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Comitatus, 2014

Familial Order, Dynasty, and Succession, 2019

The Daniilovich dynasty-the branch of the Riurikovich dynasty descended from Prince Daniil Aleksandrovich of Moscow (d. 1303) that ruled over an ever-expanding Muscovite principality for ten generations until its extinction in 1598-has not received much attention from scholars as a discrete topic, but the situation is changing. The best work on the topic remains the first, by Ivan Zabelin, which looked at the private lives of the members of the ruling dynasty and at dynastic customs and politics but did not provide a formal model of the ruling house. 1 The dynasty was largely ignored in Soviet times, though there were several excellent studies of individual rulers and periods. 2 There have been many excellent studies of succession in Kievan Rus´, and studies of the Mongol influence in Muscovite history have treated the various branches of the East Slavic dynasty (Riurikids), usually in terms of the Mongol control of succession to the grand princely throne, or its alternatively constructive or 1 Ivan [Egorovich] Zabelin, Domashnii byt russkikh tsarei v XVI i XVII st., vol. 1, pts. 1 and 2 of Domashnii byt russkogo naroda v XVI i XVII st., reprint, from 1918 and 1915 editions (Moscow: Iazyki russkoi kul´tury, 2000-03); Zabelin, Domashnii byt russkikh tsarits v XVI i XVII st., vol. 2 of Domashnii byt russkogo naroda v XVI i XVII st., reprint, from 1901 edition (3rd ed., with additions) (Moscow: Iazyki russkoi kul´tury, 2003); and Zabelin, Materialy (accompanying Domashnii byt russkogo naroda v XVI i XVII st. and Domashnii byt russkikh tsarits v XVI i XVII st.), reprint, from various editions, with overlapping pagination (Moscow: Iazyki russkoi kul´tury, 2003). 2

Violence or Consensus? Birth of States in Medieval Northern and Eastern Central Europe, wyd. Sławomir Moździch, Przemysław Wiszewski, Wrocław 2013 (Inerdisciplinary Medieval Studies, wyd. Sławomir Moździch, Przemysław Wiszewski, vol 1), 2013

Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas, Bd. 64 (2016), H. 4, S. 1–17, 2016

Studia Ceranea, 2023

The article is an attempt to provide a source analysis of the mentions of Tmutarakan' contained in the Primary Chronicle-the oldest surviving monument of medieval Rusian historiography. In the text, particular emphasis is placed on the narrative strategy of the source and the image of the borderlands of Rus' contained therein. The author reflects on the place of information about events in the remote "exclave" of the Rurikids domain in the story about the dynasty and the territorial expansion of its state and formulates hypotheses about their origin. In addition, using the List of Rusian further and closer gords as a basis, he raises the question of the functioning of Tmutarakan' in minds of the authors and recipients of later texts.

Based on sources from the Ur III period, especially from the reign of king Šulgi-r, Sollberger (1954Šulgi-r, Sollberger ( -1956 and Steinkeller (1987) established a catalogue of administrative measures allegedly introduced by king Šulgi-r and thought to be of greater importance for the functioning of the centralised Ur III empire. The attribution of some of these measures to Šulgi-r, as well as their actual realization remain a matter of dispute. 1 The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that several elements of the aforementioned catalogue had forerunners in the Early Dynastic documentation. Focusing on the textual evidence from Early Dynastic Lagaš, I will show that research into administrative matters is, as expected, essential for an improved understanding of the political history. In conclusion, attempts to establish centralised governance was neither restricted to the Ur III nor to the Akkadian empire, and thus was not entirely new. The so-called city states of the late Early Dynastic period, beyond their changing coalitions, were well aware of the administrative or bureaucratic methods needed for governing larger political units. This, together with the notion of the ideological-political coherence of (southern) Mesopotamia provided the blue-print for the later centralised states. * This contribution is dedicated to Professor Muhammad Dandamayev on the occasion of his 80th birthday … twenty years ago he introduced me to the Russian colleagues in Leningrad. I would like to extend my thanks here also to V. Afanasjewa, N. Chechowicz, M. Dandamayeva, V. Jakobson, L. Kogan, N. Koslova, K. Markina, and K. Vizirova who uphold and continue the great Russian tradition of Assyriology.

