The Crisis Of Religious Toleration In Imperial Russia

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The Crisis of Religious Toleration in Imperial Russia

Author : Thomas Marsden
Publisher : OUP Oxford
ISBN 13 : 0191063371
Total Pages : 270 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (91 download)

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Book Synopsis The Crisis of Religious Toleration in Imperial Russia by : Thomas Marsden

Download or read book The Crisis of Religious Toleration in Imperial Russia written by Thomas Marsden and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2015-09-24 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is about an unprecedented attempt by the government of Russia's Tsar Nicholas I (1825-1855) to eradicate what was seen as one of the greatest threats to its political security: the religious dissent of the Old Believers. The Old Believers had long been reviled by the ruling Orthodox Church, for they were the largest group of Russian dissenters and claimed to be the guardians of true Orthodoxy; however, their industrious communities and strict morality meant that the civil authorities often regarded them favourably. This changed in the 1840s and 1850s when a series of remarkable cases demonstrated that the existing restrictions upon the dissenters' religious freedoms could not suppress their capacity for independent organisation. Finding itself at a crossroads between granting full toleration, or returning to the fierce persecution of earlier centuries, the tsarist government increasingly inclined towards the latter course, culminating in a top secret 'system' introduced in 1853 by the Minister of Internal Affairs Dmitrii Bibikov. The operation of this system was the high point of religious persecution in the last 150 years of the tsarist regime: it dissolved the Old Believers' religious gatherings, denied them civil rights, and repressed their leading figures as state criminals. It also constituted an extraordinary experiment in government, instituted to deal with a temporary emergency. Paradoxically the architects of this system were not churchmen or reactionaries, but representatives of the most progressive factions of Nicholas's bureaucracy. Their abandonment of religious toleration on grounds of political intolerability reflected their nationalist concerns for the future development of a rapidly changing Russia. The system lasted only until Nicholas's death in 1855; however, the story of its origins, operation, and collapse, told for the first time in this study, throws new light on the religious and political identity of the autocratic regime and on the complexity of the problems it faced.

The Tsar's Foreign Faiths

Author : Paul W. Werth
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0199591776
Total Pages : 305 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (995 download)

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Book Synopsis The Tsar's Foreign Faiths by : Paul W. Werth

Download or read book The Tsar's Foreign Faiths written by Paul W. Werth and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2014-03 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explores the scope and character of religious freedom for Russia's diverse non-Orthodox religions during the tzarist regime.

The Tsar's Foreign Faiths

Author : Paul William Werth
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9780191757778
Total Pages : 288 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (577 download)

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Book Synopsis The Tsar's Foreign Faiths by : Paul William Werth

Download or read book The Tsar's Foreign Faiths written by Paul William Werth and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The Russian Empire presented itself to its subjects and the world as an Orthodox state, a patron and defender of Eastern Christianity. Yet the tsarist regime also lauded itself for granting religious freedoms to its many heterodox subjects, making "religious toleration" a core attribute of the state's identity. The Tsar's Foreign Faiths show that the resulting tensions between the autocracy's commitments to Orthodoxy and its claims to toleration became a defining feature of the empire's religious order."--Jacket.

The Crisis of Religious Toleration in Imperial Russia

Author : Thomas Marsden
Publisher : Oxford Historical Monographs
ISBN 13 : 0198746369
Total Pages : 297 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (987 download)

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Book Synopsis The Crisis of Religious Toleration in Imperial Russia by : Thomas Marsden

