Between History and Religion: The New Russian Martyrdom as an Invented Tradition

2018 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 936-963 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zuzanna Bogumił ◽  
Marta Łukaszewicz
Keyword(s):  
Central And Eastern Europe ◽  
Social Practices ◽  
The Political ◽  
Russian Orthodox ◽  
Orthodox Church ◽  
Russian Orthodox Church ◽  
The Past ◽  
Invented Tradition ◽  
Communist Past ◽  
Year 2000

This article is part of the special cluster titled Social practices of remembering and forgetting of the communist past in Central and Eastern Europe, guest edited by Malgorzata Glowacka-Grajper In the year 2000, during the Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church, more than one thousand victims of Soviet repressions—people persecuted and murdered by the Soviet regime—were glorified and named the New Russian Martyrs. By presenting the origin and background of the phenomenon, authors demonstrate that the New Martyrdom is a kind of invented tradition. They focus on analysis of the tension that occurs when history becomes religion by highlighting some problematic issues with regard to the New Martyrdom and showing how the Russian Orthodox Church is addressing them. The analysis sheds new light on the political use of religion for the creation of narrative about the past in contemporary Russia.

The Religious Front

2018 ◽  
pp. 21-56
Author(s):  
Victoria Smolkin
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Human Nature ◽  
Cultural Landscape ◽  
The Political ◽  
Russian Orthodox ◽  
Orthodox Church ◽  
Russian Orthodox Church ◽  
Old World ◽  
Religious Policy ◽  
Administrative Regulation

This chapter examines militant atheism under Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin, focusing on how the Bolsheviks approached religion from the revolution in 1917 until Stalin's death in 1953. Using legal and administrative regulation, extralegal repression and terror, and militant atheist propaganda, the Bolsheviks sought to build a new Communist world, remake society, and transform human nature. The chapter first provides a background on Russia's “old world” in order to understand the political, social, and cultural landscape that the Bolsheviks inherited when they seized power in October 1917. It then considers the Marxist–Leninist framework within which the Bolsheviks understood religion, the Bolsheviks' atheist propaganda and scientific enlightenment, and byt (culture of everyday life) as the final frontier in the Bolshevik Party's war against religion. It also describes the Bolshevik Party's adoption of the Stalinist religious policy, Stalin's wartime rapprochement with the Russian Orthodox Church, and his decision to abandon atheism.

scholarly journals Protocol of the Penza Diocesan Congress of the Clergy and Laity

2020 ◽  
pp. 149-180
Author(s):  
Радомир (Роман) Владимирович Булдаков
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
The Political ◽  
General Tendency ◽  
Russian Orthodox ◽  
Orthodox Church ◽  
Church Organization ◽  
Russian Orthodox Church ◽  
Local Council ◽  
Political Events ◽  
The Church

В настоящей публикации представлен ранее нигде не публиковавшийся Протокол Пензенского епархиального съезда духовенства и мирян, который проходил с 25 апреля по 1 мая 1917 г. Он отражает общее настроение рядового духовенства и мирян Русской Православной Церкви начала XX в. на примере конкретной епархии. Пензенский Съезд проходил одновременно с аналогичными Съездами многих других епархиальных центров, чьи постановления получили своё развитие на Всероссийском Съезде духовенства и мирян в Москве и далее на Поместном Соборе Православной Российской Церкви 1917- 1918 гг. Вопросы, рассматриваемые участниками Пензенского Съезда, касались как общецерковных проблем, так и внутренних дел самой епархии; часть постановлений вошла в состав решений Поместного Собора. Количество вопросов, поднятых на Съезде, превышает два десятка и относится к самым разным сферам церковно-государственных и церковно-общественных отношений, а также к внутренним преобразованиям самой Церкви, одновременно олицетворяя общую тенденцию к Её обновлению и являясь следствием этих перемен. Но среди них важнейшими, по мнению делегатов Съезда, считались вопросы об отношении к происходящим в стране политическим событиям и о поэтапной реформе церковной организации, начиная с прихода и заканчивая уровнем Поместной Российской Церкви. This publication presents the previously unpublished Protocol of the Penza Diocesan Congress of the Clergy and Laity, which took place from April 25 to May 1, 1917. It reflects the general mood of ordinary clergy and laity of the Russian Orthodox Church at the beginning of the 20th century by the example of a specific diocese. The Penza Congress was held simultaneously with similar Congresses of many other diocesan centers, whose resolutions were developed at the AllRussian Congress of Clergy and Laity in Moscow and further at the Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church in 1917-1918. The issues considered by the participants of the Penza Congress concerned both general church problems and the internal affairs of the diocese itself; some of the decisions were included in the decisions of the Local Council. The number of issues raised at the Congress exceeds two dozen and relates to the most diverse spheres of church-state and church-social relations, as well as to the internal transformations of the Church itself, at the same time embodying the general tendency towards Her renewal and being a consequence of these changes. But among them the most important, in the opinion of the Congress delegates, were the questions about the attitude to the political events taking place in the country and about the gradual reform of church organization, from the parish level to the level of the Local Russian Church.

