the russian church since the revolution-gp fedotoff-1928-98pgs-rel
TRANSCRIPT
7/27/2019 The Russian Church Since the Revolution-GP Fedotoff-1928-98pgs-REL
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? ' b e ussian Church since
the Xe . 2 7 o l u t i o m
B Y
G. P . FEDOTOFF
LONDONSOCIETY FOR PROMOTINGCHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGENZW YORK AND TORO$TO ; THE MACMILLAN CO.
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F i r i i p n b i i s h . d z 9 a 8
PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BYBILLING AND SON$, LTD . . GUHAFORD AND EBHRR
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APPENDIX
CONTENTSPREFACE
I. THE REVOLUTION OF 1917 AND THE MOSCOW
SOBOR -
I I . SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE
I I I . THE PERSECUTION OF RELIGION
IV. THE "RENOVATION" SCHISM -
V. THE INNER LIFE OF THE ORTHODOX C HURC H-
9
20
32
51
80
P A G E
- 94
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PREFACEAFTER a t o t a l s u s e n s i o n o f n e w s f r o m R u s s i a l a s t i n g
between twenty-fou r an d f orty-eigh t , hours, news
r e a c h e d E n g l a n d o f t h e R e v o l u t i o n a n d t h e a b d i c a t i o n
of the Tsar . I remembe r go ing to my club and
w i t n e s s i n g t h e e n t h u s i a s m o f t h e m e m b e r s : "Havey o u h e a r d t h e g l o r i o u s n e w s f r o m R u s s i a ? " M y s u g -
g e s t i o n t h a t i t w a s a g r e a t d i s a s t e r w a s r e c e i v e d w i t h
p i t y i n g i n c r e d u l i t y , a n d f o r m o n t h s a f t e r w a r d s ' t h e
c e n s o r s h i p i m p o s e d u p o n t h e P r e s s t h e o b l i g a t i o n o f
" w r i t i n g u p " t h e R e v o l u t i o n .
T h r e e m o n t h s l a t e r , i n a ' p o s t c r i p t t o Birkbeck and
the Russian Churc h ( S . P . C .K . , 1 9 1 7 ) , I a t t e m p t e d t o
a p p r a i s e t h e e f f e c t o n t h e C h u r c h o f t h e g r e a t c h a n g e
i n i t s p o s i t i o n . B u t n e i t h e r I n o r a n y o t h e r i n d i v i d u a l '
a t t h a t t i m e c o u l d f o r e s e e t h e e x t e n t o f t h e c a t a s t r o p h e
o r c o u l d b e l i e v e t h a t i t p r e s a g e d t h e m o s t f e r o c i o u s
a t t a c k u p o n C h r i s t i a n i t y t h a t t h e w o r l d h a s e v e r
s e e n .
T h e s u r v i v i n g B i s h o p s o f R u s s i a g e n e r a l l y s p e a k
w i t h q u i e t c o n f i d e n c e o f t h e f u t u r e - t h e y k n o w t h e i r
p e o p l e , a n d t h e f a i l u r e o f t h e B o l s h e v i k s t o t e a r
C h r i s t i a n i t y o u t o f t h e i r h e a r t s i s e v i d e n t ; t h e f r o n t a l
attack on the Church has been largely ab andoned .
T h e m e t h o d s n o w f o l l o w e d a r e m o r e s i n i s t e r , i f l e s s
d i r e c t . I n t h e f i r s t p l a c e , a l l t r a i n i n g o f c a n d i d a t e s f o r
t h e m i n i s t r y h a s b e e n r e n d e r e d i m p o s s i b l e ; w h a t w i l l
h a p p e n w h e n c l e r g y a n d s a c r a m e n t a l i k e d i s a p p e a r ?
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PREFACE
S e c o n d l y , e v e r y e f f o r t h a s b e e n m a d e t o d i v i d e
C h r i s t i a n s , e f f o r t s r e n d e r e d e a s y b y t h e p a r a l y z i n g o f
t h e e p i s c o p a t e : w h e n t h e B i s h o p s a r e o u t o f t h e i r
p r i s o n s o r e x i l e t h e i r a d m i n i s t r a t i o n i s r e n d e r e d i m -
p o s s i b l e. T h e P a t r i a r c h T i k h o n , w h e n a l i v e , w a s s o
a b s o l u t e l y i n t h e h a n d s o f h i s g a o l e r s t h a t n o b o d y o u t -
s i d e , o r e v e n i n s i d e , R u s s i a k n e w w h a t w e i g h t t o g i v e
t o h i s u t t e r a n c e s . H e n c e , n o t o n l y t h e s c h i s m s p r o -
v o ke d i n t h e u n h a p p y c o u n t r y i t s e l f , b u t t h e d i v i s i o n s
among st the e m i g r e s . A l l t h a t w e o f t h e A n g l i c a n
Communion can d o is to sh ow our impartial sym-
p a t h y f o r a l l w h o , i n c i r c u m s t a n c e s o f u n p a r a l l e l e d
d i f f i c u l t y , a r e w o r k i n g f o r t h e s a l v a t i o n o f C h r i s t i a n i t y
i n R u s s i a ; i t w o u l d b e p r e s u m p t u o u s o f u s t o j u d g e
between them . W i t h t h e H i e r a r c h s o f t h e E a s t e r n
C h u r c h r e s t s a g r e a t e r r e s p o n s i b i l i t y , b u t e v e n t h e y ,
a r e c o m p e l l e d t o a c t w i t h c a u t i o n , a n d i t m u s t b e
r e m e m b e r e d t h a t t h e T r e a t y o f L a u s a n n e h a s p l a c e d
t h e ( E c u m e n i c a l P a t r i a r c h h i m s e l f i n a p o s i t i o n o f
v e r y g r e a t d i f f i c u l t y .
