13. A Tsar Who Eliminated His Own Son
Ivan the Terrible’s most infamous atrocity occurred in Novgorod. In 1570, when that city defied him, he marched on it in the dead of winter, and after seizing it, indulged in violent depravity. He started off with the clergy, whom he rounded up and ordered flogged from dawn until dusk, for days on end, until they each paid a 20 ruble fine. Hundreds died, and afterward, he ordered the survivors executed. The population fared no better; he ordered the torture of leading citizens along with their families. Men were executed, and women and children were bound and thrown into a nearby river. There, they were trapped under the ice as soldiers patrolled the area on foot, with hooks and spears to push down any who surfaced. By the time Ivan was finally sated, over 60,000 had perished.
Even his own family was not spared Ivan’s fits of uncontrollable rage. In 1581, he assaulted his pregnant daughter-in-law when he saw her wearing clothes that he deemed too skimpy, and caused her to miscarry. When his son and heir angrily berated him for the brutal attack on his wife, Ivan the Terrible smashed his head in with his scepter. The result was a fatal wound from which the Tsar’s son died a few days later. He followed him three years later, and died from a stroke while playing chess.