Welcome to the Russian rulers podcast episode number 17

Ivan the fourth the youthful warrior

last week we saw the coronation and wedding of Ivan and the aftermath of the devastating

fires of Moscow. Because of the fires, the Glenskies were no longer at the head of the

government.

Sylvester, a mystic religious man, was now acknowledged as being Ivan's chief

advisor with another when Alexi Adeshev being the head of the chosen council, which was a small group of advisors

that helped run the government for Ivan. Both Adishev and Sylvester, well not entirely virtuous, were almost completely

incorruptible and were highly intelligent with a deep concern for Russia and its

people. They were to be Ivan's right-hand men for a number of years.

Others in the council included Prince Andre Kurbsky, Prince Ivan Mistislavsky, Ivan Shimaritev, the elder, Ivan Shiladin, Ivan Viskovati, and Mikhail Morotsoz.

What was different about this council as were relatively young in their early 30s.

They were relatively young in their early 30s.

They were vital though in this period because the times were tough, because of a series of bad harvests and the growing tartar raids on the bread basket of Russia.

The Tartar menace, the remnants of the Golden Horde, and Jengis Khan's mighty army were ravaging the countryside, enslaving captured Russians much to the dismay and irritation of the ruling class boyars, but delivering sheer terror to the peasants.

There were three main Tartar strongholds that Ivan had to deal with, the Crimean horde and the ones at Astrahan and at Kazan.

They were all at odds with each other, which made it almost impossible for them to mount a coordinated attack on Moscow.

This was to save Russia from falling under their control again, as together,

it is unlikely that Moscow could have withstood their armies combined might.

The first one Ivan set his sights on was Kazan, which was just a few hundred miles from

the important Russian city of Nizhny Novgorod.

But first, I haven had to tend to the marriage of his deaf-mute brother, Yuri, to the daughter of

...