A conversation with Eugene Smelyansky (Washington State University) on the invention of ideologically useful versions of Byzantium in modern Russia. We talk about the much more limited engagement with Byzantium in imperial Russia and the reasons behind some of the current obsessions with it. The conversation is based on Eugene's just-published book on Medievalisms in Russia: The Contest for Imaginary Pasts (Arc Humanities Press 2024), which looks also at the current re-imagining of Russia's own medieval past and that of western Europe.