The Oprichniki

The oprichniks have also acquired a reputation in the rest of Europe: Prince Kurbsky, who had fled Muscovy, described them as “children of darkness……..

Implemented by mad Tsar Ivan the Terrible his secret police participate in mass repressions, public executions, and confiscation of land from Russian aristocrats.

They are both soldiers and ministers, the police and the bureaucrats. Drawn mainly from the lower levels of the military and society, each member is questioned and has their past checked. Those who pass are rewarded with land, property and payments, thoses that fail are put to death. The result is a cadre of individuals whose loyalty to the Tsar is without question, and which includes very few boyars. Their numbers have grown to 6000 and including some foreigners.

They dress in black: black clothes, black horses and black carriages. They used the broom and the dog’s head as their symbols, one representing the ‘sweeping away’ of traitors, and the other ‘snapping at the heels’ of their enemies; some oprichniks carry actual brooms and severed dogs heads. Answerable only to Ivan and their own commanders, these individuals have free run of the country, and a prerogative to remove traitors. Although they sometimes use false charges and forged documents, as in the case of Prince Staritsky who was executed after his cook ‘confessed’, this was normally unnecessary. Having created a climate of fear and murder, the oprichniki just exploit the human propensity to ‘inform’ on enemies; besides, this black clad corps can kill anyone they wish.

People are impaled and mutilated, whipping, torture and rapes are common. The Oprichniki Palace features in many tales: Ivan built this in Moscow, and the dungeons are full of prisoners, of which at least twenty were tortured to death in front of the laughing Tsar.

Ivan alternates between periods of savagery and piety, often sending great memorial payments and treasure to monasteries. During one such period the Tsar endowed a new monastic order, which was to draw its brothers from the oprichniks. This foundation has turned the oprichniki into a corrupted church of sadistic monks and became an instrument interwoven in both church and state.