Military, Religion, and Power: Power Struggles in Russia in the Context of the Moscow Crisis of 1682

Abstract

This study examines the Moscow Crisis of 1682 as a multi-layered struggle for power shaped by the interaction of military forces, religious movements, and competing court factions. It analyzes the succession crisis that followed the death of Tsar Feodor III, the rivalry between the Miloslavsky and Naryshkin families, and the politicization of the streltsy in this process. The study also explores the religious mobilization of the Old Believers (Raskolniki) and the strategies through which Sofia Alekseyevna utilized these forces to consolidate power. It argues that the events of 1682 should be understood not merely as a palace coup, but as a broader crisis that exposed structural weaknesses within the Russian state. Finally, it suggests that this crisis laid the groundwork for the centralizing reforms of Peter I and that these reforms also played a decisive role in shaping Russia’s long-term geopolitical orientation toward the Black Sea and the Mediterranean.