Absolute Leaders and Modern Day Dictators

Ivan the Terrible * Intelligent and clever man, but grew to be mentally unstable * His tendency to break out in fits of rage was a result from a traumatizing childhood * Father died from blood poisoning when he was three years old; mother was assassinated when he was eight years old * Exposed to court intrigue and constant danger while growing up – this environment is what nurtured much of the vicious and suspicious characteristics Ivan the Terrible developed during his reign * The members of the nobility who took after Ivan the Terrible often scorned at him, contributing to his hatred for the boyar (noble) class, whom he suspected were also involved in his mother's death. * Allegedly tortured small animals as a boy * Crowned as first czar of Russia in 1547 * During the early part of his reign, he introduced self-government to rural regions, reformed tax collection, and established statutory law and church reform * It is said that he gouged out the eyes of the architects who built St. Basil's so that a cathedral of such beauty could never be created again * Main goal: gain control of all independent areas to form a more centralized Russia * Gained absolute power after successfully conquering the remaining independent regions around Russia, such as Siberia * Went into deep depression upon the death of his first wife in 1560 * At one point, Ivan the Terrible left Moscow suddenly and threatened to abdicate the throne. Leaderless, the residents of Moscow pleaded for his return * assigned a master to the peasants who worked the lands around an estate, bringing forth system of serfdom * Ivan organised the Streltsy (members of the army elite) to govern his districts and the Oprichniki (the first police force) to suppress boyar (ruling-class nobles) rebellion * He confiscated the property of the boyars and granted state property to those who served him. * Russia lost its far northern territories and