Pub Date : 2020-11-15DOI: 10.7591/cornell/9781501752094.003.0006
D. Rowland
This chapter begins with Neil Postman's review in The Atlantic about the importance of mutually shared stories in the lives of nations, disciplines, and people. It explores what stories early modern Russians told themselves about their state and discusses why it existed and deserved their allegiance. It also examines the images Muscovites have of themselves as a political entity, the story they saw in history, and the role they envisioned for themselves. The chapter looks at one set of overlapping biblical images that depicted the Muscovite state as a re-embodiment of the ancient Israelite army as an earthly representation of the forces of God engaged in a cosmic struggle against the forces of evil. It emphasizes Muscovy's need for stories about the state that helped to generate a consensus that made its weak government possible.
{"title":"Biblical Military Imagery in the Political Culture of Early Modern Russia","authors":"D. Rowland","doi":"10.7591/cornell/9781501752094.003.0006","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7591/cornell/9781501752094.003.0006","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter begins with Neil Postman's review in The Atlantic about the importance of mutually shared stories in the lives of nations, disciplines, and people. It explores what stories early modern Russians told themselves about their state and discusses why it existed and deserved their allegiance. It also examines the images Muscovites have of themselves as a political entity, the story they saw in history, and the role they envisioned for themselves. The chapter looks at one set of overlapping biblical images that depicted the Muscovite state as a re-embodiment of the ancient Israelite army as an earthly representation of the forces of God engaged in a cosmic struggle against the forces of evil. It emphasizes Muscovy's need for stories about the state that helped to generate a consensus that made its weak government possible.","PeriodicalId":102765,"journal":{"name":"God, Tsar, and People","volume":"12 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-11-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123937861","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This chapter mentions celebrated Russian historian V. O. Kliuchevskii, who complained that S. F. Platonov's Old Russian tales and stories about the time of troubles of the seventeenth-century had lacked significant aspects, such as political ideas. It analyses political ideas that could have been in Platonov's work that illustrated the awakening and development of political thought under the influence of the Troubles. It also talks about Kliuchevskii's famous Course in Russian History, where he commented extensively on new political ideas and cast them into a constitutional framework. The chapter suggests that the reason Kliuchevskii failed to produce positive evidence from Platonov's tales in support of his position is that they simply do not reflect the kind of constitutional sentiment he claimed to find in other historical sources. It describes the legal-institutional approach that Kliuchevskii brought to the problem that led him to treat Platonov's tales as a negative echo of ideas.
{"title":"The Problem of Advice in Muscovite Tales about the Time of Troubles","authors":"D. Rowland","doi":"10.1163/187633179X00122","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/187633179X00122","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter mentions celebrated Russian historian V. O. Kliuchevskii, who complained that S. F. Platonov's Old Russian tales and stories about the time of troubles of the seventeenth-century had lacked significant aspects, such as political ideas. It analyses political ideas that could have been in Platonov's work that illustrated the awakening and development of political thought under the influence of the Troubles. It also talks about Kliuchevskii's famous Course in Russian History, where he commented extensively on new political ideas and cast them into a constitutional framework. The chapter suggests that the reason Kliuchevskii failed to produce positive evidence from Platonov's tales in support of his position is that they simply do not reflect the kind of constitutional sentiment he claimed to find in other historical sources. It describes the legal-institutional approach that Kliuchevskii brought to the problem that led him to treat Platonov's tales as a negative echo of ideas.","PeriodicalId":102765,"journal":{"name":"God, Tsar, and People","volume":"11 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-11-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121855387","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-11-15DOI: 10.7591/cornell/9781501752094.003.0014
D. Rowland
This chapter reviews the nature of the Russian polity in the early modern period and the nature and function of political thought within that polity. It looks at interpretations of the early modern period that became the subject of government supervision following the 1917 Revolution, which had the effect of imposing a crude Marxist framework on interpretations of Muscovite history and Muscovite political thought. It also cites texts on political subjects that were seen as products of a class war, chiefly between proponents of the centralizing government and supporters of a conservative boyar opposition. The chapter talks about historians in the West that oppose the formerly dominant image of an all-powerful government commanding a powerless, supine society. It analyses the cultural context for political thinking in Muscovy that was neglected by political necessity in the Soviet Union.
