Vom Tributland zum „Reichsgebiet“: Der heilige Trifon Pečengskij und die Moskauer Expansion an die arktische Küste

Today’s Russia focuses much of its political and military efforts on the Arctic area. Natural resources and new communication routes also attract international enterprises and other powers to the North. The Norwegians were already active on the Arctic shores during the Viking Age, but the Muscovites did not become interested in the area until after the early 16th century. Soon after, Western Europeans, such as Dutch and English sailors interested in connections to India and Central Asia via Russia’s rivers, arrived on the Arctic shores, too. This activity enticed new people to colonize the region and run various kinds of business there, which in turn sparked the interest of the rising premodern state powers to collect taxes and control the area. The Muscovite Tsar succeeded in establishing his power in the main area of the Arctic coast in the 17th century, although the state border between Russia and Norway was not fixed until 1826. The Muscovite conquest took place through casual arrangements and private actions. Amongst other things, the religious mission and its legitimation were important. Saint Trifon Pechengskiy was the key figure of the Muscovite operations not only during his lifetime in the 16th century, but also thereafter in the rhetorics of fatherlandish historiography.