Malyuta Skuratov biography. Pages of history: the sinister Malyuta Skuratov (7 photos). Popular assessment and legends

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Malyuta Skuratov (real name Grigory Lukyanovich Skuratov-Belsky; date of birth unknown - January 1, 1573) - Russian statesman, military and political figure, one of the leaders of the oprichnina, Duma nobleman (from 1570), favorite guardsman and assistant of Ivan the Terrible.

Year and place of birth are unknown. He received the nickname “Malyuta” for his small stature or, perhaps, for his speech: “I pray to you...”. The name "Malyuta" became a popular noun for an executioner and villain.

The name Malyuta Skuratov was Grigory's nickname, just as the nickname of his father, Lukyan Afanasyevich Belsky, was Skurat, which means “worn suede” (perhaps, according to A. M. Panchenko, due to poor skin).

Coming from among the provincial nobility, he rose rather slowly in the system of public administration and at first was more in a secondary role.

The name of Grigory Belsky was first mentioned in discharge books in 1567 - during the campaign against Livonia, he held the position of “head” (centurion) in the oprichnina army.

Contrary to popular belief, Skuratov was not at the origins of the oprichnina, into which he was accepted to the lowest post of paraclesiarch (sexton).

The rise of Skuratov began later, when the oprichnina army began to act, “protecting the personal safety of the tsar” and “exterminating sedition that nested in the Russian land, mainly among the boyars.” Soon Skuratov became one of the guardsmen closest to Ivan the Terrible.

N.M. Karamzin, citing eyewitness testimony, describes how Malyuta and the guardsmen raided the courts of disgraced nobles, taking away their wives and daughters “for fornication” to the tsar’s entourage.

Probably, in 1569, Grigory Belsky headed the oprichnina detective department - “the highest police in cases of high treason,” which had not existed in the state structure before. This year, the Tsar instructs Belsky to arrest his cousin, the appanage prince Vladimir Andreevich Staritsky. The tsar’s cousin was a contender for the throne, a “banner” for the disgruntled boyars, however, there was no direct evidence of Vladimir Staritsky’s betrayal. Everything changed when Malyuta Skuratov headed the investigation. The main witness for the prosecution was the tsar's cook, nicknamed Molyava, who admitted that Vladimir Staritsky instructed him to poison the tsar. The cook was found with a powder declared to be poison, and a large sum of money - 50 rubles, allegedly given to him by Staritsky. Molyava himself did not live to see the end of the trial. On October 9, 1569, on the instructions of Ivan IV, Malyuta “read out the guilt” to Staritsky before his execution: “The Tsar considers him not a brother, but an enemy, for he can prove that he attempted not only his life, but also his rule.”

Grigory Belsky’s responsibilities included organizing total surveillance of unreliable people and listening to the “extortionists.” The main means of inquiry by oprichnina investigators was torture. The executions followed one after another.

At the end of 1569, Grigory Belsky received “notice” from Peter Volynsky that the Novgorod Archbishop Pimen and the boyars wished to “give Novgorod and Pskov to the Lithuanian king (Sigismund II Augustus - King of Poland, Grand Duke of Lithuania), and the Tsar and Grand Duke Ivan Vasilyevich all Rus' with evil intent." Historians believe that Volynsky forged several hundred signatures on a document of secret agreement with King Sigismund II Augustus. In response, a punitive expedition was organized. On January 2, 1570, the oprichnina army surrounded Novgorod. Malyuta Skuratov conducted the investigation with unheard-of cruelty. In the “Synodik of the Disgraced” it is written that “according to the Malyutinsky Novgorod parcels, one thousand four hundred and ninety people were finished, and fifteen people were shot from arquebuses, and you, Lord, weigh their names yourself.”

People's memory has preserved the proverbs: “The king is not as terrible as his Malyuta,” “On those streets where you rode, Malyuta, no chicken drank” (that is, nothing alive has survived).

By 1570, the oprichnina army already numbered more than 6,000 people and began to pose a greater danger to the state than boyar conspiracies. Omnipotence and impunity attracted, as Kurbsky put it, “nasty people, filled with all sorts of evils,” who administered justice almost exclusively. In his “Notes on Muscovy,” Heinrich Staden, a German mercenary who fell into the ranks of the oprichnina court, reported: “The oprichniki scoured the whole country... to which the Grand Duke did not give them his consent. They themselves gave orders, as if the Grand Duke had ordered to kill one or another of the nobility or a merchant, if only they thought that he had money... Many scoured the country in gangs and traveled supposedly from the oprichnina, killing on the main roads anyone who wanted them. came across."

The oprichnina became a well-organized armed structure that could break out of obedience at any moment. Grigory Belsky played a major role in its liquidation.

After the “Novgorod case,” an investigation was carried out against the leaders of the oprichnina Alexei Basmanov, Fyodor Basmanov, Afanasy Vyazemsky, etc. Alexey Basmanov had previously been removed from participation in the campaign against Novgorod, because he opposed the campaign and the Novgorod Archbishop Pimen was his faithful supporter. Oprichnik Grigory Lovchikov reported on Afanasy Vyazemsky: he allegedly warned the Novgorod conspirators by revealing the secrets entrusted to him. The investigative file states that the conspirators “were exiled to Moscow by the boyars with Alexei Basmanov and his son with Fyodor... and with Prince Ofonasy Vyazemsky.” On June 25, 1570, 300 people were taken to Red Square for execution. Right on the scaffold, the king pardoned 184 people and ordered 116 to be tortured. The execution began with Malyuta Skuratov, who cut off the ear of one of the main accused - Duma clerk Ivan Viskovaty, head of the Ambassadorial Prikaz, keeper of the state seal.

In 1571, after an investigation conducted by Grigory Belsky into the reasons for the success of the devastating raid of Davlet-Girey in the spring of 1571, during which Moscow was burned, the head of the Oprichnina Duma, Prince Mikhail Cherkassky, and three oprichnina governors were executed.

In 1572, the oprichnina army was disbanded. By royal decree it was forbidden to use the word “oprichnina” itself - those who were guilty were beaten with a whip.

In the early 1570s, on behalf of the Tsar, Grigory Belsky conducted important negotiations with Crimea and Lithuania.

In the spring of 1572, during the Livonian War, Grozny undertook a campaign against the Swedes, in which Malyuta held the position of courtyard governor, commanding the sovereign's regiment.

