The problem of hierarchical leadership of the Russian Church in the context of inter-princely relations after the Mongol conquest of Rus’

The article discusses the issue of higher hierarchical government in the Russian Church in the conditions developed after the conquest of Rus’ by the Mongols in the middle of the 13th century. Considered are the attempts of the most influential Russian princes to nominate their candidate as the first hierarch of the Russian Church (metropolitan or locum tenens of the metropolitan see) to be able to rely on his support in political struggle with their rivals. A number of new assumptions are put forward regarding the peculiarities of State - Church relations in Rus’ in the middle of the 13th century. The circumstances that influenced the transformation of the political line and religious policy of Metropolitan Kirill II are also clarified.