"Seizure of Kazan" in the national historiography of the middle 20th century and works by B.G. Verkhoven

This paper attempts to reconsider the views on works by B. G. Verkhoven within the integration of Khanate of Kazan into Russia after the Seizure of Kazan in 1552, which is a topical issue in national historiography for the middle 20th century. As a part of wider historiographic discourse, the Seizure of Kazan was viwed not only within the frames of the Moscow State development during the time of Ivan IV, but also within the policy and character of the first Russian Tsar. The works and researches devoted to the character of Ivan IV the Terrible were later called by a collective name of «Ivaninana». The author of the present work has specified the mechanisms of the «propaganda machine» during the time of Joseph Stalin. We believe that a detailed analysis of B.G. Verkhoven's concept of the Siege of Kazan and the contemporary reaction towards the event will allow us to address the issue of the perception of the Ivan the Terrible and his reign by the historiographers of Stalin period more thoroughly...