Sergei Eisenstein's

Ivan the Terrible

Ива́н Гро́зный​

Parts One and Two

 

Ivan the Terrible is Sergei Eisenstein's masterpiece, and the one film (or films) most strongly identified with the director's distinctive style.  Eisenstein planned three separate films which would take approximately six hours to view, completely exploring the tyrant's descent into depravity.

 

Eisenstein had made the silent classics Battleship Potempkin (1925) and October: Ten Days that Shook the World (1928), as well as the famous Alexander Nevsky (1938), starring the great Nikolai Cherkasov, who also starred as Ivan.  Alexander Nevsky was Stalin's personal favorite, winning both its director and star universal acclaim and their first Stalin Prizes.  Its colorful story of a virtuous twelfth-century prince who triumphantly defended Russia from invading Teutonic knights resulted in its being withdrawn from circulation after the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact in late 1939, but it was revived as a patriotic propaganda spectacle when Germany invaded the Soviet Union in 1941.  The film was much admired both in Russia and abroad, and its battle scenes strongly influenced Laurence Olivier's staging of Henry V (1944).  The musical score by Sergei Prokofieff is often performed as a concert suite.  Unfortunately 1938 Soviet sound-recording technology was very primitive compared to what Hollywood could take for granted by that time, so much of this magnificent music cannot actually be appreciated when watching the film, even with carefully restored versions.  Stalin's policy was to force development of more expensive domestic technology to avoid reliance on cheaper and more advanced foreign equipment and technicians, a strategy of autarky or economic self-sufficiency which limited growth and foreign trade by forgoing the use of economically advantageous imports.  Alexander Nevsky is sometimes shown today with the musical score performed by a live orchestra.  Prokofieff also scored Ivan the Terrible.

 

Stalin was very pleased with Ivan the Terrible Part I, and work on Parts II and III began almost immediately, using many of the same sets, props, and costumes.  Ivan the Terrible was filmed at Mosfilm's satellite production facilities in Alma Ata in the Caucasus because the primary studios in Moscow were under threat from the Nazis. Stalin identified strongly with Ivan, whom he saw as a role model, and clearly enjoyed Cherkasov's charismatic performances as strong, virtuous authority figures who saved Russia from invasion and chaos.  When Stalin saw his hero presented as an isolated and increasingly pathetic figure in Ivan the Terrible Part II, it cut too close to home.  Ivan the Terrible Part II was suppressed, and plans for a third film were abandoned.  Part II was released by Mosfilm in 1957, only after Stalin's death.

 

Only two scenes filmed for Ivan the Terrible Part III have survived.  One is a screen test of Mikhail Romm's performance as Queen Elizabeth I of England.  This would not have been used in the finished film, because authorities vetoed the use of the male head of the Cinema Union to portray a female character.  Romm would later direct the famous science fiction drama about atomic scientists battling radiation sickness, Nine Days in One Year (1962).  An extended scene was shot of the German soldier-of-fortune Sir Heinrich von Staden being introduced in Ivan's court.  Von Staden is treated as a spy and threatened with torture, but Ivan nonetheless let him join his personal bodyguard, the Oprichnika.  Ivan's torture chamber is conveniently located beneath his throne, and visible to him through floor gratings through which victims can be thrown to the executioners.  The one-eyed von Staden is also visible in his characteristic black armor at the beginning of Part II, in the court of King Sigismund II Augustus of Poland, when Prince Andrei Kurbsky betrays Ivan.

 

Ivan the Terrible Part I opens in 1547 with the Tsar's coronation by Archbishop Pimen in the Cathedral of the Dormition in Moscow.  Ivan crowns himself with the Cap of Monomakh.  He is supported by his two best friends, the Princes Andrei Kurbsky of Yaroslavl and Feodor Kolychev, who shower the new Tsar with cauldrons of gold coins.  Visiting courtiers and diplomats murmur that Ivan is illegitimate and will not be accepted by other powers, by Europe, by the Pope, and that the Grand Duke of Moscow has no claim to be Tsar (Emperor) of all the Russias.  The bespectacled Latvian ambassador responds, "If he is strong, they will recognize him."  The Tsar's aunt, Efrosinya Staretska, prefers her simple-minded, and therefore easily manipulated, son Vladimir Staretsky.  As soon as he is crowned, Ivan announces the formation of a standing army, along with new tax levies to support it, to be borne equally by the nobility and clergy.  Efrosinya and Archbishop Pimen are visibly shaken by this threat to their interests.

