God, Tsar, and People

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel B. Rowland
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Russian History ◽  
The West ◽  
Common View ◽  
God's Will ◽  
Political World ◽  
Peter The Great ◽  
Russian State

This book brings together essays written over a period of fifty years, using a wide variety of evidence — texts, icons, architecture, and ritual — to reveal how early modern Russians (1450–1700) imagined their rapidly changing political world. The book presents a more nuanced picture of Russian political thought during the two centuries before Peter the Great came to power than is typically available. The state was expanding at a dizzying rate, and atop Russia's traditional political structure sat a ruler who supposedly reflected God's will. The problem facing Russians was that actual rulers seldom — or never — exhibited the required perfection. This book argues that this contradictory set of ideas was far less autocratic in both theory and practice than modern stereotypes would have us believe. In comparing and contrasting Russian history with that of Western European states, the book is also questioning the notion that Russia has always been, and always viewed itself as, an authoritarian country. The book explores how the Russian state in this period kept its vast lands and diverse subjects united in a common view of a Christian polity, defending its long frontier agai-nst powerful enemies from the East and from the West.

Merciful Father, Impersonal State: Russian Autocracy in Comparative Perspective

1997 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 635-663 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valerie Kivelson
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
Northern Europe ◽  
Russian History ◽  
Central State ◽  
The West ◽  
Peter The Great ◽  
Modern Period ◽  
State Apparatus

Comparative analyses traditionally have done Russian history no favors. Invidious comparisons have situated Russia firmly in a context of backwardness relative to the West. The term ‘medieval’ customarily applies to Russia until the era of Peter the Great, that is, until the early eighteenth century, and even the least condemnatory scholars point out similarities between Muscovite Russia of the fourteenth through seventeenth centuries and early medieval tribal formations of northern Europe. Along with ‘backwardness,’ comparative history has customarily found in Russia an example of extraordinarily oppressive autocratic despotism, while at the same time, and omewhat contradictorily, decrying the incompetence and rampant corruption of the central state apparatus. These and other unflattering comparative generalizations arose in the observations of Western travellers who recorded their impressions of Russia in the early modern period and have continued in the writings of scholars and journalists to this day.

scholarly journals François Fénelon: Modern philosopher or conservative theologian?

2021 ◽  
pp. 147488512110020
Author(s):  
Alexandra Oprea
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Political Economy ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Education Of Women ◽  
Political Philosopher

Ryan Patrick Hanley makes two original claims about François Fénelon: (1) that he is best regarded as a political philosopher, and (2) that his political philosophy is best understood as “moderate and modern.” In what follows, I raise two concerns about Hanley’s revisionist turn. First, I argue that the role of philosophy in Fénelon’s account is rather as a handmaiden of theology than as an autonomous area of inquiry—with implications for both the theory and practice of politics. Second, I use Fénelon’s writings on the education of women as an illustration of the more radical and reactionary aspects of his thought. Despite these limits, the book makes a compelling case for recovering Fénelon and opens up new conversations about education, religion, political economy, and international relations in early modern political thought.

scholarly journals Astral Magic and Adelard of Bath’s Liber Prestigiorum; or Why Werewolves Change at the Full Moon

2012 ◽  
Vol 16 (1 and 2) ◽  
pp. 151-161
Author(s):  
Patricia Aakhus
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Full Moon ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
The Moon ◽  
The West ◽  
English Court ◽  
Precious Stone ◽  
Profound Knowledge ◽  
12Th Century ◽  
Phases Of The Moon

Astral magic, the capturing of celestial spirits or rays in engraved stones at astronomically propitious times, enters the West with Adelard of Bath’s 12th century translation of Thabit ibn Qurra’s treatise on talismanic magic, Liber Prestigiorum. Derived from Greek, Babylonian, Sabian, Egyptian and Neo-Platonic magical theory and practice, astral magic requires profound knowledge of astronomy. Talismans draw down planetary spirits along stellar rays, the vehicles of transmission, following sympathetic correspondences between astronomical and terrestrial phenomena. In the 12th century works Guillaume de Palerne and Le Chevalier au Lion, magic rings and werewolves are tied to astral magic. These works were written for the English court that supported Adelard, and Gervase of Tilbury’s Otia Imperialia where ‘in England we have often seen men change into wolves according to the phases of the moon’ and ‘there is no precious stone which may not be consecrated for the exercise of its extrinsic power with the herb of the same name or with the blood of the bird or animal, combined with spells’. Adelard’s version of Thabit’s text, along with the Latin Picatrix, also derived from Thabit, had the greatest impact on learned magic in the medieval and early modern periods

scholarly journals A Handwritten Greek Hagiography of Russian Saints from Mount Athos: The Life of St Mitrofan of Voronezh

