What is the meaning of the concept “Moscow is the Third Rome, and a fourth there shall not be”? Are Russians somehow special or better than others? #

The medieval Russian concept was slightly different and more comprehensive in its original form. Its essence can be summarized as follows: the First Rome, the Orthodox kingdom, fell into heresy; the Second Rome (Constantinople) fell to the Turks; now the last Orthodox kingdom is Moscow, the “Third Rome.” If Moscow were to fall, there would never be a “Fourth Rome.” Thus, the Russian kingdom bears the greatest responsibility for preserving the true faith in a fallen world. If it were to fall into heresy or be conquered by nonbelievers, it would result in a universal spiritual catastrophe, a prelude to the coming of the Antichrist.

This concept does not imply that Russians are “better than everyone else.” There is no trace of “Russian chauvinism” in it. Instead, it places a heavy burden of responsibility on Russian Orthodox Christians to preserve the purity of faith on earth, akin to what is expressed in the Apocalypse of St. John the Theologian:

“Thou hast a little strength, and hast kept My word, and hast not denied My name… Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown.”
(Revelation 3:7–11)

Spiritually, this is precisely how our Orthodox ancestors understood the phrase “Moscow is the Third Rome, and a fourth there shall not be” before the Nikonian Schism: “Hold fast till I come” (Revelation 2:25). However, by the mid-17th century, the ruling circles in Russia replaced this spiritual understanding with a purely earthly interpretation. They pursued the idea of creating a vast Eastern empire under the Russian Tsar, uniting Greeks, Serbs, Bulgarians (to be liberated from the Ottoman Empire), and other Orthodox peoples under their rule. The ambition of placing a “cross over Hagia Sophia in Constantinople” captivated the minds of secular rulers for centuries. In striving for this mirage, they were willing to sacrifice the purity of Orthodox faith—destroying the spiritual “Third Rome” to construct its earthly counterfeit. The purity of Orthodoxy had already been abandoned by those nations they sought to annex. The plan involved reforming the Russian Church to match the practices of other nations, facilitating their painless integration into the new empire and Church.

This hidden yet most significant cause of the 17th-century Church reform ultimately led to a complete failure for the reformers. They not only failed to liberate the aforementioned peoples from the Turks or unite them with Russia, but they also failed to achieve uniformity in worship. Instead, faithful Russian Christians, adherents to the ancient Church Tradition, were executed, tortured, persecuted, exiled, and imprisoned.

Nevertheless, the Orthodox Old Believer Church, despite all persecutions and hardships, withstood this trial. To this day, it remains the spiritual continuation of the “Third Rome,” which was dismantled in the mid-17th century—not as an earthly human kingdom, but as a kind of embassy of the Kingdom of God on earth. The doors of this spiritual embassy remain open to all who seek Truth and Salvation, regardless of their racial or ethnic origin.

— Archpriest Vadim Korovin