Ivan the Terrible

Good-quality black powder was being produced in Russia in the 15th century in large amounts, and Ivan the Terrible reportedly had 200 cannons in his army in 1563 [6]. Fireworks were being used for celebrations and entertainment in Russia in the 17th century, with Peter the First among the most enthusiastic supporters of this artistic use of pyrotechnic materials. 

The proceedings to expatriate Demjanjuk began in 1981 before the Cleveland District Court. Naturally, five survivors of Treblinka recognized Demjanjuk as Ivan the Terrible, and the Court s copies of the Trawniki ID card No. 1393 became the chief piece of evidence on whose basis judge Battisti stripped Demjanjuk of his American citizenship.12... 

Ever since the mid-1970s, Ivan the Terrible, personified by John Demjanjuk, was systematically built up to be a symbol of the Treblinka Holocaust. The circumstance that the Monster of Treblinka had to be a Ukrainian probably has historical roots in the time when the Cossacks liberated the western part of the Ukraine from Jewish oppressors and tax-collectors.19 Oaths of vengeance and instinctive hatred a la the Old Testament survive for centuries. 

In 1552 Ivan the Terrible ordered subjects to measure the land and to make a drawing of the state. This spurred the development of mapping not only in Rus , but in nearby territories. With time the drawing contemplated by the tsar was gradually improved upon. Finally, in 1627 the accompanying book to the map was prepared it was named Book to the Great Drawing. In this Book the Aral was referred to as the Blue Sea. ... 

Fig. 9.15. The Cathedral of St. Basilius, Moscow (1551-1561). The architecture by Barma and Postnik and was built by Ivan the Terrible. Architecturally it is a highly successful solution of the problem of symmetry-asymmetry and an elegant exhibition of the artistic solution. It stands as a symbol of esthetic taste and understanding the beauty of the builder...

The existence of officials called alkimisty (most, apparently, foreign)" in the Tsar s Apothecary Department (Aptekarskii prikaz) in the seventeenth century, perhaps dating back to the time of Ivan the Terrible in the sixteenth century, suggests at first sight official promotion of alchemy, but in fact the duties of these alchemists seem to have ex tended no further than the preparation of medicines and the enormous quantities of distilled cordials consumed by the Tsar s household/ ... 

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