Yuri Krizhanich

Politics

1663–1666

<…>4. Oh, glorious sovereign, never trust a wolf if he wants to fatten your lambs, and for all eternity do not believe that a foreign merchant will bring you any benefit. After all, it cannot be that your wealth has been increased by one who himself goes around all the lands and seas, devotes his whole life to wandering and perilous dangers for the sake of money and looks more greedily at silver than a wolf looks at lambs.

The one who throws a fishing line into the water hopes to pull out a fish. He who sows grain into the ground hopes to reap it ten times more. And if a foreign merchant brings you, the sovereign, or your boyars a silver glass or some other gift, then he will undoubtedly take out of your land and eat up a hundred times more wealth. Baruch, therefore, spoke the truth: "If you let a stranger in, he will ruin you."

Not all that glitters is gold; Not everything is useful that seems useful. Some trades seem useful, but turn out to be completely harmful. There is wealth that does not enrich, but, on the contrary, ruins.

Such crafts are called just when we derive all the benefit that can be obtained from our land and from neighboring peoples, reasonable, God-fearing or merciful and good means and not in a stupid, cruel or vile way.

Empty income: to take something and give twice or more for it - such are the incomes from warehouses and foreign merchants living in our country.

Unrighteous income comes from farming, from minting coins, etc.

Bad income - from small, insignificant and worthless things.

“The root of all evil is greed,” says Paul. Greed and vanity are for the states of Scylla and Charybdis, that is, disastrous cliffs. All evil and tyrannical orders flow from them.

Royal sirens are flatterers, astrologers, alchemists and coiners or inventors who invent benefits from the pouring of coins and from other unrighteous and painful methods for collecting the treasury for the people.

Every income is unreliable, obtained without labor and sweat, or without the expenditure of sufficient time, or unrighteously, or in a cruel or shameful way. All secure income must be founded on labor and sweat, increased gradually and patiently, and received justly and honorably.

Excessive luxury brings sickness to the body, immoderate wealth creates poverty: that is, excessive collections for the treasury are followed by desolation of the country. Moderation brings the best returns.

In a kingdom that is poor and sparsely populated, the king cannot have secure wealth. In a rich and populous kingdom, the king cannot be poor.

Whoever fishes in moderation will always find something to catch in the pond. And the one who catches all the fish from the pond clean one day will have nothing to catch next time.

The honor, glory, duty and duty of the king is to make his people happy. After all, kingdoms are not made for kings, but kings are made for kingdoms.

Where the laws are good, the subjects are happy and foreigners want to come there. And where the laws are cruel - there their own subjects yearn for a change of government and often change if they can, and strangers are afraid to come. Oh, sovereign, manage people so that they do not want change.

5. We spoke about bad, false, unworthy and dishonorable trades: that is, about alchemy, about minting coins, about extortions and about the admission of foreign merchants.

And the good and laudable methods of acquisition are those by means of which the treasury is replenished justly, godly and honestly, without vile greed, without fierce requisitions and without unbearable and inhuman burdening of subjects.

And there are three such methods and crafts: agriculture, craft and trade - they are called black crafts or crafts of black people. And the fourth trade is the economy or general arrangement, and it is the basis and soul of all the others. They are called profitable trades.

6. In a poor kingdom, it is impossible for a king to be rich. And if any [king] dreams of becoming rich, then he could be much richer if his kingdom were rich. Therefore, if the king himself wants to get rich, then he must first take care that his subjects become richer, and make sure that in the kingdom there is an abundance of all sorts of things and cheapness. And this the king can achieve (as far as it is possible in his state) if he achieves that people with all diligence and zeal begin to engage in agriculture, crafts, trade and the national economy.<…>

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Yuri Krizhanich(1618-1683) was born in Croatia, graduated from the Zagreb Theological Seminary, then the Hungarian Theological Croatian College in Vienna and the Hungarian-Bulgarian College in Bologna. From 1640, Krizhanich lived in Rome, where he graduated from the Greek Collegium of St. Athanasius. During the years of teaching, Krizhanich masters the knowledge of ancient and modern Western European languages, acquires a fundamental education in theological and secular sciences (philosophy, history, jurisprudence, mathematics, astronomy, etc.). His dream is missionary activity in Russia in order to achieve the commonwealth of the Slavic peoples under the auspices of the Russian state with a single Uniate church. In 1659, he entered the service of the Russian Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich by order of the Great Court, and in 1661, following a slanderous denunciation, he was exiled to live in Tobolsk and returned to Moscow only in 1676 by order of Tsar Fyodor Alekseevich. In 1678 he forever left the borders of the Russian state. Living in Moscow, and then in exile in Tobolsk, Krizhanich collected a large and interesting material about various aspects of Russian reality. In Tobolsk, he wrote "Conversations about Politics", known in historiography as the treatise "Politics". Acquaintance with political orders European countries allowed him to conduct a comparative analysis and present a forecast for the further development of Russia, taking into account the experience of state and legal construction already accumulated by other peoples.