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mikhail Bibikov
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Russian Translation ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
Greek Text ◽  
Russian History ◽  
Old Russian ◽  
Peter The Great ◽  
Modern Period ◽  
Greek Manuscript

Modern methods for studying old Russian texts are based on the reconstruction of foreign translations: this makes it possible to define the extent to which the world of the Middle Ages and the early modern period was acquainted with them. Post-Byzantine translations of the hagiographic works of old Rus’ and later periods are rare cases of such texts. The archive of the Athos Russian Monastery of St Panteleimon contains a text which makes up part of the Greek manuscript Cod. Athos. Panteleemon. gr. 283 (1848): it speaks of the life of St Mitrofan of Voronezh (†1703), a famous associate of Peter the Great canonised by the Russian Church in 1832. At the time of his canonisation, a handwritten abridged hagiography was released: this was followed a few years later by a longer version which the Greek text relies on. A codicological investigation has helped to identify the codex’s author and scribe: the monk Jacobos Neaksytiotes (1790s–1869), an outstanding theologian and historian (his opus magnum was Athonias) of Athos. The reconstruction of his biography and legacy allows the author of this article to understand this monk’s interest in Russian history and his translations of some hagiographic works from Russian into Greek. The article also contains a Russian translation of the Greek hagiographic text.

The Petrine Divide and the Periodization of Early Modern Russian History

Slavic Review ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 69 (2) ◽  
pp. 410-425 ◽  
Author(s):  
Russell E. Martin
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
Russian History ◽  
The West ◽  
Traditional Use ◽  
Modern Period ◽  
Court Politics ◽  
Law Of Succession ◽  
Gradual Transformation

Among the chief problems in determining the boundaries of the early modern period in Russian history is die reign and reforms of Peter I the Great. In this article, Russell E. Martin situates Peter's reign within the context of dynastic marriage politics from the sixteenth through the eighteenth centuries. He argues that the centuries from roughly 1500 to 1800 constitute a single, coherent period. Court politics were dominated by concerns of kinship and marriage: in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, by the search for a domesdc bride for the Russian rulers through bride shows; then, in the eighteenth century, by the gradual transformation of court politics away from domestic brides and toward a more traditional use of dynastic marriage as a tool in foreign policy. The early modern period ends, Martin argues, only with the promulgation of a new law of succession by Paul I (as modified by Alexander I). The so-called Petrine divide, then, is elided in a periodization of Russian history that very much mirrors the boundaries that are conventional in the west.

scholarly journals A form of creating historical consciousness: The Russian academy and Varangian question

2015 ◽  
pp. 471-486
Author(s):  
Djordje Djuric
Keyword(s):  
18Th Century ◽  
Historical Consciousness ◽  
Russian History ◽  
Russian People ◽  
Peter The Great ◽  
Russian State ◽  
The Social ◽  
Academy Of Sciences ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
Ideological Attitudes

The establishment of the Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg gave a great impetus to the development of historiography in Russia, and likewise to the development of other sciences. The idea of establishing the Academy of Sciences in Russia came from Peter the Great. Because there did not exist a system of higher education or a university in Russia at that time, scientists who were to become the first members of the Academy, had to be brought in from abroad. The enlightened ruler did not regret spending effort and money for this purpose. Large sums of money were assigned to the purchase of books and to the salaries and awards of the future members of the Academy. The Academy started its activities in December 1725, and during the first few decades it was led by scientists from abroad, mainly from German countries. That was also the case with the Humanities Section, which, among other things, supposed to deal with Russian history. The bases for work at the Russian Academy in St. Petersburg in the following decades were set by: Gottlieb Siegfried Bayer, Gerhard Friedrich M?ller and August Ludwig von Schl?zer. On the bases of the Russian historical material that they collected, primarily Nestorov letopis (Nestor?s chronicle) that describes the events of the 9th century, they came to far-reaching conclusions about the origin of the Russian people and the establishment of the Russian state and its institutions. This way was opened the so called Varangian question and formulated Norman theory of the origin of the Russians. In the first half of the 18th century, Russian historian Vasily Nikitich Tatishchev, academician Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov and other Russian scientists opposed to these theories. During the 19th century, these theories were accepted, with certain modifications, by the most distinguished Russian bourgeois historians Karamzin, Soloviev, Pagodin and others. The Bolsheviks mostly rejected these theories or they were simplified and reduced to the social segment that the Russian people were oppressed, and that the majority the oppressor elite was of foreign origin. As is the case with the interpretations of many historical events and processes, the conclusions related to the Varangian question and Norman theory were widely influenced by the time in which the author wrote, and by his political and ideological attitudes. That was perhaps more pronounced in this case, because it was the question of the origin and ethnogenesis of the Russian people and the establishment of the Russian state and its institutions.