T h a t b r i n g s m e t o t h e f i n a l c o n s i d e r a t i o n . W h a t i s
t h e n a t u r e o f t h e f o r c e w h i c h i s m a k i n g t h i s r e l e n t l e s s
a t t a c k , n o t o n l y o n C h r i s t i a n i t y , b u t a g a i n s t t h e v e r y
i d e a o f G o d , i n w i d e l y d i f f e r e n t q u a r t e r s o f t h e g l o b e
- R u s s i a , T u r k e y , M e x i c o ? ' I n w h a t o t h e r c o u n t r i e s
w i l l t h e s a m e a t t a c k a p p e a r ? T h a t i t i s i n a v e r y r e a l
s e n s e s u p e r n a t u r a l i s a b u n d a n t l y d e a r . I s i t t h e
c o m i n g o f A n t i c h r i s t ? And if s o, how will our
p o r t i o n o f t h e C h r i s t i a n f a m i l y s u s t a i n t h e a t t a c k ?
Are we prepa red, like our Russian bro thers a nd
s i s t e r s , t o l a y d o w n o u r l i v e s , i f n e e d b e , f o r H i m
Who b oug ht us with His pr ecio us Blood ?
M o n s i e u r F e d o t o f f w a s e d u c a t e d i n t h e U n i v e r s i t y
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PREFAC E
o f P e t r o g r a d an d w as s u b s e q u e n t l y p r o f e s s o r o f
Mediev al History i n t h e U n i v e r s i t i e s o f S a r a t o f f a n d
P e t r o g r a d . He r emai ne d i n R u s s i a t i l l 1 9 2 5 , a n d
s p e a k s , t h e r e f o r e , w i t h a v e r y c o m p l e t e k n o w l e d g e o f
e i g h t y e a r s o f t h e g r e a t p e r s e c u t i o n . H e b e l o n g s t o
t h a t s e c t i o n o f t h e R u s s i a n C h u r c h i n e x i l e w h i c h i s
g a t h e r e d r o u n d t h e M e t r o p o l i t a n E u l o g i e i n P a r i s ,
a n d s e e s t h i n g s f r o m t h a t p o i n t o f - v i e w ; h e i s n o w
t e a c h i n g i n t h e R u s s i a n T h e o l o g i c a l I n s t i t u t e i n t h a t
c i t y . He m a y b e r e g a r d e d , t h e r e f o r e , a s a c o m p e t e n t
a n d t r u s t w o r t h y w i t n e s s , a n d h e w r i t e s w i t h m o d e r a -
t i o n a n d r e s t r a i n t . I t r u s t h i s l i t t l e w o r k w i l l h a v e a
w i d e c i r c u l a t i o n i n t h i s c o u n t r y .
ATHELSTAN RILEY .
Psxr Rcoe 'r, 1928 .
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I
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THE RUSSIAN C HURC H SINC E
THE REVOLUTION
CHAPTER I
THE REVOLUTION OF 1917 AND THE
MOSCOW- SOBOR
THE d o c t r i n e a n d t h e r i t u a l o f t h e R u s s i a n C h u r c h
h a v e f o r c e n t u r i e s m a i n t a i n e d a b o n d b e t w e e n t h e
C h u r c h a n d t h e s o v e r e i g n p o w e r i n t h e S t a t e . T h i s
w a s p a r t i c u l a r l y t r u e d u r i n g t h e p e r i o d o f t h e a u t o -
c r a t i c m o n a r c h y , w h i c h i n t h e o r y a n d p r a c t i c e w a s a
t h e o c r a c y , w h e r e i n the "a n o i n t e d " T s a r w a s a t o n c e
t h e p o l i t i c a l s o v e r e i g n a n d , like the Byza ntine
e m p e r o r s , t h e r u l e r o f t h e s p i r i t u a l c o m m u n i t y , t h e
Church. When, therefo re, the Revolution of 1917
d e p o s e d t h e T s a r , a g r e a t b r e a c h w a s m a d e n o t o n l y
i n t h e p o l i t i c a l o r g a n i z a t i o n o f t h e S t a t e , b u t i n t h e
d e e p e r c o n c e p t i o n s o f t h e C h u r c h a n d i n i t s r i t u a l ,
for n o loner cou ld the Emperor's name be re-
m e m b e r e d a t ' t h e a p p o i n t e d p l a c e s i n t h e s e r v i c e , a n d
no "Prov isio nal Gove rnment" or elected co uncil
c o u l d p o s s i b l y b e c o n s i d e r e d a s u b s t i t u t e o r s u c -
c e s s o r t o t h i s h a l f - s p i r i t u a l , h a l f - p o l i t i c a l p o s i t i o n .
