Russian Czar Ivan the Terrible Dies

Ivan IV of Russia, known as Ivan the Terrible, died on March 18, 1584 (Old Style) at around the age of fifty-three. He had ruled the Russian state for several decades, having been crowned the first czar of Russia in 1547, and his reign profoundly shaped the emerging Russian autocracy through both expansion and terror.

Ivan's rule combined significant achievements with notorious cruelty. He centralized power, expanded Russian territory by conquering the khanates of Kazan and Astrakhan, and promoted commerce and the eastward push into Siberia. Yet his later years were marked by the violent campaign of the oprichnina against the nobility and by fits of rage, including the killing of his own son and heir, Ivan Ivanovich, in 1581.

Because his capable elder son had died at his hand, Ivan was succeeded by his weak and pious second son, Fyodor I, who was widely regarded as incapable of effective rule. Real power fell to advisers, chief among them Boris Godunov. The death of Ivan and the feeble succession that followed contributed to the dynastic crisis that, after Fyodor's death, plunged Russia into the chaotic period of upheaval known as the Time of Troubles.