To help him in this effort, Ivan created the Oprechniki, a corps of secret police who rode around on black horses wearing all black, whose job it was to hunt down and destroy any enemies of the Tsar. See also Nazgul and Dementors. So this was the first of Russia's purges, and over the latter half of Ivan's reign, whole towns were destroyed. It was in effect a civil war, except with no resistance. One historian called it a civil massacre. In the end, Ivan the Terrible established absolute control of the Tsar over all the Russian people, but he also set the precedent of accomplishing this through terror, secret police, and the suspension of law. And that would echo through the ages of Russian history.