Space and identities in two princely vitaes of Medieval Russia (late 13th – early 14th centuries)

The author of the article analyzes ideas about space (mental maps), reflecting certain identity aspects of two princely lives from medieval Rus' - the Life of Alexander Nevsky (after 1263) and the Life of Mikhail of Tver (c. 1320). He underlines important differences in the approaches of hagiographers, but also some common features of their discourse, in which some political and religious criteria for distinguishing their own and foreign communities can clearly be identified. He concludes that the Life of Alexander reflects the crisis of identities characteristic of the critical age after the Mongol invasion, whereas the Life of Mikhail reflects the balance between regional and supraregional identities.