Иван Грозный

If Ivan IV had died in 1566, at the moment of his greatest successes on the western front, his preparations for the final conquest of Livonia, historical memory would have given him the name of the great conqueror, the creator of the world's largest power, like Alexander the Great. The blame for the loss of the Baltic region conquered by him would then fall on his successors: after all, only a premature death saved Alexander from a direct meeting with the collapse of the empire he created. In the event of such an early end, at the age of 36, Ivan IV would have remained in the historical tradition surrounded by the glory of a remarkable reformer, organizer of the military service class, founder of the administrative centralization of the Moscow state. Ivan the Terrible, however, had a different fate, a deeply tragic one. He lived another 18 years, and these were years of heavy losses, great misfortunes for the country.