Third Rome

The term " Moscow, the third Rome " (Russian Москва - третий Рим ) is in the 16th century in three letters of Philotheus ( Filofei ), Elder of the Pskov Eleazar Monastery, the Grand Prince Vasily III, the church clerk Misjur Munechin and on. Ivan the Terrible coined. Since then, that phrase was picked up as alleged state theory again and again in order to substantiate the claim to power of Russia and the Soviet Union in the 20th century.

The first Rome is the city of Rome as the center of the Roman Empire. The fall of Rome is equated with the adoption of the Roman Catholic faith, when Rome became the center of the Roman Catholic Church. Second or New Rome Constantinople Opel is considered. The end of the Second Rome was in 1428, when the city received the Florentine church union with the Catholic Church.

Originally, the concept was less imperial rather apocalyptic to be understood as the "Third Rome." The Principality of Moscow was after this idea of ​​the last remaining " in the wilderness " of the once great Christian civilization after everywhere else, the heresy had taken hold. Both Catholicism and Islam were seen by many Orthodox as heretical side branches of the Judeo-Christian tribe. Moscow was compared with those of seven thousand Israelites who had refused according to the report in the Biblical Book of Kings 1st at the time of Elijah the prophet, worshiping the Baal. Only with time this idea was transformed into a great imperial idea.

The Grand Prince of Kiev, Vladimir I. 989 married Anna, the sister of the Byzantine emperor Basil II, and was converted to the Greek Orthodox faith. With him and his Russian subjects were Christianized. Since the fall of Constantinople in 1453 by the Ottoman Empire, the Russian Orthodox Church Moscow regarded as the Third Rome, ie as the center of Orthodox Christianity. The Marriage of the Grand Duke Ivan III. Sofia Palaiologa, the niece of the last Byzantine emperor, Constantine XI. Palaiologos (1448-1453), emphasized the position of Moscow.

Emergence of the concept

After the conquest of Constantinople by the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II in 1453, the Grand Duke of Moscow was the leading representative of the Orthodox Christians. Thus, the position of power in Moscow was reinforced ideologically. The theory of the Third Rome came along and was designed among other things, by the monk Filofei in 1500 according to the historical events. In this theory Filofei also describes the genealogical connection through the marriage of Ivan III. with Sofia (Zoe ) Palaiologa. Sofia is said to have embodied the Byzantine tradition in her person and has reportedly spread by Greek and Roman companion Byzantine culture at the Moscow court. With the marriage of the Byzantine Hofritus as well as the coat of arms with the double-headed eagle and the title of Czar were introduced as symbols of orthodox imperial power in Moscow.

Problem of the term

This theory was later written down ( in 1510 ) of Filofei and was based on the historical events. Sofia had two brothers (Manuel and Andrew ), Ivan III. could therefore make no hereditary claims on the Byzantine throne law. My brother Andrew even sold his inheritance rights Byzantine in 1483 to a Spanish grandee and again in 1494 to King Charles VIII of France. Also should not forget that Sofia was not Greek Orthodox, as they came to Moscow, but the Uniate church belonged. She had never seen Byzantium, thus it is unlikely that they brought the Byzantine court ceremonial to Moscow. The double-headed eagle first appears in the first half of the 14th century in Byzantium and was never a direct symbol of power of the Byzantine Emperor. On coins and seals always was the ruler. In the West, however, the double-headed eagle occurs very soon. It should be noted not exactly when Ivan III. the eagle used in its seal. Only Vasily III. has finally used it. The title of Tsar for the Grand Princes of Moscow can be demonstrated already for earlier times, but initially had more of a stylistic feature. The report of the Council of Florence the title for Vasily II is used. Officially the title Tsar is was first called closed in 1474 armistice with Livonia. There are Ivan III. and his son called Tsar. Nevertheless, changes in the titling of Ivan III. something rather than call as before Lord, he calls himself increasingly common ruler.

The supporters of the idea

Since the idea of ​​Moscow, was written down as the heir of Byzantium and thus seen as a Third Rome later find themselves especially after the reign of Ivan III. Supporters of this idea. For Ivan III. and Vasily III. Tsar meant nothing more than " great ruler ". Ivan III. did not think to take up the universal heritage of the Byzantine emperor, but mainly refugees from Byzantium and Serbia saw the " bastion of orthodoxy " in the Moscow realm, because it could act freely as the sole representative of the Orthodox Church. The formation of this ideology comes from the monastic area ( Filofej of Pskov / Pskov ). The Archbishop was Feofil with the policy of Ivan III. dissatisfied. The church had handed over to Grand Duke and in 1479 ended the visit of Ivan III in 1478 many lands. in Great Novgorod with the arrest Feofils.

After the monk Filofei Moscow as Third Rome also the last Rome: " ... a fourth there will not be " ( ... четвёртому не быти ) because the world end was near.

Even the naming of Saint Petersburg by Peter the Great in 1703 to be lodged in this connection.