Open AccessWhy Republics Always Fail: Pondering Feofan Prokopovich’s Case for Russian Autocracy
Author(s) -
Борис Маслов
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
vivlīoḟika
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2333-1658
DOI - 10.21900/j.vivliofika.v2.745
Subject(s) - autocracy , victory , ideology , poetics , agency (philosophy) , political science , history , literature , philosophy , law , art , democracy , epistemology , politics , poetry
The article considers Feofan Prokopovich's contribution to redefining Russian autocratic ideology. In the first section, it uncovers an implicit polemic with Samuel Pufendorf's assessment of republican and mixed forms of governance. The second section traces the evolution of the genre of the Pindaric ode, with its attendant poetics of autocratic agency, in Polish Neo-Latin tradition leading up to Feofan's Epinikion, written to celebrate Peter's victory at Poltava.