Ivan the Terrible [Paperback]

Robert Payne (Author), Nikita Romanoff (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 2002

Czar Ivan IV (1530-1584), the first Russian ruler to take the title czar, is known as one of the worst tyrants in history, but few people among the general public know how he got such an infamous reputation. Relying on extensive research based heavily on original Russian sources, this definitive biography depicts an incredibly complex man living in a time of simple, harsh realities. Robert Payne, the distinguished author of many historical and biographical works, and Russian scholar Nikita Romanoff, describe in vivid and lively detail Ivan's callous upbringing; the poisoning of his second wife and the murder of his son; his obsession with religion and sin; his predilection for mass murder, evidenced by his massacre of 30,000 citizens of Novgorod; yet his remarkable intelligence as a ruler, supporting the growth of trade and expanding Russia's borders.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Ivan was truly in a class with Genghis Khan, Hitler and Stalin, and this study brings him to life with all the fascination which the monstrous evokes. (Publishers Weekly )

Grandly conceived with imperial sweep and torch-lit pageantry. (Kirkus Reviews )

The authors reveal the most significant moments in Ivan's life and his growing abuse of power. The writing is vigorous and colorful yet never sensational. (Choice )

Deeply satisfying... . Ivan'r reign lasted 54 years, more than a lifetime (perhaps two?) for people of his time. And, together with the evil he perpetrated, he had an immense effect on Russian architecture, the arts, governance and geography. His reign merits better understanding, and this book tells the story in a manner that makes the study enjoyable. (Russian Life )

About the Author

Robert Payne (1911-1983) was a distinguished historian and author of The Life and Death of Lenin, The Rise and Fall of Stalin, and The Dream and the Tomb.
Nikita Romanoff, grandnephew of Nicholas II of Russia, is a world-renowned scholar of Russian history. He lives in New York City.

Product Details

• Paperback: 520 pages
• Publisher: Cooper Square Press (October 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0815412290
• ISBN-13: 978-0815412298
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #306,754 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #84 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Historical > Canadian

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A biographical tour de force, June 24, 2003

By 

Darrell Edward Ehrlick - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ivan the Terrible (Paperback)

Robert Payne's "Ivan The Terrible" is sensational. The book, in addition to being a great historical research project, is also a lively read. Though it nears 500 pages, this book manages to navigate Ivan the Terrible's life in detail, without continual sidetracking or nitpicking. The pace of the book moves well and is free of dead sections that seem to be aimed at specialists instead of the lay reader.

The danger in writing a biography on someone like Ivan the Terrible is to psychoanalyze and read too much into the turbulent times and events. While Payne offers some explanations for the erratic and awful behavior of the Grand Prince of Muscovy, he certainly doesn't try to explain away, apologize or revise the life of Ivan.

There is also a tendency in biography to get mired down in political intrigues and military minutae of the times. While there is certainly plenty of intrigue and military history, the book never wanders far from the subject matter which is Ivan, a man possessed by history, demons and angels.

This book may not satisfy the specialist, who might yearn for more detail and more footnotes, but it is certainly a good, solid starting point for someone wanting to know more about Ivan the Terrible.

Payne has done a great service for Russian history buffs.

13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars One weird biography., May 18, 2006

By 

Jason Knapp (New York, NY, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Ivan the Terrible (Paperback)

Biographies are strange business. The author has to assemble lots of potentially disparate, even contradictory facts into something that feels like a coherent narrative; one with a logical progression of events and characters whose thoughts and motivations make some kind of sense. When the subject is 500 years old and an absolute monarch, the sources that remain are likely to have suffered so many revisions that their relation to fact must be especially hard to ascertain.

So, assembling a story about Ivan IV was a big job and the authors deserve a great deal of credit for crafting a story out of the pieces available. And, if only because of the events contained in that story, it makes for really interesting reading.

But, part of a biographer's responsibility is to point out the limitations of the available information and to try to give the reader some sense of how actions taken out of the context of their own time and place may feel very different than they might have for contemporaries.

That's not to suggest that the wholesale slaughter of his own subjects doesn't earn Ivan a deservedly nasty reputation. But the authors don't even try to make any sense of it, except to describe him as a madman and a paranoid.

That's where the book fails as a good biography. But it really slips into strange territory when the authors describe some historical figures as "saints," without any apparent metaphorical overtones. What's even weirder are their descriptions of divine interventions or miracle-working icons with the same uninflected tones they use to describe a banquet menu.

The book often reads like a hagiography, not just in its reference to divine machinations, but even in the authors' choice of words and form. You can't help but come away from the work feeling that their real intent was to denounce the tyrants of Russian history - be they Ivan or Stalin - and to champion the fair and truly Christian rulers whom history should remember with more affection. I was surprised, but relieved, that there was no postscript pleading for the return of Russia to the monarchy.

In a nutshell: the story's a good one because the subject and his time are inherently interesting. I'd like to read someone else's take on it sometime.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I learned a lot - Quite a few mistakes, June 7, 2005

By 

Christian Moulton "Andrew Moulton" (Lawrence, KS USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Ivan the Terrible (Paperback)

To concur with the previous review: this is an engaging read. I enjoyed it and learned from it.

A concern: There were a number of places where I knew something about Russian religious practice that the authors got wrong in their book. This is disturbing to me because my one area of expertise was inaccurately referenced. When this happens, I wonder how many areas out there that I don't know about are fouled up. A look at academic reviews assures me that they're aware of some of these, but that they're not rampant in the text.

One academic review claimed that the authors took the word of chronicles and other primary sources on Ivan's life without thinking them through. This is not true throughout the text, although I wish they'd taken Kurbskii's comments with the big grain of salt they require.