The Museum of Moscow presents a forensic reconstruction of Ivan the Terrible’s face. The reconstruction of Tsar Ivan IV’s appearance was carried out during restoration work in the Archangel Cathedral, when sarcophagi with the remains of Moscow sovereigns were opened and examined.
The reconstruction was made by the prominent Soviet sculptor and anthropologist Mikhail Gerasimov, who, even before the Great Patriotic War began, developed his own method of restoring one’s appearance relying on skull bones. In 1950, he founded the Laboratory of Anthropological Reconstruction at the Institute of Ethnography of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Gerasimov executed this sculptural portrait of Ivan the Terrible in 1964, when his work and method had already gained worldwide fame. This is the most mature and well-known work of the outstanding anthropologist. It reflects individual features of the tsar’s face.
Born in August 1530, the first son of the Grand Duke of Moscow Vasily III and his young wife Elena Glinskaya, Ivan ascended the throne at the age of three. In January 1547 he was crowned the Tsar of All Russia in the Dormition Cathedral of Moscow Kremlin — the first among Russian sovereigns. In 1549, he established a council of the nobles who supported him — the Chosen Council — to help him rule the country. Under him, the Zemsky Sobor (an assembly representing Russia’s estates of the realm) was convened for the first time and the Sudebnik of 1550 (a code of laws) was compiled. He reformed the military service, the judicial system, and public administration, and introduced elements of self-government at the local level. In 1552–1556, Kazan, Astrakhan khanate, Chuvashia and Bashkiria were annexed.
In 1560, the Chosen Council was abolished, its prominent figures fell into disgrace, and the tsar’s completely independent rule began. The second half of Ivan the Terrible’s reign was marked by a streak of failures in the Livonian War and the establishment of the Oprichnina, during which the country was devastated.
After his death in 1584, Ivan IV was buried in the Archangel Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin.
