The phenomenon of czar game in the political culture of Early Modern Russia: psychosocial roots

The czar game, a term, introduced by I.I. Polosin, denotes situations, characterized by temporary assignment of the czar title to an "ordinary" person. Manifestations of the czar game recorded in the second half of 16 - first quarter of 17 century. In the 17 century peasants and the aristocracy are known to have played it, but the greatest interest are those cases, when Ivan the Terrible and Peter I, Russian monarchs, became actors playing this game. Biographies of these two monarchs are different in frequency of czar game manifestations. In the life of Ivan IV there were only two single incidents (the murder of boyar Ivan Petrovich Fedorov (1567), disguised as czar before it, and 1575 enthroning of Kasimovsky Tsarevich Simeon Bekbulatovich). Peter had passion for the game throughout his life, playing the role of an ordinary servant, subordinated to Prince-Caesar F.Yu. Romodanovsky (and after his death to his son). The analysis of czar game manifestations suggests compensatory function for the psyche of the playing monarchs. Both Ivan IV and Peter I, being neurotic because of the tragic circumstances of childhood and socio-cultural environment of the transition time, with the help of inverted relations tried to reduce, transfer to a non-serious plan the source of their basal anxiety, which was the cargo of their traditions violated. However, the differences in the style of this game of the two monarchs are very indicative. If for Ivan it is separate bursts of unreflected fear, which did not play a special role in correcting his psyche; Peter, who made the czar game a permanent part of his life, could cope with his fears and complexes. Supplementing the czar game with a sort of a service game, Peter got possibility to overcome the basic mistrust to himself and the outside world with real achievements. At the same time Peter reduced the image of the old moskovit embodied by F.Yu. Romodanovsky to parody. He overcame and altered this image in his reform efforts. Self-humiliation, accompanying the czar game, also helped to self-assert on an unconscious level, because it demonstrated independence of the real status of the autocrat from its exterior design - only a confident, strong ruler could afford to arbitrarily change the mask and tolerate his pseudodouble next to him. In addition, the deputy of the monarch could serve as a lightning-rod of fate, taking on the risk of retaliation for the negative features of his reign (in case with Simeon Bekbulatovich it was introduction of a new stage of oprichnina, whereas in the situation with Romodanovsky it was punitive functions of government). Due to the mentioned psychological differences Peter left a powerful (albeit mostly politically and militarily strong) empire after him, while the results of the reign of Ivan IV, who could not cope with his psychological problems, were many years of Smuta.

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