Prophecies of the Baptism of Rus. The birth of Holy Russia. Moscow 3 Rome

[Russian Bear]

In continuation of the article, I want to add: The baptism of Rus into the Orthodox faith is the basis of the spiritual unity of the Slavic peoples
https://projectavalon.net/forum4/sho...=1#post1687068

Epiphany: the choice of fate. The Prophecy

Rus (Russia) was baptized more than a thousand years ago. It seemed that the choice had been made once and for all, but not everything was so clear. The long 70 years of Soviet state atheism eventually gave rise to very strange beliefs. Even today, if you type the words "Baptism of Rus" into an Internet search engine, you can see many texts negatively evaluating this event.

Most of them belong to the so-called neo-pagans. To those who today are trying to revive the cult of long—deposed deities, it is necessary to return the service to idols in the land of Holy Russia. But our country has already gone through something similar, and on a much more global scale: just recall the communist experiment in building a godless society. That is why it is so important not to get tired of talking about the significance of the Baptism of Russia, that our country itself, the people themselves, were born from the font of Prince Vladimir.

However, the word of Christ sounded in our open spaces before him. Even the Apostle Andrew, according to legend, sowed the seed of Faith in the land of Russia at a time when there was no such word. When the apostles chose who should go to which lands to preach, he got Scythia. This is how the vast territories lying north of the Black Sea were called in antiquity. Legend has it that during his journey to Scythia, the Apostle Andrew visited the place where Kiev and Veliky Novgorod were later built. Andrew the First-called prophesied that the grace of God would shine in these lands.

After returning from Scythia, he was martyred in the 67th year of Our Lord. Like his brother, the Apostle Peter, he was executed during the persecution launched against Christians by order of the Roman Emperor Nero. The Apostle Andrew ascended the cross to be with Christ forever. And the cross on which he was crucified, the oblique St. Andrew's Cross, became one of the symbols of the Russian Empire. An empire that was able to form out of many lands and many peoples only because in 988 Prince Vladimir fulfilled the prophecy of Andrew the First-Called. He led his people out of the darkness of paganism into the Light of Christ, but before that he himself renounced the worship of idols.

But at first the prince wanted to create a kind of pagan super-religion. Vladimir's experiment was impressive — he erected a temple in Kiev with idols of six main deities, each of which was worshipped by different tribes and different social groups. In this way, he wanted to unite them under his supreme authority. There is information that the prince did not disdain human sacrifices for this.

And this is not surprising. It is enough to recall the war of his father, Svyatoslav, with Byzantium. The imperial historian Lev Deacon wrote:

"After the battle, the soldiers of Prince Svyatoslav gathered their dead and burned them, stabbing at the same time, according to the custom of their ancestors, many prisoners, men and women. After making this bloody sacrifice, they strangled several babies and roosters, drowning them in the waters of Istra."

Nevertheless, Vladimir, following his father along this bloody path, suddenly renounced him. How and why did this happen?

The Byzantine Legacy

Vladimir faced a serious problem: the fact is that his state was an empire. Yes, that's right, Russia literally from the moment of its inception was immediately an empire, because it united many peoples and covered a vast territory: from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea and from the upper reaches of the Vistula River to the Volga. This territory was inhabited by many tribes, not only Slavic, but also Baltic, Finno-Ugric. And he alone stood at the head of them all — Vladimir, the Grand Duke. That is, there were all the signs of an empire, except for one of the most important, fundamental — a single, common idea.

Apparently, Vladimir quickly realized that assembling a pantheon of various pagan gods was not an option. A single state needs a single faith. The legend of her choice, when the prince called Christians from the West and East, Muslims and Jews to him, was long considered by scientists to be a legend that has no real historical basis. However, it has been confirmed in Muslim sources. So, in them there is a mention of the embassy of "king Buladmir" to the distant Central Asian Khorezm. That is, the Russian chronicles seem to describe the situation close to what really happened. But how did the prince choose his faith in this difficult political situation? And by what criteria?

According to legend, when the Muslims told the prince about the ban on drinking wine, Vladimir replied with the famous phrase: "Russia has the joy of drinking" — and rejected Islam. Then, as they would say now, the "presentation" was made by the Pope's envoys. However, Vladimir sent them away, saying, "Go where you came from, for even our fathers did not accept this." Indeed, there is evidence that the mission of Western Christians was not successful in Russia at an earlier time. Vladimir asked the Jews who came from Khazaria: where is their land? Khazaria, as you know, was defeated by Vladimir's father, Prince Svyatoslav. And the Khazar Jews replied that God had scattered them in different countries. The prince, the collector of the empire, was, of course, not satisfied with such an answer.