Grigory Belsky died in battle on January 1, 1573, having personally led the assault on the Weissenstein fortress (now Paide). By order of the tsar, the body was taken to the Joseph-Volokolamsk monastery. He was buried next to his father's grave. The burial site has not survived to this day. According to other sources, he was buried in the family crypt in the Antipyevskaya Church in Konyushennaya, on Volkhonka. The tsar “gave his servant Grigory Malyuta Lukyanovich Skuratov” a contribution of 150 rubles - more than for his brother Yuri or his wife Marfa. In 1577, Staden wrote: “By decree of the Grand Duke, he is commemorated in churches to this day.”

After Skuratov's death, his relatives continued to enjoy royal favors, and his widow received a lifelong pension, which was a unique phenomenon at that time.

Skuratov had no direct heirs in the male line. The head of the “secret police” settled his three daughters very well. Prince Ivan Glinsky, the Tsar's cousin, married the eldest. The middle daughter Maria married the boyar Boris Godunov and later became queen. The youngest, Ekaterina, was married to Prince Dmitry Ivanovich Shuisky, brother of Vasily Shuisky, who later became king. Prince Dmitry Shuisky was considered the heir to the throne, so Catherine could also become queen.

At the very end of 1572, the fourteenth from the beginning of the Livonian War, and, accordingly, the twelfth before its inglorious conclusion for the Russians, significant forces of Ivan the Terrible invaded the part of Estland controlled by the Swedes. The goals of the campaign were the most ambitious - to completely clear the territory of the Swedes, capturing Revel (Tallinn) and Pernov (Pärnu). Encouraged by the recent defeat of the Crimean Khan Davlet-Girey near Molodi and the period of “kinglessness” that began with the death of Sigismund II in the Polish-Lithuanian state, Grozny was able to mobilize almost all the available military contingents of his country for the campaign.
He himself arrived in the combat zone, intending to control the troops personally - which meant the exclusive hope of this cowardly and ambitious ruler for the success of the enterprise.

So, in December, the army set out from Novgorod and on the 27th besieged the Paida fortress (Wassenstein, now Estonian Paide). For five days, Voivode Tokmakov subjected the fortifications to intense artillery fire, using almost all the siege artillery - the pride of Ivan the Terrible. Then, when the guns fell silent, it turned out that the game was not worth the candle: it turned out that even before the Russians approached, most of the Swedish garrison left the fortress, going
towards the convoy with ammunition and equipment. According to the Livonian chronicler, in the fortress there remained “only 50 warriors capable of wielding weapons, and 500 ordinary men who fled to the castle.” Thus, easy success in the assault on the fortress looked inevitable. This became clear to everyone, and the “toilers of the ax and the dungeons” surrounding Grozny - leaders of the recently abolished oprichnina - saw an opportunity to distinguish themselves in full view of their master in an uncharacteristic military field.
Thus, the assault on Thursday, January 1, 1573 was led by the head of the Search Order himself, Malyuta Skuratov, assisted by his always-present assistant V.G. Gryaznoy, the latter’s relative V.F. Oshanin, the brother of the persecutor Metropolitan Philip V.M. Pivov and other then “Enkavedeshniks” "

What happened next fits perfectly into the standard logic of the development of such plots, when those close to the monarch are sent on a power mission against an obviously weaker enemy. Interested in subsequently presenting their actions as a difficult struggle against a stubborn enemy, these people deliberately aggravate and tighten the situation, sometimes ignoring peace proposals and even the capitulation of their opponents, shedding rivers of senseless blood.
We find this approach or its echoes at all times - let’s remember the famous episode of the burning of a bridge by the hussars from War and Peace, B.F. Sheremetev’s suppression of the uprising in Astrakhan in 1706, or, say, a number of reports about military operations in Chechnya. Moreover, the supreme spectator of such a performance himself sometimes even understands its value, but not only cannot besiege the presumptuous satrap, but is also obliged to reward him for his zeal. For, according to the rules of Russian bureaucratic mechanics, those punished for excessive zeal will next time demonstrate equally excessive connivance. And if they are punished here too, they will respond with impenetrable sabotage.

This happened with Gorbachev, by the way, and it was precisely this fear of Gorbachev’s trap that kept Putin from limiting the recent repressions against our dwarf opposition that seemed completely unfavorable to him.

However, let's return to besieged Paida. As expected, the recent guardsmen who burst through a wall breach into the fortress, which was ready to surrender, committed a terrible massacre, due to which the commandant of the fortress with several surviving soldiers refused to surrender and resisted to the last, defending the Prison Tower. At two o'clock in the afternoon the fortress was taken. However, the holiday still did not work out for Ivan the Terrible: during the assault, his inexperienced leader received a gunshot wound and soon died.

This event, it must be said, made a strong impression on the king. Absolutely indifferent to the lives of others, a bloody sadist at heart, he was seriously saddened and, wanting revenge, ordered all the prisoners to be roasted alive. This was done with sadistic leisureliness - for several days, German and Swedish prisoners, as well as noble residents of the town, were burned one by one at the fortress wall. They burned it so that the doomed could see each other executed.

What is the reason for such strong feelings? Perhaps, in the special logic of pathological suspiciousness. Suspecting everyone and everyone of a conspiracy against himself, cherishing such a conviction for decades, a person like Grozny is at some point able to endow his guard with almost mystical properties of the guardian of his own security. This identification rarely lasts for a long time, but this does not make it weaker...

And then Grozny left the army. Together with Malyuta’s coffin, he went to Novgorod, to the same Novgorod, whose streets two years earlier Malyuta had flooded with streams of innocent blood. The murderer was buried in the Joseph-Volokolmsky Monastery, the tsar awarded his widow a lifelong pension - almost the first in Russian history.

The purpose of this article is to find out the cause of the death of the beloved guardsman and assistant of Ivan the Terrible, MALYUTA SKURATOV, using his FULL NAME code.

Watch "Logicology - about the fate of man" in advance.

Let's look at the FULL NAME code tables. \If there is a shift in numbers and letters on your screen, adjust the image scale\.

2 8 20 49 67 78 88 98 102 119 129 133 148 165 175 185 197 217 228 257 289 303 318 321 331 355
BEL SKY GRIGORY LUKYANOVICH
355 353 347 335 306 288 277 267 257 253 236 226 222 207 190 180 170 158 138 127 98 66 52 37 34 24

4 21 31 35 50 67 77 87 99 119 130 159 191 205 220 223 233 257 259 265 277 306 324 335 345 355
GRIGORY LUKYA N OVICH BEL SKY
355 351 334 324 320 305 288 278 268 256 236 225 196 164 150 135 132 122 98 96 90 78 49 31 20 10

BELSKY GRIGORY LUKYANOVICH = 355 = DEAD FROM A FATAL WOUND.

355 = 223-FATAL WOUND + 132-DEATH.

355 = 159-SUDDEN DEATH + 196-SHOOT FROM A SQUARE.

