Political Testament Research Articles

Philosophical plasma in Dio Chrysostom’s Fourth Discourse on Kingship and Socrates’ Political Testament in Alcibiades

On the basis of evidence obtained by unravelling enigmas in Dio’s fourth discourse and lifting the veil of mystery surrounding some of the crucial, sophistic-related passages from the mentioned writing, we were able to arrive to a conclusion that, no matter what the so-called sophists say of the phenomenon in their attempts to disguise the essence of things, the Second Sophistic is closely connected not so much with rhetoric as with philosophy itself or, to be more precise, Socrates’ political testament in the Alcibiades, as proved by Dio’s frequent use of philosophical, or rather Socratic plasma in his discourses. Paradoxically enough, after careful analysis of Dio’s invective against sophists, it turned out that his conception of the sophistic is basically the same as that of Isocrates, the only difference being that in the latter there was still a room for the legacy of the old sophistic, something to which Dio was fully opposed.

Chinggis Khan and the Idea of World Domination

The article proposes a solution to the question of Temujin/ Chinggis Khan’s plans for world domination. Based on reports of a number of medieval sources, the author comes to the conclusion that his military campaigns pursued specific goals mostly to take revenge on numerous enemies and were not a part of a common aggressive plan. After uniting nomadic tribes and pacifying borderlands, Chinggis Khan usually reacted severely to external challenges, and his first campaignto Xi Xia and Jin were predatory. At the same time, the war did not always imply seizure of foreign territories, or the Mongols at first limited themselves to their partial annexation. In process of revealing Chinggis Khan’s motivations, his testament to descendants is of great importance. Sources refute an idea that the dying khan bequeathed to complete his world conquests. In fact, his political testament is boiled down to the following: he approved Ogedei as his successor, ordered his sons to obey the new ruler and to do away with Tanguts, Jurchens, and Kipchaks. All these points were subsequently fulfilled. Chinggis Khan’s deathbed speeches do not contain words about the need to seize the whole earth. Plano Carpini was one of the first to attribute him such a will, but the source of his information is unknown. Most likely, the idea of world domination was formed by the Mongols during the reign of Ogedei, and then it began to be ascribed to the founder of the Mongol Empire, which probably arose in spite of his desire.

The problem of the relationship between the category of «peace» in Machiavelli's «The Prince» and Richelieu's «Political Testament»

Machiavelli's «The Prince» and Richelieu's «Political Testament» are two iconic works that reflected the process of formation of political realism. On the one hand, this is a well-researched phenomenon, and in this sense, this article is not an attempt to highlight the historical significance of two separate works, since this aspect is quite well studied in historiography. The presented article is also not an attempt to highlight the historical circumstances of the creation of the two texts of the works. Despite the considerable interest of this question, it would also mean in many ways to repeat the path taken by other researchers or to be included in academic discussions that have a narrower framework. The presented article analyzes at the problematic level the methodological possibilities of a comparative analysis of the «peace» category within the framework of «The Prince» and the «Political Testament». In previous publications, the author of the article considered the general characteristics of the «peace» category in Richelieu's «Political Testament», methodological and interpretive aspects of the historical significance of «The Prince», outlined the contours of the problem of the reception of Machiavelli's ideas in «Political Testament». The author stated the topical nature of this issue in the general context of the formation of the tradition of socio-political development of the early modern times. The author proposed methodological parameters for the study of the «peace» category, emphasized the insufficient study of this issue in historiography as a whole. The topical nature of the mentioned problem is intensified in the light of insufficient study of the «Political Testament» in terms of sources and historiography. For a number of reasons, as you know, unlike «The Prince», Richelieu's «Political Testament» is a less studied text. Considering this, the issue of comparative consideration of the «peace» category in «The Prince» and «Political Testament» in the context of introducing additional characteristics to the definition of the «peace» category deserves special attention. This will allow us to better see the specifics of the formation of the tradition of political realism, to understand the degree of commonality and the level of differences in the texts of the two works from a number of key aspects. The purpose of the article is to consider the problem of the relationship between the category of «peace» in Machiavelli's «The Prince» and Richelieu's «Political Testament». In addition to general scientific research methods, the main research method is the comparative-historical method. The scientific novelty is that, for the first time, a comprehensive comparative analysis of the category of «peace» in Machiavelli's «The Prince» and Richelieu's «Political Testament» is carried out. The author's concept of the internal structure of the «peace» category is presented, taking into account the addition of auxiliary elements to this structure. In addition, for the first time in the historiography of the researched issue, the analysis of the categories of «peace» in «The Prince» and «Political Testament» was carried out on the basis of the provisions of the methodological article of the French historian Marc Blok «Towards a Comparative History of European Societies». A comparative analysis of the category of «peace» in Richelieu's «The Prince» and «Political Testament» shows the productivity of the methodological positions of Mark Blok's article «On the Comparative History of European Societies», as well as Leo Strauss's point of view expressed in his concept of «three waves of modernity» regarding the rupture of Machiavelli's connection with «pre-modern» political thought. We argue, complementing the opinion and argument of Leo Strauss, that in the context of the analysis of the category of «peace» Machiavelli made a break primarily with the tradition of St. Augustine and Homa Aquinas. On the contrary, in our opinion, Richelieu in «Political Testament» tries to connect two traditions, Machiavellian and «pre-modern», trying to offer a «compromise option».

