Vasily Shibanov is a poem by Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy

Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy

Count Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy, often referred to as A. K. Tolstoy , was a Russian poet, novelist and playwright, considered to be the most important nineteenth-century Russian historical dramatist...

, written in the late 1840s and first published in the September 1858

1858 in literature

The year 1858 in literature involved some significant new books.-Events:*Henrik Ibsen marries and becomes creative director of Oslo's National Theater.*Charles Baudelaire's study on Théophile Gautier is published in Revue contemporaine....

 issue of Russky vestnik magazine. The poem (eighteen 8-line verses), a folk ballad in both structure and tone, deals with a real episode in the history of the 16th century Russian Empire

Russian Empire

The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...

, namely the deflection of Prince Kurbsky to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania

Grand Duchy of Lithuania

The Grand Duchy of Lithuania was a European state from the 12th /13th century until 1569 and then as a constituent part of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth until 1791 when Constitution of May 3, 1791 abolished it in favor of unitary state. It was founded by the Lithuanians, one of the polytheistic...

 and the way he sent the damning letter to Ivan the Terrible with his servant Shibanov, which meant imminent death for the latter.

Background

For a source Tolstoy used the fragment of Nikolay Karamzin’s History of the Russian State relating how "…Kurbsky by night clandestinely left his home, climbed over the city wall, found two of the horses his loyal servant prepared for him and safely reached Volmar

Valmiera

Valmiera is the largest city of the historical Vidzeme region, Latvia, with a total area of 18.1 km². It is the center of the Valmiera District. As of 2002, Valmiera had a population of 27,323, and in 2008 – 27,569....

, then under the Lithuanians". Received warmly by Sigismund II Augustus

Sigismund II Augustus

Sigismund II Augustus I was King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, the only son of Sigismund I the Old, whom Sigismund II succeeded in 1548...

's men, Kurbsky sat down to write a letter (first of the three) to the Russian Tsar and then sent it with his stremyanny, the very man who helped him escape from Moscow.

According to the History, what Ivan the Terrible did first was hit and pierce the messenger's foot with his sharp baton, so as to nail him down to the floor, then asked one of his men to read the letter, Shibanov all the while standing nearby, profusely bleeding. The reading finished, Ivan, keen on learning everything about the fugitive's allies in Moscow, ordered the messenger to be taken to the torture chamber. According to Karamzin, "...the virtuous servant, named Vasily Shibanov, betrayed nobody. Suffering greatly, he only praised his own master and was saying how happy he was to die for him".

The Letter

The source of the verses 11 and 12 was the text of Kurbsky's letter, published in Prince Kurbsky Tales (1833). In Tolstoy's rendition the fragment of the letter goes as follows:

Vasily Shibanov's death

In the poem, once the reading is over, the Tsar's look becomes enigmatic and dark, tinged with something that looks like sorrow. Totally in control, he makes a dramatic confession. His mood changes, but the last words Vasily Shibanov hears from him sound calm, rational and tinged with a mix of respect, sympathy and morbid irony. Ivan the Terrible says:
In his last moment Shibanov, implores God to forgive both his master's treason (only mentioning personal betrayal) and his own sins, then prays for his Tsar and his country: