Ranchin Andrey Mikhailovich – DS in Philology, Leading Researcher of the Department of Literary Studies, Institute of Scientific Information for Social Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences
The book under review by renowned historian I.N. Danilevsky examines messianic ideas in monuments of ancient Russian literature. The author writes about such works as Ilarion’s Sermon on Law and Grace, The Tale of Bygone Years (Primary Chronicle), The Instruction to Children (Testament) by Vladimir Monomakh, The Ora-tion and The Prayer by Daniil the Prisoner, the sermons of Serapion of Vladimir, the writings of the monk Filolfey – the originator of the “Moscow as the Third Rome” theory, the treatises of Ivan Peresvetov, and others. I.N. Danilevsky demonstrates that the messianic idea of Rus’ as the guardian of Christianity and of Kyiv as a sacred city replacing Constantinople and Jerusalem was formulated in Ilarion’s sermon – one of the first monuments of ancient Russian literature – and was subsequently repeated, with variations, including as applied to the Tsardom of Moscow, in a number of works. The researcher sees the origins of Russian and Soviet imperial expansionist policy in ancient Russian messianism. I.N. Danilevsky’s concept is vulnerable in many ways, as it fails to distinguish between messianism, imperial expansion-ism, and despotism. It is argued that most of the works interpreted by the author have no connection to messianism per se, and many of the interpretations appear arbitrary.
Russian messianism; imperial expansionism; despotism; Old Russian historiosophy; The Sermon on Law and Grace by Ilarion; Primary Chronicle; The Instruction to Children by Vladimir Monomakh; the works of the monk Filofey; interpretation.