Early Modern Russian State, "Tsar’s Discourse" and Russian Orthodox Church in the XV-XVII Centuries

Abstract

The article examines some special aspects of the centralized Russian state formation as the part of the Pan -European process of the early modern state formation. The researchers focus on the problem of the Tsar's discourse as on the problem of the total claims the true Orthodox monarch should comply with. The Orthodox Church took the active part in the formation of this "discourse", and the compliance with the requirements of it guaranteed to the top authority loyalty of its people and readiness to carry out its requirements. The Church gave Grand Dukes the powerful tool when applying secular practices of legitimation.

The State and the Church in Russia in the Early New Age: Custom and Law

“…All of the above was of immediate importance to early-modern Russia, because in it, like other states of the time, the government gradually "pumped" the notorious "sinews of power", actively involving the Orthodox Church in this process. According to N. Kallmann, "It was broadcasting its legitimacy through an ideological discourse of autocracy, disseminated in league with the Orthodox Church through imagery, architecture, ritual, proclamations and the formulas of official documents" (Lipich, 2018). It should be supplemented with a number of important, in our opinion, points showing the significance of the position of the Russian Orthodox Church in various issues of foreign and domestic policy.…”