Constantin I the Great
The celectial host is proceeding from the burning citadel - viewed as Kazan, which Ivan the Terrible captured from the Tartars in 1552, and likewise as symbolizing a mundane city of sin - towards the celestial Jerusalem, within which are the enthroned Virgin and Child.
At its head in the circle is the archangel Michael on horseback, the captain of the heavenly host, amongst whom we see the martyrs mingling with historical, primarily Russian, personages.
Disposed centrally in the imperial crown and holding the cross is either the emperor Constantine, or Vladimir Monomachus, a founder of the Russian princely and tsarist dynasty.
The armoured, helmeted rider holding the enormous scarlet banner and galloping forwards in the wake of the archangel Michael may represent Ivan the Terrible.
In the group riding along behind Constantine, or Vladimir, are the Kievan saints, prince Vladimir with his sons Boris and Gleb.
Leading the top row are prince Demetry Donskoi and his patron, St Demetry of Thessalonica, astride a white horse, while leading the bottom row are prince Alexander Nevsky and St George.
The icon may be diversely interpreted as implying the triumph of the Cristian faith, the victory of the Orthodox faith, the coming bliss that will devolve uponthe soldier martyrs, the glorification of Russian history and Russian martial might, the concept of the divinely elected Russian state with Moscow as the Third Rome, an apotheosis to Ivan the Terrible for havingvanquished the Tartar Khanate of Kazan, and, finally, the intercession of Virgin (the idea of a victorius Christian state is reflected also in post-Byzantine representations of the emperor Constantine and his legions, as, for instance, in the Ochrid church of SS Constantine and Helena, or the monastery in the Romanian village of Patrauti.
