Dr. Russell Martin, Westminster College associate professor of history, contributed a book chapter and gave a presentation related to his continuing research of Muscovite bride shows and royal weddings.

"Muscovite Esther: Bride Shows, Queenship, and Power in The Comedy of Artaxerxes" is Martin's chapter in the recently published The New Muscovite Cultural History, which explores several new avenues for examining the cultural history of early modern Russia.

The chapter studies The Comedy of Artaxerxes, the first secular play performed in Russia, for insights into Muscovite marriage politics and the history of the bride show, the 17th-century ritual by which tsars chose their brides through a beauty contest. The play is referred to as an "Esther play," a retelling of the Biblical book of Esther, a practice that became increasingly common in the 1600s.

"This chapter looks at the bride show in the first two chapters of the Biblical book and compares it to the bride show in the play and the ones that actually took place in Muscovy at the time of the play's performance," Martin said. "The chapter offers new insights into the history of the ritual and into Muscovite queenship, since the winner of the bride show was so much at the center of the drama."

Martin delivered "Praying for Health, Heirs, Prosperity, and Peace: Gifts and the Interests of Dynasty at Muscovite Royal Weddings" at the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies annual conference Nov. 12-15 in Boston.

The paper was part of the panel "Gift-Giving in Muscovy: Forms and Meanings" and was a study of gift-giving at Muscovite royal weddings; in particular, it analyzed gifts dispatched from 17th-century royal weddings to distant regions of Russia so that archbishops and bishops would pray for the tsar and his new bride.

"The paper argued that the tsars and his servitors were enlisting the Church to help establish the Romanov dynasty's legitimacy by soliciting prayers for the birth of an heir and by projecting the image of a pious and legitimate dynasty," Martin said.

Martin, who has been with Westminster since 1996, earned an undergraduate degree from the University of Pittsburgh and a master's and Ph.D. from Harvard University. 

Martin appeared on A&E Biography in a broadcast on Ivan the Terrible as an expert on the controversial ruler. He is the co-founder of the Muscovite Biographical Database, a Russian-American computerized register based in Moscow of early modern Russian notables. The Neville Island, Pa., native is not only fluent in Russian, but also reads Old Church Slavonic/Russian, French, German, Latin, and Polish. 

Martin continues to translate from Russian to English the official Webpage of Her Imperial Highness, Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna, the heiress to the vacant Russian throne. Translations are available at www.imperialhouse.ru. In 2008, Martin was awarded the Order of St. Anna (with the rank of Knight Companion) by the grand duchess for his work on behalf of the House of Romanov.

Martin currently serves as president of the Association for the Study of Eastern Christian History and Culture, Inc. (ASEC), an international organization of scholarly study of society, culture, and belief among Eastern Christian communities.

Contact Martin at (724) 946-6254 or e-mail martinre@westminster.edu for additional information.

Dr. Russell Martin