The Problem of Reception of the Machiavelli’s «The Prince» Ideas in Cardinal Richelieu’s «Political Testament»

The presented article examine the impact of the main ideas of Chapter XVIII of Machiavelli's "The Prince" on the development of socio-political thought in France in the early modern period. The author proposes to consider the indicated problems within the framework of the concept of the dialogue nature of the Italian and French tiled traditions put forward by him. This allows us to see the leading role of the Italian political thought of the Renaissance, its reception in France and the reaction to it within the framework of French social and political thought. From a methodological point of view, this reaction takes on the most significant form in Richelieu's Political Testament. The author of the article, taking into account the assessments made by representatives of the French and American historiography of the issue under study, comes to the conclusion that the eighteenth chapter of The Sovereign had a significant impact on the political thinking of Cardinal Richelieu, who was forced not only to take into account the point of view of Machiavelli, but also to argue with it in the "Political Testament".

Remembering Salvador Allende

The article is dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the death of Salvador Allende, the President of Chile, who was the first in the world to attempt to move towards socialism by peaceful means, within the framework of a representative democracy. The article explains the reasons of the failure of Chilean "socialist project". The reader will learn how Salvador Allende's last message to the Chilean people was putting on a journalist's tape recorder on “Radio Magallanes” from La Moneda Palace, besieged by the putschists on the day of the military coup on September 11, 1973. The author managed to keep this tape recording during those dramatic days in Santiago. That last Allende’s call to the nation became his political testament.

From the Tsarevich to the Tsar, or the Metamorphosis of the Ascension of Nicholas the Second

The essay examines D. A. Andreev’s monograph “Autocracy at a turning point: 1894 in the history of the dynasty and power” dedicated to the process of transformation of Tsarevich Nicholas Alexandrovich into Tsar Nicholas II. The monograph addresses the key problems of its topic: the formation of the bureaucratic competence of Nikolai Alexandrovich and the question of the political testament of Alexander III to his son; the perception of the interregnum of 1894 by representatives of the ruling elite and the oppositional public; the reflection on the relationships between Nicholas II and his entourage by Empress Alexandra Feodorovna on the pages of her husband’s diary at the end of 1894; the circumstances of the first major personnel decisions of Nicholas II, which were the dismissal of the Minister of Railways A. K. Krivoshein and the appointment of Prince M. I. Khilkov as his successor. The paper draws a special attention to the central plot of the monograph — the speech of Nicholas II delivered on January 17, 1895, before representatives of the estate and local governments. The author of the essay comes to the conclusion that the January 17 speech symbolized the distancing of Nicholas II from the zemstvo, who sought to politicize local self-government, and from adherents of parliamentary constitutionalism, according to which, the monarch, as in England, “reigns, but does not rule”. In other words, the notorious speech did not mean the tsar’s refusal to cooperate with loyal zemstvo and to implement, at the same time, a reformist course aimed at gradually transformation the state system of the Russian Empire.

