Formation Legal Regulation Mechanism Interactions of the Russian State and the Orthodox Church

Abstract

Among the fundamental issues that needed to be resolved in the process of adoption of Orthodoxy by the Russian state was the creation of a mechanism for legal regulation of interaction between the Old Russian state and the Russian Orthodox Church. Relatively little studied in historical and legal science is the process of adaptation in the Old Russian state of the legal institution of interaction between church and state, which developed in the Byzantine Empire. The study of this issue, as well as the further evolution of the relationship between the church and the state throughout the history of the Russian state, is one of the most important aspects of understanding the current state of this legal institution. Carrying out a comparative historical and legal analysis of Byzantine and Old Russian regulations in the field of legal regulation of interaction between the Orthodox Church and the state made it possible to reveal that their relationship in the Old Russian state was initially based on the fundamental principle of the “symphony of powers” borrowed from the Byzantine Empire – harmonious interaction between the church and the state. The work shows that, relying on borrowed regulations, the Russian state gradually acquired its own legal framework in this area. A comparative historical and legal analysis of Byzantine and Old Russian normative acts in the field of legal regulation of the Orthodox Church and the state showed that a distinctive feature of Russian normative acts of church and civil legislation was the consideration of Russian reality, customs, traditions, and customary law norms that developed on the territory of the Old Russian state. It is concluded that the collapse of the Old Russian state, as shown by the examination of the legislation of the individual principalities that formed, did not generally affect the pursued policy of the “symphony of powers.” The obtained results  complement the understanding of the evolution of the legal institution of interaction between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Russian state.