In the sixteenth century, the rise of Muscovy was accompanied by military aggression and the growing influence of the Russian Orthodox Church. As a result of military conflicts and cultural differences, Westerners began to see Russia as a barbarian kingdom, whose rulers kept it locked away from the outside world. However, this lecture will demonstrate that the court of Ivan the Terrible (1530-1584) and other tsars was actually a focus point of exchange in technology, commodities and ideas with both the East and the West, and that Muscovite regalia, court rituals and illuminated manuscripts were in fact a result of intensive global interactions.