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Loading... Ivan the Terrible (2005)by Isabel de Madariaga
All Things Russia (111) Loading...
Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. How to tell the history of a difficult man when the sources you have are fragmentary at best? To a large degree the author does so by way of examining the extant diplomatic correspondence, and then interpolating from there. Considering that Ivan's focus was on foreign affairs, and most everything else was subordinated to the considerations of recreating Greater Rus, this often works out well. When De Madariaga descends into the morass that was the Polish royal succession after the demise of the Jagiellon dynasty the eyes can certainly glaze over. This is definitely history for historians. Besides that the author has little patience with efforts to try and assign some meaning to Ivan's acts in terms of adding to the greater Russian state or as a way station on the way to a higher level of civilization. While it's arguable that many of Ivan's atrocities were not especially notable in an era riddled with atrocities, what seems to be the case is that Ivan's conception of himself was more a throwback to medieval thinking about an hereditary sovereign being the anointed of God (a concept adopted in the course of Muscovy declaring itself the "Third Rome"), which Ivan's own upbringing inculcated in him, but there was no one capable of inculcating the discipline that would discourage an unstable personality from taking that understanding to its logical conclusion and creating a tyranny that was totalitarian in its scope. Upon finishing De Madariaga's depiction of the course of the Oprichnina (Ivan's state within a state) the comparable case that comes to mind is that of the Pol Pot regime in Cambodia. The metaphor that De Madariaga chooses to end her narrative on is that of Lucifer; star of the morning on the way to becoming prince of hell. Don't pick up this volume with the hope of entertaining reading. Only buy this book if you are doing serious research on Ivan or Russia in the time of the first Tsar. While I stuck with it to the finish (I almost never quit a book), it was far more challenging than I bargained for. The author throws around Russian names and terms like her readers are graduate level students in Russian history. I was looking for something in the vein of Peter the Great and ended up with a college textbook.
A great strength of de Madariaga's book is that it views Ivan, in her words, "standing in Moscow and looking out over the walls of the Kremlin towards the rest of Europe, and not looking in—and down—into Russia, over its Western border, from outside." Almost every page of her magnificent biography is illuminated by the wisdom gained by its author from a lifetime of learning and reflection about the place of Russia in the wider world.
References to this work on external resources. Wikipedia in English (18)Ivan IV, "the Terrible" (1533-1584), is one of the key figures in Russian history, yet he has remained among the most neglected. Notorious for pioneering a policy of unrestrained terror-and for killing his own son-he has been credited with establishing autocracy in Russia. This is the first attempt to write a biography of Ivan from birth to death, to study his policies, his marriages, his atrocities, and his disordered personality, and to link them as a coherent whole.Isabel de Madariaga situates Ivan within the background of Russian political developments in the sixteenth century. And, with revealing comparisons with English, Spanish, and other European courts, she sets him within the international context of his time. The biography includes a new account of the role of astrology and magic at Ivan's court and provides fresh insights into his foreign policy. Facing up to problems of authenticity (much of Ivan's archive was destroyed by fire in 1626) and controversies which have paralyzed western scholarship, de Madariaga seeks to present Russia as viewed from the Kremlin rather than from abroad and to comprehend the full tragedy of Ivan's reign. No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)947.043History and Geography Europe Russia and eastern Europe [and formerly Finland] Russian & Slavic History by Period Ivan III - Ivan V 1462-1689 Ivan IV [Groznij, 'the Terrible'], 1533-1584LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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The author of this biography, Isabel de Madariaga, is a little handicapped by the paucity of contemporary documentation. A lot of information about Ivan comes from foreign sources; the records of the English Muscovy Company and various comments from Poland, Lithuania, the Empire, and other neighbors. Since most of these were hostile to Russia, there’s some suspicion of exaggeration; but there’s enough from internal sources to back up most of the allegations. I found the book well-written; the major problem is the large number of Russian terms used. Although there’s a glossary, it’s short and not easy to reference. I realize that a boyar is not quite the same as a “noble”, and strel’tsy are not quite e the same as “musketeers”, but if you are going to have your glossary translate stol’nik as “steward (for example), why not just use “steward” in the text? This is a minor quibble, though; I’d suggest copying the one-page glossary and keeping it handy while you read. Four stars. ( )