In "Politics" Krizhanich considered a wide range of problems: economic (industry, agriculture, trade); social (organization of the estate structure of society) and political and legal (essence, origin and purpose of the state, classification of forms of government, correlation of justice, law and law, judiciary, foreign policy). His analysis consists of critical remarks and a positive program outlining the necessary changes.

In "Politics" a lot of attention is paid to the study of questions about the origin of the state, its goals and objectives.

The divine essence of the supreme power is indisputable, for "all legitimate kings are set not by themselves, but by God." Krizhanich defends the position of the divinity of the person of the bearer of supreme power. "The king is like a certain God on earth...".

The goal of the state Krizhanich defines as the achievement of "common benefit" for all members of society. "The king's duty is to provide piety, justice, peace and abundance ... faith, justice, peace and cheapness. These four things every king must provide for his people, and for this God made him king." Following Aristotle, Krizhanich divides all existing forms of government into three correct and three incorrect; the latter are perverse variants of the former. Three are correct: perfect self-rule (absolute monarchy); boyar rule and general rule or posad rule (of the republic). Self-rule is opposed by tyranny; boyar rule - oligarchy and general rule - anarchy.

The best form of these is "perfect. self-rule." It was this form that the "Hellenic philosophers" and holy fathers preferred, since it ensures the existence of justice, harmony among the people and the preservation of peace in the country to the greatest extent. "Self-rule is the oldest in the world and the strongest government." "Every true king is in his kingdom the second after God, self-owner and viceroy." This is how the thinker sees the reign of "our Tsar, Sovereign and Grand Duke Alexei Mikhailovich of All Great, Little and White Russia, autocrat", which "because it is immensely respected, successful and happy because it has perfect autonomy."

All administration of the state should be concentrated in the hands of the supreme ruler. On behalf of the latter, Krizhanich calls: “Let no one convene any diets and cathedrals without our decree ... Let not a single city appoint any elders, nor governors, nor chiefs by its own power, and our orders must appoint all city elders and judges " .

On the throne, Krizhanich prefers to see the king-philosopher. He considers it obligatory for the ruler to have knowledge; it is also good when the whole nation has knowledge, for "wisdom was created by God not without reason, but in order to be useful to people." It is especially necessary for kings, since they do not have the right to learn from their own mistakes, which are fraught with consequences not only for themselves, but for the whole people, who usually pay for their mistakes. The thinker characterizes Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich as a wise and learned person and expresses the hope that under the "noble rule of this pious tsar and great sovereign" Russia will be able to cast off "the mold of ancient savagery, learn the sciences, establish laudable relationships and achieve a happy state."

He usually uses the terms "slavery" and servility "synonymously. Like contemporary Western European thinkers, he distinguishes between two types of slavery: social (serfdom) and political (citizenship). Krizhanich condemns serfdom, arguing that true freedom can only be in such a country where each person uses his labor and disposes of his property.Of all types of bondage, the thinker recognized only bonded servitude, considering it a voluntary expression of the conscious will of the individual.

Krizhanich considers political slavery (citizenship) as a form of unquestioning obedience to the supreme power, noting that being a slave of the king and the people is a glorious thing and is one of the types of freedom, besides, it is the duty of every citizen and expresses honor, not humiliation.

The thinker is sure that with "perfect self-rule" "all errors, shortcomings and perversions" are easily eliminated. He clearly favors hereditary monarchy. The succession to the throne should take place "according to the fatherland" (i.e., pass to the eldest son in the family, who is specially prepared for this mission). Women and foreigners should be prohibited by law from inheriting the throne. It is necessary to pass a law that the oath, oath and cross-kiss to a foreign king in all cases will be considered invalid. Inheritance is preferable to elections, from which there are many troubles, atrocities, deceptions, since many unworthy people achieve power by cunning. Elections are usually associated with strife, conspiracies and wars, rather they are suitable for "common dominion", and for "self-rule" hereditary perception of the throne is more suitable.

An absolute monarch must be an enlightened ruler, not a tyrant. Krizhanich defines tyranny as “ludodom” and, with references to Plato, Aristotle and Cicero, gives a detailed criticism of tyrants and tyrannical governments. "A tyrant is a robber... And in our language a tyrant is called a ludeer... tyranny is the worst shame for kings." Tyrannical rule is defined as domination, in which the ruler does not care about the welfare of the people (the state does not achieve its goal), pursues personal interests, and violates "natural" laws. But only God can punish such a ruler, not people. The divine essence of power does not allow the people "to curse the king, even if he is unjust, no one can punish the anointed one or raise a hand against him. For the king is the anointed one and the saint of God." The argument for denying the people's right to rebellion is the famous biblical text: "Do not touch my anointed ones."

Krizhanich puts forward the amount of guarantees by which it is possible to prevent the transformation of "perfect self-rule" into tyranny. First of all, this is the presence of a philosopher-monarch on the throne, then the adoption and observance of good laws corresponding to divine and "natural" (natural) institutions, for "good laws are best opposed to the thirst for power", and, finally, the normative regulation of all estates and ranks in state, according to which for each class will be defined duties in relation to the whole of society.

