I. Political Realities.

II. The Bureaucratization of government.

III. The Process of Self-Definition.

A. Legacy of the Mongols: "The White Tsar."
B. The Byzantine/Roman imperial legacy.

1. The fall of Constantinople.
2. The marriage to Zoe Palaeologa.
3. The imperial seal.
4. The "Third Rome" theory.

III. Rebuilding the Kremlin: The Italian Renaissance in Muscovy?

IV. The fate of those who think and question: The Judaizers.