alternatehistory.com

In 1325, the Grand Prince of Moscow Ivan I Kalita convinced the Russian Orthodox Metropolitan Peter (the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church) to move his seat to Moscow. Historians tend to attribute this to being one of the key factors that led Moscow to unify the Russian states, since Moscow was now the seat of the Russian church.

So what might happen if Metropolitan Peter declines Ivan Kalita's offer? Perhaps he dies a year or two earlier (he died a year or so after he moved to Moscow) and the new Patriarch does not move his seat? Is the principality that gains the seat of the Russian church guaranteed to unify the Russian states (unless it's a place in the north like Novgorod, which has plenty of factors working against it)? Is Tver the most likely place to unify Russia in the absence of this key gain to Muscovite power, or could another city like Yaroslavl, Rostov, Ryazan, etc. accomplish that instead?
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