Vestnik Volgogradskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta. Serija 4. Istorija. Regionovedenie. Mezhdunarodnye otnoshenija, 2017

The research is focused on the issues concerning personal and genealogical composition of the Sovereign court during the great reign of Vasily the Third (1505-1533). The relevance of the research is connected with the small number of works devoted to Vasily Ivanovich's reign (in particular, monographs by A.A. Zimin and A.I. Filyushkin), and with that fact that such institute of the organization of the upper class and middle class of the Russian society as the Sovereign court is insufficiently studied. On the basis of the earlier developed methodology of allocating the servant landowners who constitued the capital court, and the reconstruction of the court nobility in the first third of the 16th century, the authors for the first time analyze the genealogical structure of the Vasily III court. It is proved that the core of the Vasily Ivanovich's court was formed by those surnames, which had already been known under his father Ivan III. However some changes are also revealed. There was a limited access to the court nobility for little-known and lowborn surnames, so the composition of the court became more aristocratic. This was partly due to strengthening of princely aristocracy represented by the Gediminovich prince's sons of Northeast Russia, as well as princes of the Lithuanian origin. The greatest number of departures on service to the capital took place from Lithuania and passed against the background of Russian struggle for Smolensk. Another understudied aspect of the court concerns Pskov accession to Moscow and the formation of Pskov service corporation. This article attempts to restore the composition of the first Pskov landowners, to determine the initial land accessory (mainly from the Novgorod land) and to trace their gradual inclusion in the capital court during the first half of the 16 th century. A section about Vasily the Third's clerks concludes the publication. The composition of the grand-ducal office is studied, its comparison with the clerks of Ivan III is carried out, and a conclusion is made about a significant increase in the prestige of the clerk's service and the beginning of the folding of the dynasties of departmental employees. As an illustration, monograms and signatures of the famous clerks of Vasily III are given. The authors analyze the reasons of the substitution of monograms for signatures which was reflected in office-work of the end of the 15 th-first third of the 16 th century. A.L. Korzinin analyzed personal and genealogical structure of the Sovereign court in the first third of the 16th century. N.V. Basnin studied the change in traditions of the paperwork (signing, monograms, clerks' signatures) in the context of the history of state institutions.

Acta Orientalia, 2005

Throughout their existence, Kievan Rus' and the Old-Russian Principalities often had to face the incursions of their nomadic neighbours. Their relationship was characterised by many contradictions but down to the appearance of the Mongols no nomadic tribe or confederation meant a real menace for the political independence of Rus' and the Old-Russian Principalities. The present study is giving an analysis and evaluation of the ambivalent attitude of Old-Russian chronicles towards their nomadic foes. As the relationships between the different Old-Russian Principalities and the nomadic tribes were of various character, the standpoints of the chroniclers widely differ. For the early period one can gather information from the Povest' Vremennyh Let, for the later period the regional chronicle-writing, e.g. the Galician-Volhynian or Vladimir-Suzdalian chronicles, provide material. The summary of the conclusions drawn from these data is that there is a special duality in the chronicles as far as the evaluation of the steppe nomads is concerned. On the one hand, they have a negative approach based on the Christian-non-Christian antagonism, on the other, an attitude of tolerance can also be observed. The reason for the latter aspect lies in the interests of the courts of the princes that often entered into alliance with different groups of the nomads.

