The writer to break most sharply with the traditions of earlier writing was the West Russian voinnik (professional soldier) Ivan Peresvetov.31 He was a completely secular writer. Arriving in Russia in the late 1530s (he had previously lived and served in Poland, Hungary and Moldavia), when Ivan IV was still […]

Ivan the Terrible. The role of Ivan the Terrible, son of Basil III, in Russian history and literature is a complex and contradictory one. The first tsar of All Russia, Ivan IV, was one of the most terrifying figures in the country’s history. His tyrannical features affected his writing also: […]

Of Ivan IV’s diplomatic epistles the most interesting as literary works are those to King Johann III of Sweden and the epistle to King Stephen Bathory of Poland. The epistles to Johann III were written after unsuccessful attempts to conclude a military alliance between Ivan the Terrible and King Eric […]

The most important place in Ivan the Terrible’s writing belongs to his correspondence with Kurbsky. Born of a noble family (related to the princes of Yaroslavl) and a member of the governmental group of the 1550s known as the Select Council, who took part in the Kazan campaign, Andrew Kurbsky […]

This work was The History of the Grand Prince of Moscow written by Kurbsky in 1573, when Poland was without a king, with the direct political aim of preventing the election of Ivan IV to the Polish throne.37 Kurbsky composes his narrative in the form of an answer to a […]

1 Дмитриева P. П. Сказание о князьях Владимирских. Moscow and Leningrad, 1955. 2 Philotheus’ epistles are published in the book: Малинин В. П. Старец Елизарова монастыря Филофей и его послания. Kiev, 1901 (Appendix). Cf. Гольдберг А. Л. “Три ‘послания Филофея’ (Опыт текстологического анализа)”. ТОДРЛ, Vol. XXIV, 1974, pp.,68-97; “Идея ‘Москва […]