful and infinitely attractive Petersburg appeared. Pompous, highly solemn Gnedich, who spoke rather than spoke, but was sincerely devoted to literature. Delvig, puffy, pale, who did not fit into the lines. So sleepy in appearance and at the same time capable of the most unexpected, eccentric actions. Snub-nosed, bespectacled Vyazemsky. Russian Cholier, as Pushkin called him, is a real aristocrat, not looking at his common people. To understand how it turns out! And dear, indomitable Alexander Bestuzhev, ready to rush into any dispute, it would be with whom, and about what, it does not matter. Even Bulgarin, a hefty, bony man, one of those who don’t put a finger in his mouth, will bite off on the elbow. Bad manners, of course, more than once terrified him, not only by his readiness, but by some need to go to dubious tricks - even Bulgarin would now be nice and interesting with his habit of creating a fuss around the eaten egg. Stun everyone with your knowledge, sniff out the opinion of high-ranking officials, or even create such an opinion yourself, say tactlessness, make a scandal. What a great master to make porridge! All his qualities were involuntarily forgotten, he won over with sincere affection and devotion. And only one thing made me remember with pleasure - he was constantly on edge, more sober than drunk, every minute full of energy, activity and curiosity.

The first monument to Ivan the Terrible was erected in Russia. The ruler, who, by the way, even in tsarist times They did not like him very much, but they had to give him his due due to the huge and very significant territorial acquisitions of the country. By the way, Karamzin, in his work History of the Russian State, ends the Volume dedicated to the end of the reign of Ivan the Terrible:
"..In conclusion, let us say that the good glory of Ioannov outlived his bad glory in the people's memory: the groanings ceased, the sacrifices decayed, and the old traditions were eclipsed by the newest; but the name Ioannovo shone on the Sudebnikemi reminiscent of the acquisition of the three Mongol Kingdoms: evidence of terrible deeds lay in the book depositories, and the people for centuries saw Kazan, Astrakhan, Siberia as living monuments of the Tsar-Conqueror; honored in him the famous perpetrators of our state power, our civic education; rejected or forgot the name of the Tormentor given to him by his contemporaries, and according to dark rumors about the cruelty of Ioannova, he still calls him only Terrible, not distinguishing between grandson and grandfather, so named more in praise than in reproach. History is more vindictive than people.."

Liberals will run to shout that "the people need a whip. Slaves yearned for a cruel master."

Although everything is different. Simple and straightforward. Ivan the Terrible exterminated the top of the country. The top, which, on the one hand, helped to create the strength and greatness of the country, and on the other hand, was ready to tear it apart and was no less cruel than Ivan the Terrible himself. And this cruelty of the top, Ivan the Terrible saw from childhood, including the capture and brutal beating in his eyes of a man who replaced Ivan the Terrible for his father: the favorite of Tsarina Elena Glinskaya, Prince Ivan Ovchina-Telepnev-Obolensky.
It is with great state affairs and the suppression of the lawlessness of the top (and there are many descriptions of those outrages that the boyars and their entourage did) and the popularity of the tsar among the people is connected. The people already suffered from the tyranny of various boyars, governors and their entourage. It didn't get any worse for him. It was during the time of Ivan the Terrible that the tradition was established to complain to the tsar about the arbitrariness of the boyars and governors, when all other methods had already been exhausted. This custom was abolished only by Empress Catherine the Great.

Original taken from

What kind Ioannov's glory survived him bad glory in the popular memory: the groanings ceased, the sacrifices decayed, and old traditions are eclipsed by the newest; but the name Ioannovo shone on the Code of Law and resembled the acquisition of the three Mongol kingdoms: evidence of terrible deeds lay in the book depositories, and the people for centuries saw Kazan, Astrakhan, Siberia as living monuments of the conqueror tsar; honored in him the famous culprit of our state power, our civic education; rejected or forgot the name Torturer, given to him by his contemporaries, and according to dark rumors about the cruelty of Ioannova, henceforth calls him only Grozny, not distinguishing between grandson and grandfather, so called by ancient Russia more in praise than in reproach. History is more vindictive than the people! "

As you can see, both the great ruler and the monster are called Terrible! .. They are named by none other than descendants! Here is the righteous court of the Russian model; time itself in this country is an accomplice of injustice. Lecuente Laveau in his "Guide to Moscow", describing royal palace in the Kremlin, he was not ashamed to call the shadow of Ivan IV and dared to compare him with David, mourning the delusions of youth. Laveau's book was written for the Russians.

I cannot deny myself the pleasure of introducing you to the last quotation from Karamzin; this is a description of the character of the prince, whom Russia is proud of. Only a Russian can speak of Ivan III as Karamzin says, and at the same time believe that he is pronouncing praise to the monarch. Only a Russian can describe the reign of Ivan IV as Karamzin describes, and end his story with words that excuse despotism. Here is the historian's true opinion about Ivan III, the great ancestor of Ivan IV:

“Proud in his dealings with kings, dignified in receiving their embassies, he loved splendid solemnity; set the rite kissing the royal hand as a sign of flattering favor; he wanted to rise in front of people in all outward ways, in order to strongly influence the imagination; in a word, having solved the secrets of autocracy, he became, as it were, an earthly God for the Russians, who with this time(emphasized by Karamzin or his translator) began to amaze all other peoples with their boundless obedience to the will of the monarchs. He was the first to be given a name in Russia Grozny, but in a laudable sense: formidable to enemies and obstinate disobedient. However, not being a tyrant, like his grandson, Ivan Vasilyevich II, he undoubtedly had a natural cruelty in his disposition, tempered in him by the power of reason. Rarely are the founders of monarchies renowned for their tender sensitivity, and the firmness necessary for great affairs of state borders on severity. They write that timid women fainted from the angry, fiery gaze of Ioannov; that the petitioners were afraid to go to the throne; that the nobles trembled and at the feasts in the palace did not dare to whisper a word, nor to move, when the Tsar, tired of noisy conversation, heated with wine, dozed for hours at dinner: everyone sat in deep silence, waiting for a new order to amuse him and have fun. Having already noticed the severity of Ioannov's punishments, we add that the most noble officials, secular and spiritual, who were defrocked for crimes, were not exempted from the terrible commercial execution: so (in 1491) they publicly flogged the Ukhtomsky prince, the nobleman Khomutov and the former archimandrite Chudovsky, for a forged letter written by them on the land of the deceased brother Ioannov.

History is not a word of praise and does not represent the greatest men as perfect. John as a person did not have the pleasant qualities of either Monomakh or Donskoy, but as a sovereign he stands at the highest degree of greatness. He seemed sometimes timid, indecisive, for he always wanted to act with caution. This caution is prudence in general: it does not captivate us like magnanimous courage; but with slow, as if incomplete successes, it gives strength to its creations. What did Alexander the Great leave to the world? Glory. John left a state, amazing in space, strong in nations, even stronger in spirit of government, that which we now call our dear fatherland with love and pride. "