Customer Reviews

Ivan the Terrible

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Troyat paints a vivid picture of one of history's true monsters...Driven by paranoia, exulting in his God-like ability to dispense punishment at a whim, Ivan takes sadistic pleasure in torturing enemies and innocents alike. Although the author describes the political and military events of Ivan's reign in fine style, his gruesome descriptions of Ivan's brutality and distrubing probes into his psychology are the strength of this book. You will feel nothing but pity for all who face Ivan's wrath, and that includes everyone from the lowliest peasants to the ruling classes to his own son. In addition to exploring all facets of the first Czar's twisted psyche, Troyat also spends a plenty of time on his crude manners, limited intellect, and ineffectual strategies. Still, Troyat's account has enough balance to make you feel at least a twinge of sympathy for Ivan, and more than a twinge of respect for his accomplishements in forging a kingdom out of the barbarous and disordered world he was born into.

Henri Troyat has done an excellent job in vividly describing the life and times of Ivan the Terrible. Although his Russian epitaph should technically speaking translate as "the Formidable", this book gives you a pretty good idea why "the Terrible" is much, much closer to the truth. Here lies the start of Russia's ever- since fascination with rulers providing it with the smack of firm government, even if it is handed out with the help of the knout. A spellbinding book, if not always for the faint of heart.

Lately I have been reading a lot about Russian and Soviet history and one thing that becomes very clear, is that for centuries the Russian people have had to endure some of the most barbaric, inhuman rules ever to roam the earth. During the mid-1500's, Ivan the Terrible decimated cities simply out of boredom or jealously. People around him died for no other reason than he wanted them to. The Russian populace endured almost unbelievable cruelty, yet always believed in their "father" and never really questioned his authority or even his sanity.
Author Troyat does a magnificent job of making Ivan a real person. Orphaned at a young age and mistreated by the boyars around him, Ivan spent his adult life as a pious mass murderer. Ordained by God to rule as he pleased, Ivan never questioned his cruelty and went to this death blaming others for the events that he himself caused. I have read several other Troyat biographies of famous Russians, and his is one of his best.

The infamy of Ivan The Terrible has lasted for centuries but if you are looking for insight into this tyrant's reign of terror I would suggest you look elsewhere. The author generally replaces supposition for research and this becomes a boring collection of Ivan's deprivations, without a solid historical context. Yes, the man was a horrific figure, but without a better sense of time and place, there is no understanding of the man and what motivated him. I gleaned more information from the book's chronology then I did from the text. A failure as a biography, but could be used as the basis for a horror movie.

In density of content this book is hardly more informative than a chapter in a year-long course in Russian history. It is therefore greatly disappointing. This appears in part due to Troyat's being a professional writer rather than an historian, but in part due to poverty of original sources, as he notes. There is a consistent theme in this book, that Russian Orthodox Christianity produced the monster and, more exactly, it created people's willingness to accept the monster's actions. More generally, the theme may be stated as the proposition than once people separate themselves from realizing the true relationship between logic and natural law, they are left open to all sorts of nonsense. One element of the psyche of Ivan which deserves the attention it gets, that Ivan actively and consciously engaged in kindness and cruelties he knew to be totally undeserved, therefore emulating his image of God, with Whom, according to the author, he identified himself. The reader is left to the inevitable realization that this is the antithesis of justice. While this appears to be what was in Ivan's mind, the book lacks scholarly proof. There are unwarranted novelistics aspects to the book. The author has Ivan believing that a genetic mixing of the Russian and the Mongol peoples would result in an eugenic improvement of the Russian people, but he gives no evidence that Ivan ever had such a thought. There is no documentation given that Ivan believed his first, beloved wife was murdered. The author presents Ivan's leaving Moscow and threatening to leave the crown as pure stratagem in order to gain unquestioned power and undo the boyars, which seems probable, but no evidence is provided. The character, intellect and cunning of Boris Godunov are touched upon, though slightly. In the end, the saga of Ivan the Terrible and the moral (if there is one) of this book is to lead the reader to see more clearly the value of limited, constitutional government. One aspect of Russian character comes through, though unstated: The ready willingness of the nobility, though not to populace, to rid themselves of weak Czars like Ivan VI, Peter III, Alexander II, Nicholas II contrasted against the lack of even an attempt by a Russian to kill Ivan the Terrible. Only one, condemned, Livonian German is reported to have tried to kill Ivan. In this way, also, Ivan IV seems much like Stalin.

