Иван Грозный. Двойной ПортретИван Грозный. Двойной Портрет

The book includes works by two outstanding Russian historians, Robert Wipper and Sergey Platonov. Published one after the other shortly after the October Revolution, these works are still free from externally imposed ideological constraints -- unlike later editions of Wipper’s work presented here, in which his critics saw (perhaps not entirely fairly) an apology for Stalinism. When it comes to the extraordinary personality of Ivan the Terrible, Wipper and Platonov agree on some points and differ on others. They focus on different aspects of his rule, offer their own interpretations of his actions, and place emphasis in their own way. As a result, the portrait of the tsar -- whose reign represents one of the most important periods of Russian history -- becomes all the more multifaceted.