For this assignment, which is to be 2 pages, typed and double spaced, you will argue either that Ivan the Terribles oprichnina (1565-72) was either rational or pathological/irrational.  Make your thesis statement more specific by saying something like: It was rational (or irrational) because of x, y, and z.  Then the body of the paper will discuss x in a paragraph or two, then y, and finally z.  The conclusion will restate your main point. It could also just list two points if that is what you find.  Read Kaiser, pp. 150-163 and 103-104, then Maureen Perrie and Andrei Pavlov, Ivan the Terrible (New York: Taylor & Francis, 2003), Introduction, pp. 1-9 and Conclusion, pp. 204-207. 
    For the paper, you will have a thesis statement that argues either that the oprichnina was rational or that it was irrational.  Do not argue both, as you dont have enough space to do so.  You are required to have at least one quote from Heinrich von Staden (Kaiser, pp. 151-154), from Robert Crummey (Kaiser, pp. 158-163), one from the Perrie book, as well as one from the other sources in Kaiser (either Platonov or Kollman).  You are required to have FIVE footnotes overall.  That means you will quote one of the above sources more than once. Make sure that you give the author before the quote.  Example: Heinrich von Staden wrote that the distress and misery continued in the city for six weeks.  You must have a footnote for each direct quote.  Search the internet to find out how to insert a footnote in your word processing program.  Do not use endnotes.  Do not use footer.  Do not have a works cited or bibliography page.  If you use Kaiser, just change the page number in the footnote.  When you cite Perrie, make the citation as close to the Kaiser footnote as possible.  Substitute authors for authors, title for title, etc.
    Please note that each text in Kaiser has an introduction that is a secondary source because it is written by a historian after the fact.  Quoting from these introductions will not count toward the required sources.  A direct quote is a word for word copying of material from one of the texts.  It must be enclosed by quotation marks at the beginning and end.  You may use material from the internet if you wish, but it will not count towards the five footnotes and must be enclosed in quotation marks and have a footnote giving the web address (http://etc) and date you accessed it.

this is the citation/footnote for the Kaiser book
  Daniel H. Kaiser and Gary Marker, Reinterpreting Russian History: Readings, 860-1860s (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994)