Download or read book The Crisis of Religious Toleration in Imperial Russia written by Thomas Marsden and published by Oxford Historical Monographs. This book was released on 2015 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is about an unprecedented attempt by the government of Russia's Tsar Nicholas I (1825-1855) to eradicate what was seen as one of the greatest threats to its political security: the religious dissent of the Old Believers. The Old Believers had long been reviled by the ruling Orthodox Church, for they were the largest group of Russian dissenters and claimed to be the guardians of true Orthodoxy; however, their industrious communities and strict morality meant that the civil authorities often regarded them favourably. This changed in the 1840s and 1850s when a series of remarkable cases demonstrated that the existing restrictions upon the dissenters' religious freedoms could not suppress their capacity for independent organisation. Finding itself at a crossroads between granting full toleration, or returning to the fierce persecution of earlier centuries, the tsarist government increasingly inclined towards the latter course, culminating in a top secret 'system' introduced in 1853 by the Minister of Internal Affairs Dmitrii Bibikov. The operation of this system was the high point of religious persecution in the last 150 years of the tsarist regime: it dissolved the Old Believers' religious gatherings, denied them civil rights, and repressed their leading figures as state criminals. It also constituted an extraordinary experiment in government, instituted to deal with a temporary emergency. Paradoxically the architects of this system were not churchmen or reactionaries, but representatives of the most progressive factions of Nicholas's bureaucracy. Their abandonment of religious toleration on grounds of political intolerability reflected their nationalist concerns for the future development of a rapidly changing Russia. The system lasted only until Nicholas's death in 1855; however, the story of its origins, operation, and collapse, told for the first time in this study, throws new light on the religious and political identity of the autocratic regime and on the complexity of the problems it faced.

For Prophet and Tsar

Author : Robert D. Crews
Publisher : Harvard University Press
ISBN 13 : 0674262859
Total Pages : 490 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (742 download)

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Book Synopsis For Prophet and Tsar by : Robert D. Crews

Download or read book For Prophet and Tsar written by Robert D. Crews and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2009-05-31 with total page 490 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Russia occupies a unique position in the Muslim world. Unlike any other non-Islamic state, it has ruled Muslim populations for over five hundred years. Though Russia today is plagued by its unrelenting war in Chechnya, Russia’s approach toward Islam once yielded stability. In stark contrast to the popular “clash of civilizations” theory that sees Islam inevitably in conflict with the West, Robert D. Crews reveals the remarkable ways in which Russia constructed an empire with broad Muslim support. In the eighteenth century, Catherine the Great inaugurated a policy of religious toleration that made Islam an essential pillar of Orthodox Russia. For ensuing generations, tsars and their police forces supported official Muslim authorities willing to submit to imperial directions in exchange for defense against brands of Islam they deemed heretical and destabilizing. As a result, Russian officials assumed the powerful but often awkward role of arbitrator in disputes between Muslims. And just as the state became a presence in the local mosque, Muslims became inextricably integrated into the empire and shaped tsarist will in Muslim communities stretching from the Volga River to Central Asia. For Prophet and Tsar draws on police and court records, and Muslim petitions, denunciations, and clerical writings—not accessible prior to 1991—to unearth the fascinating relationship between an empire and its subjects. As America and Western Europe debate how best to secure the allegiances of their Muslim populations, Crews offers a unique and critical historical vantage point.

Unity in Faith?

Author : James White
Publisher : Indiana University Press
ISBN 13 : 0253049717
Total Pages : 286 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (53 download)

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Book Synopsis Unity in Faith? by : James White

Download or read book Unity in Faith? written by James White and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 2020-11-03 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Established in 1800, edinoverie (translated as "unity in faith") was intended to draw back those who had broken with the Russian Orthodox Church over ritual reforms in the 17th century. Called Old Believers, they had been persecuted as heretics. In time, the Russian state began tolerating Old Believers in order to lure them out of hiding and make use of their financial resources as a means of controlling and developing Russia's vast and heterogeneous empire. However, the Russian Empire was also an Orthodox state, and conversion from Orthodoxy constituted a criminal act. So, which was better for ensuring the stability of the Russian Empire: managing heterogeneity through religious toleration, or enforcing homogeneity through missionary campaigns? Edinoverie remained contested and controversial throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, as it was distrusted by both the Orthodox Church and the Old Believers themselves. The state reinforced this ambivalence, using edinoverie as a means by which to monitor Old Believer communities and employing it as a carrot to the stick of prison, exile, and the deprivation of rights. In Unity in Faith?, James White's study of edinoverie offers an unparalleled perspective of the complex triangular relationship between the state, the Orthodox Church, and religious minorities in imperial Russia.

