Why did he get such a terrible reputation (pun not intended)?

massacring novgorod, attacking neighbours without declaration of war (and then losing), killing his own son

>>3293444
I can't name another European monarch who beat their own son to death in a fit of rage and went to war with their own noble class, so maybe it was that?

>>3293451
>Novgorod
Same shit happened in WE at that time, and even later.
>attacking neighbors
Just like everyone? He did provide some (flimsy) reasons for it.
>son
That was never proven, it could be a popular myth.
On the other hand, he accomplished quite some good things.
So why is he seen worse than Henry VIII?

>>3293444
He attacked the nobility. The nobility were literate. therefore there is a larger population of people likely to write negatively about him.

Or at least that's my laymen understanding.

>>3293444
>Why did he get such a terrible reputation
Romanovs
They were not good as rulers, so tried to blacken Rurikids to look better in comparison.

>>3293444
He was actually mentally ill; when he wasn't raving mad he was a great Tzar.

>>3294608
He was sane.
But boyars were poisoning him and his son with mercury, this affected the mind.

>>3293444
Terrible isnt exactly the right name for him.
The translation from Russian can come out two ways, one being Terrible the way we see it as in a fearsome and brutal person. The other way means something more along the lines of imposing or intimidating, which I think is much more fitting.