Ivan IV Crowned Tsar of Russia

January 16, 1547

A sixteen-year-old grand prince named Ivan Vasilyevich had himself crowned Tsar of all the Russias in the Dormition Cathedral in Moscow, the first ruler to use the title formally. He would reform law, conquer Kazan and Astrakhan, and earn the epithet Grozny, meaning the Terrible. His coronation, modeled on Byzantine ritual, positioned Moscow as the Third Rome and guardian of Orthodox Christianity.