Theological and political concept
Moscow, third Rome
(
Russian
:
Москва, третий Рим
;
Moskva, treti? Rim
) is a theological and political concept asserting
Moscow
as the successor to
ancient Rome
, with the
Russian world
carrying forward the legacy of the
Roman Empire
. The term "
third Rome
" refers to a historical topic of debate in
European culture
: the question of the successor city to the "first Rome" (
Rome
, within the
Western Roman Empire
) and the "second Rome" (
Constantinople
, within the
Eastern Roman Empire
).
Concept
[
edit
]
"Moscow,
Third Rome
" is a theological and a political concept which was formulated in the 15th?16th centuries in the
Tsardom of Russia
.
[1]
[
unreliable source?
]
In this concept, three interrelated and interpenetrating fields of ideas can be found:
- Theology
- that is linked with justification of necessity and inevitability of the unity of the
Eastern Orthodox Church
.
- Social policy
- derived out of the feeling of unity in
East Slavic
territories being historically tied through Christian
Eastern Orthodox faith
and
Slavic culture
.
- State doctrine
- according to which the Moscow Prince should act as a supreme ruler (Sovereign and legislator) of Christian Eastern Orthodox nations and become a defender of the Christian Eastern Orthodox Church. Herewith the Church should facilitate the Sovereign in execution of his function supposedly
determined by God
, the
autocratic
administration.
[1]
History
[
edit
]
Before the fall of Constantinople
[
edit
]
After the fall of
T?rnovo
to the
Ottoman Turks
in 1393, a number of
Bulgarian
clergymen sought shelter in the Russian lands and transferred the
idea of the Third Rome
there, which eventually resurfaced in
Tver
, during the reign of
Boris of Tver
, when the monk Foma (Thomas) of Tver had written
The Eulogy of the Pious Grand Prince Boris Alexandrovich
in 1453.
[2]
[3]
After the fall of Constantinople
[
edit
]
Within decades after the
capture of Constantinople
by
Mehmed II
of the
Ottoman Empire
on 29 May 1453, some Eastern Orthodox people were nominating
Moscow
as the "Third Rome", or the "New Rome".
[4]
The
Turks
captured Constantinople in 1453
and the fortress of
Mangup
? the last fragment of the
Empire of Trebizond
and thus the Byzantine Empire ? fell at the end of 1475. Even before the fall of Constantinople, the
Eastern Orthodox
Slavic
states in the
Balkans
had fallen under Turkish rule. The fall of Constantinople caused tremendous fears, many considered the fall of Constantinople as a sign the
End time
was near (in 1492 it was 7000
Anno Mundi
); others believed that the emperor of the
Holy Roman Empire
(although he was a
Roman Catholic
) now took the place of the emperors of Constantinople. There were also hopes that Constantinople would be liberated soon. Moreover, the
Eastern Orthodox Church
was left without its Eastern Orthodox
Basileus
. Therefore, the question arose of who would become the new
basileus
. At the end of the various
"Tales" about the fall of Constantinople
, which gained great popularity in
Moscow
, it was directly stated that the
Rus' people
would defeat the
Ishmaelites
(Muslims) and their king would become the
basileus
in the
City of Seven Hills
(Constantinople). The
Grand Prince of Moscow
remained the strongest of the Eastern Orthodox rulers;
Ivan III
married
Sophia Paleologue
,
broke his formal subordination
to the
Golden Horde
(already divided into several
Tatar
kingdoms) and became an independent ruler. All of this strengthened Moscow's claims to primacy in the Eastern Orthodox world. However, the liberation of Constantinople was still far away ? the
Moscow State
had no opportunity to fight the
Ottoman Empire
.
[5]
End of the 15th century
[
edit
]
At the end of the 15th century, the emergence of the idea that Moscow is truly a new Rome can be found;
[5]
the whole idea of Moscow as third Rome could be traced as early as 1492, when
Metropolitan of Moscow
Zosimus
expressed it.