The duty of an enlightened monarch is to take care of the welfare of the country. First of all, it is necessary to take care of the development of crafts and the regulation of trade. The Russian state is "wide and immeasurably large, but it is closed to trade on all sides." There are few "markets" in the country, and merchants have few privileges, and they often suffer losses in competition with foreign merchants. The state needs to intervene and eliminate this injustice, since unprofitable trade with other countries should not be allowed. For example, export of "raw material" is unprofitable for Russia. It is necessary to learn how to process raw materials and "ready-made things to sell abroad." Some of our goods are a national treasure: "... fur, elk skins, caviar, honey, flax, etc. ... they must be sold to foreigners in such a way that they themselves do not lose, but that some certain amount is established : how much and what kind of goods can be allowed to be taken out of the country each time ... ".

The state should also plan the distribution of crafts among cities, taking into account natural conditions: "... the proximity of forests, flax, wool, iron and all kinds of materials ...". It is necessary to show every possible concern for the use of natural resources. In agriculture, "to use the land in such a way as to ... take from it the fruits that it can only disfigure."

In order to ensure economic well-being, the commercial and industrial estates should be given moderate “slobodins”, and for this, cities should be given a certain independence in managing their affairs. It would be useful to establish city self-government bodies in them, consisting partly of officials appointed by Orders, and partly elected by the urban population. Craftsmen should be given the right to "unite in their squads", and peasants - to ensure the freedom of labor. .

Such "freedoms", according to Krizhanich, are also a guarantee against the transformation of the monarchy into tyranny and will keep the ruler "from the worst lusts."

But the main and basic guarantee against tyranny is the presence in the state of good laws and control over their implementation. If there are good laws in the state, and the estates and ranks know their rights and obligations, then "all the subjects are happy and foreigners want to come to this country", and where "the laws are cruel, there their subjects yearn for a change in government and often change if they can .. What are the laws - such is the order of things in the state. " Predatory laws always and everywhere give rise to disorder.

Justice for Krizhanich is identical to the law. Here he follows Aristotle and the Byzantine tradition, according to which "the law takes its name from justice." Krizhanich makes serious demands on the activities of the legislator. To draw up new laws, it is not enough to know all the laws and customs of your country, but it is also necessary to study the laws of "long-term states" (for example, the laws of Solon, Lycurgus - in antiquity and the modern laws of the French kings) and borrow their experience.

All officials in their activities must strictly follow the law, otherwise "whether the king is even an archangel, if his servants are not limited by good laws ... they cannot be prevented from committing widespread and innumerable robberies, insults and all kinds of looting." But he puts his monarch-philosopher above the law. "The king is not subject to any human laws and no one can condemn or punish him ... Two bridles bind the king and remind him of his duty: this is the truth or the commandment of God (here in the meaning: "divine" and not "positive" law. - N. 3.) and shame before people". The king himself is a "living law" and "he is not subject to other laws than the Divine." And finally, directly and unambiguously: "The king is above all human laws."

Russian laws Krizhanich considers extremely cruel. "Because of the laws of ludoders, all European peoples unanimously call the Orthodox kingdom tyrannical ... And besides, they say that tyranny here is the greatest." Therefore, he strongly hints at the need to mitigate the sanctions of contemporary Russian legislation.

Krizhanich touched upon issues related to the organization of justice. It is interesting to note that when presenting this topic, he did not avoid traditional models, resorting to contrasting the negative practice in the Russian state with a positive example allegedly existing "in the Turkish kingdom." So, as an instructive example, Krizhanich told how the Turkish Sultan Bayazet, who had many venal judges, “brought out” the “unrighteous” court, and he even intended to gather them all in one house and burn them, but he was advised against, drawing attention to their value. vocational training; then the sultan decided, in order to eradicate vicious judicial practice, to establish good salaries for all judges and thereby put an end to bribery. "And since then, the courts of the Turks judge better and more righteously than anywhere else in the world." These reasonings are almost identical to the thoughts of I.S. Peresvetov, in which the Turkish Sultan also "concocted all his judges with his royal salary so that they would not be tempted to judge wrongly."

Krizhanich also proposes some measures to streamline the judicial system. The highest court should be the Boyar Court, which should resolve serious criminal cases, and entrust the consideration of civil and petty criminal cases to any one judge "from among the boyars." Writ judges are appointed by the tsar or the government, and in the localities, judicial powers are handed over to governors and city judges chosen by the townspeople.

The proposals on the judiciary are not specific, but some ideas about the need to introduce a collegiate composition of the court, deciding all cases by a majority vote, are certainly progressive, as are the provisions on locally elected courts.

