Tsar’s charity to Constantinople in the first half of the XVII century

The Russian government positioned itself as the successor of the Byzantine Empire and supported the Orthodox world in every possible way in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, as the extant archival documents attest. Large sums, mostly in the form of “furs”, were given to the patriarchs, hierarchs, and monasteries of the Orthodox world through their representatives coming to Moscow. In the first half of the XVII century, regular aid was sent with the embassies to Constantinople: Russian-Turkish diplomatic relations during this period were not interrupted, and ambassadors to the Sultan also had an opportunity to visit the residences of the patriarchs of Constantinople and Jerusalem, as well as the churches and monasteries of Constantinople. The present work is the first to introduce into science the information contained in the orders and revenue and expenditure books of Russian embassies, as well as in the Greek receipts and letters of recommendation with translations, discovered in the Russian State Archive of Ancient Acts, which allows us to get a more complete picture of the relations between Russia and the Christian East during this period.