Holy Prince Vladimir and the Baptism of Rus in the Conception of the "byzantine Inheritance". A Study of the Works of Ignatius (Rimsky-Korsakov), Metropolitan of Siberia
In the paper we show up, basing on the sources, the shift in understanding the place and role of Saint Prince Vladimir and of the Baptism of Rus in the end of the 10th century within the conception of the “byzantine inheritance”. Within the official ideology of the Muscovite state this conception superseded the previously dominant “Moscow - the Third Rome” theory in the middle of the 17th century. The specific feature of the new idea lies in the absence of any reminiscences of the Old Rome, while the fact of the Greeks having conserved the undamaged faith is highlighted, together with the idea of the Muscovite Tsars as the true heirs of Byzantium and of their task being to renew the Empire of the Romans (Rhomaioi) and to release all the Orthodox Christians. The author’s conclusion is that the role of the baptizer of the Rus is understood in dependence on any given writer’s attitude towards the Christian East (i. e., towards the Greeks, first of all). Within the framework of the “Moscow - the Third Rome” paradigm the fact of the acceptance of the faith from the Greeks was doubted, passed over in silence deliberately, became inconvenient, while the accent shifted towards the acceptance of Orthodoxy from the Apostle Andrew. So within the conception of the “byzantine inheritance”, which was to supersede the “Moscow - the Third Rome” idea in the mid-seventeenth century, the attitude towards the acceptance of the faith from the Byzantine Empire changed radically. The author compares this attitude in elder Arseny Sukhanov and in Ignatius (Rimsky-Korsakov), Metropolitan of Siberia. The fact of the Baptism of the Rus was not only recognized in both theologians, but became the act of the translatio Imperii, that of the gradual handing over of the imperial power and of the entrance of Rus into the political life of the Byzantine Empire.