 

Ivan marries the beautiful, intelligent, and loyal Princess Anastasia Romanovna, but their wedding reception is disrupted first by a local civil disturbance, apparently fomented by Efrosinya and the other boyars as a challenge to Ivan, which the Tsar quells with a firm hand and some homespun Marxist-Leninist wisdom.  Kurbsky attempts to woo the Tsaritsa, but she rebuffs his advances.  Revolting peasants have set fire to the residences of the family of the Tsar's late mother. A mob of peasants led by Malyuta Skuratov enters the palace, demanding Ivan act against boyar families who support him, whom they accuse of witchcraft.  Then the Ambassador of Kazan arrives to present a declaration of war.  The Khan of Kazan has sent a dagger which the ambassador suggests Ivan use to commit suicide, both less painful and more honorable than what his master has planned for Ivan and Russia.  Ivan rallies his people to arms and sets out to lay siege to Kazan with Kurbsky as his general.  Fyodor Kolychev asks for permission to enter a monastery, and as a priest adopts the name Phillip.

 

Ivan displays wisdom and humanity in battle as Kurbsky attempts to force captured Tartars to call on their countrymen to surrender.  These captives are slaughtered by a rain of arrows from the besieged city, and when Ivan reprimands Kurbsky, the exasperated prince apparently raises his hand to strike Ivan, providentially shielding the Tsar from a stray arrow.  Malyuta takes charge of sapping operations under the Tsar's direction.  A deleted scene showed Malyuta's two assistants being hanged for supposed malingering just as their operation breached the walls of Kazan.  Ivan becomes acquainted with the boyar-hating soldier Alexei Basmanov and his son Fyodor.  The siege is successful as the walls of Kazan are blown up and Kurbsky captures the remaining fortifications, but Ivan takes ill on his return to Moscow.

 

As Ivan lies dying, Archbishop Pimen administers last rights, and the Tsar begs the boyars to swear allegiance to his infant son Dmitry[1].  All the boyars refuse, and encouraged by Efrosinya, are about to swear allegiance to the feeble-minded Vladimir.  Kurbsky again attempts to woo the Empress Anastasia, egged on by the treacherous Efrosinya, who schemes that this will prevent the Empress from opposing Vladimir's succession.  The Tsaritsa once more rebuffs Kurbsky, revealing that Ivan is still alive.  Kurbsky swears allegiance to Dmitry in defiance of Efrosinya, and Ivan appears, announcing "the holy sacrament has cured me."  In gratitude he names Kurbsky commander of the standing army and sends him to guard the Baltic borders, while sending Alexei Basmanov with an army against the Crimean Khan.

 

Efrosinya poisons the Tsaritsa, and Ivan is left alone.  He receives word that Kurbsky has betrayed him and sworn allegiance to King Sigismund of Poland.  Though plagued with self-doubt, Ivan defies Archbishop Pimen who recites Psalm 69 at the Tsaritsa's state funeral, crying out, "you lie, priest."  Alexei Basmanov encourages the Tsar to form a personal bodyguard of commoners like himself.  The first members of the Oprichnika are Basmanov, his son Fyodor, and the particularly sycophantic and treacherous Malyuta Skuratov, who is their commander.  The bearded Ivan is increasingly represented as a bird of prey, with Efrosinya portrayed as a reptile.  Malyuta, who serves as Ivan's eyes, is shown to resemble a dog.  Ivan announces he is abandoning Moscow to the boyars, and retreats to the village of Alexandrov.  The people make a pilgrimage to beg him to return.  His consent ends Part I, which was released in 1944.  The film received the Stalin Prize and Stalin's personal endorsement.

 

Ivan the Terrible Part II opens with Kurbsky in the court of King Sigismund of Poland, who offers to allow Kurbsky to govern Russia as his vassal.  The German knight Sir Heinrich von Staden is also present in the Polish court.  Sigismund believes Russia will be easy to conquer with Ivan inactive and unwilling to defend the capital.  Russian boyars like Kurbsky are beginning to defect to him.  The Polish court is thrown into an uproar when word comes of Ivan's return to Moscow.

 

Ivan begs Phillip the Monk to replace Archbishop Pimen as Metropolitan of Moscow, whom Ivan sends to Novgorod[2].  Phillip encourages Ivan to be merciful to his opponents and demands the right to intercede for the accused.  In contrast, Malyuta Skuratov encourages the Tsar to subject suspected enemies to summary execution.  Among the first victims are three of Phillip's cousins.  As he views his first victims decapitated bodies, Ivan proclaims, "too few."  Phillip and Efrosiya contrive to have a miracle play performed in the cathedral depicting the three youths cast into the furnace by Nebuchadnezzar (Daniel 3), accompanied by an appropriately denunciatory sermon by Phillip. Eventually even Phillip is sentenced,[3] as Ivan defies everyone, announcing, "from now on, I will be what you call me… terrible." 

 

Young Fyodor Basmanov suspects Efrosinya of the Tsaritsa's murder, but Ivan is reluctant to move against his aunt and apparently does not think her capable of such treachery.  Malyuta learns of a plot by the boyars to assassinate Ivan, and the Tsar devises a test.  He invites his cousin Vladimir Staretsky to a banquet, sending Malyuta to Efrosinya with the same cup used to poison the Tsaritsa Anastasia. 

