Ivan IV (1530-1584), known as Ivan the Terrible, was the son and successor of Vasily III. He became Grand Prince of Moscow when he was 3 years old, and he began to govern in his own right when he was 14. In 1547 he had himself crowned first Czar of Russia. One of his first acts was to break the power of the boyars, or nobles, who had governed during his minority and whom he hated. Ivan chose talented men from humble backgrounds to advise him. In 1550. Ivan brought to gether the first Zemsky Sobor, or national assembly. Two years later he added to Russian territories by conquering the Tatar khanate of Kazan. Later the khanate of Astrakhan fell to his army. In 1553, Ivan began 2 long and unsuccessful war with Sweden and Poland to gain a Russian outlet on the Baltic Sea.
After 1560, when his wife (Anastasia) died, Ivan's sanity rapidly deteriorated and his reign became increasingly tyraannical. He blamed the boyars for his wife's death, and his hatred and fear of the noble class intensified. He created a large personal bodyguard, the Oprichnina, which effectively broke the power of the boyars by| plundering the estates of persons who lacked sufficient devotion to the czar. On the rumor that the freedom loving city of Novgorod was conspiring against him, Ivan destroyed the city and massacred its citizens. A crime unusual even for Ivan was the murder of his eldest son. Ivan was succeeded by his second son, Feodor.
