Another Biography of the First Russian Tsar

Abstract

In 2018, a new book by a famous historian D. M. Volodikhin dedicated to the first Russian Tsar — “Ivan IV the Terrible: Orphan Tsar” was published in the series “Life of Outstanding People”. Unfortunately, the work contains a range of inaccuracies, some of the author’s suggestions are not substantiated, a sequence of events is distorted. Thus, for example, the author dates all the fires in Moscow in 1547 by the same month — April; mixes up military activities of the initial period of Livonian War; states that Moscow Mutiny took place before the coronation of Ivan IV. Similarly, the historian’s conclusions on the voluntary taking the veil by the Grand Princess Solomonia Saburova, on striving for the throne by some Russian noblemen, on diplomatic activity of Ivan the Terrible seem to be unconvincing. That said, the book by D. M. Volodikhin includes some interesting and proper observations and conclusions. However, the impression is significantly marred by persistent references to “orphanage” and “artistry”. Such embellishments are appropriate in fiction, but not in a historical biography. Also, it’s hard to escape the impression that the book was prepared in haste, which resulted in inaccuracies that can’t benefit an academic research. Such mistakes could have easily been avoided by addressing primary sources. At the same time, we believe that this book by D. M. Volodikhin will find its audience who, having familiarized themselves with it, would like to go deeper into the subject and turn to other studies dedicated to a very interesting period of the reign of the first Russian Tsar.