Title: Russian monastic culture
Description: Many  historians  believe medieval  Russian monks were  predominantly  peasants meekly  obeying upper class abbots, while others assert monastery brotherhoods were elitist, composed primarily of former  landlords. Nearly all accept  the proposition  that monastic political culture was  fundamentally absolutist, and some attribute Russian secular political absolutism to monastic influence. This book examines these questions in depth, applying statistical analyses for the first time to questions of social history which have until now been addressed only with anecdotal evidence. By means of a detailed examination of  the entire monastic brotherhood of  the  leading monastery of  the sixteenth 
century, the author presents evidence that contradicts both the predominantly-peasant and the predominantly-landowner theses.  In  their place, this book presents a graphic demonstration of  the complex relationship between social status outside and inside the monastery. In addition, an examination of the monastic Rule of Iosif of Volokolamsk 
and its impact on the monastery’s history provides a new view of “Josephism.”  Iosif did not found a new “movement” or “party,” and his  influence on monastic culture was  to push  it  in a direction directly opposed  to what  is usually attributed  to him – away  from absolutism and  toward participatory and consensus-based politics. 

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Subjects: History, Iosifo-Volokolamskiĭ monastyrʹ, Monasticism and religious orders
Places: Russia (Federation)