Ivan the 'Terrible' Wasn't Terrible at All - an Oligarch-Busting, Virtuous Hero, Demonized by the West

Source: Russian Insider

A new, 2016 statue to Ivan in the city of Oryol

March 30, 2019 | Dr. Matthew Raphael Johnson

Selfish oligarchs, Western '5th columns' in Moscow, Western intrigue trying to destroy Russia, Jewish capital working with Islamic radicals to undermine Russia from the south ... Sound familiar?

A brilliant administrator, while under attack on all borders, Ivan modernized and improved Russia, introducing a legal system, a world class military, and most importantly, trade and manufacturing. He was relentlessly demonized in the West by people who hated his success. If not for him, it is all but certain that Russia would have ceased to exist.

"Ivan was a good, virtuous and enlightened leader at a time where evil was thought to have triumphed. Ivan alone kept the floodgates of anarchy closed, as they were to break down after his death ...

... In 1601, just a few years after Ivan's death, Russia was starving, leaderless and under attack. Again, under elite rule, with no ruling monarch, Russia was plunged into years of war and violence ... Nihilism is the rule of oligarchs, “strongmen” who rise when legitimate power fails.

... Whether it be the Shuisky yesterday or Guzinsky today, the agenda remains the same."

Russia and the World at the time of Ivan's Birth

Russia has long been considered the land of darkness. Beginning with the Renaissance disdain for the medieval world, the rise of international banking, the Polish/Jewish alliance in Central Europe, and the British Enlightenment, Russia and Spain have been stigmatized as just a bit better than animals.

That the resultant ideology of "progress" will be the primary justification of the attempt to enslave or destroy those “animals” should come as no surprise. To separate the industrial revolution from colonialism and slavery is absurd and intellectually dishonest. Ireland and Russia are two cases in point. However, this essay will focus on the very long reign of Ivan IV "the Terrible" of Russia (1530-1584).

Modernity and Progress were the justifications for the global empire of the west. Genocide was the norm from Ireland to Arizona, from India to Ukraine. The patristic philosophy speaks constantly about the destruction that the passions cause. In this case, the unchecked rule of oligarchy that is the foundation of the Enlightenment shows just what can happen when ego goes unchecked and the superficial idea of "progress" is harnessed to justify the “temporary sacrifice” required to enter the promised land.

The East was colonized by foreign capital in this period, except for one entity. The Russian empire rejected the Enlightenment idea, represented later by the upper layers of the nobility, mostly foreign, brought into Russia at the end of the reign of Tsar Alexis. Mobilized by Peter I, Russia was nearly an internal colony of its own westernized oligarchy. This, however, is in the future from the time of Tsar Ivan. The point is that Peter and his ilk needed to make an explicit break with Old Russia in order for his revolution to take place.

Please go to Russian Insider to read the entire article.

#6: Ivan "the Terrible"