The Formation of the Image of Ivan the Terrible in English Sources of the Second Half of the XVI Century

Abstract

After the establishment of permanent Russian-English diplomatic and trade relations in the middle of the XVI century, the problem of the formation and evolution of the image of the Moscow tsar became one of the central ones in the descriptions compiled by English merchants, travelers and diplomats who visited the possessions of Ivan IV. Along with the real features of the Moscow ruler, we find in his descriptions a huge number of myths and exaggerations, emphasized both from other tendentious foreign writings of the era and from earlier treatises describing states with a despotic regime allegedly characteristic of all Eastern states. Images rooted in the specified historical epoch will continue to accompany the descriptions of most Russian rulers for centuries. Russian state and the first Russian tsar's image formation in the English writings of the second half of the XVI century opens up the prospect of revealing the characteristic features and stereotypes that have become established in English and in Western society in general in relation to the Russian state in the following centuries. In the course of the study, the peculiarities of the presentation of the image of Ivan the Terrible in English sources were revealed. The reasons for his despotic rule, which began with glorious deeds, English authors see the need to preserve the unity of the state by concentrating all wealth and power in the hands of the ruler, which invariably leads to his corruption and arbitrariness. The Russian tsar is not called a madman, but is considered a tyrant, similar to the eastern despots described by ancient authors.