Proposal a) After victory. How non-orthodox subjects were treated in Moscow in the early modern period (16th/17th century)
The early modern Moscovian Empire stylised themselves in their victory narratives as an orthodox empire, which offered its new subjects integration if they became orthodox – for both Christian and non-Christian conquered foes. How did this prove in practice, after conquering Astrachan and Kazan, the 16th century Livonian war and in the new Ukrainian territories in 17th century? This study will investigate the practices of autocracy, administration and orthodox clerics in a synchronic and asynchronic comparison.
Proposal b) Bulwarks of orthodoxy: fortified monasteries and Kremlin enclosures in medieval and early modern narrative sources
In the periods of Russian history characterised in narrative sources as threatened by Tatars and unbelievers from the West, fortified monasteries and Kremlin enclosures, which always had a church and/or monastery, became shelters for orthodoxy. This PhD project will trace the significance of these shelters in chronicles, vitae and for the early modern period in travel accounts. These could be for example the siege of Moscow (1382), the occupation of the Moscow Kremlin (1612/13), the 16th and 17th century Smolensk Kremlin conflict or the Solovki Monastery as a refuge.