 

The raucous banquet was shot with Agfacolor film captured from the Nazis, thus featuring the first color filming done in Russia.  Ivan has Vladimir crowned Tsar in his place,[4] and after much drunken dancing led by a masked Fyodor Basmanov in drag, the party moves from the banqueting hall to the cathedral, with Vladimir leading the procession in Ivan's robe and crown.  Archbishop Pimen's follower, the novice Pyotr Volynets, mistakenly murders Vladimir beneath a fresco of the Last Judgment.  Efrosinya initially exults over what she believes is Ivan's lifeless corpse, but then recognizes the dead Vladimir.  Ivan resolves to continue absolute rule.  Part II was completed in 1946, but state censors would not allow it to be shown until 1957.  Eisenstein died in 1948.

 

Flashbacks offer some insight into Ivan's developing severity—these scenes of Ivan's childhood were intended as a prolog to Part I, but censors found them too dark.  Two of these scenes were inserted early in Part II, when Ivan begs Phillip the Monk to return his friendship.   We are first shown the murder of Ivan's mother the Grand Princess Regent Elena Glinskaya, who was poisoned by boyars led by Prince Andrei Shuysky in 1538.  Ivan was eight years old when his mother was murdered.  Scenes of the murder of her lover Prince Ivan Telepnev-Oblonsky, who begs the boy Ivan for protection, and then fights for his life, were not used in Part II but have survived.  Then Ivan tells Phillip about being manipulated and disregarded by the boyars who accepted bribes from foreign powers to conclude commercial treaties.  This continued until about age twelve, when he had Shuysky executed. 

 

Eisenstein's staging is mannerist and highly stylized, with huge shadows cast on the walls behind characters.  Prying eyes are depicted everywhere, from religious icons to frescos on the walls and vaulted ceilings of palace halls and the cathedral.

 

Historically, Ivan and Kurbsky carried out a rather peculiar public correspondence.  Ivan's letters to his traitorous former best friend initially purported to be affectionate and promise forgiveness.  Kurbsky's replies were defiant, contemptuous, and mocking—even criticizing the Tsar's literary style.  Kurbsky knew Ivan far too well to risk the unspeakable death which would have been inevitable if he ever fell into Ivan's hands. The correspondence was publicized for propaganda purposes by both sides.  Kurbsky makes an impressive, though clearly self-serving, case against Ivan's tyranny, usurpation, and cruelty.  Ivan, even more self-serving, presents a comprehensive apologia for his reign and actions. 

 

Sir Heinrich von Staden prepared a history of Russia for the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II, The Land and Government of Muscovy, which included a detailed plan for invading Russia.  This work was rediscovered in state archives and published in 1839, offering a fascinating perspective on Ivan and the Oprichnika. 


[1] The infant Tsarevich Dmitri died in 1553, less than one year old.  The next Tsarevich, Ivan Ivanovich, lived to adulthood, once even saving his father from an assassination attempt.  After an argument in 1581, an enraged Ivan struck the Tsarevich on the head with his iron scepter, and the prince died a few days later.  Boris Godunov was badly wounded by Ivan while trying to protect the Tsarevich from his father.  Ivan apparently became depressed and grief-stricken over the murder of his loyal son, which may have exacerbated his mental instability. The next Tsarevitch Fyodor succeeded Ivan but was weak and ineffectual.  His reign began the Time of Troubles, as Fyodor was succeeded by the regent Boris Godunov and the three false Dmitris, pretenders who impersonated the late former Tsarevich with varying success and duration.  The Time of Troubles ended the Rurik dynasty.

[2] Ivan's single most depraved act was the sack of Novgorod in 1570.  On a visit to this important trading city, after hearing mass celebrated by Archbishop Pimen—Ivan was as pious as he was insane—the Tsar ordered the city sacked for imagined treachery against him.  Members of the wealthiest families were executed, deported, or tonsured, i.e., forced to enter a monastery, an ecclesiastical form of exile, and their property confiscated.  Casualty estimates range from 2,700 to over 20,000.  Both Basmanovs were executed along with numerous court favorites and members of the Oprichnika, and Archbishop Pimen died in custody shortly after.  Novgorod, which once rivaled Moscow in importance, never recovered. This event would likely have been the centerpiece of Ivan the Terrible Part III.

[3] Historically, Ivan had Phillip deposed as Metropolitan, confined in a monastery, and then sent Malyuta to murder him.  In the Orthodox Church he is known as St. Phillip the Hieromartyr. A famous painting by Nikolai Nevrev (1830-1904) depicts Malyuta Skuratov Approaching the Metropolitan Philip in Order to Kill Him.

[4] Nerev's famous painting, The Oprichnika depicts Ivan mocking one of his victims by dressing him in his own imperial robes and crown, just prior to the man's execution for treason.  This image may have inspired the way Vladimir's death is presented in Ivan the Terrible Part II.  The more horrible reality is that Ivan imprisoned Vladimir with his family and forced them all to take poison.