T h e r e i s a l l t h e m o r e r e a s o n f o r a s t o n i s h m e n t t h a t
t h e C h u r c h s h o u l d s o q u i c k l y a d a p t i t s e l f t o n e w
c o n d i t i o n s a n d s o l o y a l l y a c c e p t t h e n e w a u t h o r i t y .
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THE RUSSIAN C HURC H SINC E THE REVOLUTION
I n e x p l a n a t i o n , o f t h i s f a c t o n e m u s t p o i n t t o t w o
c i r c u m s t a n c e s . I n t h e f i r s t p l a c e , t h e R u s s i a n C h u r c h ,
n o t w i t h s t a n d i n g i t s c o n n e c t i o n w i t h t h e G o v e r n m e n t ,
or, indeed, because:of this connection, was no n-
p o l i t i c a l . T h e r e , w a s n o c l e r i c a l p a r t y i n t h e p o l i t i c a l
a r e n a . G r a n t i n g " unto Caesa r the things that are
C a e s a r ' s , " t h e C h u r c h m a d e n o a t t e m p t t o i n f l u e n c e
p o l i t i c a l p o l i c i e s , b u t r e s t e d c o n t e n t w i t h t h e s t r e n g t h
affo rded by State protection. An ex cep tion mus t
n e c e s s a r i l y b e m a d e o f a f e w i n d i v i d u a l b i s h o p s a n d
p r i e s t s . Unde r the last Tsar, a fe w bi sho ps en -
deav oured to save the - regime from the oncoming
r e v o l u t i o n b y l e n d i n g t h e i r s u p p o r t t o p a r t i e s o f t h e
extreme rig ht-the Unio n o f the Russian People,
a n d o t h e r s . T h e n a m e s o f t h e s e h i e r a r c h s w e r e k n o w n
t o a l l R u s s i a , b u t t h e y n e i t h e r r e p r e s e n t e d n o r h a d
had gre at influence o n the Chu rch . The Rus si an
p r i e s t r e t a i n e d h i s a g e - l o n g c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s ; m o d e s t ,
s i m p l e , e v e n s u b m i s s i v e , h e o c c u p i e d h i m s e l f a l m o s t
e x c l u s i v e l y w i t h s e r v i c e s o f w o r s h i p , n o t a t t e m p t i n g
t o i n f l u e n c e s o c i a l o r p o l i t i c a l l i f e . Hence the Russi an
r a d i c a l i n t e l l i g e n t z i a , t h o u g h l a r g e l y a t h e i s t i c , w a s
quite wi thout hostility to the Churc h, and even
looked upo n the clergy ; a n d c e r e m o n i e s w i t h t o l e r a -
t i o n a n d a c e r t a i n d e g r e e o f r e v e r e n c e .
T h e s e c o n d r e a s o n f o r t h e C h u r c h ' s u n d i s t u r b e d l y
a c c e p t i n g t h e r e v o l u t i o n l a y i n t h e f a c t t h a t t h e m o r a l
breakdown of the regime during the last few years
h a d t o u c h e d t h e C h u r c h i n i t s w e a k e s t p l a c e . I t w a s
a s e c r e t t o n o o n e t h a t t h e a p p o i n t m e n t o f b i s h o p s ,
even the v ery membershi p of the Holy Synod , wa s
e f f e c t e d b y t h e i n f l u e n c e o f R a s p u t i n , w h o w a s a l l -
p o w e r f u l a t C o u r t , S u c h a l o w e r i n g o f t h e p o s i t i o n
1 0
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REVOLUTION OF1 9 1 7 ,
AND THE MOSCOW SOEORo f the Church was u nbearable even to the most
fanatical defenders of the autocracy among t h e
bish ops, such as Hermogen an d Theop han .
