Ivan the Terrible is perhaps one of the most controversial and odious personalities in Russian history. A talented statesman, a wise reformer and... a bloody tyrant, a man who plunged his people into the chaos of monstrous repressions... What was he like, Ivan the Terrible, the founder of the Muscovite kingdom, a sovereign who had a great and very ambiguous influence on the course of historical events? What role did he play in the formation and decline of a powerful state? No one could have predicted the course of his thoughts and desires. He combined a cruel tyrant and a naive child, and his associates were called servants of the devil. He gave orders for executions, and then spent long nights in penitential prayer, he wore a monastic robe and changed seven wives... The day of his death was predicted by the Lapland witches... The great sovereign of a great country - who is he really?