Ivan IV, "The Terrible", was crowned Russia's first Tsar at the age of 17. Ivan the Terrible was the fallen angel. He started as a very wise Tsar and ended as a devil. Ivan IV, "The Terrible" was a cruel tyrant, who never knew the meaning of moderation; he drank too much, laughed too loudly and hated and loved too fiercely. He took easily offense, and he never forgot any insult, imaginary or not. He was definitely shrewd, and his called name "Grozny", meaning "The Terrible", was very appropriate.

Ivan was only 3 years old when his father died. His uncle Yuri challenged his rights to the throne, was arrested and imprisoned in a dungeon. Ivan's mother, Elena Glinskaya, assumed power and was regent for five years. She had Ivan's other uncle killed, but a short time afterwards she suddenly died, almost surely poisoned. A week later her confidant, Prince Ivan Obolensky, was arrested and beaten to death by his jailers. While his mother had been indifferent toward Ivan, Obolensky's sister, Agrafena, had been his beloved nurse. Now she was jailed in a convent.

Not yet 8 years old, Ivan was an intelligent, sensitive boy and an insatiable reader. Without Agrafena to look after him, Ivan's loneliness deepened. The boyars alternately neglected or molested him; Ivan and his deaf-mute brother Yuri often went about hungry and threadbare. No one cared about his health or well being and Ivan became a beggar in his own palace. Ivan was crowned Russia's first Tsar at the age of 17.

Three weeks later he married, having chosen his bride in a national virgin competition. Virgins over the age of twelve were brought to the Kremlin to be paraded before him. He married the youthful Anastasia Zakharina, who charmed him with her beauty and soft femininity. He had lost his virginity at 13; contemporaries say that he had several hundred lovers in the course of those first three years. And now, a week after his marriage, the boyars could not recognize their czar: gone were rough-and-tumble practical jokes with bears and jesters, the obscene songs, the whores who filled every room of the palace ... Ivan was notably courteous and helpful towards the needy. He even released many prisoners from his dungeons. This change was believed to come from the influence of his young wife. Alas, things turned back "to normal" in the third week of his honeymoon.

His first marriage lasted for 13 years, in the course of which Anastasia, who lived the life of a recluse, bore six children and was the only one person who could hold his cruelty in check. Disease and the never-ending insults of her husband wore the Czarina out, and she died before the age of 30. Ivan accused his nobles of poisoning her, and became even more mentally unstable. Until recently, most scholars have dismissed Ivan's accusation of murder as evidence of his paranoia. But recent forensic tests on Anastasia's remains have revealed more than ten times the normal levels of mercury in her hair. It is likely, that Anastasia was indeed murdered, sending Ivan into a downward spiral of murder and cruelty.

He set up a bodyguard that has been described as Russia's first 'secret police' - the Oprichniki - as a religious brotherhood sworn to protecting God's Tsar. In reality, they became marauding thugs, ready to commit any crime in the Tsar's name. Ivan sentenced thousands to internal exile in far flung parts of the empire. Others were condemned to death; their families and servants often killed as well. Ivan would give detailed orders about the executions, using biblically inspired tortures to reconstruct the sufferings of hell. Ivan's victims suffered heartless torture. Many were drowned or strangled or flogged to death; some were impaled, others roasted on a spit, still others fried in large skillets.