Ivan the Terribles lost library

[shezzer]

Ivan the Terrible's lost library

A few years ago I cam across a Vlog on YouTube from Nerdfighters investigating Ivan the Terrible's lost treasure. Apparently a lot of information was found out but, I can't seem to find a definitive source. I would like to do a feature on this for a project where I work. Are there any threads on here or links that anybody knows of?

Treasure hunts are something I've always been interested in - read Howard Carter's tales and Wilbur Smith books. I stumbled on this forum at random.

Thanks, Mark.

This is what I am talking about

 

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[Oroblanco]

Thanks for posting this, sorry I don't have any info to offer and I do dimly recall reading something about this a while ago. I look forward to reading more, thanks in advance.
Oroblanco

 

[cactusjumper]

Mark,

I assume you have already looked at all of these sites:

https://www.google.com/search?q=Iva...la:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&channel=sb

Good luck,

Joe Ribaudo

 

[shezzer]

Yes, Thanks Joe that does give some of the info I was looking for but the thread John mentioned in the video is gone and recently he said that the Nerdfighters 'built the most comprehensive research ever done on the treasure' - but can't seem to find this.

 

[Corporate Investigations]

Hello shezzer for the most comprehensive research one much look at the field notes of Ignatius Yakovlevich Stelletskii?
He was a Russian and Soviet archaeologist, historian, and researcher born 1878. He dis a lot of research on the underground tunnels of Moscow. He was known to make searches for the library of Ivan the Terrible all throughout his life.

Amy

 

[Corporate Investigations]

I should add my boss in his own collection of treasure files has some information on the subject. I can post here if you are interested?

Mainly consisting of maps of the Kremlin. 16th century illustration of the Kremlin showing positions of the buildings. A portion of an old book that was allegedly part of the famous library. and newspaper articles dating from about 1894, 1904. 1914, 1924, 1925, 1929, 1935 touching on the subject. The book written ignatius Yaovlevich stelletskii is very hard to come by as it deals with the underground history of the Kremlin published in 1993. However due to the nature of the underground history of one the most highly secure places on earth, the book was by large suppressed due to its deemed sensitive information.

It should be noted there is debate among some academics about if the library still exists? Some speculate that it was destroyed other maintain it was divided between other historic libraries, others say it was looted by the Polish or the French. There is no historic record of it being mentioned after 1600?

 

[Corporate Investigations]

Here is a picture of the buildings close to the date of the Kremlin



Here is an article by Alexandra Vinogradskaya

The mystery of the Byzantine library has always stirred the imagination of archeologists, researchers and lovers of adventure. Scholars have argued about its priceless rarities and historians insist that it is irretrievably lost. The search for the "Liberia", as the Byzantine kings' legendary book collection was called, has entered its fifth century. From time to time scholars call into question the very existence of the Byzantine library in Russia. Some insist it did exist, and that after the death of Ivan the Terrible, the "Liberia"'s last owner, it was put safely away in hiding-places. Let's recall what happened in Russia in the 15th century. The Greek princess Sofia Paleolog, a niece of the last Byzantine king, married the Grand Prince of Moscow, Ivan the Third, and as her dowry brought along unheard-of riches, the unique Byzantine library. Scholars believe, the Greek rulers wanted to save it from any Vatican claims to it. The chronicles mention one hundred carts loaded with 300 boxes with rare books arriving in Moscow.

Sofia's prime concern, and this is a trustworthy fact, was to build a special underground safe to keep the treasures protected from the fires that often engulfed the wooden buildings of Moscow. It's also known for certain that the celebrated West European architect Aristotle Fiorovanti built a secret sarcophagus for books in the Kremlin's underground. Decades later, strolling through this underground maze, the son of Ivan the Third and Sofia came upon a hiding-place with ancient books and manuscripts written in languages unknown to him. Later a Greek scholar, Maxim the Greek, made a list of the books and shortly before his death he revealed the secret of the "Liberia" to Sofia's youngest grandson, Ivan the Terrible.

Some 800 manuscripts in Greek, Latin, Hebrew and Arab were mentioned in the list. The library contained works by Virgil, poems by Kalvos, "The Lives of Twelve Ceasars" by Suetonius, works by Aristophanes, Polybius, Pindar, Tacitus, Livius, and Cicero. It took the Byzantine emperors hundreds of years to make up the collection. The Germans, English and Italians made many attempts to pursuade the Russian czar to sell the treasure. But a man of considerable literary talent himself, Ivan the Terrible was an eager collector of rare books and fully aware of the high value of his collection. He refused to sell anything.

After Ivan the Terrible's death in the late 16th century the "Liberia" disappeared without a trace. But the Russian czars and the Soviet rulers never gave up the idea of finding it. The Kremlin's underground maze was searched times without number and many hiding-places and ancient passages were found, but never the "Liberia". Every year adds versions about the fate of the library. Here is one given by a young explorer of underground Moscow, Vadim Mikhailov. "A man, whose name is Appolos, is still alive. He knows the secret. He is 90 and totally blind now. The special services gave him such a hard time in years past that he never revealed the secret. When he was examining the Kremlin's underground in the 1930s, he came across the ruins of an ancient passage which brought him to an ancient hiding-place. This, however, almost cost him his life: it was strictly forbidden at the time to look for the library. Since then he has kept the secret to himself. He could never bring himself to share it with anyone. We hope he will finally open it to us researchers. We have already used a plan of his to find several ancient passages under the Kremlin. But in doing so we trespassed on an area of the special services, and access to the passages is so far closed."