102 = SHOT
________________________________________________
257 = 102-SHOT DOWN + 155-LIFE OVER

DEATH DATE code: 01/01/1573. This = 01 + 01 + 15 + 73 = 90 = DROPPED.

355 = 90-KILLED + 265-\ 196-SHOOT FROM A SQUARE + 69-END\.

162 = MURDER WITH A SQUIRREL.

Full DATE OF DEATH code = 162-FIRST OF JANUARY + 88-\ 15 + 73 \-\ YEAR OF DEATH code \ = 250.

250 = 63-DEAD + 187-SHOOTED.

355 = 250 + 105-KILLED P\hive\.

Code for the number of full YEARS OF LIFE = 123-THIRTY + 66-SEVEN = 189 = 102-SHOT DOWN + 87-DEAD.

355 = 189-THIRTY SEVEN, \ 102-SHOT + 87-DEAD \ + 166-\ 102-SHOT + 64-DEAD...\.

Let's do some arithmetic in the top table:

355 = 289-(189-THIRTY-SEVEN + 100) + 66-SEVEN, KILL = 189 + 166-(66-SEVEN + 100).

Born no later than 1535

The country's history is considered the bloodiest. Ivan the Fourth led the country as a child. In those days, issues of government were decided by the almighty, which consisted of well-born boyars and appanage princes. Wanting to gain undivided power, in 1565 Tsar Ivan founded the oprichnina. An army was created, consisting of common nobles, designed to fight the boyars and princes. For impoverished nobles, service in the oprichnina was a good career prospect. Among them was Skuratov-Belsky, who received the nickname Malyuta for his nickname.

The ambitious and cruel Malyuta Skuratov, whose biography is covered in myths and legends, tried in every possible way to break into and obtain a high position at the royal court. With the advent of the oprichnina, a series of bloody executions began in Moscow. Many boyars and princes were deprived of their lands and sent into exile. Malyuta Skuratov took the most active part in executions, cruel torture, as well as the expulsion of boyars disliked by Ivan. The biography of this man, according to historians,

Ivan the Terrible noticed the zeal of his guardsman. After some time, the detective work in the oprichnina was headed by Malyuta Skuratov. After the brutal reprisal against the princes, Tsar Ivan began to fight the boyars and nobles. As a result of this war, a new wave of trials and executions swept across Moscow. Some were killed on the spot without bringing the case to trial. As before, this name could not be avoided here - Malyuta Skuratov. The executioner's biography is full of terrible stories about torture and abuse of people. The brutal reprisals led by this man led to the death of 150 major boyars and hereditary nobles. 300 servants died with them. Malyuta's active work was highly appreciated by the tsar, after which the executioner began to quickly move up the ranks of the oprichnina.

In 1569, Malyuta Skuratov received a royal order to arrest his cousin, Prince Staritsky, and to destroy the defeated Metropolitan Philip. Malyuta completed both of these tasks in full and with his own hands.

In 1570, he became a Duma nobleman and came as close as possible to the Tsar. Malyuta constantly increased his influence and as a result received unlimited powers. He began to command and control everything that happened at the court of the sovereign. In addition, he also conducted diplomatic negotiations.

Malyuta Skuratov, whose biography was such that those around him (as well as himself) called him “the sovereign’s dog,” demonstrated his slavish devotion to the tsar. However, bloody service was not a burden for him. He enjoyed the torture he inflicted on his victims. You can see a portrait of Malyuta Skuratov in this article.

The cruel royal executioner died during the storming of the Livonian fortress. As the legend says, on his deathbed he deeply repented of his sins, and the inconsolable Ivan ordered to burn alive all those captured.

Despite the cruelty of the oprichnik, the history of Russia will forever remember his image - after all, in fact, he ruled the country for several years.

Until now, researchers and experts on old Moscow are arguing about where Malyuta Skuratov’s house was located in Moscow - “Malyutinsky Chambers”. But, unfortunately, there is no accurate and scientifically confirmed information on this issue.

Grigory Lukyanovich Skuratov - Belsky (Malyuta Skuratov)

Assistant to Ivan the Terrible (IV)

His name became a symbol of medieval cruelty. This man stands on equal terms with the most famous villains - Count Dracula and Richard III. Everyone remembers the lines of Mikhail Bulgakov: “Neither Gaius Caesar Caligula nor Messalina interested Margarita, just as none of the kings, dukes, jailers and cheaters, informers, traitors, madmen, detectives, and molesters were interested. All their faces were stuck together into one huge cake, and only one face remained painfully in the memory, bordered by a truly red beard, the face of Malyuta Skuratov...”

The chief of Ivan the Terrible's "secret police" is one of the most sinister characters in Russian history. As soon as they called this person! The royal executioner, “the sovereign’s faithful dog,” a political adventurer, “a stony-hearted man.” All this is certainly true. But it turns out we know very little about him! It is unknown when Malyuta was born and where. It is not known what the famous guardsman looked like: where, for example, did it come about that Skuratov was red-haired? It is unknown where he is buried. There is an explanation for all this. In 1568, by order of Ivan the Terrible, the official chronicle in Russia was cut short. All archives containing details of the oprichnina’s “exploits” were destroyed - again by order of the tsar. There are no documents left except the memories of several foreigners who were eyewitnesses of the bloody terror. Only sixty years later - in 1630 - Filaret Romanov compiled the “New Chronicler”, but then no one was interested in the truth about the oprichnina. Let's first try to understand the pedigree of our hero.

In the Middle Ages, a Russian person, as a rule, had two names - godfather and worldly. The nickname Malyuta meant “small”, “short”, and Skurat was the name of either his father or grandfather - apparently, the men in this family had bad skin (“skurat” - wiped suede).

Malyuta's real name was Grigory Belsky. The pre-revolutionary encyclopedia gives the following information: “The Skuratovs are a noble family, descended, according to the legends of ancient genealogists, from the Polish nobleman Stanislav Belsky, who went to Grand Duke Vasily Dmitrievich.” (However, sometimes you come across statements that Malyuta came from baptized Tatars and even from Karaites).

According to some historians, Grigory Belsky was a small nobleman who served in the Belaya fortress near Smolensk. Other researchers claim that the Skuratovs come from Pereslavl-Zalessky. “The History of the Zvenigorod Territory” puts forward a third version: “Particularly noteworthy is the family of the Belsky patrimonial people, from which came the notorious guardsman Malyuta Skuratov. The first known person of this family was Afanasy Ostafiev, son of Belsky, mentioned as a witness to the spiritual charter of 1473 from the Zvenigorod landowner Stepan Lazarev. His son Lukyan Afanasyevich, nicknamed Skurat, at the beginning of the 16th century owned a small village in the Trostna volost and had three sons: Grigory, Yakov and Nezhdan...”

