Power and society in the Russian state in the middle of the XVI century: Moscow riot 1547 and Ivan the Terrible

Author(s):  V.V. Penskoy, Dr., associate Professor, Belgorod National Research University, Belgorod, Russia, penskoy@bsu.edu.ru

T.M. Penskaya, candidate of Sciences, associate Professor, Belgorod National Research University, Belgorod, Russia, penskaya@bsu.edu.ru

Issue:  Volume 44, № 4

Rubric:  Actual Problems of Legal Regulation

Annotation:  Problems associated with the characteristics of the relationship between government and society at different stages of the development of Russian statehood have always been among the most popular and discussed in the scientific community. This issue remains relevant today. This is facilitated by reasons of both objective and subjective nature - in particular, the changed approaches to the study of past events and the new methodology of historical research. Based on ideas about the peculiarities of state and legal construction in the states of early New time, set forth in modern Western historiography, the authors propose to look at the events of the summer of 1547 in Moscow from a different angle. Their task is to show the possibility of another interpretation. It is more consistent with the essence of what happened then in the Russian capital than the previous interpretations. The authors view these events not as a primitive rebellion, "meaningless and merciless", and not as an outbreak of the class struggle. They consider it as a "ritual action." During this "action" during which the supreme authority was tested for strength and the right of society to attention, mercy and justice from the supreme authority was realized. A similar approach to the analysis of Moscow unrest in the summer of 1547 allows you to look at them through the eyes of a person of that time and better penetrate the essence of the system of relations between the sovereign and his people in Russia in the early Modern.

Keywords:  Early Modern, Russia, political system, government and society, Ivan the Terrible, boyar rule, political crisis, Moscow fires, urban uprisings.

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