The Muscovite Prince as the Protector of the Law in Hagiographic and Narrative Sources of the 14th-16th Centuries

Korpela, Jukka (2025) The Muscovite Prince as the Protector of the Law in Hagiographic and Narrative Sources of the 14th-16th Centuries. RUSSIANSTUDIES.HU, 7 (1). pp. 165-186. ISSN 2677-0660

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Abstract

Medieval Muscovite texts legitimate the wars and conquests of the Moscow grand princes as a fight against sin. Moscow was a realm under the protection of God and, in the late 15th century, its ruler was at last a Christian emperor. Therefore, Russia was not a conqueror but only on a mission to promote the truth of God and defend true Christianity. This kind of wording was used in diplomatic correspondence, administrative letters, chronicles and hagiographies about the wars against Poland, Lithuania, Novgorod, Sweden, the Teutonic Knights, and the Tatar Horde. The enemies were the foreign threat, sinners, pagans, nonChristians, and heretics who were trying to destroy the eternal entity of Rus’ and to force Russians to abandon true Christianity. The first task of the Tatars was naturally not to collect wealth but to destroy Christianity in its entirety, and they also had Christian allies who were traitors and incarnations of the New Testament Judas. From this perspective the rhetoric used in the Muscovite texts did not make a big distinction between Moslem Tatars and Roman Catholics. As well as serving the mission of the Devil, the reason for the devastation wrought by the godless enemies was “our abandonment of the law of God”, i.e., the sins the Russians had committed themselves and for which God was punishing them. This is, of course, rather typical medieval political rhetoric, but the historical core and point is, however, that this pattern is still typical of the serious, modern Russian war rhetoric of President Putin and Patriarch Kirill of All Russia. This makes a huge di erence to how Russians view the rational western explanations for the war and therefore makes it di cult for us to understand the Russian reality. It is still a strong historical social and mental structure in Russian culture.

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