The tsar's court also feels the impact of Ukraine and the West.

Kiev is a major transmitter of new ideas and insight through the famed scholarly academy that Metropolitan Mogila (Mohyla) founded there in 1631.

Among the results of this infusion of ideas into Muscovy are baroque architecture, literature, and icon painting.

Other more direct channels to the West open as international trade increases and more foreigners come to Muscovy.

The tsar's court is interested in the West's more advanced technology, particularly when military applications are involved.

By the end of the seventeenth century, Ukrainian, Polish, and West European penetration have undermined the Muscovite cultural synthesis—at least among the elite—and have prepared the way for an even more radical transformation.