Hutchinson`s History of the Nations 1915 -
Ivan IV Vasilyevich, commonly known as Ivan the Terrible, was the Grand Prince of Moscow from 1533 to 1547 and the first Tsar of Russia from 1547 to 1584. Ivan was the son of Vasili III, the Rurikid ruler of the Grand Duchy of Moscow and was appointed Grand Prince when he was three years old after his father`s death. Ivan used terror to centralize the Russian state, and his disastrous involvement in the Livonian War nearly bankrupted his newly established empire. He also promoted the Orthodox Church and oriented Russian foreign policy toward Europe.
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