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Historical Background

IVAN AND MARIA covers the period 1561 to 1569 during the time of Tsar Ivan IV’s marriage to Maria Temroko Idarova from the Caucasian country of Circassia. Russian historians have many, often conflicting accounts of this period. Our story is based on the Russian poet, Luba Balagova’s epic historical poem “Ivan & Maria”. Balagova spent several years in archival research before writing her epic. All events and characters in the film are based on historical fact. Balagova’s account agrees with all Russian historians on the following events which took place during the period covered by the film:

Tsar Ivan IV diminished the power of the boyars (princes) and became a totally independent and absolute ruler.
Ivan began uniting the city states of the ‘Russ’ to commence the formation of a Russian state encompassing the north Eurasian and central steppes.
His paranoia and schizophrenia increased and he became known as “Ivan the Terrible” for the atrocities he committed on his people -- atrocities which are mostly attributed to his schizophrenia and his traumatic upbringing
Ivan was well educated and maintained one of the largest libraries in Europe. He read extensively and was profoundly religious.

In reading through the chronicles and Russian history books, however, one rarely finds mention of Maria, the Circassian princess who was his wife for eight years, or her influence on him and therefore on the affairs of the Muscovite State. If one does, then Maria is often referred to as that “half wild awful Tatar wife” insinuating that she was responsible for all that went wrong with Ivan and with the state.
All historians know that Maria was not a “Tatar” wife, but since the Tatars had been the long-time arch enemies of the Russians at the time, it became ideologically convenient to misrepresent her as a Tatar. More often than not, she is completely ignored in Russian history. This has created a serious vacuum in our knowledge of Ivan’s character and of this crucial period of Russian history.