The Era of Ivan the Terrible: a Leap Forward or the Cultivation of Turmoil? A Look From the 21th Century

The author of the article turns to the long-standing acute part of Russian historiographical and historiosophical discourse related to the study of the personality and reforms of Ivan the Terrible in the context of harsh realities of the 16th century. It is suggested that his time can be understood only by connecting it with the previous and subsequent development of Russia. The tsar's actions were aimed to respond to the brutal external and internal political challenges of the time. An excessively repressive character of this response was due to complex psychological structure of the sovereign's personality formed by an environment that left its unhealthy imprint on him. However, to reduce the entire policy of Grozny to a psychiatric diagnosis means to deliberately get away from the essence of a large and inexhaustible problem.