The Frolics of Ivan the Terrible

1916

Ivan the Terrible, among his many insane freaks, would let loose wild bears in the streets of his capital and placidly say his prayers while watching the slaughter of his people, "flinging a few coins to the mutilated survivors as he rose from his knees." He would compel parents to slay their children, and children to kill one another; and if there was a survivor "the amiable monarch would dispatch him with his own hands, shrieking with laughter at so excellent a joke."

In one of his lighter moods of frolic he commanded the citizens of Moscow to "provide for him a measure full of fleas for a medicine," and fined them 7,000 rubles when they failed.

—Stevens Point Daily Journal, Stevens Point, Wisconsin, July 29, 1916, page 3.