page_title: The Death of Ivan the Terrible
section_title: Sources
hierarchical_section_title: The Death of Ivan the Terrible / Background / Sources
context_page_description: The Death of Ivan the Terrible is a historical drama by Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy written in 1863 and first published in the January 1866 issue of Otechestvennye zapiski magazine. It is the first part of a trilogy that is followed by Tsar Fiodor Ioannovich and concludes with Tsar Boris. All three plays were banned by the censor. It dramatises the story of Ivan IV of Russia and is written in blank verse. Tolstoy was influenced by the work of William Shakespeare in writing the trilogy, which formed the core of his reputation as a writer in the Russia of his day and as a dramatist to this day.
context_section_description: The major source for Tolstoy as he was working upon the drama (as it was with the whole trilogy) was History of the Russian State by Nikolay Karamzin. The whole of the Act 1 is based upon one small fragment in Vol.IX of it describing Ioann's feelings after the killing of his son, his relinquishing the throne, boyars' reaction to this and his consent to (as he put it) "bear this burden of rule for some more time"  Details of this fragment of History have been expanded by Tolstoy into full-blown scenes: Zakharyev addressing boyars, Ioann's musing on the possibility of taking a schema oath, his conversation with boyars. The messengerэs tale in the Scene 2, Act 1 was based upon Karamzin's description of the Pskov siege which Tolstoy has taken numerous details from, moving them together, chronologically. The Garaburda scene (exceptionally important for the play's structure, according to the author's "Production plan") has been totally made up, but again, some details involved have been taken from Karamzin (Mikhail Garaburda's negotiations with Grozny in 1573, among others).
  Apart from Karamzin's History Tolstoy used, albeit to a lesser extent, Tales of Prince Kurbsky, published in 1831 by N.Ustryalov. Kurbsky's letters in Scene 2, Act 1, present a mosaic of his real letters, the 1679 one featuring most prominently. In the Act 4 the Ivan Grozny synodic text reading quotes a real document. The play's major characters are historical figures, most of the minor ones (servants, stolniks) are fictional. One notable exception is a Pskovian messenger, a figure featuring in historical chronicles. The Boyar duma members have names of real people, one exception being Sitsky, a totally fictitious part.
caption: Ivan the Terrible by Viktor Vasnetsov, 1897
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