Ancient orthodoxy in the imperial discourse of the russian statehood

Abstract

Abtract. The article gives a comparative analysis of the integration capabilities of both branches of Russian Orthodoxy: both its ancient Russian national version and the universal version formed during the church reform of Patriarch Nikon and Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. The relevance of the topic is due to the presence of historical parallels between modernity and the realities of the XVII century. In particular, the problem of reintegration of one or another part of the post-Soviet space is largely correlated with the implementation of the imperial ambitions of Moscow Russia. In this aspect, the ideological basis of this process is of great importance. At the present stage, as in the historical past, Orthodoxy can play this role as a fundamental component of Russian civilization.

Historical experience shows that for the implementation of integration aspirations it is equally important to be able to offer projects that are attractive to all parties involved in this process, leaving room for their cultural identity, in whatever form it appears, while ensuring the development of strong spiritual supra-ethnic, binding began. In this situation, it is possible to use the experience of the Russian people in creating an imperial space, the central driving force of which was the promotion of Orthodox Christianity in its various versions, in order to adapt heterogeneous identities, meanings and ideologies. If universal Orthodoxy visibly played its integrating role on the western frontiers of the Russian Empire, in relation to fraternal East Slavic Christianized peoples, then its ancient Russian national version showed its hidden imperial essence in the eastern territories, uniting ethnic groups around themselves with a more sacral consciousness. In this process, the key assimilative property of the Old Believers was the archaic nature of their religiosity, which brings it closer to a pre-Christian worldview.