{"title":"Muscovy","authors":"D. Rowland","doi":"10.7591/cornell/9781501752094.003.0014","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7591/cornell/9781501752094.003.0014","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter reviews the nature of the Russian polity in the early modern period and the nature and function of political thought within that polity. It looks at interpretations of the early modern period that became the subject of government supervision following the 1917 Revolution, which had the effect of imposing a crude Marxist framework on interpretations of Muscovite history and Muscovite political thought. It also cites texts on political subjects that were seen as products of a class war, chiefly between proponents of the centralizing government and supporters of a conservative boyar opposition. The chapter talks about historians in the West that oppose the formerly dominant image of an all-powerful government commanding a powerless, supine society. It analyses the cultural context for political thinking in Muscovy that was neglected by political necessity in the Soviet Union.","PeriodicalId":102765,"journal":{"name":"God, Tsar, and People","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-11-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129499308","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-11-15DOI: 10.7591/cornell/9781501752094.003.0007
D. Rowland
This chapter reviews recent events in the former Soviet Union that have stimulated the rethinking of many previously axiomatic notions about the past and present of Russia. It also looks at situations in Russia that created a propitious environment for the famous idea that sixteenth-century Russians thought of themselves as inhabitants of “the Third Rome.” It also explains how the Third Rome helped to create the impression that Muscovite Russia was exotic and expansionist, a worthy predecessor of the evil empire that occupied people's attention in the 1980s and before. The chapter cites the flaws of the conventional notion that the Third Rome theory is an early justification for Russian expansionism. It points out the relative scarcity of evidence for the Third Rome theme in Muscovite sources, especially in sources that originated before the 1590s.
{"title":"Moscow—The Third Rome or the New Israel?","authors":"D. Rowland","doi":"10.7591/cornell/9781501752094.003.0007","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7591/cornell/9781501752094.003.0007","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter reviews recent events in the former Soviet Union that have stimulated the rethinking of many previously axiomatic notions about the past and present of Russia. It also looks at situations in Russia that created a propitious environment for the famous idea that sixteenth-century Russians thought of themselves as inhabitants of “the Third Rome.” It also explains how the Third Rome helped to create the impression that Muscovite Russia was exotic and expansionist, a worthy predecessor of the evil empire that occupied people's attention in the 1980s and before. The chapter cites the flaws of the conventional notion that the Third Rome theory is an early justification for Russian expansionism. It points out the relative scarcity of evidence for the Third Rome theme in Muscovite sources, especially in sources that originated before the 1590s.","PeriodicalId":102765,"journal":{"name":"God, Tsar, and People","volume":"49 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-11-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130255705","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-11-15DOI: 10.1163/1877-5888_rpp_sim_01345
D. Rowland
This chapter looks at autocracy as the concept most widely used to describe the political culture of the Russian state before 1917. It explains how autocracy, understood as the unlimited rule of the monarch over his subjects, is often taken as the signature characteristic of Russian political culture in general. It also identifies historians that see the political structure of Russia as essentially oligarchical, with power shared in a mutually beneficial way among various layers of the nobility and the government. The chapter presents autocracy in the relatively stable political culture from 1450 to 1650 and discusses the changes wrought in that culture by massive influences from Western Europe under Peter the Great and his immediate predecessors. It considers the accounts of Western European visitors to Russia from the fifteenth to the seventeenth centuries, which was responsible for the trope of total power of the Russian ruler over its subjects.
