AR Denga

Struck: 1543 - 1584
Mint: Moscow
Size: 10mm
Weight: 0.33g
Die Axis: 180°
Grade: VF
Ref:

Obv: Horseman right, brandishing sabre on galloping horse.
Rev: KNYAZ/VELIKI/IVAN.
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Ivan Vasilyevich was born on August 25, 1530 and was the Grand Prince of Moscow from 1533 to 1547. He became the first ruler to be crowned as Tsar of all of Russia from 1547 until his death. His long reign saw the conquest of the Khanates of Kazan, Astrakhan, and Siberia, transforming Russia into a multiethnic state spanning over 1.5 million square miles. Ivan managed countless changes in the progression from a medieval state to an empire and emerging regional power. These political successes however came at a great cost to the economy and culture of the region.

Upon the death of his first wife in 1560, Ivan went into a deep depression and his behavior became more erratic. His suspicion that she had been murdered by the boyars only deepened his paranoia. He left Moscow suddenly and threatened to abdicate the throne. Leaderless, the Muscovites pleaded for his return. He agreed, but on the condition that he be granted absolute power with the authority to punish traitors and law breakers with execution and confiscation of property. Over the next 24 years, Ivan IV conducted a reign of terror, displacing and destroying the major boyar families in the region, and earning the moniker by which he's now best known. It was during this period that Ivan beat his pregnant daughter-in-law, causing a miscarriage, and killed his son in a subsequent fit of rage. It was also during this time that he created the Oprichniki, the first official secret Russian police force.

Historic sources present disparate accounts of Ivan's complex personality: he was very intelligent and devout, yet given to rages and prone to episodic outbreaks of mental illness. He was an able diplomat, a patron of arts and trade, and an accomplished poet and composer. Ivan died from a stroke while playing chess with Bogdan Belsky on March 28, 1584. Upon Ivan's death, the ravaged kingdom was left to his unfit and childless middle son Feodor. Feodor died childless in 1598, ushering in the Time of Troubles.