the Tartars, and about 60,000 people (half of the population) died. Soon after this, Ivan went after his oprichniki, killing some of his most faithful followers. On October 28, 1571, Ivan married Marfa Sobakina of an ancient noble family from Tver. She died just 16 days after the marriage. A week later the Tzarevich was married to Evdokia Saburova of a well-known boyar family in Moscow. In March 1572, Ivan married yet again. This time it was to Anna Koltovskaya, but four years later he divorced her and sent her to a nunnery. In 1572, he fully abolished the Oprichnina. In 1575, he ordered the execution of 40 nobles and priests. Also in that year, he married Anna Vasilchikova. She died in 1577, and so in 1580 he married his fifth and final wife, Maria Nagaya.On the day of November 19, 1581, an event occurred that changed Ivan forever. Ivan thought that the people liked the Tzarevich more than they liked him, and that evening he and the Tzaravich got into an argument. The Tzar had also been the cause of the miscarriage of the Tzarevich's child earlier that day, when he hit the mother so hard that she fell and miscarried. The argument became very heated, and Ivan hit his son in the temple with his staff. He immediately threw himself down upon his son and screamed and cried frantically. His son died later on that week, but Ivan was never the same. He was grief-stricken for months. He became quiet, morose, and prone to outbursts of hysteria. He had frequent "fantasies" and felt like he was never alone in his room anymore. He would wander around talking to himself, and was scared of the nightfall because it brought him apocalyptic visions. He thought of himself much like God; they had both killed their own sons and distributed murder amongst the people without rhyme or reason. He made out lists called sinodiki that named the people that he had murdered and sent the lists all over Russia, asking people to pray for the souls...
