Maliuta Skuratov

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Maliuta Skuratov was the nickname of the 16th century Russian nobleman Grigory Lukyanovich Skuratov-Belsky, the right-hand man and chief executioner of Ivan the Terrible, who made him head of the oprichnina, a special force opposed to the nobility, which terrorized Russia, burning, pillaging and murdering many people. He is said to have smothered St Philip, metropolitan of Moscow, with his own hands.