2014

In a previous article I examined the Nordic custom of establishing a client by offering him a sword, which was also customary among the princes of early medieval Rus ́.1 The sword-offering appears in several episodes of the Primary Chronicle (‘The Tale of Bygone years’, ca. 1110) that depict political subordination in the pre-Christian epoch. A similar offering of a sword in Heimskringla and Nóregs konunga tal (Fagrskinna) demonstrates that there was a tradition of symbols and rituals common to early medieval northern and eastern Europe. The specific focus of my investigation was the narrative of the first encounter between the Khazar army and the Poljanian town Kiev, the dwellers of which offered the Khazars a sword in reply to their demand to pay them a tribute. This episode is included in the preface of the Primary Chronicle, which describes the very early history of Kiev before the arrival of the northern chieftain Oleg with his Rus ́ warriors.

Journal of the Australian Early Medieval Association, 2018

2021

Succession to the throne was essential to the survival of the state in Russia as well as the rest of Europe in the early modern era, for all but a few states were monarchies. For all of these states, the practices of succession existed alongside conceptions about the rules of succession, a combination of custom and in some cases written law. European historians have assumed that hereditary succession by primogeniture was the normal Western practice, laid down in the Middle Ages and by the early modern era, in most cases, no longer a contentious issue. The discussion of European absolutism has revolved around the relationships of kings to the various countries' elites and to institutions such as law courts and assemblies of estates. 1 Yet there obviously was also a relationship between royal power and succession practices. Hereditary monarchy was not universal. 2 The most important of Europe's elective monarchies was the Holy Roman Empire. Elections of the kings of the Romans and emperors went back deep into the Middle Ages, but in the early modern era the basis was the Golden Bull of 1356. The imperial system placed the election in the hands of seven electors, all prelates 1 Roland Mousnier, Les institutions de la France sous la monarchie absolue, 2 vols. (Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 1974-80); Bernard Barbiche, Institutions de la monarchie française à l'époque moderne, XVI e -XVIII e siècles (Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 2001);

Turkish Journal of History, 2023

With the Urartu Kingdom, a new settled culture, which was not seen before, emerged in these geographies. The places where this new culture and state structure were most clearly characterised were the royal cities. These cities, which have been identified through archaeological excavations, reflect the mountainous geographical characteristics of a new state authority north of the Taurus Mountains. In addition to the visible reflections of the Urartian material culture, the evaluation of the records on the administrative and bureaucratic structure as a whole provides important clues about the administrative positions and officials in the cities. The fact that Urartian written records are generally uniform texts of royal propaganda has made it possible to make some determinations only in the details of a few bureaucratic sources. Some “standards” that can be identified in the details of such sources, have enabled new conclusions to be recognised. In this context, especially the governors (LÚ.EN.NAM), who are known to be the administrators of Urartian provinces, and the title LÚ.NAM, which we propose as the highest administrators of the royal cities, bring out the dissimilarity of provinces and royal cities not only for material culture but also according to administrative structure.

The Slavic and East European Journal, 1995

at al. devoted their works to the study of the state power and local self-government issue in Kievan Rus. Their deep scientific studies comprehensively cover the historical period of the Kiev state, its prosperity and disintegration. State Power in Kievan Rus M. Hrushevsky dates the beginning of the state life in Ukraine back to the 12th century. He connects it with the trade development. Commercial caravans required armed protection from attackers on the land route as well as on the Dnipro. Only a certain organization could give such protection. So, the military leaders-princes together with their druzhina (a fellowship) appeared in the trade cities. This way, in his opinion, the state life begins to develop along with the trade development. 1 From the middle of the 9th century, Kievan state gained fame for its campaign against Byzantium. It was a military campaign to Tsargrad. The "Tale of Bygone Years" describes how Askold and Dir destroyed the outskirts of the city in 866. 2 In foreign sources, fragmentary information about the state of Kievan Rus can be seen. In the middle of the 9th century, the Emperor of Byzantium, Konstantin Porphyrogenitus, recalled the treaty between Vasily I and Rus in 873-874 during the reign of Askold. At the same time, the first Raffelstetten customs regulations were created during the reign of Ludwig the German (876), which set the duty on goods transported from Rus to Bavaria. 3 These and other facts prove the existence of a powerful state organization from the middle of the 9th century, namely, Kievan Rus, that subordinates neighbors, fights with Byzantium, concludes peace treaties with it as well as with other states. Based on the above mentioned, Russian historian V. Klyuchevsky reasonably concludes that "the Russian state was founded based on the activities of Askold and Oleg, and the unification of Slavs in the ancient state took place in Kiev, but not in Novgorod". 4 1 М. Грушевський.