In determining the course of foreign policy, Krizhanich adhered to the orientation traditional for Russian political thought. He repeatedly insisted on the need to establish good neighborly relations with the surrounding countries. The ruler is obliged "to keep peace with peaceful people, not to offend anyone, to enter into alliances with peoples like himself." It is always more important for the state to preserve its own than to acquire someone else's. "Every king should take care of peace and tranquility for his people." Krizhanich does not exclude the possibility of waging just wars in order to protect the independence of the country, therefore he believes that the state should have a large and strong army with good and "diverse" weapons. Warriors serve for pay and are provided by the state with everything necessary, and people who are well-versed in military affairs and well-read in military history are appointed to military leaders. Moreover, "the path is not closed" to the highest military positions even for ordinary people who are able to show themselves worthy of such an honor. "The king will make him first a commander or governor, and then a boyar ...".

Krizhanich proposes to establish rules for the conduct of just wars. War should not be started without sufficient reasons and "without announcing its cause through a messenger." Under no circumstances should ambassadors be detained or killed. When forming an army, national rather than mercenary troops should be preferred.

The whole sum of Krizhanich's views paints us the image of a man of the new time. He lives and works at the turn of the century, having a good idea not only of the paths already traveled by Russia, but also of the future prospects for its economic and political development. In his "prospect-projects", as V. O. Klyuchevsky noted, "the reforms of Peter the Great are already visible."

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Yuri Krizhanich

Knowing perfectly, in addition to his native language, German, Latin and Italian, he settled in Rome and entered the Greek collegium of St. Anastasius, specially established by the Vatican to promote union among the followers of the Greek faith. In defended his doctoral dissertation in Rome. At this time, Krizhanich was ordained a canon of Zagreb. He studied the Greek language, acquired great knowledge of Byzantine literature and became an ardent supporter of the union. His goal was to collect all the most important writings of the so-called schismatics, that is, those who wrote against the so-called dogmas of papism. The fruit of this was several writings in Latin, and in particular the General Library of the Schismatics. This enterprise led him to familiarize himself with the Russian language, since he also needed to know the works written in Russian against the union. Leaving the collegium, Yuri was attached to Rome until, being a member of the Illyrian society of St. Jerome.

"Explanation inference about writing Slovenian"

It was the first grammatical work on the Russian language in Russia. The most interesting thing is that Krizhanich already then noticed the uselessness of writing "era" at the ends of words and in his work used this letter only as a separator. He proposed to cleanse the Russian language of unnecessary Greekisms and Latinisms, to eliminate the unnecessary letters "fita", "izhitsa", "psi", "ksi". For the first time, he proposed to replace the names of letters (az, beeches, lead, etc.) with monosyllabic ones for convenience. Those. Krizhanich was 260 years ahead of the reform of Russian spelling!

"Ruski Ezik" by Krizhanich

In 1661, the disgraced scientist arrived in Tobolsk. In fairness, it must be said that Krizhanich's financial support was sufficient for the further continuation of his work. It is in Tobolsk that he thinks most of all about the ways of uniting the Slavs. Krizhanich comes to the conclusion that the unity of the state, religious and cultural should be supplemented by linguistic unity. But by that time, the Old Church Slavonic language was already hopelessly outdated. What means of communication should be the main one in a pan-Slavic state? And then the Croatian monk understood something that many scientists and politicians cannot understand in our time. He realized that to choose one of the national languages as the language of interethnic communication means to give unreasonable privileges to one people and thereby infringe on others. Thus, Krizhanich came up with the idea of creating a common Slavic language. Enormous material for this was accumulated, it only remained to systematize it, which Krizhanich did in his work "Grammatical distortion about Russian language".

In his work, he showed a truly scientific approach. First of all, Krizhanich sought to create a purely Slavic language, without foreign borrowings. Choosing words and grammatical constructions, he gave them a form that would be close to all Slavic languages. The vocabulary was based on words common to all languages of this group. When it was not possible to find a common word, it was borrowed from any particular language. The criterion for selection was the degree of prevalence of the given word. 60% of the words were of common Slavic origin, 10% - Russian and Church Slavonic, 9% - Serbo-Croatian, 2.5% - Polish, then - Bulgarian, Ukrainian, etc. It turned out, as it were, an "average" Slavic language. This language was very flexible and made it easy to create new words from existing elements. So, for example, the words “foreignness” (excessive trust in foreigners), “gostogonstvo” (persecution of guests, i.e. merchants), “ludoder” (this is how Krizhanich described Ivan the Terrible) arose. The Latin alphabet was used, although Krizhanich allowed the use of the Cyrillic alphabet. A brilliant comparative analysis of the Slavic languages was given in the "Grammatical Edict". It was the first work in Europe on comparative linguistics.

Dreaming of establishing unity between all Slavic peoples, Krizhanich decided to create for them a single Slavic language. In Siberia, for this purpose, he wrote “A grammatical statement about the Russian ezik” (), warning readers that he does not mean any one Slavic language, but the language of all Slavs, therefore the language he proposes does not converge with any of the known ones.

