In the future, everything, from the historical situation in Russia and abroad to the deeds of the Moscow archpastors, had to be analyzed from primary sources. Moreover, a number of works attributed to the Russian patriarchs without a shadow of a doubt (for example, Hermogenes' appeals to the patriotic militias) were never written by them, and, on the contrary, the most important words and thoughts of the primates of the Russian Orthodox Church were not given true significance (even if the monuments themselves were known).

In this book you will read about the spiritual pastors of Russia, each of whom was also a statesman. At the call of conscience, by virtue of their character, circumstances and calling, the patriarchs found themselves at the forefront of all contradictions in the life of Russia, both internal and external. The first patriarchs of Moscow and All Russia suffered the tragic trials of the Great Devastation and the Time of Troubles, the civil war and intervention of the early 17th century.

Reading the book, you will not only learn the secret circumstances of the history of the Russian Church and state. You will see that much of it directly contradicts what you have ever read about it before. The ideas about the archpastors of the Russian Orthodox Church, which are familiar to most of us, are partly explained by the persistence of historical legends, and most of all by the fact that the figures of the Primates of the Church were torn out of the real historical environment. The patriarch is the first clergyman of the state, church leader, politician, thinker, writer and orator. These aspects of a person's personality, together with character traits and relationships with kings and nobles, friends and enemies, in my opinion, only in their unity constitute the truth that we are looking for in history. Be that as it may, history is a person who creates it and is led by it.

My task was, using the entire arsenal of methods and means of historical science, to obtain reliable information in the sea of sources and to restore the true picture of the events in which the traits of the hero's personality were manifested: not only what the head of the Russian Orthodox Church was in himself, but in what conditions and, if possible, to find out, by what motives he lived and acted.

Acquaintance with the eleven Patriarchs of Moscow and All Russia of the pre-Synodal period is, first of all, a valuable personal experience. At the same time, each of them synthesizes the essence of the most important church, state and cultural processes in a constantly changing and rapidly developing country. Russia under each of the patriarchs was different, but always – little reminiscent of that stagnant and patriarchal, dark Muscovy, whose image was imposed on us by the legend of Peter the Great, who allegedly out of necessity with the help of a club "enlightened" a wild country with light from the West (dealing a cruel blow to the national economy and culture), and by the most barbaric measures turned the Russian Orthodox Church into a department of the military-police state. wanting to make her a servant of the police department.

The drama of history was clearly manifested in the fact that the Russian Orthodox Church, which had reached its greatest prosperity, power, splendor and wealth during the period of the patriarchate, at the same time, step by step, from patriarch to patriarch, regardless of the views, position and character of each of the archpastors, steadily moved towards an ever stronger merger with the state. Of course, it was about the Russian Orthodox autocratic kingdom – the formula of a new great power, adopted at the highest state level under Patriarch Joachim and Tsar Fyodor Alexeyevich, in which Orthodoxy was inseparably merged with autocracy.

While providing the rapidly growing power with the moral right to expand "to the ends of the universe," embodying in the minds of Russians the idea of assimilating one's native country to the earthly kingdom of Christ, the Church, however, even in the person of her archpastors, noticed the danger of merging with the state and deepening dependence on it. The stormy conflicts between the supreme secular and spiritual authorities, sometimes reaching a direct rupture, show that the harmony of the "two swords" of which Nikon spoke was in fact out of the question.

The source of the real power of the patriarch was becoming more and more clearly the sovereign. Even the Schism and the struggle with the Old Believers became the work of the secular "sword", while the spiritual "sword" turned into a pointer or, in the strongest case, into a rod for those who agreed to accept it. Only the secular authorities could send a "guard" so that the Patriarch could bring to his senses, for example, some dangerous thinker who asserted that every literate person had the right to "reason."

The ugliness and lawlessness that ended the brilliant patriarchal period could not have been a natural consequence of the development of the Russian Church, but the history of the patriarchs made them possible.

* * *

Very carefully and with reservations, adapting the quotations and giving only the most important references for the inquisitive, I consider it necessary to accompany my story with selections of the most valuable and interesting sources. The literary heritage of the patriarchs reveals the inner world and drama of the shepherd of the restless flock. Decrees and letters directly reflect the deeds, intentions and relations of the Patriarch with the flock, bishops and the state.

Andrey Bogdanov, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, Moscow, 1990–1997

Volume 1

The Establishment of the Patriarchate and Patriarch Job