Metropolitan Zosima
, in a foreword to his work of 1492
Presentation of the
Paschalion
(
Russian
:
"Изложение пасхалии"
),
[1]
quite clearly expressed it, calling
Ivan III
"the new Tsar
Constantine
of the new
city of Constantine
? Moscow."
[5]
[6]
This idea is best known in the presentation of the monk
Philotheus
of the early 16th century:
[7]
[8]
[9]
So know, pious king, that all the Christian kingdoms came to an end and came together in a single kingdom of yours,
two Romes have fallen, the third stands, and there will be no fourth
[emphasis added]. No one shall replace your Christian Tsardom according to
the great Theologian
[
cf
.
Revelation 17:10
] [...].
The Moscow scholars explained the fall of Constantinople as the
divine punishment
for the
sin
of the
Union with the Catholic Church
, but they did not want to obey the Patriarch of Constantinople, although there were no unionist patriarchs since the Turkish conquest in 1453 and the first Patriarch since then,
Gennadius Scholarius
, was the leader of the anti-unionists. At the next synod,
held in Constantinople in 1484
, the Union was finally declared invalid. Having lost its Christian
basileus
after the Turkish conquest, Constantinople as a center of power lost a significant part of its authority. On the contrary, the
Moscow rulers
soon began to consider themselves real
Tsars
(this title was already used by
Ivan III
), and therefore according to them the center of the Eastern Orthodox Church should have been located in Moscow, and thus the bishop of Moscow should become the head of the Orthodoxy.
[5]
The text of the bishop's oath in Muscovy, edited in 1505?1511, condemned the ordination of metropolitans in Constantinople, calling it "the ordination in the area of godless
Turks
, by the pagan
[a]
tsar
."
Stirrings of this sentiment began during the reign of
Ivan III of Russia
, who styled himself
Czar
(cf.
Caesar
), who had married
Sophia Paleologue
. Sophia was a niece of
Constantine XI
, the last
Byzantine emperor
. By the rules and laws of
inheritance
followed by most European
monarchies
of the time, Ivan could claim that he and his offspring were heirs of the fallen
Empire
, but the Roman traditions of the empire had never recognized automatic inheritance of the Imperial office.
[11]
Since the 16th century
[
edit
]
It was also Sophia's brother,
Andreas Palaiologos
, who held the rights of succession to the Byzantine throne. Andreas died in 1502, having sold his titles and royal and imperial rights to
Ferdinand II of Aragon
and
Isabella I of Castile
, who would not act on them. A stronger claim was based on religious symbolism. The
Orthodox faith
was central to Byzantine notions of their identity and what distinguished them from "barbarians". As the preeminent Orthodox nation following the Byzantine collapse, Moscow would view itself as the empire's logical successor:
"The
liturgical
privileges that the Byzantine emperor enjoyed carried over to the Muscovite tsar. In 1547, for instance, when
Ivan IV
was crowned tsar, not only was he
anointed
as the Byzantine emperor had been after the late twelfth century, but he was also allowed to communicate in the
sanctuary
with the clergy."
[12]
During
Ecumenical Patriarch Jeremias II
's visit to Moscow in 1588-9 "to collect funds to assist the [Eastern] Orthodox communities living in the Ottoman Empire",
[13]
Jeremias recognized in 1589 the Metropolitan of Moscow as
patriarch
.
[14]
This recognition was "a victory for those who saw Moscow as the Third Rome."
[13]
Shortly before
Joseph II
inherited the States of the House of Austria, he traveled to Russia in 1780. In her conversations with him,
Catherine II
made it clear that she would renew the Byzantine empire and to use her one-year-old grandson
Konstantin
as
Emperor of Constantinople
. The guest tried to suggest to the host that he could be held harmless in the
Papal States
.
[15]
Russian world
[
edit
]
The
Russian world
is
ecclesiastical
in its form, but
geopolitical
in its essence; it is a concept that was put forward in a keynote speech on November 3, 2009, by
Patriarch Kirill (Gundyayev) of Moscow
which he described as a "common civilisational space" of countries sharing
Eastern Orthodoxy
,
Russian culture
and
language
, and a common
historical memory
.