And finally, it was the turn of the Byzantine monk, whom the Russian chronicler called a Philosopher for his wisdom. He not only told Vladimir about the faith of Christ, but also showed it. The Prince saw the icon of the Second Coming of Christ and the Last Judgment. She amazed Vladimir. He said: "Good for those who stand to the right, and woe to those who stand to the left." The philosopher replied to this: "If you want to stand on the right side, then be baptized."

Despite the shock that the prince experienced, he did not rush, as he was a thorough man. Vladimir sent his embassies to different countries, ordering them to get acquainted with the rituals of various religions directly on the spot. Aesthetic perception, a sense of beauty that our ancestors seem to have been richly endowed with, played a crucial role.
After returning from Constantinople, the ambassadors, who attended the Orthodox service at St. Sophia's Church there, told the prince: "We did not know where we were — in heaven or on earth." The neighboring boyars also spoke in favor of Greek Orthodoxy: "If the Greek law were not the best of all, then your grandmother Princess Olga, the wisest of all people, would not accept it." Indeed, the example of Princess Olga certainly played a significant role. As confirmed by Byzantine sources, she actually visited Constantinople once — she was received with honor by the Byzantine emperor himself.

But while the prince was thinking and weighing the pros and cons, the course of events forced him to make an urgent choice: Basil, the emperor of Byzantium, turned to him for help. He needed Russian soldiers to suppress a dangerous rebellion in his country. Vladimir agreed, but put forward an unheard—of condition - the northern barbarian demanded the emperor's sister as his wife. And he had to agree, but, in turn, conditioned this marriage with Vladimir's baptism.

The princely warriors, seasoned in battles, went to distant Byzantium and played a decisive role in defeating the rebels. But having got rid of the pressing problem, the emperor did not rush to send his sister to Russia. However, Vladimir was not the kind of person who could be fooled.

His army went to the Crimea and besieged the main Byzantine city on the peninsula — Chersonesos, or Korsun, as the Russians called it then. And now we call it Sevastopol, the city of Russian glory.

After a stubborn siege, Chersonesos was taken, and Emperor Basil, in order to regain this pearl of his crown, was forced to send his sister Anna to the north. Nevertheless, it seems that Vladimir was in no hurry to fulfill his promise and be baptized. But suddenly something happened to him, similar to what happened to the persecutor of Christians Saul — Prince Vladimir went blind. Saul was transformed into the Apostle Paul, having seen the true God in a vision and accepted him with all his heart. The same thing happened with Vladimir.

Vladimir's fiancee, the Byzantine Princess Anna, then told the prince: "If you want to get rid of this disease, then be baptized as soon as possible; otherwise you will not recover." Thus, Prince Vladimir was not only baptized and regained his eyesight, but also received from above the ability to see reality in a new way, spiritually.

The Bishop of Korsunsky, along with the Tsaritsyn priests, announced and baptized Vladimir. And when he laid his hand on him, he immediately received his sight. Vladimir, feeling his sudden healing, glorified God: "Now I have recognized the true God." Many of the vigilantes saw this and crossed themselves. He was baptized in the church of St. Basil, and that church stands in the city of Korsun in the middle of the city, where the Korsunians gather to bargain; Vladimir's chamber stands from the edge of the church to this day, and Tsaritsyna's chamber is behind the altar. After the baptism, the queen was brought in to perform the marriage.

The Radzivil Chronicle, the end of the XV century
Returning to Kiev, Vladimir announced to its residents: anyone who does not come to the river on the appointed day to be Baptized is "not his friend." So the greatest event in the history of Russia happened — the choice of its fate.

Christ said:
"From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven is taken by force, and those who use force take it away."

Prince Vladimir used force and even violence, but the purpose and meaning of everything that happened more than a thousand years ago was precisely the Kingdom of Heaven.

The Transformation

People with liberal thinking cannot understand how Prince Vladimir can be considered a saint. After all, he did things that seem absolutely inexcusable to modern consciousness. Yes, he committed terrible crimes.

