Institutional and political development of the Russian state in the context of the theory of A. Greif

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to test the concept of A. Greif for the operation of the principle of establishing a balance of interests in Russian society in the face of increasing external threats. The article reveals the significance of the Veche as an institution that reflected the desire to establish a balance of interests of elites in Russian society. The author traces changes in the significance of the traditions of self-government in Russian lands with the increase of military threats. The content of the balance of interests in medieval Russian society is determined. The problematic method of historical analysis is applied to the study of the political processes of medieval Russia, and the problem of narodopravstvo is brought to the fore. The conceptual idea of A. Greif is confirmed in Russian medieval history. Deviations from the rule deduced by A. Greif under certain external conditions lead society to crises. The authors point out that the easing of military pressure from the nomads on North-Eastern Russia (1408) allowed the Moscow princes to concentrate their efforts on fighting potential internal opposition and other branches of the Rurik dynasty that occupied the great tables, as well as against the Novgorod Republic, which embodied the ancient Slavic state order. In the course of this struggle, the balance of interests between strata of Russian society was disrupted, which eventually resulted in the establishment of a brutal serfdom and a reactionary form of centralized government - autocracy. In South-Western and North-Western Russia, such conditions did not develop, so the old Slavic order was preserved there for a long time, but, due to military and political reasons, the States in these regions did not manage to maintain independence.