[16]
[17]
The "Russian world" under the Patriarch Kirill focused only on the Eastern
Slavic countries
of
Eastern Europe
; that is, on
Ukraine
and
Belarus
, while leading the
Russian Orthodox Church
to isolate itself.
[18]
The ideas of the Russian world are used as a justification for the revival of the
Russian Empire
.
[19]
It has been suggested that
Vladimir Putin
envisions a recreation of Russia's "mission", at least in terms of the Slavic people,
[20]
although it has also been noted that this viewpoint may be highly exaggerated.
[21]
See also
[
edit
]
Notes
[
edit
]
- ^
The term "
pagan
" has been used to refer to any adherent of a different faith and had a very negative connotation. In this case, it is used to designate pejoratively the
muslims
.
References
[
edit
]
Citations
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
c
Mashkov, A.D.
"МОСКВА - ТРЕТ?Й РИМ"
[MOSCOW - THIRD ROME].
leksika.com.ua
(in Ukrainian).
Ukrainian Soviet Encyclopedia
. Retrieved
2019-11-18
.
- ^
Kingsford, Anthony (1981-07-16).
"Literature in the Muscovite period"
.
Companion to Russian Studies: Volume 2, An Introduction to Russian Language and Literature
. CUP Archive. pp.
94
.
ISBN
9780521280396
.
- ^
Laats, Alar.
The concept of the Third Rome and its political implications
(PDF)
. p. 102.
- ^
Parry, Ken; Melling, David, eds. (1999).
The Blackwell Dictionary of Eastern Christianity
. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing. p. 490.
ISBN
978-0-631-23203-2
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
Stremooukhoff, Dimitri (1953). "Moscow the Third Rome: Sources of the Doctrine".
Speculum
.
28
(1): 84?101.
doi
:
10.2307/2847182
.
JSTOR
2847182
.
S2CID
161446879
.
- ^
"ЗОСИМА"
.
www.pravenc.ru
. Retrieved
2019-11-01
.
В ≪Изложении пасхалии≫ митрополит провозглашает Москву новым К-полем, Московского вел. князя именует ≪государем и самодержцем всея Руси, новым царем Константином новому граду Константинову Москве, и всей Русской земле, и иным многим землям государем≫.
- ^
Stremooukhoff, Dimitri (1953). "Moscow the Third Rome: Sources of the Doctrine".
Speculum
.
28
(1): 84?101.
doi
:
10.2307/2847182
.
JSTOR
2847182
.
S2CID
161446879
.
That is why we consider the theory definitively formulated by Philotheus to occupy a central place in Muscovite ideology: it forms the core of the opinions developed by the Muscovites about their fatherland and erects them into a doctrine.
- ^
Подосокорский, Николай (2017-07-10).
"Послание старца Филофея великому князю Василию III о содомском блуде"
.
philologist.livejournal.com
. Retrieved
2019-10-30
.
- ^
"ПОСЛАНИЯ СТАРЦА ФИЛОФЕЯ"
.
pushkinskijdom.ru
. 31 October 2019.
- ^
Nicol, Donald MacGillivray (1992).
The last centuries of Byzantium, 1261-1453
(2nd ed.). Hart-Davis. p. 72.
- ^
Ostrowski, Donald (1998).
Muscovy and the Mongols: Cross-Cultural Influences on the Steppe Frontier, 1304-1589
. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (published 2002). p. 211.
ISBN
9780521894104
.
- ^
a
b
Parry, Ken; Melling, David J.; Brady, Dimitri; Griffith, Sidney H.; Healey, John F., eds. (2017-09-01) [1999]. "Jeremias II".
The Blackwell Dictionary of Eastern Christianity
. Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishing Ltd. p. 263.
doi
:
10.1002/9781405166584
.
ISBN
978-1-4051-6658-4
.
