This article examines some of the symbolic political and cultural implications of “Fall of the Empire: Byzantium’s Lesson” ( Gibel’ Imperii, Vi z antiiskii Urok ), a film that aired on the Russian Federation government-controlled television station Rossiia (RTR) on January 31, 2008.
The film was produced and directed for RTR by Father Tikhon Shevkunov, head of the Sretenskii monastery in Moscow, one of the wealthiest and most influential religious communities in present day Russia. Father Tikhon is also the spiritual advisor ( dukhovnik ) of the wife of Vladimir Putin, Liudmilla. (Persistent rumors have also given him the reputation of being Vladimir Putin’s dukhovnik as well). A year and a half in the making, “Fall of the Empire” is ostensibly a film about the collapse of Byzantium. However, it is clearly meant to be a parable in which the audience is treated to Shevkunov’s (and, by implication, Putin’s) vision of Russia’s contemporary geopolitical position. In the film, the collapse of the Eastern Roman Empire is attributed to corrupt domestic oligarchs and the pernicious actions of the Medieval and Renaissance West; the narrator, Father Tikhon, proposes that the tragedy could have been avoided had Byzantium pursued autarchic, nationalist development.
The story of Byzantium is explicitly presented as a warning for Russia’s contemporary rulers: they are exhorted to rein in the oligarchs, fortify the ramparts against the West, or face destruction.