Heretics and Colonizers

Author : Nicholas B. Breyfogle
Publisher : Cornell University Press
ISBN 13 : 0801463564
Total Pages : 376 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (14 download)

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Book Synopsis Heretics and Colonizers by : Nicholas B. Breyfogle

Download or read book Heretics and Colonizers written by Nicholas B. Breyfogle and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2011-08-11 with total page 376 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Heretics and Colonizers, Nicholas B. Breyfogle explores the dynamic intersection of Russian borderland colonization and popular religious culture. He reconstructs the story of the religious sectarians (Dukhobors, Molokans, and Subbotniks) who settled, either voluntarily or by force, in the newly conquered lands of Transcaucasia in the nineteenth century. By ordering this migration in 1830, Nicholas I attempted at once to cleanse Russian Orthodoxy of heresies and to populate the newly annexed lands with ethnic Slavs who would shoulder the burden of imperial construction. Breyfogle focuses throughout on the lives of the peasant settlers, their interactions with the peoples and environment of the South Caucasus, and their evolving relations with Russian state power. He draws on a wide variety of archival sources, including a large collection of previously unexamined letters, memoirs, and other documents produced by the sectarians that allow him unprecedented insight into the experiences of colonization and religious life. Although the settlers suffered greatly in their early years in hostile surroundings, they in time proved to be not only model Russian colonists but also among the most prosperous of the Empire's peasants. Banished to the empire's periphery, the sectarians ironically came to play indispensable roles in the tsarist imperial agenda. The book culminates with the dramatic events of the Dukhobor pacifist rebellion, a movement that shocked the tsarist government and received international attention. In the early twentieth century, as the Russian state sought to replace the sectarians with Orthodox settlers, thousands of Molokans and Dukhobors immigrated to North America, where their descendants remain to this day.

The Old Believers in Imperial Russia

Author : Peter T. De Simone
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1838609547
Total Pages : 288 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (386 download)

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Book Synopsis The Old Believers in Imperial Russia by : Peter T. De Simone

Download or read book The Old Believers in Imperial Russia written by Peter T. De Simone and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2018-06-14 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'Two Romes have fallen. The third stands. And there will be no fourth.' So spoke Russian monk Hegumen Filofei of Pskov in 1510, proclaiming Muscovite Russia as heirs to the legacy of the Roman Empire following the collapse of the Byzantine Empire. The so-called 'Third Rome Doctrine' spurred the creation of the Russian Orthodox Church, although just a century later a further schism occurred, with the Old Believers (or 'Old Ritualists') challenging Patriarch Nikon's liturgical and ritualistic reforms and laying their own claim to the mantle of Roman legacy. While scholars have commonly painted the subsequent history of the Old Believers as one of survival in the face of persistent persecution at the hands of both tsarist and church authorities, Peter De Simone here offers a more nuanced picture. Based on research into extensive, yet mostly unknown, archival materials in Moscow, he shows the Old Believers as versatile and opportunistic, and demonstrates that they actively engaged with, and even challenged, the very notion of the spiritual and ideological place of Moscow in Imperial Russia.Ranging in scope from Peter the Great to Lenin, this book will be of use to all scholars of Russian and Orthodox Church history.

