Submitted by: Submitted by wkeaton0003
Views: 52
Words: 3931
Pages: 16
Category: World History
Date Submitted: 06/22/2014 01:34 PM
Ivan the Terrible
How have historians viewed Ivan the terrible? Historians for the most part focus on Ivan and his incredibly violent and demented enjoyment of torture, and his division or Russia like Pavlov and Perrie. Others like Graham and Bobrick focus on the personality of Ivan and how that he personality has changed, but both argue it changed in two different ways. It can also be said that Graham had a fondness towards Ivan and his writing’s show a love and hate towards Ivan. Rarely do historians focus on contributions Ivan made while also explaining why he did these things, Benson Bobrick feels empathy towards Ivan and is for the most part views Ivan in a neutral and positive way. It is without a doubt that Ivan is an enigma but after analyzing the information from these books I have found that my opinion has changed from my initial thoughts and I still believe Ivan was a tyrant but I feel empathetic towards him as Bobrick does. To further analyze how historians viewed Ivan I looked towards Stephen Grahams, Ivan the Terrible: Life of Ivan IV of Russia. This shows Ivan the way many people think of and can be viewed as bad, but he also shows his bias towards Ivan making a balanced opinion. Bensons Bobrick and his book Fearful Majesty: The Life and Reign of Ivan the Terrible shows Ivan in a more positive light giving an arguably good reason for the madness. Ivan the Terrible by Andrei Pavlov and Maureen Perrie show Ivan in a more passive and broad perspective filling in the gaps between the two previous works that I have looked at.
Seeing as how Stephen Graham’s book Ivan the Terrible is the oldest as it was originally published in 1933 then reprinted in 1968, making it a good starting point. Graham is biased in his view on Ivan showing favor which is confusing by the way he lifts him up, then brings about his volatile nature. This is not a neutral work, on the contrary his view is in favor of Ivan but for arguments sake he throws in negatives. To...