Russian Notions of Power and State in a European Perspective, 1462-1725

Endre Sashalmi is a professor of history at the Department of Medieval and Early Modern History at the University of Pécs (Hungary), and is a doctor of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. His main fields of academic interest and research are comparisons of Western and Russian political thought and political iconography from the 15th to the 18th century, as well as the issue of state formation in Russia and in early modern Europe.

Introduction. Explanation of Aims, Genre, and Terminology

PART ONE. Russia and Europe: Clarification of Terms and the Problem of the State

1. Issues of Methodology, Reception, and the Benefits of a Long-Term Approach

2. Territoriality, the Name, and the Nature of the Polity: From the Principality of Moscow to the Russian Empire

3. The Idea of the State in Western Christendom in the Late Middle Ages and the Early Modern Era

4. The Role of Metaphors and Allegorical Personifications in the Development of the Concept of the State in Western Christendom

5. The Meaning(s) of European Perspective

6. The Birth and Meaning of the “Russian State Narrative”

7. The Consequences of the State Narrative: The Discovery of Gosudarstvo by Russian History-Writing

8. Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century Muscovite Perceptions of Ruling Power: Characteristics and Methodological Aspects of a Comparison with Western Christendom

9. The Problem of Samoderzhavie

PART TWO. Notions of Power and State in the Context of “Proprietary Dynasticism”: Russia and the Western Perspective

10. Richard Pipes’s Patrimonial Interpretation of Russia Reconsidered in the Light of “Proprietary Dynasticism”

11. Aspects of Rulership and Their Relation to Each Other in Early Modern Europe and Russia: Proprietary, Office, and Divine Right

12. Divine Right of Kings and Divine Right of Tsars: Aspects and Lessons of a Comparison

PART THREE. The Origins of Theory of Law and State in the Works of Feofan Prokopovich: An Intellectual from the Kievan Nest in the Service of Peter the Great

13. Turning Points in the Life of Feofan Prokopovich, and His Most Important Political Works

14. Preliminary Notes on Prokopovich’s Theory of Law and State

15. Power, State, Law, Sovereignty, and Contractualism in Feofan Prokopovich’s Writings

16. Female Allegorical Personification of Russia during the Reign of Peter the Great and His Successors: Visual and Written Sources, and the Notion of State

Epilogue: The Importance of Gosudarstvennost′ in Contemporary Russia

Bibliography

Index