Vladimir's soldiers raised his brother Yaropolk to the swords when he trusted his word and went to negotiate. So, thanks to fratricide, he became the grand duke. Vladimir raped the Polotsk princess Rogneda, who rejected him, in front of her family, and then ordered them to be killed. He had five wives and hundreds of concubines. So he was some kind of monster? That's right, he was before Holy Baptism, and after it he was transformed. And together with the Grand Duke, the whole of Russia was transformed. What is the secret of this transformation? In Christian repentance, it is a word whose great meaning clearly escapes the moralists of the record.
The Radzivil chronicle of the XV century tells the story of Vladimir's overthrow of pagan idols, set up by himself a few years before:

"Having come to Kiev, Vladimir ordered the idols to be overthrown: some to be hacked down, and others to be burned. He ordered Perun to be tied to a horse's tail and dragged down the Mountain..."

The prince ordered the idols to be floated downstream along the Dnieper River, and to make sure that they did not stick to the shore until they passed the Dnieper rapids. So Russia renounced paganism. And then it seemed like forever and ever.

The adoption of Christianity radically changed Vladimir: he became a truly new man, as the New Testament demands of us. He was deeply imbued with the words of Scripture: "Blessed are the merciful, for they will have mercy." Vladimir ordered all the poor and needy to come to the prince's court and take whatever they needed. And when he learned that the sick and infirm could not reach his yard, he decided to transport food for them around the city on carts.

The monk Jacob, in his "Memory and Praise of Prince Vladimir," writes:
"And not in Kiev alone, but throughout the Russian land—both in cities and in villages—he gave alms everywhere, clothing the naked, satisfying the hungry, giving the thirsty to drink, bestowing mercy on pilgrims, honoring the churchmen, loving and merciful, giving what was required."

His deep understanding of Christian commandments was reflected in the fact that the prince abolished the death penalty — he said that he was afraid of angering God with an unfair trial. The prince changed in his personal life: after marrying Princess Anna, he gave his pagan wives complete freedom to choose their future.

All this taken together is called repentance. It is not for nothing that in Russian epics the prince remained not a harsh, merciless warrior, but a merciful Vladimir the Red Sun.
The prince, by his personal example, led the whole of Russia to the transformation. Very soon, this name ceased to be associated with the ferocious warriors attacking the Christian city of Constantinople. Russia became a Saint — she chose holiness as her ideal. And holiness is nothing but genuine freedom, freedom from sin. Vladimir, the great sinner in the past, sought to find it. Looking at his Christian deeds, we believe that he has found.

We can judge Prince Vladimir from the chronicles, although not much information has been preserved about him. But if we evaluate both his actions and his personality from an Orthodox perspective, then we just need to pay attention to the fact that before and after baptism they were literally two different people. A pagan with all his vices and a new man who converted to Christianity. The chronicles depict both. The path of righteous life for many saints, especially of the early period, shows a sinful person who realized his sins and repented. After all, repentance is a Transformation, a change of mind, a change of consciousness, the very transformation when a person becomes different. Thus, a convert to Christianity immediately acquires the ideal of holiness, which was not the case in paganism. This is the path that gives a person the opportunity to develop.

Epiphany: the choice of fate and how this choice influenced Russian history

The Baptism of Rus is an event that predetermined the entire history of the country. It laid the foundation for the cultural code that defines our thoughts and actions, even if we are not aware of it. And even for those who do not consider themselves a believer.

Prince Vladimir's decision was one of the very important stages of the process that had developed before. After all, it was the penetration of Orthodox Christianity into Russia that began much earlier. And in this regard, it is very important that Russia adopted Christianity from Byzantium as an heir. She has absorbed religion, culture, and state continuity. These are the three elements that underlie European civilization in general — the biblical revelation, Roman law and the Greek tradition of philosophical thought.
Sergey Lvovich Khudiev, writer, journalist

Lev Nikolaevich Gumilev said wonderful words:
"Baptism gave our ancestors the ultimate freedom — the freedom to choose between Good and Evil, and the victory of Orthodoxy gave Russia a thousand-year history."

This is a very deep thought — it was true freedom that brought us Baptism, contrary to the claims of those who slander Christianity, calling it a slave religion. And the second part of this phrase is no less true — our history as a country is completely determined by the choice made by Vladimir the Baptist.

