Ivan the Terrible’s Itinerarium: A Study of the Evidence

Abstract

The study of sources on Ivan the Terrible’s travels and stays in capitals allows us to group the data into five types: certified acts (gramotas), narrative sources, registration data, ambassadorial documentation and memoria. A special section of the work proves the value of foreign sources, which do not form any special type in the classification. The acts of internal records provide very little information about Ivan the Terrible’s trips outside Moscow (6 % together with embassy documentation this percentage can be a little higher). At the same time, about 11 % of the localizations of the acts are of a formal nature and do not correspond to all the available information about the location of Ivan the Terrible at the time of their issuance. Narrative monuments have their own specifics. They are much more diverse than the acts: according the method elaborated for the case, 27 % of the exact localizations of official chronicles reflect the travels of the tsar and his family around the country. At the same time, the record books of the ranking department specify in detail (in some cases, day by day) the military campaigns in which Ivan Vasilievich personally took part. The difference between the early years of the reign under study from the “second half” of the reign only in the fact that the volume of record keeping over time increases, and the chronicle case comes to a standstill, and we have at our disposal a different range of verification sources. Chronicles are largely replaced by often far from accurate — despite their businesslike nature — certified gramotas, as well as sources of foreign origin. The total range of evidence studied is about 4 500 records (more or less precise dates / localizations), covering with varying completeness all periods of life of Ivan IV. It allows us to ask new questions about the movements of the Grand Duke and Tsar in Russia and abroad.