Includes bibliographical references and index.

Kurbskii and the historians -- Towards an understanding or the political ideas in Ivan -- Timofeyev's Vremennik -- The problem of advice in Muscovite tales about the Time of Troubles -- Did Muscovite literary ideology place any limits on the power of the Tsar -- The memory of St. Sergius in sixteenth-century Russia -- The blessed host of the heavenly Tsar: biblical military -- imagery in Muscovy -- Moscow: the third Rome or the new Israel -- Architecture and dynasty: Boris Godunov's uses of Architecture, 1584-1606 -- Two cultures, one throne room: secular courtiers and Orthodox culture in the Golden Hall of the Moscow Kremlin -- Architecture, image, and ritual in the throne rooms of Muscovite Russia -- Advice, advisers, and courtiers: decision-making and advice in the Royal Book volume of the Illustrated Chronicle Compilation -- Ivan IV as a Carolingian Renaissance prince -- Autocracy -- Muscovy -- God, tsar, and people: some further thoughts.

"A collection of essays, written over a period of fifty years, that represent a sustained effort to discover how early modern Russians (from the period roughly from 1450 to 1700) imagined their government and rulers"-- Provided by publisher.