At the same time, the famous historian V.O. Klyuchevsky for some reason called Skuratov Grigory Yakovlevich and believed that he came from a noble family of Moscow boyars Pleshcheev... However, among the “thousands of the best servants” selected in 1550 to serve under in the courtyard of Ivan IV, Malyuta and his brothers were not captured.

How and when Skuratov ended up in Moscow is unknown. His name was first mentioned in documents in 1567 - Grigory Belsky participates in the campaign against Livonia, but occupies the lowest position of “head” (centurion) in one of the regiments. Malyuta’s career was facilitated by the oprichnina - the most amazing “invention” of Ivan IV.

Moscow Metropolitan Philip Kolychev spoke of the guardsmen this way: “A satanic regiment, assembled for the destruction of Christians.” Prince Andrei Kurbsky wrote in one of his letters to Ivan the Terrible: “...he collected for himself from all over the Russian lands people who were nasty and filled with all sorts of evils.” Johann Taube and Elert Kruse (Livland nobles who served in the Ambassadorial Prikaz) say: the king chose “five hundred young people, mostly of very low origin, brave, daring, dishonest and soulless guys. This order was intended to commit special atrocities.”

Contrary to popular belief, Skuratov was not at the origins of the oprichnina. In his messages, Kurbsky reproached the tsar for the approach of “the vile and godless Belsky and his comrades, the blood-eating oprichniki,” but these words did not refer to our hero, but to his nephew, Bogdan Belsky, who, after the death of his uncle, headed the detective department, becoming Grozny’s favorite. According to the Piskarevsky chronicler, the oprichnina was created on the advice of the “evil boyars” Alexei Basmanov and Vasily Yuryev. It was they, and even Prince Afanasy Vyazemsky, who was entrusted by Ivan IV with the “enumeration of little people” - the study of the genealogies and friendly connections of future members of the security corps. Unfortunately, we do not know what selection criteria Basmanov and his comrades used, but the screening was huge: out of 12 thousand candidates, only 570 people ended up in the oprichnina, that is, less than five percent.

Malyuta passed the competition and got into Aleksandrovskaya Sloboda, but he took the lowest position in the “black brotherhood” - he was a paraclesiarch, that is, a sexton (apparently, that’s why historical novelists decided that he had an ear for music and a good voice). Belsky’s rise began later, when, as Grozny wrote to oprichnik Vasily Gryazny, “our princes and boyars taught us to betray and we, the sufferers, brought you closer, wanting service and truth from you.”

What did this service consist of? The guardsmen provided personal security for the Tsar. They also performed the functions of the political police - they conducted investigations and punished “traitors”, and showing truly inventive cruelty: they were quartered, wheeled, impaled, fried in huge frying pans, sewn up in bearskin (this was called “bear skinning”) and poisoned with dogs. Dressed in a uniform - black robes, like monks', on black horses, the guardsmen tied a dog's head and a broom to their saddles - as a symbol of their desire to sweep away treason from Rus'.

In the famous “Synodik of the Disgraced” - a list of those executed, compiled at the end of the reign of Ivan the Terrible - one can read that “on the estate of the disgraced boyar Ivan Chelyadnin-Fedorov, Gubine Corner, Malyuta Skuratov executed thirty and nine people.” According to the authorities, the head of the Boyar Duma, equestrian Chelyadnin, was preparing to carry out a coup with the help of his numerous servants.

Skuratov also took part in other “furies” of Grozny: for example, he carried out raids on the courts of disgraced nobles, taking away their wives and daughters “for fornication” for the tsar and his associates.

The tsar appreciated Malyuta’s diligence. In 1569, he instructs Skuratov to arrest his cousin Prince Vladimir Andreevich Staritsky.

Apparently, it was at this time that Grigory Belsky headed the oprichnina detective department. It was Skuratov who laid the foundations of political investigation in Russia. We do not know exactly how the first secret service in Rus' was organized, but Malyuta’s department served as a model for all subsequent Russian intelligence services, starting with Alexei Mikhailovich’s “Order of Secret Affairs” and ending with the KGB. And therefore, it can be assumed that under Skuratov, the detective department was not subordinate to either the Boyar Duma or the oprichnina government - the actual head of the Torture Court was the tsar himself - just like the “Order of Secret Affairs” was personally headed by the “quiet” Alexei Mikhailovich.

Malyuta’s duties included organizing total surveillance of the politically unreliable and listening to the “reporters” (it was at this time that denunciation in Rus' flourished in full bloom). The main weapon of oprichnina investigators was torture. Now it is impossible to establish exactly which conspiracies against Grozny actually existed, which arose in the fevered imagination of the monarch, and which were inspired by Skuratov. This fully applies to the “case of treason against Vladimir Staritsky.” The king's cousin was a real contender for the throne, a “banner” for disgruntled nobles. However, the authorities had no evidence of the guilt of the last appanage prince. Everything changed when Malyuta Skuratov headed the investigation.

The main witness for the prosecution was the royal cook, nicknamed Molyava, who admitted that Vladimir Andreevich instructed him to poison Ivan IV (a powder declared to be poison was “found” on the cook, and a large sum of money - 50 rubles, allegedly given to him by Staritsky; Molyava himself did not survive until the end of the process).

On October 9, 1569, Malyuta “read out his guilt” to Staritsky: “The Tsar considers him not a brother, but an enemy, for he can prove that he attempted not only his life, but also his government,” and then invited him to drink poisoned wine. The executions followed one after another. There was enough work for Malyuta. Sometimes he even took her home. In the last century in Moscow, next to the Church of St. Nicholas on Bersenevka, on the site where Skuratov’s chambers were located, a terrible find was discovered - hundreds of skulls under old church slabs of the 17th century...

At the end of 1569, Malyuta received secret information from the landowner Peter Volynsky that the Novgorod Archbishop Pimen and the boyars wanted “to give Novgorod and Pskov to the Lithuanian king, and to destroy the Tsar and Grand Duke Ivan Vasilyevich of All Rus' with evil intent.” Historians believe that Volynsky forged several hundred (!) signatures on the letter of secret agreement with King Sigismund II Augustus. In response, a punitive expedition was organized. On January 2, 1570, the oprichnina army surrounded Novgorod. Malyuta Skuratov conducted the investigation with unheard-of cruelty. The suspects were burned “with some kind of compound fiery flour”, “they were hung up by their hands and a flame was set on their foreheads.” The convicts, along with their wives and children, were dragged to Volkhov and thrown into the ice hole.