In the preface to the grammar, Krizhanich outlined his theory of the correlation of Slavic languages. Senior - Russian, in which church books are known; all Slavic tribes descended from the Russian, settling in the Balkans and in the West. Since the Russians have retained political independence, their language is cleaner, and therefore Krizhanich uses the vocabulary of the Russian language in grammar. Part of the Croats retained the closest proximity to the ancient Russian language. The influence of the Greek language on Slavic in the process of translating cult books turned out to be harmful, according to Krizhanich, for the purity of the language. It is necessary to cleanse the Slavic language of all distortions, which, by the way, will contribute to the cessation of church strife.

By creating an artificial language dominated by elements of Russian, Serbian and Croatian, Krizhanich sought to avoid any foreign influence in his grammar. That is why, highly appreciating the grammar of Meletius Smotrytsky, he reproached him for being "our ezik in Greek and Latin patterns." For all its artificiality, Krizhanich's grammar represents the first experience of a comparative study of different Slavic languages: all the conclusions of grammar are based on such a comparison.

The artificial language, compiled by Krizhanich from a combination of multilingual lexical and grammatical elements, was used by him in his literary activity. Counting on the practical results of his projects, Krizhanich made it extremely difficult for his contemporaries to use his works, when instead of the Latin language available in Moscow, he switched to this Serbo-Croatian-Russian speech invented by him.

“The head of all peoples of the same tribe is the Russian people, and the Russian name is because all the Slavs left the Russian land, moved to the power of the Roman Empire, founded three states and were nicknamed: Bulgarians, Serbs and Croats; others from the same Russian land moved west and founded the Lyash and Moravian or Czech states. Those who fought with the Greeks or Romans were called Slovenians, and therefore this name became more famous among the Greeks than the Russian name, and from the Greeks our chroniclers imagined that our people began to come from the Slovenes, as if Russians, and Poles, and Czechs descended from them. This is not true, the Russian people have been living in their homeland for centuries, and the rest, who left Russia, appeared as guests in the countries where they still reside. Therefore, when we want to call ourselves by a common name, we should not call ourselves a new Slavic name, but an old and indigenous Russian name. Not the Russian branch is the fruit of the Slovenian one, but the Slovenian, Czech, Lyash branch - the offspring of the Russian language. Above all, the language in which we write books cannot truly be called Slovene, but must be called Russian or the ancient literary language. This bookish language is more similar to the current common Russian language than to any other Slavic language. There is nothing to borrow from the Bulgarians, because there the language is so lost that hardly traces of it remain; among the Poles, half of the words are borrowed from foreign languages; the Czech language is cleaner than the Lyash language, but also quite a bit corrupted; Serbs and Croats are able to speak their language only about household chores, and someone wrote that they speak all languages and do not speak at all. One speech they have is Russian, another Hungarian, a third German, a fourth Turkish, a fifth Greek or Wallachian, or Albanian, only between the mountains, where there is no passage for merchants and foreign people, the purity of the primitive language has survived, as I remember from my childhood.

Researcher O. M. Bodyansky calls Krizhanich the father of comparative Slavic philology, who “strictly and systematically carried out his main idea, made many witty, deeply true and amazing remarks about the Slavic language and various dialects; he was the first to notice such rules and features that only in modern times have been promulgated by the best European and Slavic philologists, relying on all the benefits and riches of scientific means.

In the words of Krizhanich himself:

“Iazika sowerszenost iest samo potrebno orudie k mudrosti, i iedwa ne stanowito iee zname. Czim kiu narod imaet izradney iazik, tim prigodnee i witwornee razprawlyaet remestwa i wsakije umitelyi i promisli. Obilie besedi i legota izgowora mnogo pomagaet na mudrich sowetow izobretenie i na wsakich mirnich i ratnich del leznee obwerszenie.”

Translation into Russian:

“The perfection of language is the most necessary instrument of wisdom and perhaps its main sign. The better the language of any people, the more successful and successful it is in crafts and various arts and crafts. The abundance of words and ease of pronunciation greatly help the creation of wise plans and the more successful implementation of various peaceful and military affairs.

Treatise "Politics"

In 1663, Krizhanich began to write in the common Slavic language the main work of his life - the treatise "Conversations about Possession" or "Politics". In his treatise, the author carefully analyzes the economic and political situation in Russia, characterizes the role of trade, crafts and agriculture, emphasizes the role of the army in maintaining state independence. Krizhanich points to the need for cultural development, opposes admiration for foreigners.

Krizhanich's book is addressed to all Slavs, but above all to the Russian monarch. It is in the monarchy that he sees the most suitable form of government, ensuring the unity of the people and state stability. He considers the king to be the vicegerent of God on Earth, his power is sacred. Addressing the king, Krizhanich speaks not only about the rights, but also about the duties of the ruler to the people. The king must be modest, wise, calm, righteous, sacredly observe the divine laws. Krizhanich sharply condemns the cruelty of Ivan the Terrible.

In the field of economics, Krizhanich is guided by the most advanced views for that time. He emphasizes that ruinous taxes on peasants harm the economy, and advises encouraging talented artisans. Krizhanich's idea about the danger posed by bureaucracy sounds unusually relevant today. As for the issues of religion, here Krizhanich finally rejects the Unia and calls for the strengthening of Orthodoxy. The ultimate goal of "Politics" is to show how the state should be ruled so that all people in it are happy, so that the Russian people become "the most famous among the peoples" and lead all the Slavic peoples.

