Ivan IV of Russia (Ivan the Terrible)

Ivan IV Vasilyevich, known as Ivan the Terrible (Ivan Grozny, more accurately translated as 'Ivan the Formidable' or 'the Awe-Inspiring'), was the first sovereign to be officially crowned Tsar of all Russia in 1547. Traumatized by boyar abuse following his parents' early deaths, Ivan centralized autocratic rule and created the Zemsky Sobor (parliament of estates) and the Streltsy standing infantry corps.

Ivan transformed Russia into a multi-ethnic Eurasian empire by conquering the Tatar Khanates of Kazan (1552) and Astrakhan (1556), securing the entire Volga River trade route and opening the vast expanses of Siberia to Cossack explorer Yermak. To celebrate the capture of Kazan, he commissioned the world-famous multicolored onion-domed Saint Basil's Cathedral on Red Square. Following the death of his beloved first wife Anastasia Romanovna, Ivan descended into paranoia, instituting the reign of state terror known as the Oprichnina and accidentally killing his eldest son and heir Ivan in a fit of rage in 1581.