2016

is a curious time for Russia and for historians specializing in the area because it is a fragile manifestation of what is undoubtedly a strong and unified linguistic, religion and ethnic world. There was little religious persecution, tyranny or mass warfare. Wars were, as always for the era, small scale and done among elites and their servitors. There was no serfdom and few, if any, taxes. To oversimplify, the philosophical conception was based around the price as the unifying principle of the society. There was no "state" in any sense of the term. Each of the regions of Rus' had their own history, and these were incorporated into a common history of the Russian land as a single community was a fact, while fragmentation was a perversion rather than an inherent tendency. Kiev was summarized largely by the thought and actions of the Caves Monastery: there, the philosophy of the Kievan realm was manifest and articulated. The ontology of the realm was that matter,always permeable by spirit, was brought to its terminus-its goal-through the spirit. The state, the crown and social life are granted its final telos by the church. Spiritual life is the striving for inner freedom. Logos, the very presence of Christ in His own creation, is the Trinity functional in natural law. The Father is the source, Logos the pattern and the Spirit its manifestation and grace. In the thought of St. Euphrosyne of Polotsk (1173) centers around the ontological conception that any object, if perceived without the passions of life, sin and desire, appear as form. In the Chronicles, the person is revealed in the unfolding of events; the substance of all things shows itself historically. Nations are this substance. While it is fashionable in the age of immense profits from multinational conglomerates to deny the existence of historical nations, the empirical record shows a very different story. The Chronicles of both Kiev and Polotsk show nations to be essential actors manifesting the design of Substance over time. In Kiev, there existed two parallel forms of political power: the landed estate and the prince. These did not always coincide. The Retinue (or the druzhina) were the old tribal leaders of the Slavic peoples who saw their relevance fade as the state developed. At the same time, the veche, or the assembly, was the forum for the old tribal landowners. Again, these two did not always coincide. Fragmentation occurred when the estates grew in power while the opposite occurred when the prince was a strong military figure with great authority. The fragmentation of the Kievan realm is the result of numerous economic forces. The strengthening of the feudal estates is of immense importance as an oligarchy developed which led to substantial class struggle. Local nobles and their private armies no longer needed Kiev, the church nor moral scruples. Local strongmen took advantage of advances in agriculture such as the three field rotational system which led to increases the production. The oligarchs then took this excess product and turned it into an important source of income. Their private armies grew. This was manifest in the strengthening of cities, all of which served as the capital of local regions and soon, the presence of oligarchical rule. When the route to Byzantium was closed off due to the Crusaders and the earlier monopolization of trade in Venice, this weakened the economic foundation of unity, diminished the flow of trade duties and of course, undermined the economic power of the prince of Kiev. The main source of wealth became the control over the peasants. This, added to the wars for the Kievan throne and the raids of the Polovtsian nomads, Kiev was rapidly weakening. In the thought of St. Cyril of Turov and Clement (Smolyatich), "fragmentation" was the chaotic appearance of the world under the control of passion. Centrifugal tendencies in ancient Russia were stopped temporarily due to the Polovtsian danger which demanded joint efforts among local princes. After the death of the great St. Vladimir II Monomakh, Mstyslav the Great (1125-1132) continued his father's policy of centralization. Upon his death, there were about 14 of these principalities in Russia:

