DOTD For Friday, January 16, 2026

A Terrible Nutty Person, But A Great Nutty Drink

Today’s DOTD - Drink Of The Day - is a Nutty Russian inspired by the crowning of Ivan Vasilyevich, more commonly known as ‘Ivan the Terrible’ on January 16, 1547.

Ivan Vasilyevich (AKA Ivan IV) was born on August 25, 1530, but his father died when he was three, making him the “Grand Prince of Moscow and all Russia.” He held that title from 1533 to 1547, until he was crowned as the first Tsar and “Grand Prince of all Russia” on January 16, 1547.

Historians credit Ivan’s reign with transforming Russia from a backwater medieval state to a fledgling empire, the first Russian empire that included non-Slav states. For the first time in Russia, he also created a successful centralized administrative structure of government.

However, Ivan’s reign came at a huge cost in lives and wealth, as he engaged in prolonged and largely unsuccessful wars against Sweden and Poland, and a reign of terror against the hereditary nobility. His later fits of anger also left Russia effectively leaderless and led directly to the ‘Time of Troubles,’ an era of intense political instability, famine, civil war, and foreign invasion. Hence, “Terrible.”

Ivan IV was the eldest son of Vasili III by his second wife Elena Glinskaya, and a grandson of Ivan III. He succeeded his father after his death, when he was just three years old. A group of reformers united around the young Ivan, crowning him as tsar in 1547 at the age of 16. In the early years of his reign, Ivan ruled with the group of reformers known as the Chosen Council and established the Zemsky Sobor, a new assembly convened by the tsar. He also revised the legal code and introduced reforms, including elements of local self-government, as well as establishing the first Russian standing army, the streltsy.

Ivan also pursued cultural improvements, such as importing the first printing press to Russia, and began several processes that would continue for centuries, including deepening connections with other European states, particularly England, as well as the conquest of Siberia.

Ivan also conquered the khanates of Kazan and Astrakhan, bringing the territory along the entire length of the Volga river under Russian control. In commemoration of those victories, Ivan had the iconic Saint Basil’s Cathedral constructed in Moscow, a building that to this day is considered the single most well known symbol of Russia

After he had consolidated his power, Ivan rid himself of the advisers from the Chosen Council and, in an effort to establish a stronghold in the Baltic Sea, he triggered the Livonian War of 1558 to 1583. That war ended up ravaging Russia economically, and resulted in the failure to take control over Livonia, even losing him the territory of Ingria.

However, the war allowed Ivan to establish significantly greater autocratic control over the Russian nobility. As he gained power, he violently purged the Russian nobility using Russia’s first political police, the Oprichniki, a group that became notorious for brutal repression, mass executions, and land confiscation from Russian aristocrats.

The later years of Ivan’s reign were marked by even more violence, chaos, and oppression, including the Massacre of Novgorod by the Oprichniki, where up to 15,000 people were murdered with extreme violent cruelty.

That period of time also included the Crimean Wars, wars with the Ottoman Empire, & the burning of Moscow which ended with the mass enslavement of between 60 and 150 thousand individuals, and the death of up to 120 thousand people.

Contemporary sources present disparate accounts of Ivan’s complex personality. He was described as intelligent and devout, but also prone to paranoia, rage, and episodic outbreaks of mental instability that worsened with age.

Historians generally believe that in a fit of anger, he murdered his eldest son and heir, Ivan Ivanovich; he might also have caused the miscarriage of the latter’s unborn child. This left his younger son, the politically ineffectual Feodor Ivanovich to inherit the throne, a man whose rule and subsequent childless death led to the end of the Rurik dynasty and the beginning of the Time of Troubles.

All of that chaos, death, and disaster, and anyone sane would understand why Ivan is known as “the Terrible.”

So it shouldn’t surprise any decent person that Putin & his government have worked hard to rehabilitate Ivan as a strong state-builder and patriot, drawing comparisons between Ivan's brutal consolidation of power and Putin's own authoritarian rule, actively promoting the idea Ivan Vasilyevich was a misunderstood, effective leader who secured Russia's sovereignty and much of its historical territory.

Both Ivan & Putin are (or were) insane monsters, much like Putin’s puppet Donald Trump. But at least they’ve given us the reason for today’s Drink Of The Day, the Nutty Russian.

Ingredients

Here’s what you’re going to need for this drink: