3 July, 11:33
In official Russian history, Ivan the Terrible is portrayed as an isolated despot — a man who secluded himself in monasteries and sent threats to neighbors. But a different question reveals a deeper layer: who, besides him, actually benefited from his policies of terror, war, and land seizure?
The answer leads to a surprising and little-known fact: in 1555, before the oprichnina had even begun, Ivan granted a monopoly on Muscovy’s foreign trade to the English — and in fact, to Venetian merchants behind them. This was the founding of the Muscovy Company, the first prototype of a transnational corporation on Muscovite soil.
📖 The Royal Charter of the Muscovy Company, granted by Queen Mary I in 1555, officially bound Muscovy to the British commercial sphere. All foreign merchants — even those from Holland or the Hanseatic League — were subject to the authority of this English company.
Terror and Trade: What Connects Moscow, Novgorod, and London?
The cities targeted by the oprichnina — Novgorod, Pskov, Vologda — were not merely “disloyal.” They were nodes of international trade, connected to the Hanseatic League and Western merchants. They were obstacles to the monopolistic expansion of the Muscovy Company, which sought to turn Muscovy into a raw material appendage of the British Crown.
The oprichnina cleansed these cities, eliminated the local elites who might resist British privileges, and opened the way to control over the transit of furs, wax, hemp, iron, and timber. In effect, Ivan played the role of a geopolitical raider, clearing the market for the English company.
The Czar Who Asked for Asylum in London
In 1571–1572, Ivan IV sent letters to Queen Elizabeth I containing a shocking proposal: if he were overthrown, he requested political asylum in England — and in return, he would hand over full control of Muscovy’s trade and grant political privileges to the English.
📜 “If misfortune should fall upon us, we beg Your Majesty to accept us, our boyars, our wives and children, and all our goods, and grant us a safe retreat in Your kingdom.”
(Ivan IV to Elizabeth I, 1570)
This was not a mere diplomatic gesture. It was an act of submission. Ivan officially offered to become a political refugee under London’s protection — with his state as the price.
Conclusion: Oprichnina as Preparation for Colonial Partnership
Paradoxically, the empire of terror so often associated with isolationism was, in fact, an open form of external integration. Its precondition was the liquidation of internal alternatives: Novgorod, the boyar class, independent merchants, and Orthodox autonomy.
Czar Ivan did not simply rule through fear — he was preparing the country for sale, cleansing it of competitors on behalf of a foreign power. The oprichnina was a campaign of domestic purging in exchange for foreign patronage.