Thread: Vladimir Putin and The Third Rome (Moscow)
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Vladimir Putin and The Third Rome (Moscow)
Posted : 27 Jul, 2014 08:55 PM
THE CONCEPT OF THE THIRD ROME AND ITS POLITICAL IMPLICATIONS by ALAR LAATS
In the first half of the sixteenth century an obscure Russian monk from Pskov wrote a number of letters in which he spoke about Moscow as the third Rome. The name of the monk was Filofei (Filotheos) and his letters were sent to the Pskov representative of the Moscow grand prince Vassilij III (1479�1533), to Vassilij himself and to Ivan IV the Terrible (1530�1584).
In his letters Filofei explained that Rome had deviated from the true faith
through the Apollinarian1 heresy. According to Filofei therefore Rome has
been imprisoned by the devil. Constantinople, the second Rome has also
fallen. The crucial passage is this:
�I would like to say a few words about the existing Orthodox empire of
our most illustrious, exalted ruler. He is the only emperor on all the earth
over the Christians, the governor of the holy, divine throne of the holy,
ecumenical, apostolic church which in place of the churches of Rome and
Constantinople is in the city of Moscow, protected by God, in the holy
and glorious Uspenskij Church of the most pure Mother of God. It alone
shines over all the earth more radiantly than the sun. For know well, those
who love Christ and those who love God, that all Christian empires will
perish and give way to the one kingdom of our ruler, in accord with the
books of the prophet, which is the Russian empire. For two Romes have
fallen, but the third stands, and there will never be a fourth.
If you would like more information including a 26 page PDF titled MOSCOW, THE THIRD ROME" THE ORIGINS AND TRANSFORMATIONS OF A PIVOTAL MOMENT by MARSHALL T . POE, Harvard University, I will send it to you.
The Russians have always considered themselves the heirs to the byzantine empire both politically and spiritually, this was merely suppressed a bit during the Communist era. Rome and Moscow have been in a semi cold war since the great Muslim expansion.
