“Filaret Nikitich as a Representative of the Early Absolutism” by P. Smirnov (Problems of the Biography Constructing)

Abstract. The unpublished article of the Soviet historian P. Smirnov devoted to the biography of patriarch Filaret, which is considered in the context of Russian absolutism development in the XVII century, has become our focus. It became a spotlight since it contains some original interpretations which have sense only within the text. It refers to the relationship between Boris Godunov and Romanov dynasty, so Filaret interpretations of European political ideas in the Polish captivity and the characteristic of tsar and patriarch feast in the coherency of Filaret and Mikhail Fedorovich. The intention is to analyze the scientist`s creative experience and to find out how the idea of absolutism influenced constructing of biographic facts. The text of the article is interesting to us not from the point of view of “validity” or “falsehood”, but in the motivation context of Smirnov’s opinion-making. The analysis of the narrative takes into consideration principles of historical research as text-making, author`s style and the context of historical science in a certain period of time.

Keywords: Filaret, P. Smirnov, biography, text, narrative substance, constructing, absolutism.