In this episode of pplpod, we explore the violent, brilliant, and deeply contradictory life of Ivan IV, better known as Ivan the Terrible. The episode begins by unpacking the meaning of his famous nickname, explaining how the Russian word Grozny meant something closer to formidable, fearsome, or awe-inspiring than simply “bad.” From there, the discussion traces Ivan’s traumatic childhood after the deaths of his father and mother, his neglect at the hands of feuding boyar families, and his dramatic rise at age sixteen when he crowned himself the first Tsar of all Russia. The episode follows his early reign as a surprisingly capable reformer who modernized the legal code, created Russia’s first standing army with firearms, established the Zemsky Sobor, expanded the state through the conquest of Kazan and Astrakhan, and commemorated that vi ...