The gloomy figure of Tsar Ivan the Terrible obscures the history of almost the entire Russian Middle Ages. They argued about him during his lifetime, they argue now - four centuries after his death. Some considered him a maniac who flooded the country with the blood of unfortunate subjects. Others are a genius who has overtaken time. There is no doubt, perhaps, only one thing: Russia after Grozny was a completely different country than before it. The famous historian Boris Nikolaevich Florya discusses the personality of Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich, as well as the ways of development of Russia in the 16th century.