The Development of Holy Russia: A Governmental and Religious Narrative

The "Holy Russia" ideology developed over the centuries since Rus' conversion to Byzantine Christianity in the year 988. Various factors were responsible for the imagination of Russia as a holy place, which was eventually centered around Muscovy. These factors included a strong church-state codependency in the Byzantine tradition, Constantinople's adherence to the Florentine Union with the Catholic Church (and thus perceived apostasy), and Byzantium's fall to the Ottoman Turks very shortly after. The "Third Rome" was a related moniker for Russia, which suggested that Muscovy was the final true Christian realm. This podcast will look at "Holy Russia" in action at various points in Russian history, including the "raskol'," during which Russian Orthodox Christianity split into two religious factions.

Special thanks go to Professor Andrew Gow, for whose course I originally wrote a paper on which this podcast was based. His advice was very helpful during the research portion of that work.

Music from https://filmmusic.io
"Deliberate Thought" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)
License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)