Dating back to Riurik, Russia has always had strong leaders who stopped at nothing to ensure the success of the throne. With a couple of noted exceptions, the rulers had the luxury of growing up witnessing the rule of their fathers. Ivan IV had no role model, no mentor, and no one to instruct him on how to be a leader. Before assuming the throne, he looked elsewhere for information on how to be a proper sovereign. Beginning with the Primary Chronicle, he would have looked back at previous rulers and what methodologies madethemsuccessful. At this time of growing contact with the West, he may have also looked outside of Russia, perhaps to Machiavelli’s The Prince. Also influencing Ivan’s reign were the bitter feelings he had for the boyars during his childhood. Historians have traditionally divided Ivan’s regime into two periods, the good half and the bad half. This essay will center on the “good-half,” when Ivan focused on reform, land conquest, and reshaping the monarchy. Ivan wanted something that was unlike anything that had preceded it; he reformed and changed Russia in an attempt to unite it under the supreme sovereignty of an absolute Machiavellian ruler—the Tsar.
IVAN IV: A MACHIAVELLIAN TSAR
Carswell, Robyn E.
Historia, Vol.15 (2006)
Abstract
Dating back to Riurik, Russia has always had strong leaders who stopped at nothing to ensure the success of the throne. With a couple of noted exceptions, the rulers had the luxury of growing up witnessing the rule of their fathers. Ivan IV had no role model, no mentor, and no one to instruct him on how to be a leader. Before assuming the throne, he looked elsewhere for information on how to be a proper sovereign. Beginning with the Primary Chronicle, he would have looked back at previous rulers and what methodologies madethemsuccessful. At this time of growing contact with the West, he may have also looked outside of Russia, perhaps to Machiavelli’s The Prince. Also influencing Ivan’s reign were the bitter feelings he had for the boyars during his childhood. Historians have traditionally divided Ivan’s regime into two periods, the good half and the bad half. This essay will center on the “good-half,” when Ivan focused on reform, land conquest, and reshaping the monarchy. Ivan wanted something that was unlike anything that had preceded it; he reformed and changed Russia in an attempt to unite it under the supreme sovereignty of an absolute Machiavellian ruler—the Tsar.
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