Troyat is a straightforward writer -- he is easy to read and his thoughts are coherently conveyed. The translator from the French is Joan Pinkham and she's done a fine job in this instance.

Here, we have a nice concise biography of Ivan the Terrible, the first ruler of Russia to lay claim to the title "Tsar," (in addition to that of "Grand Duke"). The big picture of Troyat's work is twofold: 1. Ivan's youth was a cornucopia of ruthlessness and corruption, therefore he ultimately became one of the most bloody and ruthless rulers who ever lived. 2. Ivan's chief interest, other than the occasional diversion of a new wife, was the expansion of the Russian state -- ultimately, he was successful in that endeavor.

The book discusses Ivan's youth when he passed time by throwing live dogs from the top of the palace so that he could see and hear them die; his rule, which began at an early age (around 15); his constant wars with the Eastern Islamists, and; his wars and sometimes tenuous alliances with with rulers of the west. He was also at odds with the Pope over religious doctrinal issues and he was off and on with Queen Elizabeth I over issues of marriage and trade policies.

For all his bloody ravages of the innocent, Ivan considered himself to be a devoutly religious man and a sort of partner with God, perhaps even God's instrument on Earth. He frequently rationalized some of his most heinous acts, (e.g., the insane mass-massacre of the citizens of Novgorod, or, the murder of his own son!), by thinking through the reasons as to why God wanted him to commit such acts, always thinking this out AFTER he committed them. Becoming a friend to Ivan the Terrible was almost certain to result in one's own torturous death at some point, even for his blood relatives and in-laws -- he was an insane paranoid.

As for Troyat's book, it seems to be written more for the casual reader than for the academic, so I wouldn't rely on it too heavily as a source document for an academic paper. Better to refer to Troyat's own sources and go directly to them for any manner of scholastic research. The hardcover edition is supplemented with many great drawings and illustrations which serve to make the story more clear.

To finalize, this a nice, compact read about one of the world's most horrific rulers, a barbarian and mass murderer of the First Water.

I have read several of Troyat's biographies. I generally like this one but was bothered by the author's constant references to Ivan's evolving relationship to God. If Ivan explained himself in letters, then OK. But I don't like a biographer telling us "Ivan decided God had reconciled with him", an unsubstantiated inner state. Troyat is not this kind of biographer, but I would love to have had a few pages on what sources he used and how much material still exists. I actually read this on books on tape, but they usually include everything the author provides.
Other than that, what was it about east Europe of the era? We have Vlad Tsepes, Elizabeth Batory (sister of the Batory mentioned here?), and Ivan to name a few of the more notable monsters. Western Europe seems to lack the unbridled scale and variety of the east.
I found it remarkable to learn Ivan compiled lists of victems and sent them to various monasteries. I wonder how many are still extant? I found his flirtation with England to be pretty amusing. Subtle he was not. I also enjoyed the excerpts from the long-running flame wars Ivan conducted with some of his enemies.
For what it is worth, in my Russian class long ago, they said Ivan Grozny means "awe inspiring" and that he picked it himself
I recommend this to other readers, in addition to his work on Peter and Catherine. After reading this, go find the Sergei Eisenstein film in three parts on Ivan, for a really interesting Stalinist era twist on this bit of history

Ivan the Terrible is a worse case example of the "abuse excuse" of "the god made me do it variety."

Born an orphan, knee deep in palace intrigue just above his head, Ivan and his younger brother Yuri somehow managed to survive to the age of majority. Both parents were dead before he reached the age of five, at which point, Ivan a scared, not very bright and very insecure lad, attempted to assume the reigns of power. The responsibilities of a sovereign were first thrust upon him at the young age of 8 well before he fully understood what he was up against. At that age, and out of sheer grit, he had challenged one of the key boyars of the palace at a banquet and nervously called for his head. When his order was hesitantly carried out, Ivan had had his first taste of power, and there was no looking back.