O f t h e W h i t e ( m a r r i e d ) c l e r g y , a b o u t a h u n d r e d
b e l o n g e d =to a small democra tic gr oup wh ich en -
t h u s i a s t i c a l l y w e l c o m e d t h e r e v o l u t i o n . There were
o t h e r s w h o l o n g h a d s h a r e d t h e l i b e r a t i n g a s p i r a t i o n s
o f t h e i n t e l l i g e n t z i a , u n i t i n g w i t h t h e m i n t h i s
s t r u g g l e a s e a r l y a s I 9 o 5 , a n d m e e t i n g w i t h t h e m f o r
a n u m b e r o f y e a r s i n t h e l i b e r a l " R e l i g i o u s P h i l o -
s o p h i c a l S o c i e t y . " I m m e d i a t e l y a f t e r t h e o v e r t h r o w
o f t h e o l d r 6 g i m e , t h e r e w a s o r g a n i z e d i n P e t r o g r a d
"T h e U n i o n o f D e m o c r a t i c C l e r g y , " w h i c h c o n d u c t e d
C h r i s t i a n p r o p a g a n d a a m o n g t h e r e v o l u t i o n a r y w o r k -
m e n i n t h e s u b u r b s , a n d w r o t e o n t h e i r b a n n e r " A
f r e e Ch u r c h i n a f r e e S t a t e . " I n m a n y p r o v i n c i a l c i t i e s
t h e o l d a n t a g o n i s m o f t h e p a r i s h c l e r g y , p r i n c i p a l l y
v i l l a g e p r i e s t s , t o t h e m o n a s t i c e p i s c o p a c y c a m e o u t
into the o pen . In stormy dioces an, con fere nces
d e a c o n s a n d r e a d e r s b o l d l y b r o u g h t u p t h e o f f e n c e s
o f t h e i r " L o r d s h i p s , " w h o b u t y e s t e r d a y h a d i n s p i r e d
o n l y f e a r ; i n s o m e p l a c e s t h e y r e m o v e d t h e i r s u p e r i o r s ,
b a s i n g t h e i r a c t i o n o n t h e r i g h t o f t h e c o m m u n i t i e s
t o e l e c t t h e i r o w n b i s h o p s , a s h a d b e e n g r a n t e d b y t h e
r e v o l u t i o n , a n d w h i c h , i n p r i n c i p l e , w a s e n t i r e l y
c a n o n i c a l . I n some places the bishops were even
a r r e s t e d . T h e P r o v i s i o n a l G o v e r n m e n t , i n t h e p e r s o n
o f i t s O b e r - p r o c u r o r o f t h e S y n o d , V . N . L v o f f ( n o t
to be c onf used with the hea d of the Gove rnment,
Prin ce G . E . L v o f f ) , t o o k u p o n i t s e l f t h e t a s k o f
" c l e a n s i n g " t h e e p i s c o p a c y a n d t h e H o l y S y n o d o f
R a s p u t i n i t e s a n d e x t r e m e m o n a r c h i s t s . I t is more
t h a n d o u b t f u l w h e t h e r t h e P r o v i s i o n a l G o v e r n m e n t
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hE RUSSIAN C HURC H SINC E THE REVOLUTION
h a d c a n o n i c a l a u t h o r i t y f o r t h i s . The Ober -pro cu ro r
o f t h e o l d r e g i m e r e p r e s e n t e d i n t h e C h u r c h t h e s a c r e d
person of the Tsar. The de pendence of the Chur ch
u p o n a n e n t i r e l y n o n - e c c l e s i a s t i c a l , l i b e r a l , a n d r e -
publican (becoming more and more socialistic)
g o v e r n m e n t w a s a p a r a d o x , o f f e n s i v e t o e c c l e s i a s t i c a l
c o n c e p t i o n s , e v e n t h o u g h p e r h a p s p o l i t i c a l l y u n a v o i d -
a b l e . Thes e eve nts, the ha rd h and o f the Ober-pro-
c u r o r a n d t h e a p p e a r a n c e o f c l a s s a n t a g o n i s m w i t h i n
t h e c l e r g y , s e r i o u s l y d a m p e n e d t h e j o y o f r e g a i n e d
freedo m for the Church, which so many Othodox
people experienced during the first d a y s of the
r e v o l u t i o n .
This move ment, just mentioned abov e, co ntained
t h e s e e d o f t h e f u t u r e C h u r c h s c h i s m .
T h e r e v o l u t i o n _ p e n e t r a t e d t h e l i f e o f t h e n a t i o n ,
t a k i n g o n m o r e a n d m o r e t h e a p p e a r a n c e o f a n a r c h y .
I t b e c a m e c l e a r t h a t , f o r t h e a r m y , t h e c h i e f m e a n i n g
o f t h e o v e r t h r o w l a y i n t h e c o n c l u s i o n o f p e a c e , - r e -
g a r d l e s s o f c o s t . . . P e a s a n t s s e i z e d t h e l a n d o f t h e
l a n d l o r d s , i n some places killing the propr ietors .
W o r k m e n d e m a n d e d t h e n a t i o n a l i z a t i o n o f f a c t o r i e s .
I n t h e c i t i e s m o b s o f d e s e r t e r s i n s o l d i e r s ' u n i f o r m s
r e i g n e d ; m u r d e r s , r o b b e r i e s , c r i m e s o f a l l s o r t w e r e
c o m m i t t e d t h r o u g h o u t t h e c o u n t r y p r a c t i c a l l y w i t h o u t
punishment . I n t h e m i d s t o f t h e g e n e r a l b r e a k d o w n ,
the, Commun ist Party, - heade d by Lenin, pr essed
f o r w a r d f o r t h e s e i z u r e o f a u t h o r i t y , p r o m i s i n g t o t h e
m a s s e s p e a c e , l a n d , a n d b r e a d .
I t w as i n s u c h c i r c u m s t a n c e s t h a t t h e e l e c t i o n s t o t h e
All Russ ian Chu rch « Sob or" (Coun cil) too k place .