“An outstanding lama of the West taught...” – M. Pallis and his treatise warning Tibet about the consequences of Kali Yuga

The crisis of Tibetan statehood in the second half of the 1940s and the beginning of the 1950s accompanied by the relaxation of restrictions for foreigners to enter the country and by the next round of interest in Tibetan culture in general allowed many European explorers and travelers to reach Tibet and other inaccessible places of the Indo-Tibetan frontier. Their expeditions have resulted not only in the increase of the number of scientific publications on Tibet, which have defined the basic trends in modern Buddhist and Tibetan studies, but also in the increase of literary and artistic works, which have shaped “the image of Tibet” in the Western culture. A treatise prepared and written by the British researcher of Tibet and the Himalayas M. Pallis (1895–1989), which is the subject of this article, takes a special place in Tibetology, since it is a text not only about Tibet, but also for Tibet. The text was published in Tibetan as a detailed commentary on the political testament of Dalai Lama XIII (1876–1933), and its potential readers, first of all, were supposed to be Tibetans. At the same time, the text allows us to notice the intersection of the ideas of European philosophy of traditionalism and Indo-Buddhist ideas about Kali Yuga, and the appearance of the treatise can be regarded as a result of various transcultural communications between the Tibetan culture and representatives of Western philosophical thought in the mid-20th century.

Not just a liberal – Social philosophy as antiauthoritarian and utopian social criticism: Richard Rorty’s Achieving Our Country today

Rorty understands pragmatism in philosophy and social science, literature and art, to be intertwined with the political project of changing the world. Achieving Our Country, together with a lecture on the 150th anniversary of the Communist Manifesto, has become Rorty’s political testament. Rorty understands the leftist American project as the incomplete one of all those who fight for a classless society of boundless diversity (1). At the centre of Achieving Our Country is the tragic division between old and new, social and cultural Left (2). Rorty’s patriotism is progressive and cosmopolitan (3). The American project can only be realized if the Left breaks the hegemony of the political Right (4). For that, America must be understood as a utopia that makes itself the avant-garde of global political, economic, social and cultural change (5). This utopia can be realized only by a new kind of unity between leftist centres in the university and leftist organizational power in the rest of society. In this respect, America could become a model for the rest of the world again (6).

КАТЕГОРІЯ "МИРУ" В "ПОЛІТИЧНОМУ ЗАПОВІТІ" РІШЕЛЬЄ: ЗАГАЛЬНА ХАРАКТЕРИСТИКА

The presented article discusses the general characteristics of the category of «peace» in the «Political testament» of Cardinal Richelieu. The «Political testament» reflects the key issues of the state development of France of the 30-40 s. XVII century. The scale of the questions covered and problems, the level of theoretical understanding of the actual material gives this work special significance. Not studied for a long time at a complex level, quoted selectively and template, the «political will» today receives proper coverage in the works of representatives of French historiography. Of particular importance is the consideration of the category of «peace» in the «Political testament». When characterizing the methodological foundations of the presented article, the author defines the category of «peace» as including all aspects of the development of religion (ideology) and political means of achieving political goals that are not related to the war. The category of “peace” in the interpretation of the author also acts as a common views on the state and law. Thus, the category of «peace» is considered in a wider angle. Based on the proposed definition, the author traces the possibilities of its application as part of the analysis of the text of the «Political testament». When assessing the content side of the «peace» category, the degree of ratio of moral aspects in it with the problems of achieving a political goal, the need to also take into account elements of general historiographic discussions regarding the key aspects of the “peace” category in the “Political testament”. The difference between Richelieu and Machiavelli is, from the author’s point of view, one of the key aspects that allow us to understand at the methodological level the cardinal’s interpretation of the category of “peace” in full. The positions of modern French historiography of the researched question are also analyzed. The author concludes that when analyzing the category of «peace» in the «Political testament», the cardinal’s negative attitude towards militarism in “pure form” becomes obvious. Richelieu’s goal was to create an «ideal», closed and not accessible for external and internal hostile influences of the political space embodied in the state, withdrawn from the «reasonable policy of the mind». In the light of this, it retains the cognitive character and methodological significance in the analysis of the «peace» category model of the three -term characteristics of Richelieu, the French historian Rolan Munier, which allows him to see him as «prelates», «noble» and «man» of King Louis XIII. This model also allows us to outline further prospects for the study of the problems of the «peace» category in the «Political testament», taking into account the considerations expressed by the author.

