Ivan The Terrible In Russian Folklore
The image created of Ivan IV of Russia throughout Russian folklore is a direct contrast to that which is typically painted of him and his rule by historians. As folklorist Jack V. Haney claims, the tales “about Ivan IV, known as the Terrible, are especially interesting in that they portray the first Orthodox Tsar of All Russia in quite a different light than historians do”.
By studying a variety of folktales about Ivan the Terrible, we can see that, in general, the overall image of this tsar is a positive one. Maureen Perrie states that “insofar as he is the friend of the common people, and the enemy of the boyars, he (Ivan IV) is seen as a ‘good tsar’”. By creating the tsar to be either a friend of the commoners or an enemy to the boyar, a positive image of Ivan IV is represented through the particular folktale.
Read more about Ivan The Terrible In Russian Folklore: Friend of The People, Enemy of The Boyar
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—Doris Lessing (b. 1919)
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—James P. Comer (20th century)