Registration REQUIRED by 4pm on April 23, 2026 in order to attend this event.
Please join the Harriman Institute for a Russian History Workshop with Andrey Ivanov. Moderated by Catherine Evtuhov.
What constitutes an empire and who can be an emperor? The Latin title of “imperator” belonged originally to the Western, Eastern, and Holy Roman realms. This exclusivity came to an end in 1721, when Peter I proclaimed what became known as the world’s first non-Roman imperium, setting an example emulated later by Napoleon of France, Agustin de Iturbide of Mexico, and many others. Yet, while the tsar was the recipient of the new honor, Ukrainian archbishop Feofan Prokopovych (1677–1736) was its chief architect, overseeing both the ceremony and the legal-intellectual framework behind the establishment of Russia’s imperial title. This chapter will demonstrate how forging the new empire was closely tied to the breadth of Feofan’s polymathic scholarship. This undertaking drew on the intellectual synthesis of ancient pagan tradition, early Enlightenment’s political theories, Holy Roman jurisprudence, Lutheran theology, and the “pseudo-Roman triumph.”
Andrey V. Ivanov (PhD, Yale, 2012) is a professor of history at the University of Wisconsin – Platteville. He specializes in the religious, cultural and social history of Eastern Europe and the Russian Empire. His most recent book, titled “A Spiritual Revolution: The Impact of Reformation and Enlightenment in Orthodox Russia 1700-1836” won the 2021 Marc Raeff and the 2021 Early Slavic Studies book prizes. Ivanov’s research has been funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, Notre Dame Institute for Advanced Study, ACLS, and Herzog August Bibliothek, among others. His current project, “Apostle of Empire: The Life and Enlightenment of Feofan Prokopovych” explores the intersection of natural sciences, ideology, empire-building, and religion within the lenses of a biography.
