Ivan, King of Poland

WI Tsar Ivan the Terrible was elected King of Poland in 1573? IOTL, he didn't accept because he thought it was below him, but WI he decided to claim another royal title? Your duty is to have him accept the crown, be elected, and explain what happens next. Ivan, King of Poland and Lithuania and Tsar of all the Russias etc.
 
explain what happens next
Times of troubles (aka Dymitriades) would start earlier (with Ivan's death) and spread to PLC. Resulting breakup of PLC on Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox part is possible. Would Catholic part (Poland and Lithuania proper) be able to withstand Germans and Swedes is open for discussion.
 
Times of troubles (aka Dymitriades) would start earlier (with Ivan's death) and spread to PLC. Resulting breakup of PLC on Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox part is possible. Would Catholic part (Poland and Lithuania proper) be able to withstand Germans and Swedes is open for discussion.

The time of troubles was hardly innevitable. Ivan had three sons from what I can remember, and almost had a grandkid if he hadn't beat his daughter inlaw and caused her miscarriage. The potential effect of him having to go to Krakow, Vilnius and Warsaw more often would probably butterfly away his assault of his daughter inlaw and the subsequent deadly fight with his oldest son.

And even if it does happen, and Feodor does ascend the throne, I would think that his OTL lack of interest in politics would cause Russia to formally join the commonwealth with an elective throne.

No time of troubles for Russia, and the Commonwealth is now simply MASSIVE.
 
Originally posted by CanadianGoose
Times of troubles (aka Dymitriades) would start earlier (with Ivan's death) and spread to PLC. Resulting breakup of PLC on Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox part is possible. Would Catholic part (Poland and Lithuania proper) be able to withstand Germans and Swedes is open for discussion.
Even assuming that the Times of Troubles happen, it doesn't mean that PLC suffers too. So Ivan is dead, big deal. Poles and Lithuanians elect another king. After the end of Jagiellon dynasty Polish crown was not hereditary.
 
Even assuming that the Times of Troubles happen, it doesn't mean that PLC suffers too. So Ivan is dead, big deal. Poles and Lithuanians elect another king. After the end of Jagiellon dynasty Polish crown was not hereditary.
Ascention of Ivan would inevitably cause massive power shift in internal politics of PLC from Roman Catholic nobles to Orthodox Christians, naturally attracted to Orthodox "Glinski" prince. Even if Ivan Minor survives and inherits his father's thrones, it could throw delicate construction of Roman Catholic Poland, Orthodox Ruthenia and Orthodox totalitarian Muscovy seriously off balance during power transfer. With Ivan dead and Feodor obviously unfit to rule as it happened IOTL, Times of Troubles would marry Deluge for all the same reasons.
 
WI Tsar Ivan the Terrible was elected King of Poland in 1573? IOTL, he didn't accept because he thought it was below him,
I doubt. PLC's crown was up to Ivan's ambitions, but "checks and balances" of PLC's political system were unacceptable for the Tsar (and despoty was equally unacceptable for his would-be electorate).
Even if Ivan Minor survives and inherits his father's thrones, it could throw delicate construction of Roman Catholic Poland, Orthodox Ruthenia and Orthodox totalitarian Muscovy seriously off balance during power transfer.
Are you sure? :) Where was Ivan the Terrible's NSDAP (or CPSU)? Terror does not make totalitarian states (moreover, historians are not sure, if 16th century Muscovy was a state at all, let alone totalitarian one).
However, I agree that Polish-Lithuanian-Russian confederation would not survive Time of Troubles (and it was inevitable, more or less - some prerequisites, such as wars' and terror's consequences, were present by the moment of Ivan the IV's death already, and famine of 1600-1603 would happen as in OTL, government's actions notwithstanding).
 
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I doubt. PLC's crown was up to Ivan's ambitions, but "checks and balances" of PLC's political system were unacceptable for the Tsar (and despoty was equally unacceptable for his would-be electorate).
I second you on that. PLC was a "weakly connected" state even by European standards (and Europe of 16th century wasn't an example of absolutism, to put it mildly). And Muscovy was more or less family domain of Rurikids, with Tsar's (pater familias) will reigning supreme (at least Ivan saw it that way). Heavy clash of political cultures would be coming
Are you sure? :) Where was Ivan the Terrible's NSDAP (or CPSU)? Terror does not make totalitarian states (moreover, historians are not sure, if 16th century Muscovy was a state at all, let alone totalitarian one).
Oprichniks make a good approximation of SS/NKVD/Black Shirts, though.
 
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