The year and place of his birth are unknown. Malyuta Skuratov (his real name was Grigory Lukyanovich Skuratov-Belski), a Russian statesman, military man and politician, assistant of Ivan the Terrible, got his nickname Malyuta for his short height.

His name became a symbol of medieval cruelty. People called him "a bloody dog" because on some days he executed more than a hundred persons, and his name alone aroused fear all over Russia. Often Ivan the Terrible with his “right hand” Malyuta Skuratov came to Moscow from and arranged public tortures and executions that turned into real horrors. The torturer made raids on houses of Moscow boyars, military men, and clerks, and took their wives and daughters for amusement of the tsar and his confidants.

Skuratov died in a fight in Estonia on January, 1st, 1573.