As Troyat tells the story beautifully, Ivan had two things working for him. He studied and mastered the Machiavellian ways of the palace intrigue that had been used against him and that he had been observing from a very young age -- the art of the double-cross and treachery, etc. As a result, at least intellectually he became an intuitive expert at them all. Plus, he had a genuine fear of god, which turned out to be the source of both his belief in his own powers and the source of his megalomania. Ivan both feared god and thought himself to be god's equal. This firmly held twin belief gave him the authority and the divine right to "ruthlessly lord" over all men, whom he considered to be inferior to himself and to god.

There were three seminal elements in Ivan's life that seemed to have been responsible for steering him along a course that led him to becoming both all-powerful and savagely corrupt, which when these went unchecked, turned him towards brutality and sadism. Ivan's was a clear case of the adage: "Power corrupts, and divine power corrupts absolutely."

The first, as already mentioned above, was being abandoned as an orphan, literally left in the halls of the palace to fend for himself. In the process of barely managing to survive repeated attempts on his and his brother's life, Ivan learned instinctively that survival depended on a certain amount of luck, grit and on god's divine intervention as well as on the ability to strike the first brutal blow at those out to get him. Thus, it would not be incorrect to say that he was a "healthy paranoid," innately equipped not to be squeamish about the brutality going on all around him.

Then there was the fire that leveled Moscow. Ivan saw this as a sign from god of his displeasure with the way Russia was being ruled. He thus took it upon himself to rule with god's full pleasure by setting out to live up to all the responsibilities god had placed on his shoulders as a sovereign. Pursuant to this goal, Ivan rewrote and reestablished the Russian code of conduct (i.e., the social contract between the people and their sovereign) on a more biblical footing and then implemented it ruthlessly to the letter. Thereafter, his legitimacy as a sovereign depended upon, and was derived directly from, his relationship with god through this code, as well as through his ability to keep the people (whom he viewed as sheep) in line according to his newly devised code.

And finally, with god at his sole ally, Ivan, with impunity, saw it as his divine right and duty to go on a life-long campaign to root out and punished all of his self-identified traitors and his self-identified enemies, even when they were whole populations, or members of his own family. He earned the name of "Ivan the terrible" through the ruthless efficiency with which he meted out retribution to those he suspected as being engaged in (his own imagined and self-fashioned) treachery.

It is this paranoid, ruthless and brutally sadistic efficiency with which he carried out god's will that gained him the name of "Ivan the Terrible." However, although it is often dismissed, it cannot be underestimated how big a role his faith in god and in his belief in his divine right to rule played in Ivan's brutal recriminations, recriminations that became legend over the course of his reign. Well-written and well told. Five Stars

This book is very easy to read and is great for someone who knows nothing or very little of Russian history and Ivan the terrible. The information is quite vague--not much more specific than a history textbook--but it's informative nonetheless, and much easier to get through than a textbook would be. The book goes through Ivan's life and has good information and a well-laid out format.
Bottom line, if you just want to do some light reading to inform yourself a bit about Russia's bloodiest Tsar, this book is for you. If you already know a bit and want to get more specific, choose a different title, as you'll be disappointed with this one. What the book accomplishes, though, it accomplishes well and gives a hearty and true-to--life adventure all the while.
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Great book! What more can I say that hasn't been said by other reviewers? This history gives me some understanding of Stalin and the collective unconscious of the Russian people. Maybe this is solely my own thinking, but this also accounts (in my mind) for how the Russians were able to overwhelm the Axis powers on the eastern front in World War II - they somehow were conditioned to overwhelm the enemy by sending hordes after hordes into combat - which is the way the fighting sounded in the book The Forgotten Soldier. To me it also somewhat explains the personalities of many Russians (they are passionate and can be ruthless when it comes to business). The drama in the music of their classical composers also seems to fit in the picture. For so many years the Russian people have lived in a maelstrom - a mixture of cruel paranoid leadership and generous, caring, learned leadership (Catherine, the great). The Russian people's culture seems distinct to me. A Kandinsky painting says what I think I'm seeing after having read a number of books about Russia now - and this book is an integral part of that picture.