Representing Legitimacy in Early Modern Russia

Abstract

The article explores the ways in which the sixteenth‐century Illuminated Chronicle (Litsevoi letopisnyi svod) demonstrates the ideology of state legitimacy through its illustrations. Analyzing images of judicial punishment, it explores how artists worked within iconographic conventions to demonstrate a consistent image of legitimate, and illegitimate, uses of coercive power, using such devices as gesture, pose, regalia, and composition. As one of the few sources of somewhat secular art in Muscovy, these images provide a valuable source for political ideology.

Legitimacy of Political Power in Modern Russia: Problems of Implementation

“…The legitimacy of this legitimacy is questioned because in Russia there are opinions that the consolidation of society is carried out through the personification of power in the person of the President, which is supported by heterogeneous groups of values in value terms [14]. It should be noted that the personification of power in the history of Russia is one of the variants of the legitimacy of power [28] and corresponds to Russian self-consciousness.…”