The Early Uniate Concept of the History of the Russian Church

The Brest Church Union, concluded in 1596 by the Metropolis of Kyiv with Rome, caused a split, or even a schism, in Western Russian society. A significant part of the clergy and Orthodox laypeople from various social strata united against it, including many of those who had initiated the union. The weakness of the union stemmed from the significant differences between its conditions and those formulated by the Orthodox side during its preparation, as well as the absence of the desired outcome — primarily the equalization of the rights of the Eastern Christian population of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth with Catholics. In these conditions, the Uniates faced the task of justifying their decision with historical evidence, which should have   proved the inevitability of their choice. They needed to demonstrate that the union with Rome had been established in Rus' since its Christianization, and the decisions of the Church Council of Brest were merely a return to the faith of their ancestors. In practice, they were tasked with providing a new interpretation of Russian history. This new concept was most comprehensively presented in the writing “A Defense of Church Unity” by Archimandrite of the Uniate monastery in Vilnius, Lev Krevza, in 1617, which was also authored by Archbishop of Polotsk, Josaphat Kuntsevych. They portrayed the entirety of history as evidence of Rus' allegiance to Rome, which was only interrupted a few times. As a result of this narrative, the Orthodox Church appears as a relatively recent phenomenon that disrupts the traditional course of Russian history. The analysis of Krevza's and Kuntsevych's depiction of the Russian past reveals that they were proponents of a largely secularized historical perspective heavily influenced by Western Baroque culture. This is clearly evident when comparing their texts with Orthodox responses, particularly in their general approach to historical processes and the historical figures involved, as well as the use of identity concepts. All of this suggests that the post-Brest Uniatism emerged as a new phenomenon, shaped by largely Western early modernist forms of culture that were still foreign to the local Russian tradition at that time.

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