Dr Matthew Raphael Johnson talks about what drives him and expands on some of the themes in his work ‘The Third Rome’ concentrating on a particular period in the history of Moscow. One of the overarching theses of Dr Johnson’s career as a historian has been the simple choice that all men must make; one that all nations and families must make too: oligarchy versus monarchy. This, of course, is very general. Oligarchy is the rule by the rich, but even more broadly, it Is the rule of passion over reason. It Is the victory of nominalism over Realism; opinion over knowledge; quantity over quality. All Dr Johnson’s work revolves, ultimately, around it. It Is the one overarching aspect of my writing and thinking hardened by experience and struggle both personal and political. Plato made the connection between problems that beset the nation as the same as beset the man, just on a broader scale. The “choice” all must make is evidence of this truth. Russia, though objective forces of history, chose monarchy and thus, the common good rather than the private goods of oligarchy. This is because Russian history is driven, not by the commercial spirit, but rather by military necessity. Russia was organized as a state and the nation protected by reason of military crisis, not mercantile profit. Russia as the Third Rome was the ideological affirmation of this, as the church militant easily fit into the militant state fighting heresy and error from abroad. How this manifested itself in the economy and the development of the Russian mind is the purpose of this broadcast, dealing with the critical 16th and 17th centuries. Presented by Matt Johnson The Orthodox Nationalist: The Decline & Rebirth of Moscow in the 16th & 17th Centuries – TON 050620