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{{Short description|Theological and political concept}}{{For|the concept of "third Rome" in general|Succession of the Roman Empire}}File:Lesser Coat of Arms of Russian Empire.svg|thumb|Lesser version of the (Coat of arms of Russia#1721–1917: Russian Empire|coat of arms of the Russian Empire) with the double-headed eagle, formerly associated with the alt=Moscow, third Rome (; {{Transliteration|ru|Moskva, tretiĭ 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

{{See also|Holy Rus|Orthodoxy, Autocracy, and Nationality|Russian world}}{{See also|Church reform of Peter the Great}}"Moscow, Third Rome" is a theological and a political concept which was formulated in the 15th–16th centuries in the Tsardom of Russia.WEB,weblink МОСКВА - ТРЕТІЙ РИМ, Mashkov, A.D., leksika.com.ua, Ukrainian Soviet Encyclopedia, uk, MOSCOW - THIRD ROME, 2019-11-18, {{unreliable source?|date=December 2019}}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.

History

{{See also|The Tale of the Princes of Vladimir|The Legend of the White Cowl|Holy Rus}}{{See also|15th-16th century Moscow–Constantinople schism#Role of the Byzantine emperor in the Eastern Orthodox Church|East–West Schism#Other points of conflict|State church of the Roman Empire#End of the Western Roman Empire}}

Before the fall of Constantinople

The concept of the "Third Rome" took shape as early as 925, when Simeon I of the First Bulgarian Empire, following the example of Byzantine emperors, proclaimed himself "Emperor（βασιλεύς） of all Bulgarians and Romans (Greeks)" (василевс на българите и ромеите). Subsequently, monarchs of Bulgaria, Serbia, and other countries followed suit, seemingly regarding themselves as heirs to the Eastern Orthodox "Carolingian Empire" on Romaniae lands肖聪榕. An exploration of the concept of "Roman" in post-medieval Romania area [J]. Youth Years, 2022, (12): 42-44..After the fall of Tǎrnovo 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.BOOK,weblink Companion to Russian Studies: Volume 2, An Introduction to Russian Language and Literature, Kingsford, Anthony, 1981-07-16, CUP Archive, 9780521280396, 94, en, Literature in the Muscovite period,weblink BOOK,weblink The concept of the Third Rome and its political implications, Laats, Alar, 102,

After the fall of Constantinople

File:Byzantine Palaiologos Eagle.svg|alt=|thumb|238x238px|Symbol of the Palaiologos dynasty, the last reigning dynasty of the Byzantine Empirereigning dynasty of the Byzantine EmpireWithin 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".BOOK, The Blackwell Dictionary of Eastern Christianity, Blackwell Publishing, 1999, 978-0-631-23203-2, Parry, Ken, Malden, MA, 490, Melling, David, 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.JOURNAL, Strémooukhoff, Dimitri, 1953, Moscow the Third Rome: Sources of the Doctrine, Speculum, 28, 1, 84–101, 10.2307/2847182, 2847182, 161446879,

End of the 15th century

At the end of the 15th century, the emergence of the idea that Moscow is truly a new Rome can be found; 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 (), quite clearly expressed it, calling Ivan III "the new Tsar Constantine of the new city of Constantine — Moscow."WEB,weblink ЗОСИМА, www.pravenc.ru, 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»., This idea is best known in the presentation of the monk Philotheus of the early 16th century:JOURNAL, Strémooukhoff, Dimitri, 1953, Moscow the Third Rome: Sources of the Doctrine, Speculum, 28, 1, 84–101, 10.2307/2847182, 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., 2847182, 161446879, WEB,weblink Послание старца Филофея великому князю Василию III о содомском блуде, Подосокорский, Николай, 2017-07-10, philologist.livejournal.com, en-us, 2019-10-30, WEB,weblink ПОСЛАНИЯ СТАРЦА ФИЛОФЕЯ, 31 October 2019, pushkinskijdom.ru, {{Blockquote|text=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. {{bibleverse|Revelation |17:10|KJV|}}] [...].|sign=|source=}}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. 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{{efn|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.|name=|group=}} tsar."{{sfn|Kryvtsov|2001|p=51}}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.BOOK, The last centuries of Byzantium, 1261-1453, Nicol, Donald MacGillivray, Hart-Davis, 1992, 2nd, 72, en,

