Modele ale „Vechiului Testament” în legitimarea puterii ruse
Models of the "Old Testament" in legitimizing Russian power

Summary/Abstract: Within the Christian empire mentality of the Middle Ages, The Bible was often used as a source of inspiration for describing political realities. This case study aims to analyze the degree to which the Old Testament kingship model influenced the image of the Russian medieval sovereign. By comparing important written sources of this period, we intend to explain why the models of rulership already well known to the Russians, the Byzantine emperor, and the Mongol Khan, could no longer function as a legitimization tool, since the new state was striving to create its own independent image. The analysis starts with The Primary Chronicle and reaches the centralization of the Russian state in the time of Ivan the Terrible and it can provide an important insight into the Russian understanding of sacred kingship and the later prophetical developments of the “Third Rome” ideology.

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