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, and they still argue about him now - four centuries after his death. Some considered him a maniac who flooded the country with the blood of his unfortunate subjects. Others - a genius ahead of his time. Perhaps only one thing is certain: 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 paths of development of Russia in the 16th century.