It is impossible to say that there was coercion on the part of Prince Vladimir in relation to his compatriots. It's like trying to persuade a baby to wash himself. He screams and resists because he doesn't understand that you're bathing for his own good. In the same way, Russia was cleansed and absorbed all the cultural wealth of the surrounding world in a short time. That's what the Baptism of Rus was like.
Evgeny Konstantinovich Nikiforov, Director of Radio Radonezh

The adoption of the Christian faith saved the Russian people from dissolving into historical oblivion.

Saved, and saves, and, I hope, will save. When Russia adopted Christianity, it was the moment of its highest development in its most ancient era. It is probably difficult to find in history such a historical period and such a state that would accept religion at the peak of its power. This is very important. Sometimes it is said that Russia adopted Christianity under duress or it was just an attempt to rely on a strong Byzantium. On the contrary, Byzantium was as weak as ever at that moment.

Prince Vladimir literally wrested Christianity from the proud Byzantines, who didn't really want to share this treasure with the barbarians. And I must say that Vladimir understood what a great gift he was receiving.

Pavel Vladimirovich Kuzenkov, PhD in History, Associate Professor at the Faculty of History of Lomonosov Moscow State University, specialist in the Byzantine Empire

THE BAPTISM OF RUSSIA. Episodes 1 -- 4. English Subtitles. Russian History.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=58YXMW5sP5s

The film tells in detail what events accompanied the decision of Prince Vladimir, shows the history of this man, which has become the history of an entire nation. The most important task for us was to create a cognitive, educational, spectacular picture for a wide audience, reliably conveying historical reality

Type: historical reenactment
Genre: docudrama
Number of episodes: 4
Year of production: 2017
Directed by: Dmitry Ushakov
Written by: Maksim Bespalyi, Marina Bandilenko, Maksim Kalsin
Production designer: Maksim Bespalyi
Director of photography: Aleksandr Byrkov

[Matthew]

Posted by Russian Bear (here)
In continuation of the article, I want to add: The baptism of Rus into the Orthodox faith is the basis of the spiritual unity of the Slavic peoples
https://projectavalon.net/forum4/sho...=1#post1687068

Epiphany: the choice of fate. The Prophecy
...

That's amazing. I had no idea of Vlad the Impaler's transformation after he was baptised. Vlad the Baptist.

A few days ago I was watching a video about his reign and liked the bit where he lead a huge army to face an opposing army, and him and the opposing leader met each other on the field of battle and settled the battle in 1-on-1 combat, leader vs leader. Vlad won and the rest is history.

Russian Bear I had your post above auto-read by a text to speech website called https://www.naturalreaders.com/online/ and listened, amazed at Vlad's Christian transformation. The text to speech I made is a bit rubbish. It pronounced 'Rus' as "R-use", and garbles some of your post which I apologize for. But the gist is there, talking about Vlad's transformation, and his influence on Russian Christianity. I captured the text to speech and stuck it on this video below:

**POST UPDATE** replaced the old video with a better video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPhOaPsVZAE

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=_kXP83NNBic

[Russian Bear]

Posted by Matthew (here)

Posted by Russian Bear (here)
In continuation of the article, I want to add: The baptism of Rus into the Orthodox faith is the basis of the spiritual unity of the Slavic peoples
https://projectavalon.net/forum4/sho...=1#post1687068

Epiphany: the choice of fate. The Prophecy
...

That's amazing. I had no idea of Vlad the Impaler's transformation after he was baptised. Vlad the Baptist.

A few days ago I was watching a video about his reign and liked the bit where he lead a huge army to face an opposing army, and him and the opposing leader met each other on the field of battle and settled the battle in 1-on-1 combat, leader vs leader. Vlad won and the rest is history.

Russian Bear I had your post above auto-read by a text to speech website called https://www.naturalreaders.com/online/ and listened, amazed at Vlad's Christian transformation. The text to speech I made is a bit rubbish. It pronounced 'Rus' as "R-use", and garbles some of your post which I apologize for. But the gist is there, talking about Vlad's transformation, and his influence on Russian Christianity. I captured the text to speech and stuck it on this video below:

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=rPhOaPsVZAE

Thanks for your comment. If you didn't understand something in my article, just point out the mistakes that need to be fixed. I use Google translator, and sometimes the Yandex translator. Your opinion will help me improve the translation. Yes, all my articles are intended for general use, you can take, copy and distribute my information. For example, my article about the Cold War, I think, can help American and European schoolchildren who study at school to compose an report on this topic. You can insert a picture on this topic in your video. My Yandex browser also translates YouTube videos into Russian. So that I can understand your videos in English. I'm glad you made the video. It's a pity there's no picture. I can give you information and you can translate it into videos, which is great. We can work together and create a history channel on different topics. A joint historical project of a Russian and a British, I like the sound of that. You can even tell me the topic and I'll prepare it, and then you put it on your channel with just a beautiful picture that I'll send you too, it can be done as a presentation. You are just editing the text. The translator is not perfect. I can also give you the text in the original Russian. And through different translators, you can determine which translation is better.

💀⛔(History, Cold War) USSR and USA are on the brink of nuclear war and World War III



https://projectavalon.net/forum4/sho...=1#post1665101

The text here in the original Russian version you can try Google or Yandex translator and other translators. After testing, you can tell me which one is better and tell me I will use it. https://dzen.ru/a/aOGGBSLF_3k3Xl57

I also indicated the resources from where I got the material for my articles. I don't specify sources sometimes on the English forum, because I don't think that someone from the English-speaking audience needs it because they don't know Russian. I have author's articles, and there are articles that I have collected from various resources and edited.

[Russian Bear]

Moscow 3 Rome - Russia is the guardian of Orthodoxy



At the end of the 15th century, when the mother of Russian Orthodoxy, Byzantium (present-day Greece), was conquered by the Muslim Turks. Then, the Pope, taking advantage of her plight, inclined the Byzantine Emperor and the Patriarch to union, that is, to unite with Catholics. For Orthodox Christians, Catholics have long betrayed the original true Christian faith and distorted the true teaching of Jesus Christ (there were disagreements even before the great schism of Christianity in 1054). Thus, the Greek Patriarch, recognizing the authority of the Pope, recognized heretical Catholicism.

In 1439, the Church union was signed in Italy at the Florence Council, which placed the Orthodox Church under the authority of the Pope. Byzantium agreed to this agreement, hoping for European military assistance in the fight against the Ottoman Turks. But in 1453, Constantinople — the Second Rome — nevertheless fell under the blows of the conquerors.



Russia did not recognize the Union of Florence and considered the collapse of the Byzantine Empire a heavenly punishment for betraying true Orthodox teaching. Moscow became the third Rome, designed to preserve the Catholic and Apostolic Church and to reveal the light of Orthodoxy to the whole world.

The Russian Orthodox Church adopted Christianity from Byzantium and has always carefully revered the Church of Constantinople as its own Father and learned from her spiritual growth by absorbing the teachings of truth. Therefore, the political fall of the center of the Greek-Eastern Church, Constantinople, was painfully experienced in Russia. Russia has lost its mentor, its Father.

Muscovy, which saw Byzantium as the foundation of the Orthodox faith, was shocked. And when our Metropolitan Isidore brought from Byzantium in 1441 and read from the pulpit of the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin the act of signing the Florentine Union, Prince Vasily III and all those gathered were extremely indignant.

Grand Duke Vasily declared Metropolitan Isidore, who agreed with the union, a heretic and exiled him to the Chudov monastery. Then he convened a Council of the clergy, which declared the definition of the Florentine Union illegal.

So Moscow rejected the Catholic union and recognized the fall of Byzantium as a stronghold of Orthodoxy. Once upon a time, the original Roman Empire lost its importance as the guardian of Orthodox Christianity, creating the heretical teaching of Catholicism. Byzantium became the second Rome, the center of Orthodoxy. But here she is, she has lost the purity of faith. Moscow, which rejected the union, became the third Rome. The idea of "Moscow – the Third Rome" was formulated by Elder Philotheos, a monk of the Pskov Elizar Monastery, who wrote a letter to the Grand Duke of Moscow Vasily III. Actually, the idea of the Russian Orthodox monarchy was born at the same time. Indeed, in his message, Elder Philotheus called the Moscow prince a pious Tsar and made him equal to Emperor Constantine the Great.

Elder Philotheus wrote that two Romans had fallen, but the third was standing, and the fourth would never happen. "Know, pious king, that all the Orthodox kingdoms will come under your protection."

