Dissertation Archive, WMU Graduate College

Dissertation Defense

Candidate: Kevin M. Kain

Degree of: Doctor of Philosophy

Department: History

Title: Patriarch Nikon's Image in Russian History and Culture

Date: Tuesday, July 6, 2004 3:00-5:00 p.m.
Clock Tower Room

Committee: Dr. John O. Norman, Chair
Dr. Judith Stone
Dr. Georg Michels
Dr. James Palmitessa

Abstract: This dissertation investigates representations of Nikon, Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia (1652-1666). I contend that Nikon's resonance in Russian national life remains largely unrecognized because traditional histories -- based entirely on written sourced and limited to Nikon's tenure as Patriarch -- fail to reveal his broader significance in Russian artistic, political and religious culture by omitting analysis of art and material culture. The dissertation addresses this shortcoming by tracing and analyzing Patriarch Nikon's image in Russian history and culture from the mid-seventeenth century forward. I demonstrate that contrary to his overwhelmingly negative image in standard histories, the Patriarch held a central place in Russian political and religious cultures, both official and dissenting, and that his image became a fixture of Russian national life and staple of Russian art.
I employ an interdisciplinary, cultural-historical approach and adopt the perspective of "total history" by examining the creation and reception of Patriarch Nikon's image in art, material culture and literature from "above" and "below," as well as across the confessional divide and over a long period of time. This approach allows us to comprehend how and why Nikon represented himself, how and why his contemporaries depicted him and how and why later artists, historians, churchmen, rulers, intellectuals, and ordinary people appropriated Nikonian images to support divergent agendas.
I conclude that: 1. Nikon conceived complex religious and political doctrines that included the reform of the Russian church and the preservation of ecclesiastical prerogatives against the burgeoning encroachments of the state, while simultaneously promoting the national myth and hence the religious and temporal legitimacy of the Romanov dynasty. 2. Nikon was a significant and influential patron of the arts who created comprehensive and lasting iconographic expressions of his principal beliefs and initiatives. 3. Nikon's iconographic system outlived him, providing the basis for both the Romanovs' legitimacy and opposition to the autocracy. 4. Nikon's image serves as a bellwether for larger political, religious and cultural issues in Russian history.

Related Topics

Main List of Archives:
Dissertation Defenses

Current Dissertation Defenses