Principality of Moscow in the context of "History of the Russian Orthodox Church"

The Principality of Tver (Russian: Тверское княжество, romanized: Tverskoye knyazhestvo) was a Russian principality which existed between the 13th and the 15th centuries with its capital in Tver. The principality was located approximately in the area currently occupied by Tver Oblast and the eastern part of Smolensk Oblast.

It was one of the states established after the fall of Kievan Rus'. Originally part of the Pereyaslavl-Zalessky principality, Tver became an independent principality when Yaroslav Yaroslavich was given the western slice of his father's patrimony. During the 14th century, Tver rivaled the Principality of Moscow with the aim to become the center of the unified Russian state. Eventually it lost, decayed, and in 1485, it was annexed by Moscow.

The Principality of Smolensk (eventually Grand Principality of Smolensk) was a Ruthenian lordship from the 11th to the 16th century. Until 1127, when it passed to Rostislav Mstislavich, the principality was part of the land of Kiev. The principality gradually came under Lithuanian influence and was incorporated into the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in 1404. The principality was reorganized into the Smolensk Voivodeship in 1508. The Principality of Moscow controlled the city from 1514 to 1611, then it was recaptured by the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The Tsardom of Russia recaptured the city in 1654.

Russian imperialism refers to the political, economic, cultural, and military power or control exerted by Russia and its predecessor states, over other countries and territories. It includes the conquests of the Tsardom of Russia, the Russian Empire, the imperialism of the Soviet Union, and the neo-imperialism of the Russian Federation. Some postcolonial scholars have noted the lack of attention given to Russian and Soviet imperialism in the discipline.

After the Fall of Constantinople (1453), Moscow named itself the third Rome, following the Roman and Byzantine Empires. Beginning in the 1550s, Russia conquered, on average, territory the size of the Netherlands every year for 150 years. This included Siberia, Central Asia, the Caucasus and parts of Eastern Europe. Russia engaged in settler colonialism in these lands, and also founded colonies in North America, notably in present-day Alaska. At its height in the late 19th century, the Russian Empire covered about one-sixth of the world's landmass, making it the third-largest empire in history.

The gathering of the Russian lands or Rus' lands (Russian: собирание русских земель) was the process in which new states – usually the Principality of Moscow and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania – acquired former territories of Kievan Rus' from the 14th century onwards, claiming to be its legitimate successor. In Russian historiography, this phenomenon represented the consolidation of a national state centered on Moscow. The sobriquet gatherer of the Russian lands or Rus' Land (Russian: собиратель русской земли, romanized: sobiratel' russkoi zemli) is also given to the grand princes of Moscow by Russian historians, especially to Ivan III. The term is also used to describe the expansion of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania into Rus' principalities; the Lithuanian grand dukes claimed authority over all territories inhabited by Rus' people (East Slavs). Some historians argue that Lithuania began "gathering Rus' lands" before Muscovy did. The rulers of Moscow adopted the title Sovereign of all Russia (later changed to Tsar of all Russia and finally Emperor and Autocrat of all Russia) while the Lithuanian Grand Dukes adopted the title King of the Lithuanians and [many] Ruthenians and later under the Polish–Lithuanian union as King of Poland, Grand Prince of Lithuania, Rus, Prussia, Samogitia, Mazovia and other.

Novgorodian Land (Russian: Новгородская земля, Polish: Ruś Nowogrodzka, Górna Ruś, Ziemia Nowogrodzka) was one of the largest historical territorial–state formations in Russia, covering its northwest and north. Novgorod Land, centered in Veliky Novgorod, was in the cradle of Kievan Rus' under the rule of the Rurikid dynasty and one of the most important princely thrones of the era. During the collapse of Kievan Rus' and in subsequent centuries, Novgorod Land developed as the Novgorod Republic: an autonomous state with republican forms of government under the suzerainty of the great princes of Vladimir-Suzdal (later – Moscow/Muscovy). During the period of greatest development, it reached north to the White Sea, and in the east it has been claimed that it did spread beyond the Ural Mountains. It had extensive trade relations within the framework of the Hanseatic League and with the rest of Rus'. The Principality of Moscow conquered the Novgorod Republic in 1478, and annexed it in 1578, although Novgorod Land continued to exist as an administrative unit until 1708.

The Metropolis of Kiev and all Rus' (Ukrainian: Митрополит Київський та всієї Русі, romanized: Mytropolyt Kyivskyi ta vsiiei Rusi) was a metropolis of the Eastern Orthodox Church that was erected on the territory of Kievan Rus'. It existed between 988 AD and 1590s AD. The long lasting "tug of war" between bishops from the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and bishops of the Principality of Moscow resulted in reorganization of the metropolis as the bishops from Moscow refused to recognize decisions of the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople. Canonically, it was under the jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. The metropolitan seat (cathedra) was located in the city of Kiev until it was moved to Vladimir-na-Klyazme in 1299 and then Moscow in 1325.

The metropolis was later revived in the territory of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth from 1620 AD to 1686 AD as an exarchate of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. Again, to reflect its exclusion from the Tsardom of Russia, this episcopal title was renamed the "Metropolis of Kiev, Galicia and all Rus'". The fate of the metropolis after that date is a matter of dispute: according to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, the metropolis was uncanonically annexed or was in abeyance until it received the tomos of autocephaly from the Ecumenical Patriarch; on the other hand, the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) maintains that it was absorbed by the Patriarchate of Moscow and all Rus' and is currently an exarchate of the ROC that styles itself on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) (UOC-MP).

The Moscow school (Russian: Московская школа, romanized: Moskovskaya shkola) is the name applied to a Russian architectural and painting school in the 14th to 16th centuries. It developed during the strengthening of the Moscow principality. The buildings of Vladimir provided the basis of the Moscow architectural school, which preserved elements of the synthesis of the Byzantine and Romanesque styles.