philip metropolitan of moscow who ended his life as a martyr and was put to death by command. tsar ivan the terrible there are a lot of different interpretations around this story. some argue that the saint was against the elevation of the royal throne and supported the boyars, who, as you know, during the dawn of feudalism in russia, had great political powers and controlled entire lands of the russian state, and ivan the terrible, wanting to create a powerful unified russian state , fought against this separatism of the feudal lords in order to so that russia becomes a single state could resist the west. and even then ivan the terrible turned his eyes to the baltic sea long before peter i, realizing that going to the baltic means going abroad there to the west, and all this required strength from russia and not only military strength, but spiritual strength. and therefore tsar ivan the terrible, being a pious man, did a lot to strengthen church life. but by nature he was quick-tempered and suspicious. it was these negative traits of his that led to the tragedy that took plac