Москва – Третій Рим. Походження міфу

by Евген Калюжний (Editor), Наталія Полонська-Василенко, Юрій Бойко

Збірник «Москва – третій Рим». Походження міфу» містить наукові праці знаних істориків другої половини ХХ ст. Наталії Полонської-Василенко, Юрія Бойка, Василя Гришка, Ганса Коха, Бориса Крупницького, Івана Мірчука, Олександера Оглоблина. Книга викриває антинауковість месіанських претензій Росії, доводить відмінність українських та російських історіософських концепцій. Збірник упорядкував професор, доктор Євген Калюжний. Передмова доктора історичних наук Ігора Гирича.
Теорія «Москва – Третій Рим» сформувала національний менталітет росіянина, який ґрунтується на впевненості у його «кращості» порівняно з будь-яким іншим народом світу. Для українців ця ідея — певний лакмусовий папірець. Хто визнає її за позитив, той визначає свою належність до російської нації.

640 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 2021

Reviews

[Oleksandr Zholud · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a collection of historical articles, the book’s title is “Moscow as the Third Rome: origins of the myth”. The articles were written by Ukrainian émigré historians in the late 1940s and early 1950s as they worked in Vatican-sponsored institutions first in Munich, Germany, and later in the USA. Most articles are presented in three languages – a detailed Ukrainian text and abridged versions (usually about 1/3 to ½ of the Ukrainian version) in German and English, all of which were published at the same period.

A general note for those who are unaware of the myth noted in the title: shortly it states that after the fall of Rome (410) and Constantinople (1453), Moscow become the third and final Rome, its version of Orthodox Christianity the only true faith, its leader God anointed and its people messianic. While not very often mentioned, the idea re-emerged from time to time, especially to justify the territorial expansion of Muscovy, from Ivan IV the Terrible, to Peter I, Catherine II, later Russian monarchs, and even in the Soviet time (as the joke went, Third International replaced Third Rome, but actually they were in a tandem).

The articles describe quite diverse subjects, from how Catherine/Potyomkin project to take Istanbul and the Straits formally called for a defense of Christians (heck, the Tzarina even chose names for her grandsons – Alexander and Constantine, first – to rule Russia and be a modern Alexander III of Macedon and the second – to rule over Greeks, who should get lands of 10th century Byzantium), Pavel I projects to shift to Catholicism and be not only tzar but patriarch (as well as establishing a military-style dress for clergy, up to having an aiguillette), to pan-Slav projects of the mid-19th century, backed by a notable persons from intelligence, from Fyodor Dostoevsky to Ivan Turgenev; different fakes used to promote claims of Muscovy princes to rule, from claiming a direct continuation of Rus from Kyiv territories to creating a genealogy from Roman emperor August, to saying that Monomakh's Cap was a gift from Constantinople or that a marriage of Ivan III on Sophia Palaiologina (Palaeologus or Palaeologue, was a Byzantine Greek family that rose to nobility and produced the last and longest-ruling dynasty of the Byzantine Empire) gave him rights to be the next Roman emperor… also two articles deal with re-legalizing Russian orthodox church during the WW2 (to get both domestic and international support) and how after the war there was an attempt to set its as the new world church.

It is interesting to note that when monk Philotheos invented the idea of the third Rome circa 1510, he was in a monastery near Pskov, the territory then-recently captured by Moscow, from its rival – Novgorod, and it was rather shortly after the assumed end of times in 1492 (year 7000 since the creation of our universe), so both apocalyptic ideas and a desire to placate occupants also took part if sculpting the idea.