Rus’ “From Frank’s Origin”: the Isolated Ethnogenetic Motif of Byzantine Historiography

The paper presents an attempt of analysis of an isolated ethnogenetic motif of the Byzantine historiography: that the Rus were descendants of the Franks. This motif is present in three texts: in the the Chronography of Theophanes Continuatus, The Chronicle of Pseudo-Symeon, and in one copy of the second edition of the Chronicle of Symeon the Magister and Logothete. According to the treatise De administrando imperio by emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus, representatives of the imperial family of the Roman Empire could marry only representatives of the noble kins of the Franks. Therefore, the only possible explanation of the appearance of the idea that the Rus had a prestige decadence from the Franks in Byzantine historical and political thought is an attempt to justify the marriage of the sister of the ruling Byzantine emperors Anna Porphyrogenita with the “archon” of the “northern barbarians” Vladimir Svaytoslavich. The logic of the inventors of this ethnogenetic construction is transparent: if the people of Rus descended from the Franks, Vladimir was also a descendant of the Franks and so could marry a Roman princess, Anna Porphyrogenita, in accordance with the “political testament” of Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus. This idea could have the greatest relevance only after the marriage of Vladimir and Anna between c. 987 and 990, and until the death of Anna in 1011/1012. The possible dates for the compilation of the three codices at our disposal, which contain the texts with this motif, don’t contradict with this time period, but, on the contrary, correspond to it optimally.

Admonitions of Enrique Jose Varona and the problem of Cuba’s «men of colour»

The article examines the last work (actually a political testament) of Enrique José Varona (1849–1933) and its role in the debate on Cuba's "men of colour" after the fall of President Gerardo Machado's regime in August 1933. The debate touched upon the slogan of «Negro minority» self-determination proclaimed by the Communist Party of Cuba. In subsequent publications, the text of Varona's testament was changed. The article discusses the reasons and nature of such editing, related to Cuban ethno-political history and its interpretation after 1959.

HARMONY, CICERO`S PRINCIPLE OF GOVERNING

Harmony is one of the concepts that permeate the history of human creation in varied fields: philosophy, arts, music, science, economics, politics, etc. It is a preoccupation of the Pythagorean, of Plato and Aristotle, and a governing principle theorised during the times of the Byzantine Empire. However, in Cicero’s political thinking, harmony is the foundation stone of the organisation and functioning of the republic as body politic, a political principle which reflects the principle of the entire universe. Somnium Scipionis (The Dream of Scipio), an allegory on the harmony of the universe, is the closing part of the treatise De re publica, by which Cicero, inspired by Plato and synthetizing stoic, epicurean and neoplatonic ideas, bestows his political testament upon world culture and advocates the cultivation of virtue.

