Empire and praxis

What are the decisive factors for the restoration of a true empire in Russia?

This question was posed seriously by Father Vladimir Tsvetkov, prior of the Sofronie Hermitage near Arzamas, in a very profound formulation: what should we pray for? In fact, the same question was asked of Konstantin Malofeev at the presentation of his book Empire: Where is the Empire today?

I have just completed a new book, Genesis and Empire, a kind of 'Encyclopaedia of the Imperial Idea', in which I outline the theme of imperial ontology from the archetypal figure of the King of Peace, to the various forms of sacred monarchy and an overview of historical empires - including the mission of Katechon and the dialectic of imperial Russia, and on to simulacra of 'Empire' - such as the British Empire and the modern US 'Empire'.

These are deep and fundamental themes and theories, from which, however, no practical conclusions can be drawn directly. That is why I decided to deal with Father Vladimir's question in a systematic way and proposed a series of theses. This is an outline, I would be grateful for additions and comments.

1. Empire can be restored in Russia as the result of a divine miracle. Every empire has a supernatural origin. If it is not a miracle of God, then it is a 'black miracle' of the devil. Human beings are not capable of creating an empire. It is always something sacred. There is no miracle, there is no empire, but our faith is in the living God, in the God who works wonders.
2. The Empire lives in the Church. The religious and eschatological teaching on the empire and the Orthodox monarchy, and on the role of the Russian tsar as catechumen, was developed in detail in the Russian Orthodox Church outside Russia. The glorification of the royal martyrs and all the new martyrs of Russia is part of this teaching. After the reunion of the Moscow Patriarchate and the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia in the 1990s, this teaching was generally accepted by the Russian Orthodox Church as a whole, and no other normative doctrine of the political theology of Orthodoxy was created in the ROC itself during the Soviet period (and it could not be after the failure of the Renovationists). Therefore, the Orthodox monarchy is the only normative model of Russian Orthodox Christianity. The loud and insistent 'church liberals' do not count, they are only 'foreign agents'.
3. The empire (like the monarchy) is an institution. The restoration of the Empire can take place through large-scale political reform, revising the Russian legal framework in the spirit of autocracy. Political-philosophical and legal work is important here.
4. The empire can be rejected by a dynasty. Although no strictly direct line of succession to the last Russian emperor has survived, there are the Romanovs and in the 18th century the Russian throne was occupied by more distant relatives. Here the Kirillovich line, however it is treated in Russia today, has the greatest basis.
5. An empire can be created by true military successes and the expansion of an area of control. Internal power then becomes evident. The very aggregation of Russian lands - with its dependence on both military power and economy, diplomacy and culture - strengthens the imperial potential.
6. The empire can live on the plane of the will of the people. In this case, the empire is not established from the top down, but is demanded by the people, from the bottom up. This is the Zemsky scenario. The Zemsky sobor makes the historical decision that the empire is and restores the monarchy. The modern Stalin cult, spread among the people, from a sociological point of view, is nothing but a form of 'monarchism from below', a demand for tsars.
7. An empire can be declared a strong ruler. In Roman history, the transition from Republic to Empire was through the dictatorship of Julius Caesar. The name 'Caesar' later became synonymous with emperor, king. Although Augustus became emperor in his own right, in reality Julius Caesar already was.

It is difficult to say in advance which is the main point. At present, all these prerequisites are present in one form or another, but none of them is yet clearly dominant. One can assume a combination of several points or the selection of some at the expense of others; one cannot even rule out their complete synergy. If the Empire is our goal (and if it is not, we are lost), we now know what we must pray for, what we must fight for and what we must do.

The most important thing is never to lose sight of the main thing: the Empire is a phenomenon of a spiritual order, which means that without the Divine Will and His Providence it will only be a simulacrum. The main thing in the Empire is a miracle, so only in the name of a miracle, in the expectation of a miracle, is it possible to live. Without it, everything is meaningless. The miracle is the meaning of our life. An imperial miracle.

Translation by Lorenzo Maria Pacini