Since the 16th century

{{See also|Church reform of Peter the Great}}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."BOOK,weblink Muscovy and the Mongols: Cross-Cultural Influences on the Steppe Frontier, 1304-1589, Ostrowski, Donald, Cambridge University Press, 1998, 9780521894104, Cambridge, 2002, 211, en, 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",BOOK,weblink The Blackwell Dictionary of Eastern Christianity, 2017-09-01, Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 978-1-4051-6658-4, Parry, Ken, Oxford, UK, 263, en, Jeremias II, 10.1002/9781405166584, 1999, Melling, David J., Brady, Dimitri, Griffith, Sidney H., Healey, John F., Jeremias recognized in 1589 the Metropolitan of Moscow as patriarch.BOOK,weblink The Blackwell Dictionary of Eastern Christianity, 2017-09-01, Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 978-1-4051-6658-4, Parry, Ken, Oxford, UK, 327, en, Moscow, 10.1002/9781405166584, 1999, Melling, David J., Brady, Dimitri, Griffith, Sidney H., Healey, John F., This recognition was "a victory for those who saw Moscow as the Third Rome."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.BOOK,weblink Joseph II: Volume 1, In the Shadow of Maria Theresa, 1741-1780, Beales, Derek, Cambridge University Press, 1987, 9780521242400, 431–438, en,

Russian world

{{See also|Russian world}}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.BOOK,weblink The Public Role of the Church in Contemporary Ukrainian Society: The Contribution of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church to Peace and Reconciliation, Rap, Myroslava, 2015-06-24, Nomos Verlag, 978-3-8452-6305-2, 85–86, en, Chapter I. Religious context of Ukrainian society today – the background to research, WEB,weblink Выступление Святейшего Патриарха Кирилла на торжественном открытии III Ассамблеи Русского мира / Патриарх / Патриархия.ru, Патриархия.ru, ru, Speech by His Holiness Patriarch Kirill at the grand opening of the Third Russian World Assembly, 2019-12-30, 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.WEB,weblink Ілюзія "Третього Риму", tyzhden.ua, August 2011, uk, 2019-12-30, The ideas of the Russian world are used as a justification for the revival of the Russian Empire.WEB,weblink А Росія – лучше всєх, tyzhden.ua, August 2011, uk, 2019-12-30, It has been suggested that Vladimir Putin envisions a recreation of Russia's "mission", at least in terms of the Slavic people,The long history of Russian imperialism shaping Putin's war although it has also been noted that this viewpoint may be highly exaggerated.Some observers mistakenly blame Putin's invasion on an old doctrine

See also

• {{Interlanguage link|1561 synodal letter of the clergy of the Eastern Orthodox Church approving the status of tsar of Grand Duke Ivan IV Vasilyevich|lt=|ru|Соборная грамота духовенства православной Восточной Церкви, утверждающая сан царя за Великим Князем Иоанном IV Васильевичем, 1561 года|WD=}}
• 15th–16th century Moscow–Constantinople schism
• Holy Rus
• Legacy of the Roman Empire
• Moscow–Constantinople schism (disambiguation)
• New Rome
• Nova Roma
• Romanov Empire (micronation)
• Russian Empire
• Russian imperialism
• Russian world
• Second Rome (disambiguation)
• Succession of the Roman Empire
• Translatio imperii

Notes

References

Citations

{{Reflist}}

Sources

• BOOK, 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., Кривцов, Дмитрий, 2001, Издательство ННГУ, 5-85746-624-5, Нижний Новгород, 45–67, Посольство константинопольского вселенского патриарха Феолипта I в Москву в 1518 — 1519 гг. (Эпизод из истории борьбы за признание автокефалии русской Церкви), {{harvid, Kryvtsov, 2001, }}

Further reading

• JOURNAL, Strémooukhoff, Dimitri, 1953, Moscow the Third Rome: Sources of the Doctrine, Speculum, 28, 1, 84–101, 10.2307/2847182, 2847182, 161446879,
• JOURNAL, Wolff, Robert Lee, 1959, The Three Romes: The Migration of an Ideology and the Making of an Autocrat, Daedalus, 88, 2, 291–311, 0011-5266, 20026497,
• WEB,weblink "Moscow, the Third Rome" the origins and transformations of a pivotal moment, Marshall, T. Poe, 10 October 1997, ucis.pitt.edu,
• BOOK, Byzantium: Faith and Power (1261—1557). Perspectives on Late Byzantine Art and Culture, Ostrowski, Donald, Yale University Press, 2006, 978-1-58839-208-4, T. Brooks, Sarah, 170–179, en, "Moscow the Third Rome" as Historical Ghost,weblink Academia.edu,
• BOOK, Russia's Rome: Imperial Visions, Messianic Dreams, 1890–1940, E. Kalb, Judith, The University of Wisconsin Press, 2008, 978-0-299-22920-7, United States of America,
• JOURNAL, 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,weblink Geopolítica(s). Revista de estudios sobre espacio y poder, en, 9, 2, 253–289, 10.5209/GEOP.58910, 2172-7155, free,
• WEB,weblink The concept of the Third Rome and its political implications, Laats, Alar,

{{Russian nationalism}}