This book is about the childhood years of Ivan the Terrible, the first Russian Tsar. In his letters to Prince A. Kurbsky, he writes more than once that he did not have a childhood: it was taken away by the boyars who fought for power. Having lost his father at three and his mother at eight, he endured hardships and the tyranny of the Shuisky boyars and their henchmen until he came of age. Anyone to whom the child's heart was drawn would face disgrace or death, and he himself was more than once on the verge of death. The tragic events in the life of the royal youth make it possible to understand the nature and features of the reign of Ivan IV.