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Tsar Ivan the Terrible (Ivan IV, 1533-1584) is one of the most controversial rulers in Russian history, infamous for his cruelty. He was the first Russian ruler to use mass terror as a political instrument, and the only Russian ruler to do so before Stalin. Comparisons of Ivan to Stalin only exacerbated the politicization of his image. Russians have never agreed on his role in Russian history, but his reign is too important to ignore. Since the abolition of censorship in 1991 professional historians and amateurs have grappled with this problem. Some authors have manipulated that image to serve political and cultural agendas. This book explores Russia’s contradictory historical memory of Ivan in scholarly, pedagogical and political publications.
“Charles J. Halperin’s book Ivan the Terrible in Russian Historical Memory Since 1991 addresses the legacy of one of the most controversial figures in Russian history. Halperin’s book sets an ambitious goal – to cover “the broadest possible spectrum of nonfiction publications in Russia on Ivan, in scholarly and non-scholarly monographs, textbooks, trade book surveys, and works of political advocacy.”
—Dina Khapaeva, Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas
Charles J. Halperin is an independent scholar residing in Bloomington, Indiana. He is the author of Russia and the Golden Horde: The Mongol Impact on Medieval Russian History (1985), The Tatar Yoke: The Image of the Mongols in Medieval Russia (1986, 2009); Ivan the Terrible: Free to Reward and Free to Punish (2019), Ivan IV and Muscovy (2020), and over 100 articles.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part One: Publications
1. Anything Goes: Post-1991 Historiography of Ivan the Terrible in Russia
2. Who Was Not Ivan the Terrible? Who Ivan the Terrible Was Not
3. Would You Believe in Saint Ivan? Reforming the Image of Tsar Ivan the Terrible
4. Dueling Ivans, Dueling Stalins
5. A Proposal to Revive the Oprichnina
6. Ivan the Terrible in Russian History Surveys and Textbooks since 1991
7. Two Imperial Interpretations of Ivan the Terrible
8. Ivan the Terrible from the Point of View of Tatar History
9. A Reflection of the Current State of Ivan the Terrible Studies
10. Generalissimo Ivan the Terrible
Part Two: Films
11. Eisenstein’s Ivan, Neuberger’s Ivan, Ivan’s Ivan
12. The Atheist Director and the Orthodox Tsar: Sergei Eisenstein’s Ivan the Terrible
13. Ivan the Terrible Returns to the Silver Screen: Pavel Lungin’s Film Tsar′
Conclusion
Appendixes
Bibliography
Index