Oprichnik

Oprichniki, painting by Nikolai Nevrev.

The street in the town: people fleeing at the arrival of the Oprichniki (set to the opera The Oprichnik by Pyotr Tchaikovsky, 1911)

An oprichnik (Russian: опри́чник, IPA: [ɐˈprʲit͡ɕnʲɪk], man aside; plural Oprichniki) was a member of an organization established by Tsar Ivan the Terrible to govern the division of Russia known as the Oprichnina (1565-1572). It is thought by some scholars that it was Ivan's second wife, the Tatar Maria Temryukovna who first gave the Tsar the idea of forming the organization. This theory comes from a German oprichnik, Heinirich von Staden. Her brother also became a leading oprichnik.

Their oath of allegiance was: I swear to be true to the Lord, Grand Prince, and his realm, to the young Grand Princes, and to the Grand Princess, and not to maintain silence about any evil that I may know or have heard or may hear which is being contemplated against the Tsar, his realms, the young princes or the Tsaritsa. I swear also not to eat or drink with the zemschina, and not to have anything in common with them. On this I kiss the cross.^[1]

The Oprichniki were responsible for the torture and murder of internal enemies of the Tsar. Notorious for their violent means of enforcement, they could be compared to modern "death squads" or even secret police. Guided by Ivan, they laid waste to civilian populations. They dressed in black garb, similar to a monastic habit, and bore the strange insignia of a severed dog's head (to sniff out treason and the enemies of the Tsar) and a broom (to sweep them away). The dog's head was also symbolic of "nipping at the heels of the Tsar's enemies." They were sometimes called the "Tsar's Dogs" on account of their loyalty to him. They also rode black horses in order to inspire greater terror. The Oprichniki were given orders to execute anyone who was disloyal to Ivan IV. Their most odious member was Malyuta Skuratov.

The Oprichniki would use different methods of torture including tying each limb to a different horse and riding in the opposite directions or dropping the person into a vat of boiling water. They would impale victims, or even tie the victim to a pole and burn him over an open fire. All of this was supported by Ivan IV (Ivan the Terrible).

When Ivan declared himself the "Hand of God", 300 of the Oprichniki were selected to be his personal "brotherhood" that lived within Ivan's castle at Aleksandrovskaia Sloboda near Vladimir. Every night at 4 am these Oprichnik "monks" would attend a sermon given by Ivan himself before the morning's ritual executions. The Oprichniki would lead an externally ascetic lifestyle, like the monks they emulated, but there would be rash outbreaks of cruelty and debauchery. Ivan would sing while they ate, not eating himself till everyone had finished. He would go to bed at 9pm when 3 blind men would tell him stories.

In the infamous Novgorod incident, the Oprichniks massacred an estimated 1500 presumably innocent "big people" (nobles), although the real figure is unknown.^[2]

By 1572, Tsar Ivan disbanded the Oprichnik due to his realization that they were causing more problems and internal instability than the solutions he had originally planned them to fulfill. Moreover, despite having created them himself, Ivan made it a capital crime to even mention the name "Oprichnina" or anything in relations to it.

Appearances in modern media

The Oprichniki appear in Ensemble Studio's Age of Empires III. Somewhat reflecting their historical actions, Oprichniki in the game are good at killing villagers and burning down buildings.

The song "Dog and Broom" on Arghoslent's Hornets of the Pogrom album focuses specifically on the Oprichniki.

The Twelve Wallachian mercenaries in the 2009 novel Twelve by Jasper Kent are named after the original Oprichniki, but are not directly connected to them.

The game The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion has a faction of assassins known as "the Dark Brotherhood" who share many similarities with the oprichniki.

Author W. E. B. Griffin's novel Black Ops claims as a plot point that all subsequent Russian secret police agencies such as the SVR are descendants of the Oprichniki.

The novel Day of the Oprichnik by Vladamir Sorokin imagines the return of the oprichniki in a futuristic-theocratic Russia.

Tsar (film) a 2009 Russian drama film directed by Pavel Lungin.

See also

• Okhrana, a force invested with special policing privileges that spread terror and might be seen as a successor.

References

1. ^ Isabel de Madariaga, Ivan the Terrible, page 183
2. ^ Ruslan Skrynnikov, Ivan Groznyi (Moscow: AST, 2001); A. A. Zimin, Oprichnina Ivana Groznogo (Moscow: Mysl’, 1964).