Dr Matthew Raphael Johnson looks at how a modern view of Russian history actually just confirms an earlier, but much lesser known Orthodox church history. This broadcast is in part, a reconstruction of the “New Chronology” view of Russian history by Anatoly Fomenko for the period from Ivan IV “the Terrible” to the uprising of Stenka Razin, which finally ended in 1671. It’s also to partially give the background for the Petrine system. While Fomenko claims the Romanovs were an entirely illegal usurpation, this isn't the claim here. Yet, from the “patriarch” Filaret to the revolution of Peter and beyond, it was foreign, often anti-Russian and only a semi-Orthodox house, albeit partially rescued at the end of the 19th century. How the New Rite and the Petrine revolution it engendered came to be is of central importance for not only eastern European history, but the world as a whole, both religiously and politically. Without the events mentioned here, Peter and Catherine II make no sense. Certainly, the mockery of Catherine I couldn't ever have occurred without it. These Troubles and later military victories revolutionized Old Russia, preparing the way for Peter, Catherine and the schism that's torn Russia to pieces ever since the religion of the old Horde empire was overthrown by Alexis and Nikon in 1666. While Fomenko and his allies can go into nonsense and overly speculative theories, his work on Russian history actually mirrors the much older, Old Believer history and their entire religious-historical outlook about which very few, even in the church, know. This is hardly an endorsement of Fomenko's ideas, rather a raising of unpleasant questions about some of the stranger aspects of Russian history that are normally taken for granted. Peter's reign was no doubt a violent revolution, but how that was possible is equally significant. Presented by Matt Johnson The Orthodox Nationalist: The Romanov Revolution – TON 051320