The Tsar, The Empire, and The Nation

Author : Darius Staliūnas
Publisher : Central European University Press
ISBN 13 : 9633866936
Total Pages : 236 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (338 download)

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Book Synopsis The Tsar, The Empire, and The Nation by : Darius Staliūnas

Download or read book The Tsar, The Empire, and The Nation written by Darius Staliūnas and published by Central European University Press. This book was released on 2021-05-30 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection of essays addresses the challenge of modern nationalism to the tsarist Russian Empire. First appearing on the empire’s western periphery this challenge, was most prevalent in twelve provinces extending from Ukrainian lands in the south to the Baltic provinces in the north, as well as to the Kingdom of Poland. At issue is whether the late Russian Empire entered World War I as a multiethnic state with many of its age-old mechanisms run by a multiethnic elite, or as a Russian state predominantly managed by ethnic Russians. The tsarist vision of prioritizing loyalty among all subjects over privileging ethnic Russians and discriminating against non-Russians faced a fundamental problem: as soon as the opportunity presented itself, non-Russians would increase their demands and become increasingly separatist. The authors found that although the imperial government did not really identify with popular Russian nationalism, it sometimes ended up implementing policies promoted by Russian nationalist proponents. Matters addressed include native language education, interconfessional rivalry, the “Jewish question,” the origins of mass tourism in the western provinces, as well as the emergence of Russian nationalist attitudes in the aftermath of the first Russian revolution.

Imperial Rule

Author : Alekse? I. Miller
Publisher : Central European University Press
ISBN 13 : 9789639241985
Total Pages : 224 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (419 download)

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Book Synopsis Imperial Rule by : Alekse? I. Miller

Download or read book Imperial Rule written by Alekse? I. Miller and published by Central European University Press. This book was released on 2004-01-01 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Renowned academics compare major features of imperial rule in the 19th century, reflecting a significant shift away from nationalism and toward empires in the studies of state building. The book responds to the current interest in multi-unit formations, such as the European Union and the expanded outreach of the United States. National historical narratives have systematically marginalized imperial dimensions, yet empires play an important role. This book examines the methods discerned in the creation of the Habsburg Monarchy, the Ottoman Empire, the Hohenzollern rule and Imperial Russia. It inspects the respective imperial elites in these empires, and it details the role of nations, religions and ideologies in the legitimacy of empire building, bringing the Spanish Empire into the analysis. The final part of the book focuses on modern empires, such as the German "Reich." The essays suggest that empires were more adaptive and resilient to change than is commonly thought.

The Oxford Handbook of Russian Religious Thought

Author : George Pattison
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN 13 : 0198796447
Total Pages : 753 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (987 download)

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Book Synopsis The Oxford Handbook of Russian Religious Thought by : George Pattison

Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Russian Religious Thought written by George Pattison and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2020-06-13 with total page 753 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Oxford Handbook of Russian Religious Thought is an authoritative new reference and interpretive volume detailing the origins, development, and influence of one of the richest aspects of Russian cultural and intellectual life - its religious ideas. After setting the historical background and context, the Handbook follows the leading figures and movements in modern Russian religious thought through a period of immense historical upheavals, including seventy years of officially atheist communist rule and the growth of an exiled diaspora with, e.g., its journal The Way. Therefore the shape of Russian religious thought cannot be separated from long-running debates with nihilism and atheism. Important thinkers such as Losev and Bakhtin had to guard their words in an environment of religious persecution, whilst some views were shaped by prison experiences. Before the Soviet period, Russian national identity was closely linked with religion - linkages which again are being forged in the new Russia. Relevant in this connection are complex relationships with Judaism. In addition to religious thinkers such as Philaret, Chaadaev, Khomiakov, Kireevsky, Soloviev, Florensky, Bulgakov, Berdyaev, Shestov, Frank, Karsavin, and Alexander Men, the Handbook also looks at the role of religion in aesthetics, music, poetry, art, film, and the novelists Dostoevsky and Tolstoy. Ideas, institutions, and movements discussed include the Church academies, Slavophilism and Westernism, theosis, the name-glorifying (imiaslavie) controversy, the God-seekers and God-builders, Russian religious idealism and liberalism, and the Neopatristic school. Occultism is considered, as is the role of tradition and the influence of Russian religious thought in the West.