The Russian Church had ha d no Sobor during the
w h o l e p e r i o d o f t h e E m p i r e , t h e l a s t S o b o r b e i n g i n
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REVOLUTION OF 1917 AND THE MOSCOW SOBOR
x666 . T h e r e s t o r a t i o n o f t h e c o n c i l i a r b a s i s i n t h e
C h u r c h h a d l o n g b e e n t h e w a t c h w o r d o f l i b e r a l s a n d
S l a v o p h i l e s , a n d c o r r e s p o n d e d w i t h t h e d e e p e s t c o n c e p -
t i o n s o f t h e C h u r c h . I n i 9 o 5 the Emperor, making a
c o n c e s s i o n t o c e r t a i n C h u r c h c i r c l e s , r e c o g n i z e d t h e
n e c e s s i t y o f c a l l i n g a g e n e r a l S o b o r o f t h e R u s s i a n
Church . T h e o r g a n i z i n g c o m m i t t e e w o r k e d f o r m a n y ' -
y e a r s , b u t b e f o r e ' l o n g i t b e c a m e c l e a r t h a t t h e o b j e c t
o f t h e b u r e a u c r a c y w a s t o b u r y t h e S o b o r , i n w h i c h i t
s a w d a n g e r s o f l i b e r a l i s m . A s a m a t t e r o f f a c t , w h e n
t h e e l e c t i o n s t o t h e S o b o r t o o k p l a c e , in the s ummer
O f 1 9 1 7 , t h e g e n e r a l a t t i t u d e o f Orthod ox R u s s i a ' w a s
r a t h e r c o n s e r v a t i v e , a m o n g t h e p e a s a n t s a s W e l l a s i n
t h e b r o a d m a s s o f t h e"
b o u r g e o i s i e " a n d n a t i o n a l l y
i n c l i n e d i n t e l l i g e n t z i a .
The Sob or o pene d in Mos cow on August 15,'
1917. The "def t" gro up i n the C hur ch, r e p r e -
s e n t e d b y p r i e s t s a n d p r o f e s s o r s o f t h e T h e o l o g i c a l
A c a d e m i e s , f o u n d i t s e l f g r e a t l y i n t h e m i n o r i t y . The
b a l a n c e w a s o n t h e s i d e o f t h e m o d e r a t e a n d r i g h t .
I t w o u l d b e w r o n g t o a s s e r t t h a t t h e S o b o r w a s c o n -
t r o l l e d b y t h e " r i g h t , j 1 h e a d e d b y ' t h e w e l l - k n o w n
Anthony Khra povi tsky, Archb isho p of Kharkoff,
f o r m e r l y o f V o l h y n i a . T h e i n f l u e n c e o f t h i s b i s h o p ,
o n e o f t h e m o s t l e a r n e d a n d t a l e n t e d i n t h e R u s s i a n
C h u r c h , w a s o f c o u r s e g r e a t , b u t t h e d o m i n a t i n g i n -
f l u e n c e u n q u e s t i o n a b l y b e l o n g e d t o t h e c e n t r e , l e d
by a gro up of dev oted laymen, such as Professo r
S . N . B u l g a k o f f ( n o w a p r i e s t ) a n d P r o f e s s o r E . N .
T r u b e t z k o y ( d e c e a s e d ) , w e l l - k n o w n p h i l o s o p h e r s a n d
i T h i s , i s t h e a t t i t u d e o f P r o f es s o r B . V . T i t l i n o f f i n h i s b o o k ,
"Th e C h u r c h d u r i n g the Revolution," pp . 68 a n d 91-9a . ,
Petrograd X924 .
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THE RUSSIAN CHURCH SINC E THE REVOLUTION
t h e o l o g i a n s o f the new sc hool . As regard s both
C h u r c h a n d p o l i t i c s , t h e y m u s t b e p l a c e d a m o n g t h e
m o d e r a t e l i b e r a l s , n e a r t o t h e C o n s t i t u t i o n a l D e m o -
c r a t i c P a r t y ( C a d e t ) . T h e b i s h o p s i n t h e S o b o r , m o r e
i n c l i n e d t o t h e r i g h t , f o u n d s u p p o r t i n t h e p e a s a n t s ,
w h o s e r e p r e s e n t a t i o n g a v e d e m o c r a t i c c h a r a c t e r t o t h e
Sob or . C e r t a i n l y t h e r e w a s a w i d e g u l f b e t w e e n t h e
conser vative, Orthodox peasants and those who at
that time wer e bur nin g- the estate hou ses o f the
gentry .