- ^
Parry, Ken; Melling, David J.; Brady, Dimitri; Griffith, Sidney H.; Healey, John F., eds. (2017-09-01) [1999]. "Moscow".
The Blackwell Dictionary of Eastern Christianity
. Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishing Ltd. p. 327.
doi
:
10.1002/9781405166584
.
ISBN
978-1-4051-6658-4
.
- ^
Beales, Derek (1987).
Joseph II: Volume 1, In the Shadow of Maria Theresa, 1741-1780
. Cambridge University Press. pp. 431?438.
ISBN
9780521242400
.
- ^
Rap, Myroslava (2015-06-24).
"Chapter I. Religious context of Ukrainian society today ? the background to research"
.
The Public Role of the Church in Contemporary Ukrainian Society: The Contribution of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church to Peace and Reconciliation
. Nomos Verlag. pp. 85?86.
ISBN
978-3-8452-6305-2
.
- ^
"Выступление Святейшего Патриарха Кирилла на торжественном открытии III Ассамблеи Русского мира / Патриарх / Патриархия.ru"
[Speech by His Holiness Patriarch Kirill at the grand opening of the Third Russian World Assembly].
Патриархия.ru
(in Russian)
. Retrieved
2019-12-30
.
- ^
"?люз?я "Третього Риму"
"
.
tyzhden.ua
(in Ukrainian). August 2011
. Retrieved
2019-12-30
.
- ^
"А Рос?я ? лучше вс?х"
.
tyzhden.ua
(in Ukrainian). August 2011
. Retrieved
2019-12-30
.
- ^
The long history of Russian imperialism shaping Putin's war
- ^
Some observers mistakenly blame Putin's invasion on an old doctrine
Sources
[
edit
]
- Кривцов, Дмитрий (2001). "Посольство константинопольского вселенского патриарха Феолипта I в Москву в 1518 ? 1519 гг. (Эпизод из истории борьбы за признание автокефалии русской Церкви)".
Материалы докладов научных конференций, проводившихся в Нижегородском государственном университете им. Н.И. Лобачевского 22 мая 1998 г., 21 мая 1999 г. и 21 мая 2000 г
. Нижний Новгород: Издательство ННГУ. pp. 45?67.
ISBN
5-85746-624-5
.
Further reading
[
edit
]
- Stremooukhoff, Dimitri (1953). "Moscow the Third Rome: Sources of the Doctrine".
Speculum
.
28
(1): 84?101.
doi
:
10.2307/2847182
.
JSTOR
2847182
.
S2CID
161446879
.
- Wolff, Robert Lee (1959). "The Three Romes: The Migration of an Ideology and the Making of an Autocrat".
Daedalus
.
88
(2): 291?311.
ISSN
0011-5266
.
JSTOR
20026497
.
- Marshall, T. Poe (10 October 1997).
"
"Moscow, the Third Rome" the origins and transformations of a pivotal moment"
(PDF)
.
ucis.pitt.edu
.
- Ostrowski, Donald (2006).
"
"Moscow the Third Rome" as Historical Ghost"
. In T. Brooks, Sarah (ed.).
Byzantium: Faith and Power (1261?1557). Perspectives on Late Byzantine Art and Culture
. Yale University Press. pp. 170?179.
ISBN
978-1-58839-208-4
– via Academia.edu.
- E. Kalb, Judith (2008).
Russia's Rome: Imperial Visions, Messianic Dreams, 1890?1940
. United States of America: The University of Wisconsin Press.
ISBN
978-0-299-22920-7
.
- Klimenko, Anna N.; Yurtaev, Vladimir I. (2018-11-21).
"The "Moscow as the Third Rome" Concept: Its Nature and Interpretations since the 19th to Early 21st Centuries"
.
Geopolitica(s). Revista de estudios sobre espacio y poder
.
9
(2): 253?289.
doi
:
10.5209/GEOP.58910
.
ISSN
2172-7155
.
- Laats, Alar.
"The concept of the Third Rome and its political implications"
(PDF)
.
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