ПРИНЦИПЫ ГОСУДАРСТВЕННОГО УПРАВЛЕНИЯ В ПРОЕКТАХ И БУМАГАХ ВИЦЕ-КАНЦЛЕРА А.И. ОСТЕРМАНА

В данной статье внимание привлечено к проектам и суждениям одного из выдающихся политиков первой половины XVIII в. – графа Андрея Ивановича Остермана. При реконструкции его представлений о государственном устройстве исследователи сталкиваются с его позицией, нацеленной на скрытие личных инициатив во избежание дальнейшей ответственности. Другой причиной является нереализованность большинства из них. Тем не менее, собрав воедино черновики проектов и другие тексты, автором которых был Остерман, автор статьи реконструирует представления о политическом устройстве государства, которыми он руководствовался, реализуя внутри- и внешнеполитический курс империи в качестве кабинет-министра. In this article I turn to the projects and reports by an outstanding politician of the first half of the 18th century, Count A.I. Osterman. In their attempts to reconstruct his concepts of the public administration scholars face the lack of his own projects. Usually it was explained by his specific way of behavior aiming at concealment of his private initiatives to avoid responsibility. I reject this myth and suggest that it was not the only reason explaining the lack of the projects, and another possible reason is that these projects were not realized. In any case, having gathered all of his opinions, drafts of the projects, and other writings by Osterman I try to reconstruct his views on the political structure of the government ,which he followed in his international and domestic policy being one of the ministers in the Cabinet.

El uso de la epigrafía en ámbito político: el caso de las Res gestae divi Augusti

The purpose of this article is to delve into the composition of the political testament of Octavian Augustus, focusing on the epigraphic medium as an instrument of communication chosen by the emperor to publicize the actions carried out at a complex and complicated time for the history of ancient Rome such as the years of the end of the republic and the beginnings of a new government driven by the same Octavian. Throughout these pages, we will show how this document can also be considered a means of propaganda, designed to leave a portrait of the optimus civis not only for contemporaries, but also for posterity. I emphasize this aspect because not all scholars consider this inscription as a product born from the Octavian pen and speculate about the existence of someone who could have done the work on commission.

Этико-политическая программа Владимира Моно­маха

The religious grounds of Vladimir Monomakh's political views are analyzed in the arti­cle. The author reconstructs the points of the political testament of Monomakh. The main ideas of his ethic and political program are reconstructed. The Grand Duke recommended to evade sin, to be a just judge, to protect the weak, to have a mortal memory and to keep in their heart the fear of God. Actions in such paradigm imposed considerable restrictions for governors of the power because they held down them in the choice of means. The au­thor compares the ethical and political program of Monomakh with the facts of his biog­raphy. It is shown that in real political practice Monomakh retreated from his own moral program. The author concludes that Monomakh was the first Russian leader to formulate requirements to the power itself proposing an ideal image of the Christian Prince.

Было ли «политическое завещание» императора Александра III наследнику цесаревичу Николаю Александровичу? К постановке проблемы

Было ли «политическое завещание» императора Александра III наследнику цесаревичу Николаю Александровичу? К постановке проблемы

Ghazan Khan’s Political Will and Testament: Further Light on the Mongol Household

AbstractTowards the end of his life, Ghazan Khan (r.1295–1304) made arrangements for the continuation of the Ilkhanid government along the lines he had established in his short but formative reign. Rashid al-Din refers briefly to Ghazan’s last testament (vasiyat-nama) but gives no details; however, Qashani in his history of Öljeitü reproduces it as a document and Vassaf, writing around the same time, presents it as a speech made by Ghazan to the assembled courtiers. This paper will compare the two texts and seek to identify both the offices and the office-holders mentioned, with a view to better understanding the underpinning of political power and faction in the Ilkhanate.

Constructing a Pseudo-Hitler? The question of the authenticity of Hitlers politisches Testament

ABSTRACTThis article provides the first in-depth scholarly analysis of the collection of notes dated February and April 1945 colloquially known as ‘Hitler’s political testament’. This article uses sources from private and public archives in several countries to assess this issue of authenticity and concludes that these notes are most likely forgeries. The purported history of these documents cannot be trusted, the dating of several of the notes has clearly been manipulated, and the published text contain statements that cannot be authentic. The original notes were allegedly destroyed, which means that the published versions cannot be checked for accuracy. Until these notes have been conclusively proven to be genuine — something that is very hard to do without access to the original documents — historians should refrain from using them.

Benjamin M. Rowland, ed., Charles De Gaulle's Legacy of Ideas. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2011

Benjamin M. Rowland, ed., Charles De Gaulle's Legacy of Ideas. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2011

Testament polityczny Hitlera

Testament polityczny Adolfa Hitlera analizowany w kolejnym tekście przez Katarzynę Kuczyńską-Koschany