In the “Synodik of the Disgraced” there is an entry, terrible in its laconicism: “According to Malyutina’s skask, in the Nougorotsky parcel, I killed (killed) one thousand four hundred and ninety people by manual truncation, and fifteen people were finished off with a pike, and you, Lord, weigh their names.” Of course, Skuratov was fierce not out of fear, but out of conscience, but he physically could not destroy so many people with his own hands - this is the result of the actions of the punitive detachment he led. From those distant years, an expression has been preserved: “Those streets Malyuta Skurlatovich rode, those streets the chicken never drank...”

Paradoxically, Malyuta, who in popular memory is the personification of the oprichnina, played a major role in its liquidation.

By 1570, the army of the “kromeshniks,” already numbering more than 6,000 people, began to pose a greater danger to the existence of the state than any boyar conspiracies. Omnipotence and impunity attracted, as Kurbsky put it, “thugs and villains from everywhere” to the security corps.

The punitive forces carried out justice over Russia almost exclusively. In his “Notes,” Heinrich Staden (a German mercenary who fell into the ranks of the oprichnina court) reported: “The oprichniki scoured the whole country... to which the Grand Duke did not give them his consent. They themselves gave orders, as if the Grand Duke had ordered to kill one or another of the nobility or a merchant, if only they thought that he had money... Many scoured the country in gangs and traveled supposedly from the oprichnina, killing anyone on the main roads, whoever they came across." Staden says that the population began to arm itself to protect life and property. The government has lost control over the situation in the country.

The oprichnina was an established, well-organized and armed structure that could break out of obedience at any moment. But it was possible to eliminate the bloody executioners only with more blood. Malyuta Skuratov chose a traditional means for this - a conspiracy followed by exposure.

The “Novgorod case” helped. The head of the oprichnina government, Alexei Basmanov, opposed the defeat of Veliky Novgorod, since the Novgorod Archbishop Pimen was his faithful supporter (it was because of this that Basmanov was removed from participation in the punitive action). Afanasy Vyazemsky was reported by guardsman Grigory Lovchikov, who allegedly warned the conspirators - “he betrayed the secrets entrusted to him and revealed the decision made to destroy Novgorod.” In the investigative file one can read that the conspirators “were exiled to Moscow by the boyars with Oleksei Basmanov, with his son Fedor... and with Prince Ofonasy Vyazemsky.”

Confessions obtained under torture convinced Ivan IV that treason had made a nest among his inner circle. On June 25, 1570, 300 people were taken to Red Square for execution. To carry out the action, everything was prepared in advance: sharpened stakes were driven in, fires were burning, over which vats of boiling water hung. Right on the scaffold, the king pardoned 184 people and ordered 116 to be tortured. The execution began with Malyuta Skuratov, who personally cut off the ear of one of the main accused - “Chancellor” Ivan Viskovaty, head of the Ambassadorial Prikaz. But among those executed were not the main characters of the trial: Grozny’s favorite Fyodor Basmanov stabbed to death his father Alexei Basmanov to prove his loyalty to the Tsar, but was sent into exile to White Lake, and there he “passed away in disgrace.” Afanasy Vyazemsky was beaten with sticks, then exiled to Gorodets, where he died “in iron chains.”

Why did Grozny order the massacre of his recent favorites to be carried out secretly? Apparently, he seriously feared a revolt of the Praetorians.

The tsar's trust in the guardsmen was finally undermined after the raid on Moscow by the Crimean Khan Davlet-Girey in the spring of 1571. Professional punitive forces at all times could not resist the professional army. Moscow was burned to the ground by the Crimeans, several hundred thousand people died or were driven into slavery, Ivan IV himself was forced to flee to Rostov.

After an investigation into the causes of the disaster, the commander-in-chief, Prince Mikhail Cherkassky (head of the Oprichnina Duma) and three oprichnina governors were executed. Is it worth mentioning that Malyuta Skuratov led the investigation? In 1572, the army of the “kromeshniks” was disbanded. By royal decree it was forbidden to use the word “oprichnina” itself - those who were guilty were beaten with a whip.

The name of Malyuta Skuratov is still “on the shield” of the Black Hundreds. Few people know that “oprichnina brotherhoods” operate in Russia, “new oprichniki” make pilgrimages to Alexandrovskaya Sloboda, where there is a torture museum, and one of the main exhibits is the wax figure of Malyuta. But attempts to glorify the name of the bloody executioner have arisen before. Stalin, as you know, believed that the oprichnina was a “regular, progressive army,” and Malyuta Skuratov was “a major military leader and died heroically in the war with Livonia.”

In the 1930s, the leader gave the command to rewrite history. Everyone remembers well the film by Sergei Eisenstein, where the role of Malyuta was played by the people's favorite Mikhail Zharov. True, they forget another masterpiece - the drama-duology of Alexei Tolstoy “Ivan the Terrible”. One of the most virtuoso Stalinist writers also sang the praises of the chief tsarist inquisitor. Tolstoy’s Skuratov is a convinced statesman who considers himself obligated from above to help Grozny: “United power is a heavy cap... You have to break a lot, cut to the living...” Stalin’s historians falsified the facts, making Malyuta a remarkable statesman, comparable only to the head of the Elected Rada, Alexei Adashev, in the first years of the reign of Ivan IV. In reality, Grigory Belsky was not.

In reality, we know only one thing about Grigory Belsky: he was extremely cruel. Historian S.B. Veselovsky noted that Skuratov amused himself by inventing new executions previously unheard of in Rus' - for example, sawing people with a rope. But it is difficult to imagine that he committed bloody atrocities against the will of Ivan the Terrible, a sadist by nature (it is known that the tsar himself often performed the work of an executioner). However, in this Malyuta was certainly superior to his master. But for the rest... Although in the early 1570s Skuratov was assigned to conduct important negotiations with Crimea and Lithuania, such a choice of the tsar can only be explained by the extremely disastrous situation with the diplomatic personnel destroyed by Grozny.

As a result of his “diplomacy,” Russia almost lost Astrakhan. Malyuta also made mistakes in punitive matters. For example, during the “Novgorod campaign” he ordered the execution of captured Tatars held in prison in Torzhok. They offered resistance, which the royal executioner, accustomed to dealing with unarmed people, did not expect. The Tatars slashed Malyuta’s stomach with knives so that “his entrails fell out.”

