The Early Modern Muscovite state reconsidered

Charles J Halperin

doi:10.21638/spbu19.2018.210

Abstract

The Early Modern Muscovite state reconsidered

Highlights

Scholarship on Muscovite history during the 15th to 17th centuries has never attained a consensus on the nature of the Muscovite state or its similarity or dissimilarity to contemporary European states
This is usually formulated as the issue of Russian exceptionalism, but without exception, it has never questioned the existence of a Muscovite «state» at that time
The absence of more than customary and religious restraints on Ivan IV’s unlimited authority, whether we label that authority absolute, autocratic, despotic, or tyrannical, coupled with the servility of the Muscovite aristocracy, distinguished Muscovy from the other European countries who adhered to the early modern European model of statehood

Summary

Introduction

Scholarship on Muscovite history during the 15th to 17th centuries has never attained a consensus on the nature of the Muscovite state or its similarity or dissimilarity to contemporary European states. Krom does not engage the concept of nation-state so often applied to early modern Europe in this book.

Results

Conclusion