How did Stalin view Ivan the Terrible? | AskHistorians Archive Observer

It was one of his favourite russian rulers.

Actually it was Stalin's idea to shoot the movie about Ivan The Terrible. The first part was highly praised and awarded with Stalin's award. The second part was forbidden to distribute until 1958, and because of that the third part was never created.

Some Stalin's quotes from his discussion (1947) with Sergey Eisenstein, the director:

Stalin: Have you learned history? Eisenstein: More or less. Stalin: More or less? I know some things too. And oprichnina — the way you showed it in your movie is wrong. Oprichnina is a king's army. And there is a difference from feudal army: feudal army could leave the war at any time. But king's army — regular army, modern army — always stays. But in your movie these oprichniki is more like Ku Klux Klan.

...

Stalin: Your king is too hesitant, like Hamlet. He is not the decision-maker, there are a lot of advisers around him. But king Ivan was great and wise ruler. Try to compare him with Louis XI of France, king Ivan was much much better than him. ... He was very wise because he was nationalist, and he didn't let foreigners into the country, so there was no influence from them. ... Peter the Great was great ruler too, but regarding the foreigners he was too liberal, the gates to our country were opened too much, there was foreign influence, especially from Germans. And don't tell me about Ekaterina II and others... Could you say that Nickolay's court was russian court? No, because it was german one. ... Ivan the Terrible was very cruel. You could show that, but you have to show why he was so cruel, why it's necessary to be cruel sometimes.

http://rg.ru/2012/01/25/ivan-groznyy.html

P.S. I want to note that all of these quotes are not direct, they were recreated later by Eisenstein and Cherkasov.