The Validity of Russian Exceptionalism: Assessing Theories of Power and Lordship in the High Middle Ages

Russian historians have overwhelmingly adhered to one of two beliefs medieval Rus’ was either of a “feudal,” and hence European, character, or it was not feudal and thus unique. This schema is, however, fundamentally flawed because it does not consider the medieval world on its own terms. This article contemplates an alternative approach: the conception of power as lordship advanced by Thomas N. Bisson in The Crisis of the Twelfth Century (Princeton 2009). His notion that lordship was personal, affective, and not at all resembling of modern ideas of “government,” applies rather well to the rule exercised by Rurikid princes. Bisson’s more complex notion of a “crisis” that saw this lordship gradually become more accountable and government-like is more difficult to pin-point in Russia. Nevertheless, medieval Novgorod seems to have undergone a very Bisson-esque kind of crisis, ultimately suggesting that Bisson’s conception is a useful one to apply to medieval Russia.