scholarly journals Everyday Life of the Russian Nuns in the Holy Land at the Time of Changes in the Middle East, 1940s–1950s

2021 ◽  
pp. 190-200
Author(s):  
N.A. Beliakova
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
Russian Orthodox ◽  
Orthodox Church ◽  
Holy Land ◽  
Russian Orthodox Church ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Church

This study aims at providing an overview of the everyday life of Russian nuns in Palestine after World War II. This research encompassed the following tasks: to analyze the range of ego-documents available today, characterizing the everyday life and internal motivation of women in choosing the church jurisdiction; to identify, on the basis of written sources, the most active supporters of the Moscow Patriarchate to examine the nuns’ activity as information agents of the Russian Orthodox Church and Soviet government; to characterize the actors influencing the everyday life of the Russian nuns in the context of the creation of the state of Israel and new borders dividing the Holy Land; to present the motives and instruments of influence employed by the representatives of both secu-lar and church diplomacies in respect to the women leading a monastic life; to describe consequences of including the nuns into the sphere of interest of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the USSR; to show the specific role of “Russian women” in the context of the struggle for securing positions of the USSR and the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in the region. The sources for the study were prodused by the state (correspondence between the state authorities, meeting notes) and from the religious actors (letters of nuns to the church authorities, reports of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission, memoirs of the clergy). By combining the methods of micro-history and history of the everyday life with the political history of the Cold War, the study examines the agency of the nuns — a category of women traditionally unnoticeable in the political history. Due to the specificity of the sources, the study focuses exclusively on a group of the nuns of the Holy Land who came under the jurisdiction of the Moscow Patri-archate. The majority of the Russian-speaking population of Palestine in the mid-1940s were women in the status of monastic residents (nuns and novices) and pilgrims, and in the 1940s–1950s, they were drawn into the geopolitical combinations of the Soviet Union. The Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Jerusalem, staffed with representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church, becomes a key institution of influence in the region. This article shows how elderly nuns became an object of close attention and even funding by the Soviet state. The everyday life of the nuns became directly dependent on the activities of the Soviet agencies and Soviet-Israeli relations after the arri-val of the Soviet state representatives. At the same time, the nuns became key participants in the inter-jurisdictional conflicts and began to act as agents of influence in the region. The study analyzes numerous ego-documents created by the nuns themselves from the collection of the Council on the Affairs of the Russian Orthodox Church under the USSR Council of Ministers. The study shows how nuns positioned themselves as leading a monastic life in the written correspondence with the ROC authorities and staff of the Soviet MFA. The instances of influence of different secular authorities on the development of the female monasticism presented here point to promising research avenues for future reconstruction of the history of women in the Holy Land based on archival materials from state departments, alternative sources should also be found. The study focused on the life of elderly Russian nuns in the Holy Land and showed their activity in the context of the geopolitical transformations in the Near East in the 1940s–1950s.

scholarly journals The struggle of Fortinbras and Horatio in Romania: removal and re-collection of the communist past in Romanian museums

2015 ◽  
pp. 37-50
Author(s):  
Iemima D. Ploscariu
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Central And Eastern Europe ◽  
Soviet Bloc ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Past ◽  
Political Motivation ◽  
Museum Exhibitions ◽  
Communist Past

The struggle of Fortinbras and Horatio in Romania: removal and re-collection of the communist past in Romanian museumsOver twenty years after the dismantling of communist regimes began in Central and Eastern Europe, the governments and people in these former Soviet bloc countries are faced with varying and often opposing ways to approach and present the communist past. Focusing on post-1989 museums in Romania, especially the Sighet Museum in Sighetul Marmaţiei and the Romanian Peasant Museum in Bucharest, the article will examine three themes that appear in museum exhibitions of Romanian communist history: the marginalization of the communist past, the victimization of a nation, and the need by curators to “rescue memory.” these approaches to the communist past leave a great deal out. Limited and biased portraits hinder a healthy coming to terms with the past initially intended by these institutions in Romania and similar institutions across Central and Eastern Europe. However, some attempts have been made to bring in more voices and face the past on its own terms apart from the political motivation or desires for retribution, which often motivate the current interpretation of the past. Walka Fortynbrasa z Horacym w Rumunii: likwidacja i ponowne przypomnienie komunistycznej przeszłości w rumuńskich muzeachPo ponad 20 latach od chwili, gdy zaczęły się rozpadać komunistyczne reżimy w Europie Środkowo-Wschodniej, rządy i społeczeństwa byłych krajów bloku sowieckiego doświadczają odmiennych, często przeciwstawnych podejść do komunistycznej przeszłości i sposobów jej przedstawiania. Skupiając swą uwagę na muzeach w Rumunii po roku 1989, zwłaszcza Miejscu Pamięci Ofiar Komunizmu i Ruchu Oporu w Sighetu Marmaţiei (Syhot Marmaroski) oraz Muzeum Chłopstwa Rumuńskiego w Bukareszcie, autorka niniejszego artykułu analizuje trzy zagadnienia, które przewijają się w muzealnych ekspozycjach poświęconych dziejom Rumunii w czasach komunistycznych; są to: marginalizacja komunistycznej przeszłości, wiktymizacja narodu i potrzeba „ocalenia pamięci” przez kustoszy. Powyższe podejścia do komunistycznej przeszłości ignorują wiele kwestii. Niepełny i tendencyjny obraz opóźnia zatem dojście do ładu z przeszłością na zdroworozsądkowych zasadach, co w myśl początkowych założeń miało w Rumunii nastąpić dzięki muzeom, jak też dzięki podobnym placówkom w całej Europie Środkowo-Wschodniej. Jednakże podejmowane są wciąż nowe próby, aby dopuścić do głosu więcej różnych opinii i stawić czoło przeszłości niezależnie od motywacji politycznych bądź dążenia do zemsty, które często stoją za bieżącymi interpretacjami przeszłości.