When Grigory Lukyanovich led the tsarist army during the next war with Livonia, he... died in the first battle, which well characterizes his leadership abilities. So Malyuta definitely did not shine with intelligence and talents. But perhaps this is precisely the secret of his rise! Ivan the Terrible did not tolerate any outstanding personalities around him. At one time, when the tsar visited Vassian Toporkov, an adviser to his grandfather Ivan III, in the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery, and asked how he could achieve obedience from the nobles, he received the answer: “Do not keep with you a single adviser who would be smarter than you! »

Malyuta took others - truly dog-like devotion. In Russia at that time, this characteristic did not have a negative meaning. In any case, Grozny himself highly appreciated the selfless service to his master of the famous Vasily Shibanov, whom Kurbsky sent to Moscow to certain death - so that he would convey his message to the Tsar. In a reply letter to the prince, Ivan IV wrote: “How come you are not ashamed of your servant Vaska Shibanov? After all, he retained his piety both before the king and before all the people... standing on the threshold of death, he did not renounce kissing you on the cross, glorifying you and volunteering to die for you...” Skuratov was from this category of “faithful slaves.” He did not seek high ranks (his highest career achievement was the modest rank of Duma nobleman) and estates (this can be confirmed by the fact that after Skuratov’s death his widow received a lifelong pension from Ivan the Terrible - a unique case at that time: it can be assumed that the estate belonged to Malyuta it was small).

And yet Malyuta Skuratov is still an unread chapter in the history of favoritism in Russia. Grozny, as you know, had many favorites. Sylvester was the spiritual mentor of the young tsar, Alexey Adashev was the ruler of the state, Fyodor Basmanov was his lover, with Afanasy Vyazemsky the Terrible loved to talk about the fate of Russia on long nights... Who was Malyuta for Ivan IV? It is doubtful that Ivan the Terrible, who sincerely believed in what came from the Roman Emperor Augustus, would stoop to friendship with the “artful” guardsman. Many historians believe that in the last years of his life, Grozny “became a toy in the hands of adventurers like Malyuta Skuratov.” Indeed, Ivan IV was easily susceptible to suggestion, but sooner or later all his favorites ended their lives on the chopping block - everyone except Skuratov!

The tsar fully proved his affection for Belsky in 1571, when, after the death of his second wife Maria Temryukovna, he decided to choose a bride for himself. Neither the Tatar invasion nor the burning of Moscow interfered with matrimonial troubles. During the screening (about 2,000 candidates from all over the country were brought to Alexandrovskaya Sloboda), Ivan IV’s choice fell on Marfa Sobakina, a noble daughter from Kolomna (three hundred years later, N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov wrote one of the best Russian operas about her sad fate - "The Tsar's Bride")

The choice of the king seemed inexplicable. But from the miraculously preserved documents one can find out that Martha’s matchmakers were Skuratov’s wife and his daughter Maria, and Malyuta himself played the role of “friend” at the wedding ceremony. The little casket simply opened: Marfa turned out to be a distant relative of the head of the detective department!

Kinship with the king became the most valuable “reward for service.” However, just two weeks after the wedding, the king’s chosen one died without becoming his wife. Ivan the Terrible was sure that Martha was “plagued with poison,” and only “his own people” could do this.

When in the spring of 1572 Grozny undertook a campaign against the Swedes, Malyuta held the position of courtyard governor, commanding the guard - the sovereign regiment. The Russian army of eighty thousand besieged the castle of Weissenstein in Livonia, which was defended, according to some sources, by only... 50 people. Skuratov personally led the archers in the assault and died on the fortress wall.

According to the chronicles, Ivan IV ordered all the prisoners to be burned alive in revenge. As Karamzin wrote, “a sacrifice worthy of a dead man who lived by murder!” There is doubt that Malyuta's death was accidental. The hatred towards him was great, and the intrigues at court with the liquidation of the oprichnina only intensified. Did Skuratov become a victim of a conspiracy (the only successful one during the reign of Ivan IV)? Another possibility can be assumed: Grozny himself ordered an “accident.” But Malyuta was buried with honors in the “citadel of Orthodoxy” - the Joseph-Volokolamsk Monastery. The tsar “gave his servant Grigory Malyuta Lukyanovich Skuratov” a contribution of 150 rubles - more than for his brother Yuri or his wife Marfa. In 1577, Staden wrote: “By decree of the Grand Duke, he is commemorated in churches to this day...”

And history continues to throw up mysteries: in 1932, the newspaper “Evening Moscow” informed readers that while digging a pit for the foundation of the Palace of the Soviets,... Skuratov’s crypt was discovered! He was found under a church building that stood on the banks of the Moscow River. The builders allegedly dug up a slab with the inscription “Malyuta Skuratov is buried here.” Who needed to mystify Muscovites remains unclear...

Skuratov had no direct heirs in the male line. However, the chief of the “secret police” placed his three daughters very successfully. Prince Ivan Glinsky, the Tsar's cousin, married the eldest. The middle daughter Maria married the boyar Boris Godunov and later became queen. The youngest, Ekaterina, was married to Prince Dmitry Shuisky, brother of Vasily Shuisky, who was elected tsar during the Time of Troubles. (Interestingly, Prince Dmitry was considered the heir to the throne, so theoretically Catherine could also become a queen!).

There is a legend that when the mortally wounded Skuratov was brought to the monastery to die, he cried, repented and asked to be buried near the fence of the monastery, in a “trampled place” - so that people who walked to the temple would pass over his grave. But this legend is not very believable. Grigory Lukyanovich was not the kind of person to repent even before death...

Malyuta entered Russian folklore as a ruthless executioner and sadist. In the famous “Song of the Terrible’s Anger at His Son,” it is “Malyuta the villain Skurlatovich” who informs on the prince that he is showing mercy to traitors, and then joyfully undertakes to carry out the death sentence imposed by the king. It's worth making a digression here.

The creators of epics sometimes showed such amazing awareness of the details of real events that the assumption involuntarily arises: were they not composed in the palace chambers? Those close to Tsarevich Ivan actually hatched plans to overthrow Grozny - and Malyuta greatly interfered with them... “The Song of the Wrath of Grozny” appeared in the 17th century, under the first Romanovs, who formed the heir’s circle. In popular legend, it was Skuratov who became responsible for the “excesses” of Ivan the Terrible’s rule. The rooting of this myth again played into the hands of the Romanovs, whose rights to the throne were based only on the fact that their relative Anastasia Romanovna was the first wife of Ivan IV.

When did the debunking of Malyuta begin? Apparently, not immediately after the death of his crowned patron: in any case, Skuratov’s relationship with Boris Godunov did not prevent the latter from winning the election campaign in 1598 and ascending to the throne (Pushkin’s definition of Godunov: “the executioner’s son-in-law and an executioner himself at heart” is a view from XIX century, from “History” by Karamzin). Tsar Boris, who was distinguished by his harsh disposition, considered any impartial judgments about his father-in-law as an attempt on his royal person.

