Ivan The Terrible was the 4th Ivan to rule Russia and the one everybody knows, but in fact it was his grandfather Ivan III who gave a powerful start to building a vast centralized state, claimed independence from the Mongols, declared Moscow the capital of the Orthodox church and all Russians, took the two-headed eagle for the official emblem, gave the Kremlin the shape we know, and even started using the word "Russia". He mostly stayed in Moscow and didn't like taking part in war action, but won the decisive battle to end the Yoke and enlarged the territory under his control both to the East and to the West. He destroyed the Russian republic of Novgorod and chose the autocratic route for Russia.
20 янв 2022