Literature

Sobr. op. M, 1891 - 1893. Issue. 1-3; Politics. M., 1965.
Pushkarev L. N. Yuri Krizhanich. Essay on life and creativity. Moscow: "Nauka", 1984.
History of Russian Literature: In 10 volumes / USSR Academy of Sciences. - M.; L.: Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. T. II. Part 2. Literature of the 1590s - 1690s. - 1948. - p. 129-181.

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Treatise "Politics" in the Yakov Krotov Library

"Serbenin Yuri Ivanovich", as the Russian people called him, or Gury Krizhanich (1617-1683) - a Slavic encyclopedic scientist, political thinker and writer - was a Croat. He studied in Vienna at a Catholic seminary, from 1646 to 1650 he lived in Moscow, left for his homeland, in 1659 he again arrived in Moscow, “to live under the wing of the mercy of the Russian Tsar”, In 1661 he was exiled to Tobolsk (according to an unknown reason), and in 1676 he left Russia.
A supporter of the idea of "Slavic unity", in the implementation of which he assigned the Russian state the main role, he was the first ideologist of the Slavs, who considered Russia and the Russians the main support of the Slavs, which was under national oppression. With the development of Russia, he linked the hopes of all the Slavs, for whom Russia should become the leading country, protector and stronghold.
Therefore, his treatise, written in Siberian exile, was devoted to how to strengthen Russia, what she should do to catch up with the European peoples. Having lived in Russia for 20 years, he identified himself with the Russian people, and in "Politics" he set himself the goal of understanding "in what our life can be considered poorer, and in what more glorious than the lives of neighboring peoples", ... "to know the strength and weakness ours: in what we are stronger and in what we are weaker than this or that people. Russia was a high ideal for Krizhanich, his thoughts are the thoughts of a convinced Russian patriot.
“When Monomakh sent signs of royal dignity to our Vladimir and made him king, Vladimir would have done a great job if he had sent these signs back to Monomakh and answered: “You make me the Russian king, and I make you the Greek king.”
Krizhanich was a supporter of an enlightened monarchy. His political ideal was not England and Holland, where revolutions had already taken place, but strong royal France, where the king rules, relying on an enlightened aristocracy and reasonable laws, where trade, crafts and sciences are well developed. He was convinced that the tsar-philosopher, relying on the advice of enlightened scientists, could create a rich and strong Slavic state.
At the same time, he tries to be objective. On the one hand, he believes that Russian serfs live much richer and freer than in some neighboring countries, where boyar people and warriors offend farmers with impunity. He compares the life of Russia with the life of other countries. In his opinion, Western peoples are much richer than us. “The Germans swim and trade all over the world, and their lands are rich in mines, fields, etc., while in Russia it’s not the same.” "In every art they surpass us without comparison." Russians cannot equal foreigners and "in lengthy rantings and treatises ... as soon as we admit them to such treatises, they always lead us and overcome us."
In his opinion, the reason for such backwardness and the small number of people in Russia is the result of tyranny. He criticizes the unlimited autocracy, the "cool dominion" introduced in Russia by the "ludoders" Ivan the Terrible and Boris Godunov, saying that the suppression of the Rurik dynasty after the Terrible is God's punishment for the "ludoderstvo" of Ivan Vasilyevich. In his opinion, in Russia officials “rob unfortunate subjects and do not miss a single way to rob them”, so that people are “everywhere and everywhere connected and cannot do anything of their own free will and cannot freely use what is obtained by their labor and after". All this gives the Russian kingdom "a bad reputation for cruelty or tyranny and scares people away with our rule."
To this negative image in the eyes of Europe, much is added by slander on the part of Russia's enemies. “I have read many books that contain lies about our Slavic people ... And of those writers that I have read, most of them write about us not history, but, as it were, satire or libel. Nothing good, but only bad things are said about us. They portray and describe us with the greatest hatred... nay, they portray us even worse than the legendary Cyclopes, Centaurs and Lastrigons were. Such slander, such shameful disgrace and such general hatred and reproach seem to me an intolerable evil.
Krizhanich characterizes the books of Olearius, Petreus and other German Protestants as "shameful, liar stories", "slanderous, pinching, joking, abusive books." “And all of Europe believes them,” he is indignant, “and our people are everywhere subjected to the worst contempt.” Although he believed that some of the criticism was true. For example, he wrote that nowhere in the world is there such "vile, vile and terrible drunkenness as here in Russia."
