Ivan Vasilevich Groznyi, Grand Duke of Moscovy at age 3, he assumed power at age 14, and was crowned first Czar of Russia in 1547.

He conquered Kazan (1552), Astrakhan (1556), and Siberia (1581).

As the boyars were conspirating against him, he costitued a body-guard in 1565 (the oprichnina) and gave them the lands confiscatd to the boyars they killed.

His last years alternated between debauchery and religious austerity.

One of his lovers was Feodor Alexei Danilovich Basmanov (an oprichnik, and a parricide), but in 1570 Ivan sentenced him to death.