Ivan the Terrible
Ivan was the son of Vasili III, the Rurikid ruler of the Grand Duchy of Moscow, and was appointed Grand Prince at three years old after his father's death. A group of reformers, united around the young Ivan and known as the "Chosen Council", declared him Tsar (Emperor) of All Rus' in 1547 at the age of sixteen, establishing the Tsardom of Russia with Moscow as the predominant state. Ivan's reign was characterized by Russia's transformation from a medieval state into an empire under the Tsar, though at immense cost to its people and its broader, long-term economy. In the young years of Ivan, there was a conquest of the Khanates of Kazan and Astrakhan. After consolidating his power, Ivan got rid of the advisers from the "Chosen Council" and triggered the Livonian War, which ravaged Russia and resulted in the loss of Livonia and Ingria, but allowed him to establish greater autocratic control over Russia's nobility, whom he violently purged in the Oprichnina. The later years of Ivan's reign were also marked by the Massacre of Novgorod and the burning of Moscow by Tatars. Ivan was a patron of trade, giving a monopoly to the Muscovy Company, and the founder of Russia's first publishing house, the Moscow Print Yard.
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