Apparently, it all began with the appearance of the first “hagiography” texts about St. Philip... The main crime of Malyuta Skuratov is considered to be his murder of Metropolitan Philip Kolychev, an irreconcilable fighter against the tyranny of Grozny, who publicly condemned the atrocities of the oprichnina. This happened during the “Novgorod campaign” - December 23, 1569 in the Tver Otroch Monastery.

In October 2004, the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg hosted the “Big Picture” exhibition. Among others, it featured the canvas “The Last Minutes of the Life of Metropolitan Philip,” written in the 1880s by academician of painting A.I. Novoskoltsev - the gloomy figure of Malyuta in the doorway of the cell of the disgraced metropolitan and the emaciated figure of Philip, who prays in front of the icon, understanding that the last minute of his life is coming. This pictorial reconstruction of the event also exists in literature.

In the essay “St. Philip, Metropolitan of Moscow,” the outstanding Russian philosopher Georgy Fedotov wrote: “... the king remembered the Tver prisoner and sent Malyuta Skuratov to his cell: the guardsman had to ask the saint for a blessing for the Novgorod campaign!” It is natural to assume that Malyuta had another secret order or guessed the royal thought well. Otherwise, he probably would not have dared to do what he did, or he could not have gone unpunished. They say that the martyr had already foreseen his death for three days and predicted it to those around him: “The time of my feat has approached.” On the very day of his death he took communion...

On December 23, a royal envoy entered his cell. No one witnessed what happened between them." “The Life of St. Philip” describes his death this way: “Malyuta entered the cell and, humbly bowing, said to the saint: “Vladyka, give your blessing to the king to go to Veliky Novgorod.” Knowing why the royal messenger came, Philip replied: “Do what you came to me for, and do not tempt me by flattery asking for the gift of God.”

Malyuta took a pillow (“underhead”) and strangled the saint with it. Then he hastily left the cell and, having reported his death to the abbot and the brethren, began to reproach them for neglecting the prisoner, who allegedly died from excessive fumes (“hazing in the cell heat”). Without allowing them to come to their senses, Malyuta ordered to dig a deep hole behind the altar of the cathedral church and bury the body with him. Wasn't there
There was no ringing of bells, no fragrance of incense, and perhaps even church singing itself, for the evil guardsman was in a hurry to hide the traces of his crime. And as soon as the grave was razed to the ground, he immediately left the monastery.”

“Life” appeared many years after the events described. As Karamzin also noted, it raises great doubts - at least because it conveys in detail the conversation between Malyuta and Philip. Are there any eyewitnesses to the crime in the Otroch Monastery?

Taube and Kruse tell the story differently: “The disgraced Metropolitan Philip was in the monastery in Tver. Ivan ordered his highest boyar or executioner, Malyuta Skuratov, to strangle him with a rope and throw him into the water, into the Volga.” But a “third party” was also involved in this matter. Philip was betrayed by “his household” - the highest hierarchs of the church, who became close to the guardsmen.

Archbishop Pimen of Novgorod (historian R.G. Skrynnikov writes that he “provided many important services to the tsar and his minions”), bishops Paphnutius of Suzdal and Philotheus of Ryazan, Archpriest Eustathius of Blagoveshchensk formed a real conspiracy against Philip, “dreaming of capturing his throne.” To “collect incriminating evidence,” they sent an investigative commission to Solovki, where they obtained the necessary evidence from the monks through threats. Among the false witnesses was even the Solovetsky abbot Paisiy, the Metropolitan’s favorite student - he was promised an episcopal miter. In 1568, the Holy Council, chaired by Pimen, condemned Philip and sentenced him to death (the historian of the Russian Orthodox Church A.V. Kartashev called this council “the most shameful of all in the entire church history of Russia”).

Ivan IV replaced the execution with imprisonment in a monastery. What reason did the king have to kill the disgraced hierarch a few years later? Of course, there is often no logic in Ivan’s actions. But here everything is just logical: since Archbishop Pimen was the initiator of the overthrow of Philip, the tsar could hope that Kolychev, in turn, would not fail to “inform” his enemy.

Kurbsky even believed that Grozny made an attempt to make peace with the Metropolitan - in his “Tale of the Grand Duke of Moscow” he wrote: “The Tsar sent to him (Philip. - I.K.) with a request to forgive him and bless him, and also to return to his throne (!), but he, as is known, answered him: “If you promise to repent of your sins and drive away from yourself those who are called kreshniks or guardsmen, I will bless you and return to my throne, having listened to you...”

It is known that all of Philip’s ill-wishers were subjected to repression. In the “Chetya-Menaia” you can read: “The Tsar... put his formidable disgrace on all the perpetrators and accomplices of his execution.” Pimen was sent as a prisoner to the Venevsky St. Nicholas Monastery and lived there under constant fear of death, Philotheus was deprived of his bishopric, the ambitious abbot Paisiy was exiled to Valaam, the monk Zosima and nine other monks who slandered the metropolitan were also sent to different monasteries, and “many some of them died on the way to their places of exile.” Bailiff Stefan Kobylin, Philip’s jailer, was also subjected to severe punishment: he was imprisoned in the Spaso-Kamenny Monastery (it is interesting that it was from the words of Kobylin, who became a monk, that the first “Life” of St. Philip was written).

Whether Skuratov killed Philip or his death was the work of someone else remains unclear to this day. The disgraced metropolitan died after the chief royal inquisitor visited his place of imprisonment. “After that” does not always mean “as a result of that.” But his reputation as the most bloodthirsty executioner of Ivan the Terrible was already working against Skuratov.

In an era when executioners are in demand, they appear as if by order. Malyuta Skuratov was only one of the first.

Biography:

Skuratov Belsky Grigory Lukyanovich (Malyuta) (birth unknown - died January 1, 1573, near Weisenstein Castle, now Paide-Estonian SSR), one of the leaders of the oprichnina of Ivan IV Vasilyevich the Terrible, an active organizer of the oprichnina terror.
He came from the upper strata of the provincial nobility.

He advanced in 1569, participating in the investigation and execution of Ivan IV’s cousin, V. A. Staritsky. In December 1569 he strangled the former metropolitan Philip Kolychev; in January 1570, in connection with Novgorod's suspicion of treason, he led its defeat, killing thousands of residents. In 1571 he conducted an investigation into the reasons for the defeat of Russian troops in a battle with the horde of the Crimean Khan Devlet-Girey. Killed in battle. The name of Malyuta Skuratov is associated with the cruelties and executions of the time of Ivan IV.

