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# Ivan the Terrible Ruled as an Autocrat, Now Wisely and Sagely, Now Recklessly and Cruelly
- URL: https://theparnassian.com/en/ioann-groznyi-samovlastvoval-to-razumno-i-mudro-to-bezrazsudno-i-zhestoko/
- Published: 2025-07-30T13:20:06.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-01T05:29:16.000Z
- Author: Alexandr Radayev
- Tags: Books, Monarchies, Observations, Science

Autocracy (*samovlastye*), according to V.I. Dahl's Explanatory Dictionary, is unlimited power, strength, will, or the right of disposal, constrained by nothing, *felt and perceived as a right or a quality*.

The word "samovlastnost", as representing a fusion of the meanings of supreme power and the highest independence, is given as identical to the term souveraineté, taken from Hegel's "Phenomenology of Spirit" (Herrschaft) and used by Georges Bataille to denote an end point, a state in which a being dwells for the whole of its life, for a time, or for a single moment, and a quality with which subjects and phenomena may be endowed