He proposed a bold project to transform the Russian economy. First, in his opinion, everything should be done to develop crafts in Russia. “Thanks to the craft, the country grows richer and the cities are filled. If all the goods that we buy from the Germans and that could be made in Russia were made at home, many thousands more people would live in this country than they live today, and the treasury would have a big profit, and the cities would become more crowded, and the whole kingdom would be stronger." He advocates the granting of privileges to the artisan class and the adoption of laws that would encourage the development of the craft. He considers it necessary to seize the poor and any idle people and force them to forcibly engage in craft, for "idleness and idleness are the enemies of craft."
Krizhanich changed his mind a lot about the place of foreigners in Russia. His program is a coherent proof of the need to reduce foreign influence - both Greek-Byzantine and German, he preached "gostogonism and locking the borders." “Nothing can be more disastrous for a certain people and state than if people neglect or completely abandon good morals, laws, institutions, the language of their homeland and perceive alien customs, alien speech, trying to transform themselves into an alien people.”
The Greeks are pulling Russia to the old, the Germans to the new, but both of these peoples "as if they had made an oath agreement for our death." It is better to leave your country empty than to populate it with foreigners. It is impossible to allow foreigners to hold positions in the country, they cannot be given Russian citizenship, foreign troops can be brought into the country only if a rebellion threatens the authority of the lawful sovereign, and in no case should a foreigner be made heir to the Russian throne. Only those who cannot be dispensed with should be allowed to enter the country: healers, interpreters, lycopists, musicians and all kinds of artisans. But as soon as the "ours" master this craft, you must immediately get rid of the teachers, sending them back. You should not receive any ambassadors without serious reasons, and as soon as possible you need to send them to where they came from, and you should not send your own anywhere without a good need. Krizhanich believed that the dominance of foreign merchants was established in Russia, who ruined the Russian people, so trade should become a state affair, which should be headed by the tsar himself (“kral”). Foreign merchants should be banned from entering Russia, deprived of their right to take over trade with other countries, and not allowed to engage in industry in Russia. "Admit a foreigner to you, and he will ruin thee." He proposes to create "marketplaces" on the main routes to India, Persia, Ukraine, Turkey, so that "goods from peoples to peoples pass through our hands, and in this way ... the treasury of the gospodar and all the people would be enriched." Then foreign merchants "will not have anything to do here."
As a convinced Catholic, Krizhanich has a very negative attitude towards the Germans - Protestant reformers. They "first infected the whole of Europe with their morals, and after a significant part of it with heresies ... After the destruction of discipline, unbridled freedom and luxury in morals with absolute necessity follows heresy." According to him, sooner or later, Catholicism and Orthodoxy must unite.
At the same time, he did not classify the Slavs as foreigners, considering the Slavs in Russia equal in rights with the Russians, and included not only Great Russians, but also Belarusians with Ukrainians in the Russian nationality. He was an ardent supporter of Slavic unity, and believed that the unification of all Slavs under the flag of Russia was the only motive for conquest. He did not recognize other motives for waging war.
"Not everyone should fight if they don't get hurt." It is easier to expand the frontiers than to keep them, and although the conquests “get into people’s eyes more” and make a lot of noise, the fate of the great powers of Macedonian, Tamerlane, Batu, Attila was short. The states created by Caesar, Constantine, Charles also perished. But Athens of the times of Solon, Sparta of the times of Lycurgus, Rome of the first years - were strong and durable states.
The task of the ruler is not to take care of the expansion, but of strengthening the state. Ivan the Terrible, with the conquest of Kazan, Astrakhan and Siberia, greatly expanded the Russian state, but did not hold it together, so it almost fell apart in turmoil.
Krizhanich advocated the creation of a strong Slavic army, demanding that there be no place for foreigners in its command structure, believing that a strong army is the only defense of the state from external enemies.
In his opinion, the war with Poland and Ukraine, which Alexei Mikhailovich waged when he was in Russia, is a historical misunderstanding, you must immediately put up with the Poles and fight together with them against the Swedes and Germans. The South Slavs are oppressed by the Turks and the only power capable of helping them is Russia. It is imperative to conquer the Crimea and destroy the Crimean Khanate, and the Russian capital must be moved to Perekop.
The manuscript of "Yuri Serbenin" had a strong influence on the ruling circles: Princess Sophia had lists of it, among the books of Prince V. Golitsyn, Tsars Alexei and Fyodor had it, and they were even going to print it under Tsar Fyodor. Klyuchevsky believed that "Political Dumas" were a guide for Peter's reforms.