{"title":"Autocracy","authors":"D. Rowland","doi":"10.1163/1877-5888_rpp_sim_01345","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/1877-5888_rpp_sim_01345","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter looks at autocracy as the concept most widely used to describe the political culture of the Russian state before 1917. It explains how autocracy, understood as the unlimited rule of the monarch over his subjects, is often taken as the signature characteristic of Russian political culture in general. It also identifies historians that see the political structure of Russia as essentially oligarchical, with power shared in a mutually beneficial way among various layers of the nobility and the government. The chapter presents autocracy in the relatively stable political culture from 1450 to 1650 and discusses the changes wrought in that culture by massive influences from Western Europe under Peter the Great and his immediate predecessors. It considers the accounts of Western European visitors to Russia from the fifteenth to the seventeenth centuries, which was responsible for the trope of total power of the Russian ruler over its subjects.","PeriodicalId":102765,"journal":{"name":"God, Tsar, and People","volume":"45 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-11-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124562508","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-11-15DOI: 10.7591/cornell/9781501752094.003.0004
D. Rowland
This chapter talks about Richard Pipes' publication of a sweeping and influential reinterpretation of pre-Soviet Russian political culture. It analyses Pipes' central idea that Muscovite Rus´ was a patrimonial state and the tsar or great prince exercised power that is comparable to that of the possessor of dominium in Roman law. It also details how Pipes traced the growth of the actual power of the monarch and the gradual narrowing of the boundaries of possible action for all classes. The chapter explains why no class or social group was able to limit the excessive growth of royal power. It discusses the ideology of royal absolutism in Russia that was worked out by clergymen who felt that the interests of religion and church were best served by a monarchy with no limits to its power.
{"title":"Did Muscovite Literary Ideology Place Limits on the Power of the Tsar (1540s–1660s)?","authors":"D. Rowland","doi":"10.7591/cornell/9781501752094.003.0004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7591/cornell/9781501752094.003.0004","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter talks about Richard Pipes' publication of a sweeping and influential reinterpretation of pre-Soviet Russian political culture. It analyses Pipes' central idea that Muscovite Rus´ was a patrimonial state and the tsar or great prince exercised power that is comparable to that of the possessor of dominium in Roman law. It also details how Pipes traced the growth of the actual power of the monarch and the gradual narrowing of the boundaries of possible action for all classes. The chapter explains why no class or social group was able to limit the excessive growth of royal power. It discusses the ideology of royal absolutism in Russia that was worked out by clergymen who felt that the interests of religion and church were best served by a monarchy with no limits to its power.","PeriodicalId":102765,"journal":{"name":"God, Tsar, and People","volume":"40 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-11-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130944899","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This chapter provides a background on the crucial role of fictions in history and in current lives, a role arguably bigger than that played by any other force, human or even natural. It mentions Yuval Noah Harari's claim that cultural skill allowed humans to first organize themselves into political or social units larger than a few tens of individuals. It also reviews developments in Russian culture that made the creation and preservation of the Muscovite state possible. The chapter explains how Muscovite culture was more effective as social cement than the broader, more diffuse, and more divided cultures of the West. It explores some of the themes that Muscovite churchmen created and elaborated, like the importance of the Old Testament to the historical thinking of Muscovy.
{"title":"God, Tsar, and People","authors":"D. Rowland","doi":"10.1515/9781501752117","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/9781501752117","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter provides a background on the crucial role of fictions in history and in current lives, a role arguably bigger than that played by any other force, human or even natural. It mentions Yuval Noah Harari's claim that cultural skill allowed humans to first organize themselves into political or social units larger than a few tens of individuals. It also reviews developments in Russian culture that made the creation and preservation of the Muscovite state possible. The chapter explains how Muscovite culture was more effective as social cement than the broader, more diffuse, and more divided cultures of the West. It explores some of the themes that Muscovite churchmen created and elaborated, like the importance of the Old Testament to the historical thinking of Muscovy.","PeriodicalId":102765,"journal":{"name":"God, Tsar, and People","volume":"43 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-11-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132022162","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-10-15DOI: 10.1515/9781501752117-003
{"title":"Foreword: Pathbreaking and Paradigm-Shifting","authors":"","doi":"10.1515/9781501752117-003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/9781501752117-003","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":102765,"journal":{"name":"God, Tsar, and People","volume":"29 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-10-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115487398","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-10-15DOI: 10.1515/9781501752117-004
{"title":"The Textual: Breaking the Code","authors":"","doi":"10.1515/9781501752117-004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/9781501752117-004","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":102765,"journal":{"name":"God, Tsar, and People","volume":"4 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-10-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121215387","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
京公网安备 11010802042870号
京ICP备2023020795号-1
扫码关注我们
求助内容：
应助结果提醒方式：