T h e S o b o r s a t f o r a l o n g t i m e , a d j o u r n i n g i n t h e
f a l l o f 1 9 1 8 , i n t h e m i d s t o f t h e f i g h t i n g o f t h e C i v i l
W a r , w i t h i t s w o r k u n f i n i s h e d . H o w e v e r , i t d e l i n e -
a t e d a n d i n p a r t e f f e c t e d a b r o a d p r o g r a m m e o f r e -
f o r m i n C h u r c h a d m i n i s t r a t i o n w h i c h r e f l e c t s a s p i r i t
o f m o d e r a t e l i b e r a l i s m . T h e p r i n c i p a l r e s u l t s w e r e t h e
democratizing of the paris h administrations, the
d r a w i n g o f l a y m e n i n t o a c t i v e p a r t i c i p a t i o n i n C h u r c h
l i f e , s u c h a s i n t h e s e l e c t i o n o f t h e i r p a s t o r s , a n d t h e
e s t a b l i s h m e n t o f t h e c o n c i l i a r b a s i s i n t h e h i g h e r
C h u r c h a d m i n i s t r a t i o n . M a n y o f t h e s e e c c l e s i a s t i c a l
r e f o r m s f a i l e d o f r e a l i z a t i o n b e c a u s e o f t h e b e g i n n i n g
of Communist persecution of the Church .
But the pri nci pal achi ev ement of the Sob or w as
u n q u e s t i o n a b l y t h e r e s t o r a t i o n o f t h e P a t r i a r c h a t e .
T h e P a t r i a r c h a t e i n R u s s i a , i t w i l l b e r e m e m b e r e d ,
was a band oned by Peter the Great, and replaced by
t h e H o l y S y n o d , c o n s i s t i n g o f b i s h o p s a p p o i n t e d b y
the Tsa r. Befo re the revo lution the id ea of the
r e s t o r a t i o n o f t h e P a t r i a r c h a t e w a s s u p p o r t e d i n e p i s -
c o p a l c i r c l e s b y t h o s e w h o l o n g e d f o r C h u r c h i n d e -
pendence. This mo vemen t was s timulated lar gely b y
Metropolitan Anthony Khr apov itzky, and w as no t
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REVOLUTION OF 1917 AND THE MOSCOWSOBORp o p u l a r a n i o n t h e l i b e r a l s . T h e d e f e n d e r s o f " s o b o r -
n o s t j " ( c o n ' a r i t y ) ' ; f e a r e d t h a t i n t h e p e r s o n o f t h e
P a t r i a r c h t h e r e w o u l d b e a d e s p o t i c h e a d f o r t h e
Church . B u t i n t h e f a l l o f1 9 1
7 t h e s i t u a t i o n w a s
s u c h t h a t t h e i d e a o f a P a t r i a r c h u n i t e d p r a c t i c a l l y
the who le of Orthodox Russia . In the Gov er nmen t
t h e r e w a s l i t t l e a u t h o r i t y , .and the Churc h without
q u e s t i o n f a c e d a b i t t e r c u p o f a d v e r s i t y . I n a y e a r o f
o r a l t u r m o i l i t w a s n e c e s s a r y t o p u t t h e , c a r e o f
e C h u r c h i n s t r o n g h a n d s , t o f i n d l e a d e r s a r o u n d
w h o m i t w o u l d b e p o s s i b l e t o u n i t e p e r s e c u t e d
Orthod oxy .
The October (Nov ember ) Revolution o blig ed the
S o b o r t o h a s t e n t h e e l e c t i o n o f t h e P a t r i a r c h . Th e
s o l e m n c e r e m o n y o f e l e c t i o n t o o k p l a c e t o t h e t h u n d e r
o f c a n n o n , f o r t h e B o l s h e v i k s w e r e b o m b a r d i n g t h e
K r e m l i n , which was defended by a band o f j u n k e r s
remainin g loyal to the Prov isio nal Gov ern ment .
T h r e e c a n d i d a t e s w e r e c h o s e n b y b a l l o t , a n d o f t h e s e
o n e w a s t o b e e l e c t e d b y l o t . T h e S o b o r l e f t t h e , f i n a l
s e l e c t i o n t o t h e w i l l o f G o d , a n d a r e v e r e d s t a r e t z -
a monk ho nour ed b y the who le of Mosco w--drew
fro m the u rn the na me of Tikhon (Belavin), the
Metropolitan of Mosco w . Anthony , wh o wa s the
f a v o u r i t e c a n d i d a t e f o r t h e P a t r i a r c h a t e , a n d w h o e v e n
r e c e i v e d a m a j o r i t y o f v o t e s i n t h e b a l l o t , w a s d i s -
a p o i n t e d i n h i s e x p e c t a t i o n s .
e o n e o n w h o m t h e l o t f e l l h a d i n n o w a y b e e n
d i s t i n g u i s h e d a m o n g t h e b i s h o p s , e i t h e r b y l e a r n i n g
o r b y o r a t o r y , b y a s c e t i c i s m o r b y p o l i t i c a l i n f l u e n c e .
