Abstract

Problems of the medieval Russian mentality and setting them in the socio-economic and political context of pre-Petrine Russia remain important and promising areas of research. Tese issues are in the focus of a new monograph by S.V. Perevezentsev, “Russian Notions: Russian Spiritual and Political Teachings of the Tenth-Seventeenth Centuries in their Historical Development”. Te article gives refections on this book and controverts some of the interpretations and conclusions given there. It addresses the characteristics of Russian civilization, defned in the book, the specifc traits of the adoption and spread of Christianity, the cults that were popular in Russia, and so on. Te author of the article agrees with the logic of the historian building a certain register of spiritual and political teachings of medieval Russia, trying to trace the line of development of notions not only in literature and journalism, but also in architecture and painting. Tese observations of the researcher are considered quite convincing. Particular attention is paid to S.V. Perevezentsev’s approach, which ofers a look at Old Russian culture through the Orthodox system of values. In accordance with the general concept of the monograph, its author does not conduct his own primary research, but analyzing the discussions on this matter, supports one or another point of view. His purpose is to bring together dispersed, holistic or fragmentary, spiritual and political teachings. Te writer of the article agrees with S.V. Perevezentsev that in the second half of the 13th - early 14th century “Orthodoxy became the main component of all national consciousness”. Te article thoroughly analyzes the main thesis of S.V. Perevezentsev, who states that ancient Russian socio-political texts should be considered through the eyes of their writer, as a rule, a person deeply religious and well-read in Christian literature. Te main criticism of the author of the article is leveled at a certain superfuity of S.V. Perevezentsev’s church rhetoric and pathos, and the vague boundary between the language of science and the language of religion.