The Volga

Author : Janet M. Hartley
Publisher : Yale University Press
ISBN 13 : 0300245645
Total Pages : 413 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (2 download)

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Book Synopsis The Volga by : Janet M. Hartley

Download or read book The Volga written by Janet M. Hartley and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2021-01-12 with total page 413 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A rich and fascinating exploration of the Volga--the first to fully reveal its vital place in Russian history The longest river in Europe, the Volga stretches over three and a half thousand km from the heart of Russia to the Caspian Sea, separating west from east. The river has played a crucial role in the history of the peoples who are now a part of the Russian Federation--and has united and divided the land through which it flows. Janet Hartley explores the history of Russia through the Volga from the seventh century to the present day. She looks at it as an artery for trade and as a testing ground for the Russian Empire's control of the borderlands, at how it featured in Russian literature and art, and how it was crucial for the outcome of the Second World War at Stalingrad. This vibrant account unearths what life on the river was really like, telling the story of its diverse people and its vital place in Russian history.

Beyond the Monastery Walls

Author : Patrick Lally Michelson
Publisher : University of Wisconsin Pres
ISBN 13 : 0299312003
Total Pages : 320 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (993 download)

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Book Synopsis Beyond the Monastery Walls by : Patrick Lally Michelson

Download or read book Beyond the Monastery Walls written by Patrick Lally Michelson and published by University of Wisconsin Pres. This book was released on 2017-07-11 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As the cultural and ideological foundations of imperial Russia were threatened by forces of modernity, an array of Orthodox churchmen, theologians, and lay thinkers turned to asceticism, hoping to ensure the coming Kingdom of God promised to the Russian nation.

The Making of Holy Russia

Author : John Strickland
Publisher : Holy Trinity Seminary Press
ISBN 13 : 9781942699279
Total Pages : 356 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (992 download)

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Book Synopsis The Making of Holy Russia by : John Strickland

Download or read book The Making of Holy Russia written by John Strickland and published by Holy Trinity Seminary Press. This book was released on 2020 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is a critical study of the interaction between Russian Church and society in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. At a time of rising nationalist movement throughout Europe, Orthodox patriots advocated for the place of the Church as a unifying force, central to the identity and purpose of the burgeoning, yet increasingly religiously diverse Russian Empire. Their views were articulated in a variety of ways. Bishops such as Metropolitan Antony Khrapovitsky - a founding hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church outside Russia - and other members of the clergy expressed their vision of Russia through official publications (including ecclesiastical journals), sermons, the organization of pilgrimages and the canonization of saints. On the other hand, religious intellectuals (such as the famous philosopher Vladimir Soloviev and the controversial former-Marxist Sergey Bulgakov) promoted what was often a variant vision of the nation through the publication of books and articles. Even the once persecuted Old Believers, emboldened by a religious toleration edict of 1905, sought to claim a role in national leadership. And many - in particularly famous painter Mikhail Vasnetsov - looked to art and architecture as a way of defining the religious ideals of modern Russia. Whilst other studies exist that draw attention to the voices in the Church typified as "liberal" in the years leading up to the Revolution, this work introduces the reader to a wide range of "conservative" opinion that equally strove for spiritual renewal and the spread of the Gospel. Ultimately neither the "conservative" voices presented here nor those of their better-known "liberal" protagonists were able to prevent the calamity that befell Russia with the Bolshevik revolution in 1917. Grounded in original research conducted in the newly accessible libraries and archives of post-Soviet Russia, this study is intended to reveal the wider relevance of its topic to an ongoing discussion of the relationship between national or ethnic identities on the one hand and the self-understanding of Orthodox Christianity as a universal and transformative Faith on the other.

