Ivan the Terrible |
| |
Authors: | Boris Floria |
| |
Institution: | Institute of Slavonic Studies, Moscow State University |
| |
Abstract: | Although the violence of Ivan IV's reign was excessive, present-day liberal views that Russia under its first tsar missed an opportunity to develop a more democratic or protocapitalist system rely on an unjustifiable assumption: that Russian society would have followed the path of Western Europe with its balance between the interests of strong government power and autonomous estates, not Eastern or Central Europe with its selfish nobility and underdeveloped towns. |
| |
Keywords: | |
|
|