The Slavonic and East European Review 62, 1984

Considered to be among the best sources we have on early Russian history are the three or four Russo-Byzantine Treaties inserted in the Povest’ vremennykh let s.a. 907, 911, 944 and 971. Undoubtedly the now lost originals were written in Greek and only later translated into Old Russian, possibly in connection with the compilation of the Povest’ vremennykh let. The question then arises to which extent the Old Russian translation offers an exact rendition of the Greek originals or whether the text was somehow modified to suit 11th-century circumstances. Such a modification was certainly the appearance of the Slavic thunder god Perun on whom pagan Rus’ envoys with pure Norse names are said to have taken their oaths rather than Perun’s Norse colleague, Thor. In the paper, it is argued that another anachronistic modification can be seen in the recurrent prioritized sequence in which citizens of the Rus’ towns Kiev, Chernigov, Pereiaslavl’(-Russkii), were remunerated by Byzantine officials in the three earliest treaty texts. Rather than 10th-century realities, this sequence seems to reflect the seniority system of succession to the Kievan throne as instituted after the death of Jaroslav Vladimirovich in 1054. This view is supported by a discussion of the Tale of the Foundation of Pereiaslavl’, included in the Povest vremennykh let s.a. 992, suggesting that Pereiaslavl’, as seen by the compilator of Povest’ vremennykh let, only came into existence towards the end of the 10th century.

Ceræ: An Australasian Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies, 2018

141 Christian Raffensperger, The Kingdom of the Rus' (Kalamazoo and Bradford: Arc Humanities Press, 2017). Print, 92 pp., £11.95, ISBN: 9781942401315. Rather than being an overview of the current scholarship of a period or a people, as some of the other books in the Past Imperfect series, in The Kingdom of the Rus', Christian Raffensperger has tackled a single important issue: that of the accurate translation of medieval terminology into modern languages both in editions and in the secondary literature. As he notes, "[t]ranslations, like historical documents themselves, are a product of their time and of their translator" (p. 25),

Institute of CAS, 2022

This book presents us with the idea of understanding the realm of Rus through such terms as clan and family, challenging existing phrases and ideas such as 'the Rurikid dynasty' , invented in the late 15 th century. Moreover, these terms are analysed through the prism of a collateral system of succession in Rus. As the authors deal with Eurasian and other historical schools, they attempt to view Rus as a part of the medieval European world-not just Scandinavia or Byzantium, but also England, Poland, Iberia, the German Empire. More importantly, the scholars try not to be bound by any national structure and successfully avoid binding the Rus families in any modern historical narrative. Christian Raffensperger is the Kenneth E. Wray Chair in Humanities at Wittenberg University, Ohio. His many books include Reimagining Europe.

2021

"Историописание Древней Руси (ок. 1000 - ок. 1400) в сравнительной перспективе". Обобщающая монография о древнерусском летописании и родственных ему текстах. В первой главе дается обзор форм историописания в Древней Руси. Во второй главе дается введение в текстологию "Повести временных лет", рассматривается вопрос о наиболее ранних формах историописания на Руси. В третьей главе разбирается летописание Новгорода с XI по начало XV в. Четвертая глава посвящена проблеме функций древнерусского летописания. Во всех четырех главах присутствует сравнительно-исторический элемент (объектом для сравнения в значительной мере является англо-саксонское историописание, однако автор старается привлечь к разговору более широкий круг аналогий, включая архаические неевропейские тексты). Книга во многом основана на исследованиях, уже публиковавшихся автором по-русски; впрочем, все они были переработаны под формат англоязычной обобщающей монографии, а некоторые ее разделы (включая большую часть 4-й главы) по-русски пока не публиковались.

NIŠ AND BYZANTIUM, The Collection of Scientific Works XVIII (18th International Symposium on the “800 years since the Аutocephaly of the Serbian Church (1219-2019): Church, Politics and Art in Byzantium and neighboring countries“, Niš [Serbia] 3 – 5 June 2019), The City of Nis, 2020

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