Monarchs, Despots, and Modernization: Change and Stagnation in the Ottoman and Russian Empires as Seen in the Writings of Evgenios Voulgaris and Platon Levshin

The presentation will address the issues of change and stagnation in the Russian and the Ottoman Empires as seen in the writings of Eugenios Voulgaris and Platon Levshin, the two Orthodox prelates at the court of Catherine the Great. Recent research has focused on the question of changing attitudes to state and monarch in 18th century Russia. However, insufficient attention has been paid to the political opinions of members of the Russian church hierarchy, whether Russian or Greek. Voulgaris and Levshin were linked to Catherine II's court, but at the same time were bearers of an Enlightened Orthodox discourse that at times set them at odds with court priorities. The presentation will examine the ways in which their position as Orthodox hierarchs affected their attitudes towards state modernisation. Particular attention will be paid to contrasts that Voulgaris and Levshin made between the Russian Empire on the one hand and the Ottoman Empire on the other.  Such contrasts served as tools for criticism in the hands of the authors.