Imperial Russian Rule in the Kingdom of Poland, 1864-1915

Author : Malte Rolf
Publisher : University of Pittsburgh Press
ISBN 13 : 082298864X
Total Pages : 413 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (229 download)

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Book Synopsis Imperial Russian Rule in the Kingdom of Poland, 1864-1915 by : Malte Rolf

Download or read book Imperial Russian Rule in the Kingdom of Poland, 1864-1915 written by Malte Rolf and published by University of Pittsburgh Press. This book was released on 2021-11-02 with total page 413 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After crushing the Polish Uprising in 1863–1864, Russia established a new system of administration and control. Imperial Russian Rule in the Kingdom of Poland, 1864–1915 investigates in detail the imperial bureaucracy’s highly variable relationship with Polish society over the next half century. It portrays the personnel and policies of Russian domination and describes the numerous layers of conflict and cooperation between the Tsarist officialdom and the local population. Presenting case studies of both modes of conflict and cooperation, Malte Rolf replaces the old, unambiguous “freedom-loving Poles vs. oppressive Russians” narrative with a more nuanced account and does justice to the complexity and diversity of encounters among Poles, Jews, and Russians in this contested geopolitical space. At the same time, he highlights the process of “provincializing the center,” the process by which the erosion of imperial rule in the Polish Kingdom facilitated the demise of the Romanov dynasty itself.

The Old Believers in Imperial Russia

Author : Peter T. De Simone
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1838609539
Total Pages : 351 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (386 download)

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Book Synopsis The Old Believers in Imperial Russia by : Peter T. De Simone

Download or read book The Old Believers in Imperial Russia written by Peter T. De Simone and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2018-06-14 with total page 351 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'Two Romes have fallen. The third stands. And there will be no fourth.' So spoke Russian monk Hegumen Filofei of Pskov in 1510, proclaiming Muscovite Russia as heirs to the legacy of the Roman Empire following the collapse of the Byzantine Empire. The so-called 'Third Rome Doctrine' spurred the creation of the Russian Orthodox Church, although just a century later a further schism occurred, with the Old Believers (or 'Old Ritualists') challenging Patriarch Nikon's liturgical and ritualistic reforms and laying their own claim to the mantle of Roman legacy. While scholars have commonly painted the subsequent history of the Old Believers as one of survival in the face of persistent persecution at the hands of both tsarist and church authorities, Peter De Simone here offers a more nuanced picture. Based on research into extensive, yet mostly unknown, archival materials in Moscow, he shows the Old Believers as versatile and opportunistic, and demonstrates that they actively engaged with, and even challenged, the very notion of the spiritual and ideological place of Moscow in Imperial Russia.Ranging in scope from Peter the Great to Lenin, this book will be of use to all scholars of Russian and Orthodox Church history.

A Sacred Space Is Never Empty

Author : Victoria Smolkin
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 0691197237
Total Pages : 360 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (911 download)

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Book Synopsis A Sacred Space Is Never Empty by : Victoria Smolkin

Download or read book A Sacred Space Is Never Empty written by Victoria Smolkin and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2019-10-29 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When the Bolsheviks set out to build a new world in the wake of the Russian Revolution, they expected religion to die off. Soviet power used a variety of tools--from education to propaganda to terror—to turn its vision of a Communist world without religion into reality. Yet even with its monopoly on ideology and power, the Soviet Communist Party never succeeded in overcoming religion and creating an atheist society. A Sacred Space Is Never Empty presents the first history of Soviet atheism from the 1917 revolution to the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. Drawing on a wealth of archival material and in-depth interviews with those who were on the front lines of Communist ideological campaigns, Victoria Smolkin argues that to understand the Soviet experiment, we must make sense of Soviet atheism. Smolkin shows how atheism was reimagined as an alternative cosmology with its own set of positive beliefs, practices, and spiritual commitments. Through its engagements with religion, the Soviet leadership realized that removing religion from the "sacred spaces" of Soviet life was not enough. Then, in the final years of the Soviet experiment, Mikhail Gorbachev—in a stunning and unexpected reversal—abandoned atheism and reintroduced religion into Soviet public life. A Sacred Space Is Never Empty explores the meaning of atheism for religious life, for Communist ideology, and for Soviet politics.