Ivan the Terrible

Rating:
Summary: Excellent account of Tsar's life!!
Review: I had my hopes on this book and i wasnt dissapointed.The author gives a direct,impartial account of Ivan.The authoor goes into the Tsar's mind with clarity without trying to explain the whole thing. The way the author presents the story is sophisticated and full of images and action.The description of the russian court is excellent and the way it is explained is very good.I recommend this book for anyone who wants to study the life of Ivan and his times

Rating:
Summary: Ivan: absolute power corrupts....
Review: 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

Rating:
Summary: Informative and Entertaining, very recommened
Review: I think this biography gives a good overview of Ivan the Terrible. I didn't know anything about him before reading this book and I feel that now I know more than enough. What a terrible person! I agree that it leaves you wanting to know more about other persons mentioned in the book, but that is fine with me since I will look for biographies on those persons to keep learning as much as I can about Russian History. The book is easy to read (not like some historical biographies).

Rating:
Summary: The Russian Dracula
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: The Russian Dracula
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: A Medieval Stalin
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Fascinating, Horrifying
Review: 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.