IVAN IV

born Aug. 25, 1530, Kolomenskoye, near Moscow died March 18, 1584, Moscow Russian in full Ivan Vasilyevich, byname Ivan The Terrible, Russian Ivan Grozny grand prince of Moscow (153384) and the first to be proclaimed tsar of Russia (from 1547). His reign saw the completion of the construction of a centrally administered Russian state and the creation of an empire that included non-Slav states. Ivan engaged in prolonged and largely unsuccessful wars against Sweden and Poland, and, in seeking to impose military discipline and a centralized administration, he instituted a reign of terror against the hereditary nobility. Additional reading Biographies of Ivan include S.F. Platonov, Ivan the Terrible (1974, reissued 1986); Robert Payne and Nikita Romanoff, Ivan the Terrible (1975); Ruslan G. Skrynnikov, Ivan the Terrible (1981), interesting for its official Soviet interpretation of his place in history; and Benson Bobrick, Fearful Majesty: The Life and Reign of Ivan the Terrible (1987).