The theory of Moscow as the Third Rome: Texts and contexts - Studia Slavica Et Balcanica Petropolitana

For citation: The theory of Moscow as the Third Rome: Texts and contexts, in Studia Slavica et Balcanica Petropolitana. 2023. № 2. Pp. 67-98. DOI https://doi.org/10.21638/spbu19.2023.205

Title of the article	The theory of Moscow as the Third Rome: Texts and contexts
Authors	Dmitriev, Mikhail Vladimirovich — Dr. Sc. in History, Professor, Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia, Orc ID 0000-0002-4101-8755, Scopus ID 38761280700, SPIN-code 7730-6875; e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.; Bulanin, Dmitriy Mikhailovich — Dr. Sc. in Philology, Chief Researcher, Institute of Russian Literature, Russian Academy of Sciences (Pushkin House), St. Petersburg, Russia, Orc ID 0000-0002-5480-7964, Scopus ID 56146532400, SPIN-code 8372-1469; e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.; Gurianova, Natalia Sergeevna — Dr. Sc. in History, Chief Researcher, Institute of History, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, Russia, Orc ID 0000-0002-8957-2018, Scopus ID 57222243564, Spin-code 1840-4214; e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Sirenov, Aleksey Vladimirovich — Dr. Sc. in History, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Professor, Director, St. Petersburg Institute of History of the Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg, Russia, Orc ID 0000-0002-2862-7214, Researcher ID J-8623-2013, Scopus ID 26034767300, Author ID 76889; e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.; Korenevskiy, Andrey Vitalievich — PhD in History, Head of the Department of Russian Medieval and Modern History, Southern Federal University, Rostov-on-Don, Russia, Orc ID 0000-0002-0617-121X, Scopus ID 57218995590, SPIN-code 4928-2273; e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
In the section	Commentarii / Статьи
Year	2023	Issue	2	Pages	67-98
Type of article	RAR	Index UDK; BBK	UDK 279.99+2-475.5+821.161.1; BBK 86.372.81+83.3(2=411.2)4	Index DOI	https://doi.org/10.21638/spbu19.2023.205
Abstract	The theory of Moscow as the Third Rome, defined five centuries ago by the monk of the Pskov Eleazar Monastery Filofei, is considered as one of the most identifiable literary images of Russian history. At the same time, there is an incredible dispersion of appraisals and opinions in its perception and comprehension — both among professional historians, philologists and philosophers, and in public discourse. This concept has been seen and continues to be seen at various epochs and up to the present day as the key to guess a riddle of the Russian national character and the embodiment of Russia’s age-old hostility towards the West, a mystical epiphany about its soteriological mission and the doctrine of the world domination of the emerging empire. Some scholars consider the theory of Moscow as the Third Rome to be a kind of quintessence of «Russianness», others — a reflection of common Christian and pan-European ideological trends; some investigators look at Filofei as a brilliant thinker-innovator, others completely deny him any creative singularity. On this basis, we have invited experts in the history of Russian political thought to answer the following questions: how unique is the theory of Moscow as the Third Rome, and is it exclusively a fruit of the Russian medieval intellectual environment, to what extent can monk Filofei be considered the author of the theory of Moscow as the Third Rome, what is the fundamental novelty of his concept does it mean that Filofei’s theory did not receive a response among his contemporaries, and if so, why, what are the similarities and differences in its understanding by Filofei himself and people of those epochs when receptions of this idea were undertaken — in at the end of the 16^th and 17^th centuries, in the 19^th century, in contemporary times, and etc.
Keywords	Moscow as the Third Rome, Filofei, Byzantium, the New Jerusalem, the New Israel, Holy Rus’, eschatology
	Full text version of the article			Article language	Russian
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Tags: Byzantium, COMMENTARII / ARTICLES, BULANIN D. M., cultural studies, byzantinistik, DMITRIEV M. V., KORENEVSKIY A. V. , Byzantine cultural influence, GURIANOVA N. S., SIRENOV A. V.