M o d e s t a n d u n a s s u m i n g , h e c o n q u e r e d e v e r y o n e w h o
knew him by his goo dness and amiability . S e v e r a l
y e a r s o f s e r v i c e i n A m e r i c a h a d b r o a d e n e d h i s a d -
i s
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THE RtIS'3' IAN CHURCH SINC E THE REVOLUTION
m i n i s t r a t i v e e x p e r i e n c e , b u t h e r e m a i n e d a b o v e a l l
a h u m b l e a n d s i m p l e p a s t o r o f t h e h u m i l i t y - l o v i n g
R u s s i a n Church . I t w o u l d h a v e b e e n d i f f i c u l t f o r t h e
C h u r c h t o f i n d a b e t t e r r e p r e s e n t a t i v e o f h e r r e a l
s p i r i t u a l c h a r a c t e r . D o u b t l e s s t h i s a c c o u n t s f o r t h e
e x t r a o r d i n a r y l o v e o f t h e p e o p l e f o r t h e P a t r i a r c h .
H a v i n g e l e c t e d t h e P a t r i a r c h , t h e S o b o r d i d n o t
l e a v e h i m c o m p l e t e a u t h o r i t y o v e r t h e R u s s i a n C h u r c h .
H e w a s o b l i g e d t o a d m i n i s t e r i t i n c o l l a b o r a t i o n w i t h
a S y n o d a n d a H i g h e r C h u r c h C o u n c i l . F u r t h e r m o r e ,
e v e r y t w o y e a r s a N a t i o n a l S o b o r w a s t o b e c a l l e d ,
. w h i c h m i g h t e v e n i m p e a c h t h e P a t r i a r c h . F i n a l l y ,
b e f o r e a d j o u r n i n g , t h e S o b o r e v e n l a i d d o w n t h e m a i n
l i n e s o f r e l a t i o n s h i p s t o t h e n e w B o l s h e v i k G o v e r n -
ment . A t t h a t t i m e t h e s e r e l a t i o n s h i p s c o u l d n o t b u t
b e e x c e e d i n g l y t e n s e . T h e n e w r e v o l u t i o n a r y p o w e r ,
a s - d i s t i n g u i s h e d f r o m t h e P r o v i s i o n a l G o v e r n m e n t ,
f r o m t h e v e r y b e g i n n i n g m a i n t a i n e d a n i n i m i c a l a t t i -
tude toward s the Chur ch . A n t i c i p a t i n g t h e g e n e r a l
c o n s t i t u t i o n a l p r o v i s i o n r e g a r d i n g t h e s e p a r a t i o n o f
C h u r c h ' a n d S t a t e , a s e r i e s o f d e c r e e s w a s i s s u e d , b e -
g i n n i n g i n D e c e m b e r ,1 9 1 7 ,
d e s t r o y i n g t h e e c o n o m i c
b a s i s o f C h u r c h e x i s t e n c e : t h e d e c r e e o f D e c e m b e r 4
c o n f i s c a t i n g a l l C h u r c h l a n d e d p r o p e r t i e s ( a l o n g w i t h
a l l p r i v a t e d o m a i n s ) , o f December i i withdraw ing
a l l s c h o o l s f r o m t h e C h u r c h ( i n c l u d i n g t h e t h e o l o g i c a l
p r o f e s s i o n a l s c h o o l s ) , o f D e c e m b e r 1 8 i n s t i t u t i n g c i v i l
m a r r i a g e a n d ` t u r n i n g o v e r t h e r e g i s t r y b o o k s t o t h e
Gov ern ment . I n J a n u a r y , 1 9 1 8 , a l l G o v e r n m e n t s u b -
s i d i e s f o r t h e s u p p o r t o f t h e C h u r c h a n d i t s i n s t i t u -
t i o n s w e r e d i s c o n t i n u e d .
H o w e v e r , t h e p r i n c i p a l f a c t o r l a y n o t i n t h e s e
d e c r e e s , b u t r a t h e r i n t h e g e n e r a l a t h e i s t i c i d e o l o g y
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REVOLUTION OP ! 9 1 7 AND THE MOSCOW SOBORo f t h e , n e w G o v e r n m e n t a n d i n t h e v i o l e n t c h a r a c t e r
o f i t s d i c t a t o r s h i p . The Provisio nal Gov ern ment h a d
j u s t b e e n o v e r t h r o w n b y t h e s o l d i e r s a n d s a i l o r s o f
the, Petro md g a r r i s o n . I n t h e b e g i n n i n g o f J a n u a r y
t h e C o n s t i t u e n t A s s e m b l y , c h o s e n i n g e n e r a l e l ec t i o n s ,
w a s d i s p e r s e d . T h e p o w e r f o r t h e w h o l e c o u n t r y w a s
seized by the Sovi ets of Worker s an d Soldiers '
D e p u t i e s - a c t u a l l y b a n d s o f d e s e r t e r s a n d o f w o r k -
me n "Red g uar ds . " T h e c e n t r a l p o w e r , t h e S o v i e t o f
P e o p l e ' s C o m m i s s a r s , p o s s e s s e d n o a d m i n i s t r a t i v e
a p p a r a t u s , a n d h a d n o a u t h o r i t y i n t h e p r o v i n c e s .
