Andrei Rublyov

Abstract

In the early fifteenth century — the period in which the film is set — the Russian principalities lay on the very edge of Europe. Divided by rivalry and feuds between the various rulers, these principalities were open to attack from the Tartar hordes from the south and east. To the west, the dominant East European power was Poland-Lithuania. It was a time of political and cultural upheaval. The late Middle Ages were witnessing the first stirrings of the Renaissance and new ideas of political unity, which were ultimately to lead to the formation of a modern Russian state that would come to challenge the supremacy of its western neighbour in the fifteenth century.

We have had our own mission….The Tartars did not dare cross our western frontiers and so leave us in their rear. They retreated towards their deserts and Christian civilisation was saved …

Alexander Pushkin