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The Reformation · 1564–1579
The Correspondence with Prince Kurbsky
Ivan IV and Andrei Kurbsky
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What it is
A defector accuses the tsar of murdering his own servants; the tsar replies at enormous length that a ruler answerable only to God may do as he pleases with them.
Why it lasted
The founding debate of Russian political thought, on whether a Christian monarch is bound by anything but his own conscience.
Where to read it
Public domain and free to read in full, though not held here. The archives below have it.
These open a search on each archive rather than a direct link, which is the honest way to point at an edition nobody here has checked line by line.
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