Strenski/how to do things, 10. The Myth of Moscow, Third Rome: What It Seeks to “Do”

Since the mid 19th-century, Russian nationalism rests, in part, on what the presumably ancient myth of Moscow, Third Rome “does” to insure the legitimacy of Russia’s claims to leadership of Christendom. The myth implies that Muscovy assumes a political pre-eminence for all time from Constantinople after its fall to the Ottomans in 1453. Historical data, however, defeat all the main arguments in this mythological origin-story of modern Russia.