Chapter "ON POLITICAL WISDOM"
1. Of all worldly sciences, the noblest science and mistress of all is politics or royal wisdom. And of all [sciences] it is most befitting to kings and their advisors. For just as in the human body strength is contained in the hands, speed in the feet, [and] intelligence in the head, so in the spiritual body of the whole people, different properties are divided between different parts. Strength is with warriors, wealth is with merchants, and statesmanship resides most of all with the king and his advisers.
2. The beginning and foundation of political wisdom are the following two proverbs or spiritual commandments: "Know thyself" and "Do not trust strangers." For [this] was considered the most important of the teachings of the seven wise men, and above the doors of the temple of Apollo (whom the pagans considered the god of wisdom) this teaching was written: "Know thyself." Solomon says the same: “The wisdom of a reasonable man is the understanding of his way” (Proverbs, ch. 14). For just as a doctor who does not understand illness cannot heal a person, so a politician who does not know himself and his strengths and weaknesses cannot forever judge himself, conduct his affairs rightly and take care of his needs. But sometimes what he considers to be medicine will turn out to be poison, and what he actually considers to be medicine, he will be afraid of as poison.
3. The first hindrance to the common good of the people is ignorance of oneself: when people love themselves and their actions and customs too much and consider themselves strong, rich [and] wise, without being such. Plato writes about this in these words: “excessive love for oneself is the cause of all human troubles. For since people love themselves more than the truth, they can never understand what is bad and what is good.”
And John the Apostle explains even better: “You say, I am rich and my wealth is plentiful, and I do not need anything, but you do not know that you are poor, and miserable, and wretched, and blind, and naked” (Apocalypse, ch. 3).
Saint Bernard: "Many know many things, but they do not know themselves."
St. Augustine reinforces all this with these words: “What does it mean to know the truth? First, to know yourself in order to become what [you] should be. Then to know and love your Creator, for in this is all the good of man. (Manual book, 26).
The knowledge of the truth and political wisdom from beginning to end consists in knowing ourselves, that is, the nature, and character, and the state of our people and country.
4. How a politician knows himself.
So, the royal adviser must first of all know the natural qualities of his people, that is, [their] natural disposition, talents and shortcomings, virtues and vices, and everything that our people are naturally capable or incapable of. He must evaluate, and compare, and compare the appearance, warehouse, clothes, customs and wealth of other peoples and our people.
Secondly, to know the natural conditions of our country or the wealth and poverty of our fields: what the earth is rich in, what [it] is poor and what it lacks, what it could and what it cannot deform.
Thirdly, to know our life: how it is poor and how glorious, and by comparing it with the life of other nations and establishing in what our life can be considered poorer, and in what more glorious than the life of neighboring peoples.
Fourthly, to know our strength and weakness: in what we are stronger and in what we are weaker than this or that people.
Fifthly, to know the domestic government or domestic laws and customs and the ancient and current state of the people: what is established in the laws, customs and ancient sovereign decrees is good and what is bad.
Sixthly, to know the strength and weakness of the whole kingdom: what is safe and what is dangerous for the kingdom, who are our neighbors, friends [and] enemies, what are their strengths, desires and thoughts, what benefit and what harm they usually do or can do to us. be henceforth.
Seventhly, to know how to use one's wealth or to know how to use one's good, which is naturally given by God to our people and land, and to be able to preserve it. That is, it is necessary to direct the minds and hands of subjects to everything that they are suitable and capable of and that can be useful for the people's good. And to cultivate the earth so that we take from it all the fruits that it can only bear.
Eighth, to hide from other nations the secrets of our people and our kingdom. To hide the ineptness and all sorts of common vices of our tribe. Respect the dignity and glory of the people.
Ninth, be able to distinguish between different tips. For some advice, useful to any other people, could be useful to us. And some advice is useful for other peoples, but for us it would be harmful. Some [advice] is harmful to others, but could be useful for us. All this can be understood by considering the causes.
5. If our ancient Slavic rulers knew the strength of their people and [understood] against which peoples it would be fair and useful to direct it, [they] could do miracles. For our people are one of the most ingenuous, and therefore [it] is less arrogant, less opposed to the chiefs, and [it] is easier to persuade to take part in the pernicious armies than other European peoples.
6. Further, if we understood and appreciated our ignorance and stupidity of our mind, we, of course, would not, having born, enter into so many affairs, negotiations, marriages, bargains and all sorts of conversations with other, more cunning peoples, as we did . And we would never have been so many times deceived and ridiculed by all nations, like fools, and would have been free from many troubles that we now have to endure.
Another rule. A reasonable person should judge things in two ways. First, what are the essence of things, what they usually are and what they can be. Second, what should they be?
On the one hand, we must be simple in everything, like doves, that is, believe in everything, hope for everything, tolerate everything, endure everything, consider all people as the most faithful brothers, etc. On the other hand, we must be wise, like snakes , do not believe in any stranger, do not rely on them, do not allow any of them to come to you and do not consider that any of them can become our faithful brother or be useful to us.
7. About the first rule of politics - "know thyself" - we have here told as far as possible. The second [rule] is "Don't trust strangers"; and something has already been said about this, and will be explained in more detail elsewhere. And now we should talk about the appearance, language, clothing and other signs from which the innate qualities and abilities of peoples are known.

Fragments of the treatise "Politics" are published by: Krizhanich Yu. Politics. Edited by M.N. Tikhomirov, translated by A.L. Goldberg. M., 1965.
Read more http://krotov.info/acts/17/krizhanich/krizh_00.html

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Yuri Krizhanich
Politics
1663–1666

About the good

Such works are called just when we derive all the benefit that can be obtained from our land and from neighboring peoples, by reasonable, God-fearing or merciful and good means, and not by stupid, cruel or vile ways.