Russian TV host Mikhail Smolin recently outlined his manifesto, claiming that Russia had to return to its "sacred" historical role as a Christian Empire. He was speaking on his regular show titled "White Word" on the Tsargrad Christian Orthodox TV channel on May 12.

Mikhail Smolin: Empire is the highest form of statehood. It is born of the hierarchy of human alliances - family, clan, and class - and it extends beyond the state's national borders, serving as a focal point of political and cultural unification for non-nationals. The Empire consists of peoples and territories that have either been conquered - in order to gain natural geopolitical borders or to tame "restless" neighbors - or have voluntarily joined the ideal of human society that guides the Empire. The concept of Empire as statehood runs through the entire Russian civilization. When the state becomes an empire, it reaches the civilizational threshold, creating a totally self-sufficient state and cultural world of its own. Empire becomes the universal state. Its universality is manifest in the joint

worldview dictated by religion, rather than by secular political and economic ideology.

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The concept of the Empire enables the nation to become creator of history. All the other nations play the role of spectators or of extras in the great tragedies of history. For 2,000 years, during the lifetime of Orthodox Christian tradition, three major history-makers promoted the role of Empire: the Romans, the Byzantines, and the Russians. During those 2,000 years, the Orthodox Christian Empire was center-stage. It is our sacred national duty to continue to play that role in world history.

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