188 ЗОЛОТООРДЫНСКОЕ ОБОЗРЕНИЕ / GOLDEN HORDE REVIEW. 2021, 9 (1) © Halperin Ch.J., 2021 УДК 94(47).043(=512.145) DOI: 10.22378/2313-6197.2021-9-1.188-200 IVAN IV AND THE TATARS Charles J. Halperin Indiana University Bloomington, USA chalperi@iu.edu Abstract: Research objectives: To provide a comprehensive overview of Muscovite in- teraction with Tatars during Ivan IV’s reign, both with each successor state of the Jochid ulus and with Tatars who moved to Muscovy and entered Ivan IV’s service. Research materials: This study is based upon Russian sources from the reign of Ivan IV concerning the Tatars, including narratives such as chronicles and documentary evi- dence such as diplomatic reports. Results and novelty of the research: Muscovite policy toward the Tatars did not derive from a single dominating motive, neither hostility, such as religious animosity toward Mus- lims or the drive for imperial territorial expansion, nor the desire to cooperate with Tatars for the sake of commerce or the need for steppe military allies. Ivan adapted his policies to indi- vidual circumstances, vassal puppet rulers or outright conquest as needed. Tatars from the vassal khanate of Kasimov helped Ivan conquer Kazan’ and Astrakhan’ and fight Crimea. Nogai merchants sold the Muscovite army horses. Muscovites possessed intimate knowledge of foreign Tatars, but also lived in close proximity to “native” Tatars who lived on Muscovite soil or traveled to Moscow as envoys or merchants. However expertise on the Tatars, borrow- ing Tatar institutions, enrolling Tatar servitors, and conquering successor states of the Golden Horde did not make Muscovy a successor state of the Golden Horde. Nevertheless the Tatars were a fact of life in Ivan IV’s Muscovy, as both allies and enemies. Keywords: Ivan IV, Tatars, Kasimov, Kazan’, Astrakhan’, Sibir’, Nogais, Crimea, successor state For citation: Halperin C.J. Ivan IV and the Tatars. Zolotoordynskoe obozrenie =Golden Horde Review. 2021, vol. 9, no. 1, pp. 188–200. DOI: 10.22378/2313-6197.2021- 9-1.188-200 Acknowledgemnts: I would like to express my deep gratitude to the reviewers for their valuable comments. The reign of Ivan IV was a crucial stage of Muscovy’s relations with the suc- cessor states of the Golden Horde. Both hostility and accommodation characterized Russo-Tatar relations during Ivan’s reign. On the one hand Muscovy conquered the Khanates of Kazan’ and Astrakhan’, subordinated some of the Nogai Tatars, at least began to conquer the Western Siberian Sibir’ Khanate, and at times appeared to aspire to conquer or at least impose a puppet ruler on the Crimean Khanate. On the other hand more and more Tatars immigrated to Muscovy and entered Ivan’s service. Such Tatars lived not only in the by-now vassal Kasimov Khanate but in other enclaves as well, not to mention Muscovite lands far from the steppe frontier. While some converted to Christianity, many retained their Muslim faith after be- coming subjects of the Orthodox Christian Tsar. Muscovite respect for Chingissid