Casualty figures vary greatly from different sources. The First Pskov Chronicle estimates the number of victims at 60,000.[34][35][36] According to the Third Novgorod Chronicle, the massacre lasted for five weeks. The massacre of Novgorod consisted of men, women and children that were tied to sleighs, then run into the freezing waters of the Volkhov River, which Ivan ordered on the basis of unproved accusations of treason. He then tortured its inhabitants and killed thousands in a pogrom; the archbishop was also hunted to death.[37] Almost every day 500 or 600 people were killed or drowned. Yet the official death toll named 1,500 of Novgorod's big people (nobility) and mentioned only about the same number of smaller people.[citation needed] Many modern researchers estimate the number of victims to range from 2,000–3,000 (after the famine and epidemics of the 1560s the population of Novgorod most likely did not exceed 10,000–20,000).[38] Many survivors were deported elsewhere.

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Ivan was a devoted[37] follower of Christian Orthodoxy, but in his own specific manner. He placed the most emphasis on defending the divine right of the ruler to unlimited power under God.[59] Some scholars explain the sadistic and brutal deeds of Ivan the Terrible with the religious concepts of the 16th century,[60] which included drowning and roasting people alive or torturing victims with boiling or freezing water, corresponding to the torments of Hell, consistent with Ivan's view of being God's representative on Earth with a sacred right and duty to punish. He may also have been inspired by the model of Archangel Michael with the idea of divine punishment.[60]

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FancyMancy said:

I thought he was sick and tired of Turkey attacking and destroying his people, that he vowed to take revenge upon becoming powerful. I think I read that he murdered every Turk he came across. Unless I am thinking about someone else.

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Shrekelstein said:

That was Vlad the Impaler.

FancyMancy said:

I thought he was sick and tired of Turkey attacking and destroying his people, that he vowed to take revenge upon becoming powerful. I think I read that he murdered every Turk he came across. Unless I am thinking about someone else.

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