scholarly journals Royal Counsel in Tudor England, 1485–1603

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-28
Author(s):  
Jonathan McGovern
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Political Culture ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
State Policy ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
Critical Assessment ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Privy Council ◽  
Literary Scholarship ◽  
Tudor England

Abstract Royal counsel in Tudor England has been a central historiographical theme for over twenty years. This review offers a critical assessment of the state of the field. It appraises historical and literary scholarship on both the theory and practice of royal counsel. Among other themes, it discusses the concepts of evil counsel and arcana imperii. The review concludes by suggesting priorities for future enquiry, including the need to think more carefully about which areas of English government still required royal decision-making, and therefore counsel, in this period. The article also charts the rise of conciliar ‘government under the king but not by the king’ and shows that Tudor counsel often happened the wrong way around: the monarch advised the privy council on the direction of state policy. It calls for a new administrative history in early modern studies, with a renewed focus on institutions and their procedures, to complement existing strengths in the fields of political culture and political thought.

Patrick Gordon as Scotsman

2016 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-24
Author(s):  
Paul Dukes
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Global Climate Change ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Russian History ◽  
Senior Scholar ◽  
Peter The Great ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Impact

In this essay, a well known senior scholar of early modern Russian history reflects on his encounters with Professor Ruslan Skrynnikov and on his own research interests, especially the career and diary of General Patrick Gordon, the famous Scotsman who mentored Peter the Great. Also included are the author’s reflections on the “General Crisis of the Seventeenth Century” and the impact on history of global climate change.

scholarly journals Eastern Transcaucasia on the Eve and During the Persian Campaign of Peter the Great

2020 ◽  
pp. 125-128
Author(s):  
Zahid Alievich Khalaev
Keyword(s):  
Political Elite ◽  
Caspian Region ◽  
The West ◽  
The Caucasus ◽  
Political Situation ◽  
Peter The Great ◽  
Russian State ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Russian Empire

The study examines little-studied issues of the so-cio-political history of Eastern Transcaucasia on the eve and during the Persian campaign of Peter the Great. Based on the analysis of a wide range of nar-rative and archival sources, the influence of the mili-tary campaign of Peter the Great on the socio-political situation in the studied region is shown. The relations of the Russian authorities with the Christian rulers of the Transcaucasia in the interna-tional context are considered. As a result, the con-clusion is substantiated that during his Persian campaign, Peter I paid special attention not only to representatives of the Dagestan political elite, but also to the Christian rulers of the Eastern Transcau-casia, to the Georgian and Armenian rulers, in par-ticular, which gave him a great advantage in the struggle for domination in the Caucasus. The results of the Persian campaign of Peter for the Russian state were successful. The campaign put the west-ern part of the Caspian region under the control of the Russian state, such cities of Derbent and Baku were occupied. In general, this campaign marked the beginning of the process of the accession of the Transcaucasia to the Russian Empire.

THE SEARCH FOR THE ORIGINS OF MODERN DEMOCRATIC REPUBLICAN POLITICAL THOUGHT IN EARLY MODERN SWITZERLAND

2011 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 647-658 ◽  
Author(s):  
MARC H. LERNER
Keyword(s):  
Political Culture ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Intellectual History ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
Popular Sovereignty ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Political World ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
Good Government ◽  
History Of

What are the debts that the modern world owes to the political culture of the Enlightenment? For historians of political thought this is a widely debated subject. Throughout Europe, the Enlightenment provided the critical lens for a widespread reassessment of the nature of political authority. Much of the intellectual history of the eighteenth century focuses on this reassessment and the debates over the nature of good government, liberty and sovereignty. The discussion of these issues is linked to the history of liberalism, democratic republicanism, popular sovereignty, and the nature of the modern political world itself.

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