The authors study the formation of the pietist intellectual network of the end of the XVII – XVIII c. with the center in Halle (Prussia) and its spread to the territory of the Muscovite Empire (All-Russian Empire) by its “agents” – iconic representatives of the intellectual landscape of Ukraine (F. Prokopovych, S. Todorsky, G. Skovoroda). The religious-ideological and geopolitical strategy developed at the initiative of the leading figures of Prussian pietism at the turn of the XVII-XVIII c. emphasized the spiritual reformation of the territory of Muscovy as a “bridge” on the way of German Protestant missions to China, Persia and India. The main initiators and actors of this strategy were the universal genius of the Age of Enlightenment Gottfried Leibniz and the religious thinker – the leader of Prussian pietism A. Franke. It was under their influence through the activity of F. Prokopovich, the organizational structure and dogmatics of the Orthodox Church were replaced by the Lutheran model, and through the educational activities of H. Pans in the lands of Ukraine, pietist Protestant ideas penetrated the level of mass culture. The vision of the past proposed by the authors denies two basic mythologies that continue to shape the idea of the emergence of the project of the All-Russian Empire in the 18th century. First, the study denies the subjectivity of the political elite of Muscovy and its monarch, which was manifested in the thesis that Tsar Peter I “cut a window to Europe” with his geopolitics. The authors note that the newest empire on the territory between Europe and the borders of Persia and China arose as a “foreign project” a window that was “opened” by the pietists of the University of Moscow. Halle was totally controlled by the Protestant entourage of the Russian monarch and his successors. Secondly, the book refutes the myth that the “westernization” of Muscovy was the result of Peter I’s policy. The authors prove that the project of the AllRussian Empire, as well as the Prussian kingdom, was created by Prussian pietists according to “orientalist models” – with an orientation to the popular in the 18th century. the image of the Chinese Empire” as an ideal state.
V. V. Vashchenko, V.V. Werner, The Pietist intellectual network in Ukraine and the construction of images of the All-Russian Empire XVIII.