The name of Malyuta Skuratov has become a household name among the people. There were legends about the cruelty of the “faithful dog of the sovereign.” How did a person from an impoverished noble family become the main guardsman and murderer of Ivan the Terrible - further in the review.

Royal Decree. Malyuta Skuratov. P. Ryzhenko, 2006.

The guardsman's real name is Grigory Lukyanovich Skuratov-Belsky. He received the nickname “Malyuta” for his short stature. Later, this is what people called executioners and murderers. Information about when and where the future guardsman was born has not been preserved. It is only known that Malyuta Skuratov came from an impoverished noble family, and he climbed the career ladder for a very long time. He became one of the main guardsmen closer to the end of the bloody policies of Ivan the Terrible.

Malyuta Skuratov. K.V. Lebedev, 1892.

During the Livonian War, Skuratov was hired as a centurion in the oprichnina army. He demonstrated his “abilities” during the investigation into the zemstvo conspiracy in 1567. In one of the estates, in search of conspirators, Malyuta Skuratov tortured 39 people, but still received the necessary information. Torture has always been considered the most effective forms of interrogation.

Two years later, Malyuta Skuratov moved up the ranks and headed the “high police for treason.” Ivan the Terrible, seeing conspiracies everywhere, instructed his “faithful dog” to deal with his cousin, Prince of Novgorod Vladimir Staritsky, since he was the only competitor to the tsar for the throne. When Malyuta Skuratov got down to business, the culprits and evidence were immediately “found.” The Tsar's cook Molyava and his sons were accused of attempting to poison Ivan the Terrible. They say that when they went to Novgorod for white fish, Prince Vladimir gave them poison for the king. The prince was executed.

Ivan the Terrible and Malyuta Skuratov. G. S. Sedov, 1871.

After this, Ivan the Terrible conceived a campaign against Novgorod. The chronicles preserve a report on the actions of the oprichnik: “In the Novgorod parcel, Malyuta trimmed 1,490 people (by manual truncation), and 15 people were trimmed from the pike.” That is, Skuratov personally killed and shot so many people. After the Novgorod defeat, sayings appeared among the people: “On those streets where Malyuta rode, no chicken drank” (that is, there was nothing alive left), “The king is not as terrible as his Malyuta.”

Maria Grigorievna Skuratova-Belskaya is the daughter of Malyuta Skuratov, the wife of Tsar Boris Godunov.

While Malyuta Skuratov was in the service of the sovereign and tortured people he disliked, he did not forget about the well-being of his family. All three of his daughters were successfully married. One daughter went to Dmitry Shuisky, the second to Prince Glinsky, and the third became the wife of Boris Godunov, the future tsar.

Oprichniki. N. Nevrev, 1904.

In 1571, as a result of a raid by the Crimean Tatars, Moscow was burned by Khan Davlet-Girey. The guardsmen were unable to prevent him from destroying the capital. This event greatly angered Ivan the Terrible, and some of the governors' heads rolled. Malyuta Skuratov was spared execution, but in the next campaign he no longer got the place of courtyard governor. During the storming of the Weisenstein fortress in the war with the Swedes, the guardsman found himself on the front line and was shot by the enemies.

Oprichnina. O. Betekhtin, 1999.

By order of the Tsar, Malyuta Skuratov was buried in the Joseph-Volokolamsk Monastery. Ivan the Terrible donated 150 rubles for his commemoration. This amount was much larger than the donations to the king's brother and his wife Martha.

The name of Malyuta Skuratov became synonymous with mercilessness and cruelty due to his savage torture.

MALYUTA SKURATOV(Skuratov-Belsky, Grigory Lukyanovich) (?–1573) - Russian statesman, military and political figure, one of the leaders of the oprichnina.

Year and place of birth are unknown. He received the nickname “Malyuta” for his small stature.

Coming from among the provincial nobility, he grew rather slowly into the system of public administration and at first was more in a secondary role.

In 1567 he was first mentioned as part of the oprichnina army. During the beginning of the oprichnina repressions of 1569–1570, he sharply became one of the guardsmen closest to Ivan the Terrible thanks to his “thoughtless adherence to the tsar’s whims.” He carried out raids on the houses of Moscow boyars, governors, clerks, taking away their wives and daughters for the amusement of the tsar and his entourage. The tsar instructed Malyuta in 1569 to “read out the guilt” of the Staritsa prince Vladimir Andreevich before his murder. In December of the same year, Malyuta personally participated in the reprisal of Metropolitan Philip Kolychev, who was “removed” from the metropolis in 1568 and exiled to the Tverskaya Otroch Monastery because he refused the Tsar’s blessing for the oprichnina executions and in every possible way condemned the tsar’s oprichnina tyranny. Malyuta arrived at the monastery, ordered the metropolitan to be tied up right during his service in the Assumption Cathedral and personally strangled him.

From 1569 Malyuta was among those closest to Ivan the Terrible, from 1570 to 1572 he was a Duma nobleman. One of Malyuta Skuratov’s daughters, Maria, was married to a boyar, the future Tsar Boris Godunov, and the other, the future poisoner M.V. Skopin-Shchuisky, was married to Dimitri Ivanovich Shuisky.

In January 1570, in connection with Novgorod's suspicion of treason, Malyuta led robberies and pogroms in the city. Thousands of inhabitants were slaughtered. All this has been preserved in the people's memory (“The Tsar is not as terrible as his Malyuta,” “On those streets where you rode, Malyuta, the chicken did not drink” - that is, nothing living has been preserved). Some facts of his biography were overgrown with fictitious legends, including about the “lack of virginity” discovered by Ivan the Terrible in Princess Dolgoruky and the Tsar’s order to immediately drown the “youth,” which was supposedly carried out unquestioningly by Malyuta.

After the victory of the Crimean Khan Devlet-Girey over the Russian army, Malyuta, on behalf of the tsar, conducted an investigation in order to find out the reasons for the defeat, and in 1572 he conducted diplomatic negotiations with a messenger from the Crimea. At the end of 1572, during the Livonian War, the king and his army entered Estonia. Malyuta was in one of the regiments and died in battle during the capture of Weissenstein Castle (now Paide in Estonia) on January 1, I573. By order of the tsar, the body was taken to the Joseph-Volokolamsk Monastery. Skuratov's relatives continued to enjoy royal favors, and his widow received a lifelong pension, which was a unique fact at that time.

The determination and cruelty with which Malyuta carried out all the king’s orders aroused anger and condemnation among those around him. The image of a dutiful and soulless executor of the tsar’s inhuman orders is revealed in the historical songs of the Russian people, who have preserved in their memory for centuries the name of the executioner and murderer Malyuta Skuratov.

Lev Pushkarev