Thus, Elder Philotheos pointed out that after the fall of the Byzantine Empire, the young Russian state became the defender and guardian of Universal Orthodoxy. The perception of the Byzantine imperial traditions by the Moscow princes, and especially by John the Terrible, led to the formation of a monarchical statehood in Russia. Thus, Russia became the Mother and guardian of the purity of the Orthodox faith given by the Lord, which now preaches throughout the world (there are Russian churches in almost every country in the world). So Russia, as a student, grieved that she had lost her great teacher. But after the fall of her teacher, she accepted his succession, becoming a mentor and educator for many peoples, like a bird gathering its chicks under its wing (for the salvation of many nations).

*I called Constantinople Father in the article because in Russian it is a masculine word. Russia is a Mother, because Russia is feminine. In Russian, every word has a masculine or feminine gender.

Divine calling "Moscow 3 Rome"

Christian thinkers have asked themselves, which nation is currently a worthy bearer of the honorary title of God's chosen one?

The answer came naturally. If, with the coming of the Savior to earth, the great historical task of the Jewish people has ended and the Jewish people have been rejected for their unbelief, then it is quite natural for the Christian people to take their place now.

But the thought of the Orthodox Russian scribe does not stop there. The prophet Daniel's famous vision of four beasts is brought into play. Of these, the last beast served as the personification of the Roman state. Over time, the Church of Christ, the Messianic kingdom, coincided with the territorial space of the Roman Empire. Christianity has become the dominant religion here, and the Roman state has already ceased to exist under the image of the fourth beast. The conclusion inevitably follows from this: the Roman Kingdom was the last Christian kingdom on earth, or, what is the same thing, Rome was an eternal city. This was how the idea of the Roman Kingdom arose as the last Christian kingdom, the fall of which would be accompanied by the second coming of the Savior to earth and the opening of the eternal kingdom of saints. When Rome later fell and there was no expected coming of the Savior, the old Rome was replaced by a new one, Byzantium, with Constantinople as its capital. Quite naturally, all the greatness of the ancient Roman Empire was transferred to it. The theory of "eternal Rome" is receiving a new development. The most prominent elaboration of the political and cultural Christian significance of Byzantium belongs to Patriarch Photius of Constantinople (9th century) in his envoy Zachariah, Catholicos of Greater Armenia. In his opinion, the destinies of the Church of Christ and the Christian earthly kingdom seemed to merge with the history of the Greeks, with their historical vocation. According to his theory, the Greeks are the natural and only successors of Israel: they are a God-chosen people in the true meaning of the word. It was as if God had predestined the Greeks in advance to their historical role as bearers and guardians of the covenants of the new kingdom of grace of Christ, and their capital city Constantinople is "the new Zion and the city of the great soaring." They are entrusted with the fate of the Christian kingdom and the Christian Church, which arose with the coming of Christ and are to remain until His second coming. Therefore, Constantinople is the "New Rome", which has to exist forever.

Russian Orthodox Church leaders expressed this view of the world significance of Byzantium at every opportunity, especially in their official letters to the Russian Church and to the Russian princes. In this regard, the letter of Patriarch Anthony of Constantinople to Grand Duke Vasily Dmitrievich is particularly typical. In it, the patriarch develops with particular force the patriotic views of the Greeks of the late 15th century on the global importance of their Church, state and their supreme representatives: the tsar and the patriarch. The Russians understood the religious and political significance of Byzantium in the desired sense for the Greeks. Their respect for their metropolis, as the bearer of pure universal Orthodoxy, became even more entrenched after the separation of the Churches. Russians gradually increased the authority of Byzantium over the course of history and "merged in the minds of Russian people with the norm of true Christianity (Orthodoxy) as a religious one, and, consequently, the most essential basis of the historical life of the Russian people."

Russian scribes were most sensitive to this issue, they gave it a deep mystical meaning, and this was quite natural, because with the fall of Constantinople, the second coming of the Savior became connected. Russian Russians consider this pillar of Orthodoxy to be so important in a religious sense, for which they had a deep, mystical respect, suddenly united with the Latins, with a people who had previously been discredited by themselves in the eyes of Russians. This event terribly excited the minds of the Russian people and filled their hearts with a mystical fear of an unknown future. The fall of Constantinople, which took place soon after, was immediately linked to the crime of the Greeks at the Florentine Union. From the point of view of Simeon, the author of the story of the Florence Cathedral, a typical exponent of the opinions of our Russian scribes on this issue, the Greeks sold Orthodoxy here for gold, and Metropolitan Philip (1471), in an admonition to the Novgorodians, directly places the catastrophe of Constantinople in direct dependence on the betrayal of the Greeks to Orthodoxy. "Understand, children," he wrote, "the reigning city of Constantinople and the churches of God stood steadfastly while piety stood in it like the sun. And when the tsar and the patriarch abandoned the truth and united with Latin, and signed to the pope for gold, the patriarch died uselessly, and Constantinople fell into the hands of the filthy Turks."

