The Image of Aleksandr Nevskiy in Medieval Russia: Warrior and Saint(21 The Northern World)

This study examines the evolution of the image of Aleksandr Nevskiy in close connection with the dynamics of the political and cultural history of medieval Russia. It demonstrates that historians often misinterpret the Life of Aleksandr Nevskiy and treat it as a source for political and military history. By putting the Life in the context of Christian (not only Orthodox) culture, the study achieves remarkable and impressive results in its analysis of the Life. With its mature and innovative methodology it also demonstrates how the Life impacted on common historical consciousness, as it was placed into the historical framework of the medieval Russian chronicles. This researches places Isoaho among those scholars of medieval Russian history, who study the role of political leaders in the formation of the Russian state.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgements vii Introduction 1 PART ONE: THE MEDIEVAL IMAGE OF THE IDEAL RULER 1. The worldly and the biblical combined in Aleksandr’s battles 29 1.1. Aleksandr as a good ruler rewarded by God 29 1.2. The battle of the Neva and the medieval concept of truth 41 1.3. SS Boris and Gleb as examples of just war 53 2. The image of a defender 67 2.1. Defending the frontier 67 2.2. Defending the interests of the dynasty 78 2.3. Defending Orthodoxy 88 3. The quest for a godly ruler 103 3.1. The alleged role of Metropolitan Kirill in the writing of the Life 103 3.2. Eulogy of a Christian ruler 123 3.3. The claims of internal stability 138 PART TWO: CHANGING THE IMAGE 1. Adapting the image of an ideal ruler to historical consciousness 151 1.1. The historical background of Aleksandr Nevskiy’s era in the Russian chronicles 151 1.2. The image of Aleksandr Nevskiy in the contemporary chronicle of Novgorod 160 1.3. Consolidation of the new image in the fifteenth-century chronicles 170 2. Adapting anti-Mongol images 194 2.1. The earthly image of the military leader attached to the Life of Dovmont 194 2.2. The self-sacrificial image of the Second Edition of the Life of Aleksandr 210 2.3. The adoption of the sacrificial image of Aleksandr into the chronicles 222 3. The Kulikovo cycle and the change in historical consciousness 237 3.1. The historical setting of the chronicles—the sin and its punishment 237 3.2. Images of resistance—Dmitriy Donskoy as the second Aleksandr Nevskiy 254 3.3. Moscow’s triumph over the eastern people 269 PART THREE: ALEKSANDR NEVSKIY AS THE NEW MIRACLE-WORKER OF RUSSIA 1. The image of Aleksandr Nevskiy in sixteenth-century Moscow 283 1.1. Aleksandr as a new miracle-worker for the tsars 283 1.2. Silence over the Mongol conquest reconsidered in Vasiliy-Varlaam’s edition of the Life 305 2. Ordering the imperial history of the Moscow tsars 320 2.1. The sacrificial image of Aleksandr Nevskiy in the Book of Degrees 320 2.2. Aleksandr Nevskiy facing the western frontier 338 2.3. The edition of Iona Dumin and the concern over the imperial lineage 347 3. Epilogue: From the tool of the imperial dynasty to a national myth 363 Conclusions 380 Abbreviations 391 Bibliography 393 Index of Names 409

About the Author :
Mari Isoaho, Ph.D. (2006) in Philosophy, University of Oulu is a lecturer in the field of medieval historiography and early Russian history. She has published several articles on the image of Aleksandr Nevskiy in medieval Russia in Finnish and in English.