THE FIGURE OF CONSTANTINE THE GREAT IN RUSSIAN ORTHODOX THOUGHT (19TH-20TH CENTURY)
Abstract
In the second half of the nineteenth century, from the reforms of Alexander II in the 1860s until the Revolution of 1917, Russian social and political thinkers, as well as religious philosophers, faced dramatic changes in society. Against this background, the literary image of Emperor Constantine underwent opposite evaluations, since it stood at the intersection of several interrelated, though distinct, issues, both political and religious. This paper, after discussing the heritage of Russian Medieval political ideology, presents different views on Constantine’s historical and religious role. He was at the same time the founder of the legitimate Christian empire (Tjutčev) and a romantic hero (Danilevskij, Leont’ev), an apocalyptic figure (Buxarev) and a political leader (Bolotov), a negative figure (Solov’ev) and the symbol of an entire epoch in Christian history (Bulgakov, Berdjaev).
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