the first wife of the Russian Tsar Ivan the Terrible and the first Russian tsaritsa. It is widely believed that Anastasia had a moderating influence on Ivan's volatile character. In the summer of 1560, she fell ill to a lingering illness. In consequence to these events, Ivan suffered a severe emotional collapse suspecting that his wife had been a victim of malicious actions and had been poisoned by the Boyars. Although he had no evidence of such crimes, he had a number of them tortured and executed.
