Ivan was continually at war in the Baltic territory, and on the whole not very successful in this region. Nevertheless, he found opportunity now and then to sack a city and put to death a few thousand of her devoted people.
In 1571, however, the Mongols made another invasion from the Crimea, and in the language of Hakluit they "burned Moscow every stick." In 1572, when the King of Poland died, Ivan declared himself as one of the competitors for the throne, but not gaining it he made war upon the successful prince, Stephen Batory, who proved a formidable foe to the tyrant, who was now growing old in years as well as wickedness.
During his reign the conquest of Siberia was begun. The campaign had been carried on by a Cossack chief named Yermak, who had formerly been a robber, but he purchased his pardon from the autocrat at Moscow by laying his conquests at his feet.
The declining days of the tyrant were made bitter by the death of his eldest son as the result of a blow by his own hand. In a fit of passion he struck him with his iron staff and when the youth died his father's grief and remorse still further tended to embitter his morose disposition. It was not surprising that after all his wickedness and with the weakness of old age coming upon him, he became continually afraid of conspiracies which might be hatched by his subjects, and he resorted to fortune tellers and the divination of witches for protection. The best act of his career of villainy and atrocity was his death, which occurred in the year 1584.
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From General Nelson A. Miles
Thrilling Stories of The Russian-Japanese War, 1904
