Ivan the Terrible

So just how terrible was he? He wiped out entire cities and villages, leaving every inhabitant dead; he tortured his enemies and at times his closest associates; and he murdered his own son. Pretty terrible. Ivan believed he was a direct descendant of Caesar Augustus as well as being divine and was the first Russian to take the title czar. To his credit, however, his extreme methods instilled such fear in his subjects that his empire actually functioned well, and his zest for conquering land made modern Russia a large, powerful country. This 1984 title captures Ivan the IV in gory detail. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.