The role of the Orthodox Church in Russia - introduction

Fyodor Dostoyevsky is a famous Russian writer and intellectual known to the Western audience, as the author vibrantly filmed novels, such as The Brothers Karamazov, Crime and Punishment, White Nights. Probably they are now more popular than his political and religious views. Dostoyevsky was a deep believer in the Russian Orthodox Messianism, convinced of the need for the conquest of the world by the only legitimate religion and its chosen people. 

Dostoyevsky was based on the idea formulated by Philotheus of Pskov (b. Approx. 1450 d. 1525) Russian monk. Philotheus created the theory of the "Three Romes", according to which, after the fall of ancient Rome in 476 AD., and Constantinople in 1453., Moscow had become the center of the world - the "Third Rome". This concept became the official ideology of the Moscow tsars and the base for the expansionist policy of the Russian Empire. The Orthodox tradition was the bedrock of Dostoyevsky’s messianic visions of the future, so relevant today, in the face of Russian expansion.

The Russian Orthodox Church is the largest religious community in the Russian Federation, Belarus, and Ukraine. Eastern Christianity is an integral part of religious life in the years of history of the Russian state. In the fifteenth century Russia took on the role of protector of Orthodox Christianity and its rulers considered themselves as the heirs of the Byzantine civilization. The great Orthodox tradition is fundamental to understanding the religious and national identity of the Russians. According to the Byzantine tradition, Russians believed that the state is just as necessary for the salvation of the Church.