Once solved, the "Liberia" mystery may completely change our understanding of world history. Many events of the past are known to us only in tiny fragments and have been brought together as guesses and logical conclusions. Perhaps the "Liberia" will solve many riddles .

Amy

 

[Corporate Investigations]

Here is an newspaper article dating from one of the earlier searches in the 19th century. That give an insight into the mentality of this mad monarch.













Joan Bos gives a more lurid account of Ivan the Terrible's excesses.

Ivan IV "the Terrible" of Russia (1530-1584) was a cruel tyrant, who never knew the meaning of moderation; he drank too much, laughed too loudly and hated and loved too fiercely. And he never forgot anything. Ivan was definitely smart and, despite his cruelty, his reign is a great one in Russian annals. In Russia Ivan was called "Grozny", which has always been translated to "the Terrible", but actually means "the Awesome".

The instruments of Ivan's new rule were the 'Oprichniki', who were handpicked by Ivan and had to swear him a personal oath of allegiance. The mere sight of the Oprichniki instilled fear: they dressed in black and rode black horses3. Many were criminals4 without any remorse about killing anyone Ivan disliked. The Oprichniki didn't hesitate to burst into a church during mass, either abducting the priest or murdering him in front of the altar. Subsequently, Ivan founded a pseudo-monastic order: he was the 'abbot' and his Oprichniki were the 'monks'. They regularly performed sacrilegious masses that were followed by extended orgies of sex, rape and torture. Frequently Ivan would act as master of the rituals, in which, with sharp and hissing-hot pincers, ribs were torn out of men's chests. Drunken licentiousness was alternated with passionate acts of repentance. After throwing himself down before the altar with such vehemence that his forehead would be bloody and covered with bruises, Ivan would rise and read sermons on the Christian virtues to his drunken retainers.

Ivan the Terrible used to carry a metal-pointed staff with him, which he used to lash out at people who offended him. Once, he had peasant women stripped naked and used as target practice by his Oprichniki. Another time, he had several hundred beggars drowned in a lake. A boyar was set on a barrel of gunpowder and blown to bits. Jerome Horsey wrote how Prince Boris Telupa "was drawn upon a long sharp-made stake, which entered the lower part of his body and came out of his neck; upon which he languished a horrible pain for 15 hours alive, and spoke to his mother, brought to behold that woeful sight. And she was given to 100 gunners, who defiled her to death, and the Emperor's hungry hounds devoured her flesh and bones". His treasurer, Nikita Funikov, was boiled to death in a cauldron. His councillor, Ivan Viskovaty, was hung, while Ivan's entourage took turns hacking off pieces of his body.



There has been many searches over the centuries of this almost fabled secret library of Ivan the terrible. Probably the closest anyone has came to finding out the truth was Ignatius Yakovlevich Stelletskii?

The question remains where in the grounds did Ignatius Yakovlevich Stelletskii concentrate his search?

to be continued.

Amy

 

[Corporate Investigations]

To understand the enormity of the task one has to look at the the Kremlin in Depth.



Not only did Ignatius Yakovlevich Stelletskii have to deal with Joseph Stalin he had hundreds of years of habitation on the site. building build on the foundations of past buildings.

I imagine quite an enormous task.

Amy

 

[Corporate Investigations]

I have a little bit of soft spot for this historian Ignatius Yakovlevich Stelletskii.

Can you imagine asking Joseph Stalin, Can I did under your GHQ?

Now that is keen.

 

[Real de Tayopa Tropical Tramp]

Wonderful, Amy luv

don Jose de le Mancha

 

[Corporate Investigations]

Thank you my one and three quarter eyed pirate. Hope you eye gets better.

Here is a 1924 story of Ignatius Yakovlevich Stelletskii search.







Amy

 

[DFX DAVE in M.D.]

American Heroes Channel just showed a show on Ivan.......


Myth Hunters : American Heroes Channel

 

[Corporate Investigations]

American Heroes Channel just showed a show on Ivan.......


Myth Hunters : American Heroes Channel

Hello Dave Thanks for the Link very interesting.

Amy

 

[Corporate Investigations]

The key to finding a suitable location is check through various charts and maps of the Kremlin to see how the buildings have changed over the years.


The Kremlin around 1610



The Kremlin around 1640



The Kremlin in 1695 below?



That said Ignatius Yakovlevich Stelletskii had the best knowledge of the site?

Continued......

Amy

 

[Crow]

Amy I hope the EU and The UN treats ya well as you will be sorely missed. Why wasn't I 30 years younger?

Crow.

 

[Crow]

'Ol Ivan was very potentially an amalgamation of multiple rulers of the area ...

Interesting comments I have not heard this before... for one thing his family was not the kind of family ya like to belong to. All stabbing one another in the back to get power..

Nothing really new for Any Kings at the time.

Crow

 

[Crow]

Hello Nobody

Sounds like an very interesting book. But for me to give fair opinion in what the book says I have to read it. It by the looks of it makes some interesting allegations.. For me it would be hard to verify some claims one way or another as I cannot read or speak Russian. Amy being fluent in Russian and a Professor of Russian Histroy would really enjoy this theory. But Sadly she has moved on to bigger and better things...


Crow

 

[Crow]

Ya know royalty is a very small club bloodline wise. While it in some respects intermarriage between royal families became the norm years ago it did over time weaken the bloodline and it began to show in the early 20th century. These days ya see commoners marrying royals injecting new blood into way inbred bloodlines... So hopefully no more prince Charles elephant ears....

Crow