What had once been Russia's best and…

What had once been Russia's best and most fertile areas have been devastated and have fallen well below the rest of the country.

Those that have not been killed by the Oprichniks have often fled into other areas of Russia.

Tax revenues, instead of increasing (as Ivan had hoped), have fallen, and Russia is badly prepared when the Crimean Tatars attack.

Devlet I Giray, the khan of the Crimean Tatars, has mounted several attacks on Moscow during Ivan’s long war against Poland-Lithuania, Livonia, and Sweden, his main purpose being the annexations of Kazan and Astrakhan, lost by the Muslim world to the Russians in the previous years.

Having seen an opportunity in Ivan’s involvement in the Russo-Turkish War of 1568-69, he sets out with a body of cavalry and advances northward to Moscow, ravaging the countryside.

Reaching Moscow’s walls in 1571, they capture and burn the city, save for the fortified Kremlin, and supposedly carry off some one hundred thousand captives before being driven off.