The Validity of Russian Exceptionalism: Assessing Theories of Power and Lordship in the High Middle Ages
Ivan Ignatov
Russian historians have overwhelmingly adhered to one of two beliefs medieval Rus’ was either a “feudal,” and hence European, character, or it not feudal thus unique. This schema is, however, fundamentally flawed because does consider the world on its own terms. article contemplates an alternative approach: conception power as lordship advanced by Thomas N. Bisson in The Crisis Twelfth Century (Princeton 2009). His notion that personal, affective, at all resembling modern ideas “government,” applies rather well rule exercised Rurikid princes. Bisson’s more complex “crisis” saw this gradually become accountable government-like is difficult pin-point Russia. Nevertheless, Novgorod seems undergone very Bisson-esque kind crisis, ultimately suggesting useful apply
Comitatus-a Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies