Ivan the Terrible

Born in 1530, Ivan was the son of Vasili III Grand Prince of Moscow. Ivan was the 2nd last of the Rurikid dynasty. He succeeded his father when he was only 3 years old when his father died. He supported by reformers called the Chosen Council.
Ivan was declared Tsar (from Caesar) when he was 16 and he was coronated on 16 January 1547. This made him emperor of the Rus - predecessor of the Russians. He is known as Ivan the Terrible, but this is a mistranslation. It should mean terrifying or awesome. As Russia's first Tsar, Ivan did the following:
He reformed the code of law, founded a standing army (the Streltsy)
He established the first parliament.
Set up the first printing press in Russia.
Confirmed the position of the Orthodox Church.

He had St Basil's Cathedral in Moscow built and he is said to have blinded the architect so he couldn't copy the design elsewhere. In 1564 he abdicated. This was a ruse. The boyar government failed to manage government. Ivan returned on condition he had absolute power. He grew up terrified of the nobles or boyars. He seized their estates and executed some of their leaders. Of 12,000 nobles only 570 remained after this purge and the new nobles had more control of their peasants. Effectively introducing feudalism. Life was hard under Ivan. Famine, plague and wars struck the country.

Ivan expanded Russia's boundaries substantially but this involved continuous wars. He fought the Tatars successfully gaining the cities of Kazan and Astrakhan. He fought wars with the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Sweden and the Teutonic knights to gain access to the Baltic. This Livonian War ended in failure.

He opened access to the White Sea port of Archangelsk, opening trade with Queen Elizabeth's England. He began conflict with the Ottoman Turks that continued for centuries. He began sending settlers to exploit Siberia. They built forts to make Russian presence in the area.
Ivan was married 7 times. The first a member of the Romanov family. He famously struck and killed his son Ivan during an argument. Ivan died from a stroke while playing chess on March 28 1584. His son Feodor was weak-minded and died childless in 1598.