• DOI:10.2307/2847182
• Corpus ID: 161446879

Moscow the Third Rome: Sources of the Doctrine

@article{Strmooukhoff1953MoscowTT,
  title={Moscow the Third Rome: Sources of the Doctrine},
  author={Dimitri Str{\'e}mooukhoff},
  journal={Speculum},
  year={1953},
  volume={28},
  pages={84 - 101}
}

• D. Strémooukhoff
• Published 1 January 1953
• History
• Speculum

ALTHOUGH the sixteenth-century Russian doctrine which proclaimed Moscow the 'Third Rome' has become a subject of increasing interest o historians,' its origin and sources still remain despite the meticulous research of M. D'jakonov, V. Malinin, and Mme H. Schaeder to some extent obscure.2 In the hope, therefore, that it may be of some use in elucidating a point of such importance to the grasp of both Muscovite ideology and Russian history, we have devoted this further study to the genesis of this doctrine.3 Before coming to the Muscovite conception, we should first make a rapid outline of the imperial doctrine which was adapted and transposed on the soil of Moscow. In searching for the idea of universal monarchy, probably of Iranian origin, we need go no further than the iebrew prophets, in whose writings (particularly those of Daniel) it is expounded. Universal history up to the advent of the Messianic kingdom is shown by Daniel as a succession of four empires, represented either by the parts of the idol that appeared in Nebuchadnezzar's dream (Daniel, ii) or by the four animals (Daniel, vii), which tradition interprets as the Babylonian, Persian, Macedonian, and Roman empires. At times, this fourth empire of Daniel was regarded by the Christianity then developing within the boundaries of the Roman Empire as the kingdom of Antichrist (Apocalypse); at others, as the power by which the advent of Antichrist (II Thessal., ii, 5) was being held back.4 That the Roman empire should have been subject to interpretations so opposed as to its eschatological role, is an enduring and essential characteristic of the Christian apocalyptic. After the union of Christianity and imperial Rome, consummated by Constantine the Great, the conception of a Roman-Christian empire is to stamp profoundly European history. In the West, the empire will be overthrown by the barbarians, and not restored until 800, when the coronation of Charlemagne will