Ogre

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Meet Ivan IV, or Ivan Grosny (from гроза, thunderstorm), Ivan the Awesome.  You may know him better as Ivan the Terrible.  Mind you, he got the appellation before he went bonkers and started killing everyone around him, left,right, and center.  Groza means thunderstorm and the name came after he captured the region of Kazan back from the Tartars.  This painting is by Victor Vasnetsov, 1897.  The only life portrait is this one-





The Apostle of 1564, embossed book cover. One of the first printed Russian books.





Gerasimov's reconstruction, as mentioned in Gorky Park.







Nicolay Cherkasov as Ivan in Eisenstein's Ivan the Terrible.  Stalin loved part one and hated part two.  Part three had all scenes filmed rounded up and destroyed.  I wonder that there are no Russian films about Stalin.  You'd think they are still afraid of him.





Ivan stabbed his eldest son and heir in the temple with his iron spiked walking stick.  Ily Repin
hits it out of the park with his searing picture of the Tsar's overwhelming remorse.





What he did to Novgorod is beyond understanding.






Russians seem to be unable to rise above serfdom.  Why nobody killed Ivan or Stalin argues a certain national slave mentality.  Urrah Pobeida!





Johnny, we hardly knew ye.


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