I'VAN, or MAN (the Russian form of John), the name of a number of Russian czars. —Ivars I. (1462-1505) may be regarded as the founder of the Russian empire. He was at first only grand duke of Moscow, but succeeded in shaking off entirely the yoke of the Tartars, and in subjecting a number of the Russian principalities to his own sway. In 1472 he married Zoe, a niece.of the last Byzantine emperor, and thus brought the two-headed Byzantine eagle into the Russian arms, an emblems with which are con nected pretensions not likely to be forgotten by the Russian emperors, although they may not be openly urged. This marriage opened up a way also for the entrance of European civilization into Russia.—Ivax II. (1533-84) did much for the advancement of his country in arts aud commerce, as well as for its extension by arms. He con cluded a commercial treaty with queen Elizabeth. after the English had discovered the way to Archangel by sea. He bore, however, the surname of the cruel, and merited it by his deeds, among which was the slaughter of 60,000 persons—other accounts make the number only 25,000—at Novgorod in six weeks, on account of a supposed plot to deliver up the city and surrounding territory to the king of Poland.—IvAic III., born
Aug. 23, 1740, was the son of the duke Anthony Ulric of Brunswick•Wolfenbilttel, and the Russian grand duchess, Anna Carlowna. The empress Anna Ivanowna adopted him as her son and heir, but she dying soon after, and Elizabeth, the daughter of Peter I. seizing the throne, he was imprisoned during the remainder of his life; and by the orders either of the empress Catherine II., or of her counselors, was put to death by the officers of the garrison at Schlasselburg, where he was confined, on Dec. 5, 1764. Those Russian Ivans are sometimes differently numbered, the reckoning being made to begin further back, with those who were only grand dukes of Moscow.