Russian notions of power and state in a European perspective, 1462-1725 : assessing the significance of Peter's reign / Endre Sashalmi.

Includes bibliographies and index.

PART ONE. Russia and Europe: clarification of terms, and the problem of the state -- Issues of methodology, reception, and the benefits of a long-term approach -- Territoriality, the name, and the nature of the polity: from the principality of Moscow to the Russian Empire -- The idea of the state in Western Christendom in the late Middle Ages and the early Modern Era -- The role of metaphors and allegorical personifications in the development of the concept of the state in Western Christendom -- The meaning(s) of European perspective -- The birth and meaning of the "Russian state narrative" -- The consequences of the state narrative: the discovery of Gosudarstvo by Russian history-writing -- Sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Muscovite perceptions of ruling power: characteristics and methodological aspects of a comparison with Western Christendom -- The problem of Samoderzhavie -- PART TWO. Notions of power and state in the context of "proprietary dynasticism": Russia and the Western perspective -- Richard Pipes's patrimonial interpretation of Russia reconsidered in the light of "proprietary dynasticism" -- Aspects of rulership and their relation to each other in early Modern Europe and Russia: proprietary, office, and divine right -- 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 -- Turning points in the Life of Feofan Prokopovich, and his most important political works -- Preliminary notes on Prokopovich's theory of law and state -- Power, state, law, sovereignty, and contractualism in Feofan Prokopovich's Writings -- 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.

"The book highlights the main features and trends of Russian "political" thought in an era when sovereignty, state, and politics, as understood in Western Christendom, were non-existent in Russia, or were only beginning to be articulated. It concentrates on enigmatic authors and sources that shaped official perception of rulership, or marked certain changes of importance of this perception. Special emphasis is given to those written and visual sources which pointed towards depersonalization and secularization of rulership in Russia. A comparison with Western Christendom frames the argument throughout the book, both in terms of ideas and the practical aspects of state-building, allowing the reader to ponder Russia's differentia specifica"--

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