Utopia’s Orphan

2018 ◽  
pp. 228-246
Author(s):  
Victoria Smolkin
Keyword(s):  
Communist Party ◽  
Public Life ◽  
The Political ◽  
Russian Orthodox ◽  
Orthodox Church ◽  
Russian Orthodox Church ◽  
Political Transformations ◽  
Communist Ideology ◽  
History Of ◽  
Soviet Communism

This conclusion examines the demise of the Communist project, along with its vision to create an atheist society. Over the course of its history, Soviet atheism developed through direct engagement with religion. These engagements exposed atheism's contradictions, pointing to the deeper crisis within Soviet Communism. The conclusion first considers Mikhail Gorbachev's reintroduction of religion into Soviet public life, highlighted by his meeting with Patriarch Pimen (Izvekov) and the Synod of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church, before explaining why Soviet Communism never managed to overcome religion or produce an atheist society. It also discusses the political transformations of perestroika and cites the history of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow as an allegory for the fate of religion and atheism under Soviet Communism. Finally, it asks why the Soviet Communist Party orchestrated the divorce between Communism and atheism, and between the party's Communist ideology and political power.

scholarly journals Political Events of February 1917 in the Diocesan Periodicals of Western Siberia

2020 ◽  
pp. 227-238
Author(s):  
A. A. Valitov ◽  
D. Yu. Fedotova
Keyword(s):  
Western Siberia ◽  
The Political ◽  
Russian Orthodox ◽  
Orthodox Church ◽  
Russian Orthodox Church ◽  
Historical Justice ◽  
Political Events ◽  
First Time ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Church

The events of February 1917, presented on the pages of the church periodicals of Western Siberia, is examined in the article. The relevance of the study is due to the fact that for the first time in Russian historiography the political upheavals of this period have been analyzed on the basis of materials from regional diocesan records. The authors note that the diocesan records are an important historical source. A detailed analysis of the content of articles of Omsk, Tobolsk, Tomsk periodicals (“Diocesan Gazette”) on the presentation of the political events of February 1917 in them is carried out. The novelty of the research lies in identifying the attitude of the regional clergy to the revolutionary events in the period from February to April 1917. The presented results of the comparative analysis can be grouped according to the chronology and significance of the events that took place. The article concludes that it was during this period that one could hear the opinion of the Russian Orthodox Church on political changes in the country. It is noted that of particular interest were the issues of the relationship between the Church and the Provisional Government, this topic remained the most acute after the fall of the monarchy. It is shown that the representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church wanted to restore historical justice and receive autonomous government and independence from the secular authorities.

scholarly journals Russia in the Holy Land. Figures and Institutions of Russian Palestine (in the 19th and 20th Centuries)

2021 ◽  
pp. 9-21
Author(s):  
Irina Smirnova ◽  
Ritta Butova
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
The Political ◽  
Russian Orthodox ◽  
Orthodox Church ◽  
Holy Land ◽  
Royal Family ◽  
Ruling Elite ◽  
Russian Orthodox Church ◽  
Public Figures ◽  
Middle East Policy

Russian Palestine is not only a unique religious phenomenon that encompasses a complex infrastructure of Russian churches, monasteries, lands and farmsteads, but also the political, spiritual, scientific and humanitarian presence of Russia in the Holy Land in its entirety. That is, the writings by the Russian diplomats, officials of consulates and embassies, representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church (Mount of Olives Ascension Monastery, Gorny Convent and Gethsemane monastery, clerical pilgrims), the royal family and the ruling elite (august pilgrims, benefactors, governors of the Middle East policy), figures of the Palestinian Committee (1859–1864), the Palestinian Commission (1864–1889), the Russian Orthodox Mission in Jerusalem (1847–2010), the Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society (1882), pilgrims and travellers of the 19th–20th centuries, writers, artists, architects and orientalists. The study’s goal is to bridge significant gaps in the national historiography by presenting the most complete overview of the history, heritage, and contributions of Russia and Russian people to the culture of the Orthodox East – the present-day peoples of Israel and Palestine. As part of these studies, the authors will issue an academic compendium of Russian institutions and public figures who have contributed to strengthening ties between Russia and the Middle East.

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