You would never rig an election! No, I don't, don't, please don't put me in jail! While Ivan III consolidated Muscovite power, the undeniably brutal streak in Russian governance comes not from the Mongols, but from Ivan IV. Better known as Ivan the Terrible. Ivan the Terrible ruled from 1533 to 1584, taking the throne at the age of 16. Yet more evidence that adolescents should not be trusted with emerging empires. Ivan the Terrible's reign represents the end of princely power and the beginning of the autocracy that Russia is famous for.