Malyuta Skuratov

Grigory Lukyanovich Skuratov-Belsky, known as Malyuta Skuratov, was a leader of Ivan the Terrible's Oprichnina. He rose to prominence in 1569 through the trial and execution of Prince Vladimir of Staritsa, a possible claimant to the throne, and the same year strangled the former Metropolitan Philip II for denouncing the Oprichnina. His daughter Maria married Boris Godunov in 1570.

In January 1571 he led a punitive expedition against Novgorod, killing thousands suspected of treason. He was killed in 1573 storming Weissenstein in the Livonian War and buried at the Joseph-Volokolamsk Monastery.