The oprichniki are often described in semi-mythical terms, and it's easy to see why. They dressed in black: black clothes, black horses and black carriages. They used the broom and the dog's head as their symbols, one representing the 'sweeping away' of traitors, and the other 'snapping at the heels' of their enemies; it is possible that some oprichniks carried actual brooms and severed dogs heads. Answerable only to Ivan and their own commanders, these individuals had free run of the country, oprichnina and zemschina, and a prerogative to remove traitors. Although they sometimes used false charges and forged documents, as in the case of Prince Staritsky who was executed after his cook 'confessed', this was normally unnecessary. Having created a climate of fear and murder, the oprichniki could just exploit the human propensity to 'inform' on enemies; besides, this black clad corps could kill anyone they wished.

The stories associated with the oprichniks range from the grotesque and outlandish, to the equally grotesque and factual. People were impaled and mutilated, while whipping, torture and rapes were common. The Oprichniki Palace features in many tales: Ivan built this in Moscow, and the dungeons were supposedly full of prisoners, of which at least twenty were tortured to death everyday in front of the laughing Tsar. The actual height of this terror is well documented. In 1570 Ivan and his men attacked the city of Novgorod, which the Tsar believed was planning to ally with Lithuania. Using forged documents as a pretext, thousands were hanged, drowned or deported, while the buildings and countryside were plundered and destroyed. Estimates of the death toll vary between 15,000 and 60,000 people. A similar, but less brutal, sacking of Pskov followed this, as did the execution of zemschina officials in Moscow.

Ivan alternated between periods of savagery and piety, often sending great memorial payments and treasure to monasteries. During one such period the Tsar endowed a new monastic order, which was to draw its brothers from the oprichniks. Although this foundation did not turn the oprichniki into a corrupted church of sadistic monks (as some accounts might claim), it did became an instrument interwoven in both church and state, further blurring the organisation's role. The oprichniks also acquired a reputation in the rest of Europe: Prince Kurbsky, who had fled Muscovy in 1564, described them as "children of darkness...hundreds and thousands of times worse than hangmen." (Bonney, The European Dynastic States, Oxford, 1991, pg. 277).

Like most organizations that rule through terror, the oprichniki also began to cannibalize itself. Internal quarrels and rivalries led many oprichniki leaders to accuse each other of treason, and increasing numbers of zemschina officials were drafted in as replacements. Leading Muscovite families attempted to join, seeking protection through membership. Perhaps crucially, the oprichniki did not act in a pure orgy of bloodshed; they achieved motives and aims in a calculating and cruel manner.

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