But apart from this negative conclusion, the fall of Constantinople opened up positive prospects of extraordinary breadth to the mental gaze of the Moscow scribes, which they perceived with extraordinary enthusiasm. Indeed, a terrible global catastrophe occurred: Constantinople, the pillar of universal Orthodoxy, undermined by the worm of greed, fell. The second, new Rome, fell and a whole God-chosen people disappeared. According to the theory of "eternal Rome," the second coming follows. The Russians were waiting for him in 1492, but these expectations were in vain.: the terrible year has passed safely. Hence, it became clear to our scribes that God, in order to prolong the life of the world, was moving the center of new Rome to another place, just as it was moved from old Rome to Constantinople. Russian Russian philosophers had every reason to consider the Russian Orthodox Church and the Russian state to be this center.
By this time, the Russian state had reached a new phase of its development: the unification process was coming to an end, and it felt solid ground under it. The Russian Church, being in an independent state, had its own representative, the metropolitan, and, proud of the purity of Orthodoxy, gave a strong rebuff to the Latin Metropolitan Isidore. Thus, in Russia there was a powerful state and a single universal Orthodox Church, the tsar and the supreme representative of the Orthodox Church, the metropolitan. In short, there were all those elements that made up the theory of eternal Rome, which our Russian scribes were not slow to transfer completely to Russia. This theory of God's election and the messianism of peoples, transferred to Russia, was the product of philosophical and theological understanding of this new position of the Russian Church and state. In the history of nations, there is a necessary and quite natural law according to which each state, which has embarked on a new broad path of its cultural existence, causes thinkers to want to guess and find out the role it should have among other world powers, and the goal to which it should ultimately strive.

The Russian state was just entering a new era of its existence; before it, which had just been freed from long chains of slavery, a wide horizon stretched. If earlier it lived according to someone else's instructions and cared only about its existence, now it is free and must determine itself for a particular cultural activity. This situation was still too new for Russians, and therefore they probably searched with great persistence for the meaning of their homeland's existence. They found the latter in the above theory, which successfully corresponds to the historical moment of Russia. The ground was ready to accept this theory.

Back in the 14th—15th centuries, the southern Slavs, suffering from the Turks, began to pay more and more attention to the northern giant and gradually transfer to him all the greatness of the new Rome — Byzantium, ready to fall. Russian Metropolitans from Bulgaria (Cyprian, Gregory Tsamblak) and scientists, coming to Russia, carried ancient prophecies about a new, third Rome and awakened a conscious national feeling in Muscovites. After the fall of Constantinople, the thought of Russian scribes in this direction worked especially intensively. They directly began to transfer to Moscow all the glory, greatness and world significance of Tsargrad. A whole series of bizarre and artistic legends begins to weave around her, reflecting the idea of her succession from the Byzantine state of all the prerogatives of a world power. Elder Philotheos, a typical exponent of the views of Russian society of the XV — XVI centuries on this issue, directly calls Russia the only center and representative of Orthodoxy in the entire universe; the Moscow Grand Duke is the only Orthodox, God—crowned king, guardian of ancient universal Orthodoxy.; Moscow is the third Rome, and the entire Russian people are the new Israel, the God—chosen people, who have a great world mission.

Russia has never betrayed its God-given Orthodox faith, even on pain of death and total extinction from the face of the earth. It is better to die faithful to God and remain faithful to his true Orthodox teaching and the faith given to all mankind. Than being a traitor to God, like Judas, for the sake of profit or for the sake of saving his life. Traitors destroy the soul and their souls go to hell, while those who die for Christ are saved and united with Jesus Christ in the Kingdom of Heaven. Anyone who has read the article at the link above understands what I am talking about. https://projectavalon.net/forum4/sho...=1#post1687068

Wikipedia also has such a concept, but it is poorly described without revealing the essence of what is happening. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moscow,_third_Rome