T h e o f f i c i a l s a n d i n t e l l i g e n t z i a b o y c o t t e d i t , w h e r e a s
t h e w o r k e r s a n d s o l d i e r s p u t i n t o i m m e d i a t e e f f e c t
t h e d i c t a t o r s h i p o f t h e p r o l e t a r i a t , w o r k i n g u p c l a s s
h a t r e d t o w a r d s t h e i n t e l l i g e n t z i a , w h i c h w a s c a l l e d
" b o u r g e o i s " N o o n e s e r i o u s l y b e l i e v e d i n t h e p e r -
manence of the new po wer, w hich he ld out to the
p e o p l e w h a t a p p e a r e d t o b e t h e m o s t U t o p i a n w a t c h -
w o r d s : s o c i a l i s m a n d s e p a r a t e p e a c e . The re is
n o t h i n g a s t o n i s h i n g i n t h e f a c t t h a t t h e O c t o b e r
R e v o l u t i o n w a s c o n s i d e r e d b y p r a c t i c a l l y t h e w h o l e
o f t h e i n t e l l i g e n t z i a a s t h e d o w n f a l l o f R u s s i a , a s t h e
l a s t c o n v u l s i v e a c t o f t h e r e v o l u t i o n b e f o r e G e r m a n
o c c u p a t i o n . And it wa s n atural that the Mosc ow
S o b o r s h o u l d a l s o b e t o u c h e d by t h i s p o l i t i c a l ' a t t i t u d e .
On Nov embe r x I i t a d d r e s s e d t o t h e p e o p l e a p r o -
c l a m a t i o n c a l l i n g f o r r e p e n t a n c e a n d a r e t u r n t o t h e
w a y o f C h r i s t . R e f e r r i n g t o t h e b o m b a r d i n g o f t h e
K r e m l i n a s a"
b l a s p h e m o u s c r i m e a g a i n s t t h e O r t h o -
d o x f a i t h a s w e l l a s a g a i n s t t h e O r t h o d o x p e o p l e a n d
i t s h i s t o r y , " t h e p r o c l a m a t i o n p o i n t e d t o t h e"
r e -
s p o n s i b i l i t y o f t h e s e d u c e r s a n d l e a d e r s w h o . were
p o i s o n i n g t h e h e a r t o f t h e p e o p l e b y t e a c h i n g s d e n y -
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RUSSIAN CHURCH; SINCE THE REVOLUTION'
i n g f a i t h i n C o d , p l a n t i n g e n v y , g r e e d , a n d r a p a c i o u s -
n e s s ." "The Russia n nation i s be ing d estroy ed b y
t h i s d e m o n i a c a l g o d l e s s n e s s . "On No v e m b e r I ' 7 , having r eference to the
Bolshevi k propo sal of peace to Germany, the Sobo r
a c c e p t e d a n o t h e r p r o c l a m a t i o n i n w h i c h i t i s s t a t e d ,
" t h a t t h e p e r s o n s s p e a k i n g i n t h e n a m e o f t h e R u s s i a n
n a t i o n i n i n t e r n a t i o n a l a f f a i r s a r e n o t t h e f r e e l y e l e c t e d
r e p r e s e n t a t i v e s o f t h e p o p u l a t i o n , n o r d o t h e y r e p r e -
s e n t t h e m i n d a n d w i l l o f t h e n a t i o n , w h e r e f o r e t h e y
canno t be consid ered authorized to conduct peace
n e g o t i a t i o n s . " T h e p a r t i c i p a t i o n o f the Church i n
politics w as en tirely un avoi dable at that moment .
O n e c a n s a y w i t h o u t q u e s t i o n t h a t t h i s p r o c l a m a t i o n
o f t h e S o b o r r e p r e s e n t e d e x a c t l y t h e c o n v i c t i o n o f
t h e e n t i r e R u s s i a n n a t i o n , i f o n e m e a n s b y n a t i o n t h e
w i d e r a n g e o f t h e e d u c a t e d c l a s s e s , w i t h o u t r e g a r d t o
p o l i t i c a l p a r t i e s . I t i s t r u e t h a t , i n t h e p r o c l a m a t i o n
w h i c h h a s b e e n q u o t e d , t h e S o b o r s p o k e i n t h e n a m e
o f " o n e h u n d r e d m i l l i o n O r t h o d o x p e o p l e , " a n d t h i s
was a mistake . But in November , 1917, i n Mo s c o w
no one could suspect how deeply the watchwords of
the Bolsheviks h ad penetrated, thanks to the d e-
m o b i l i z i n g a r m y , i n t o t h e v e r y d e p t h s o f t h e h u n d r e d
million Orthodox peasants .
A n d i t w a s n o t a p e r s o n a l a c t , n o r d i d t h e P a t r i a r c h
Tikhon take upon himself the role of leader of
c o u n t e r - r e v o l u t i o n w h e n , e n t i r e l y i n t h e s p i r i t o f t h i s
p r o c l a m a t i o n o f t h e S o b o r , h e p l a c e d a n a n a t h e m a o n
t h e B o l s h e v i k s f o r " p e r s e c u t i n g t h e T r u t h o f C h r i s t ,
f o r d a i l y a n d i n b e a s t l y m a n n e r d e s t r o y i n g e n t i r e l y
i n n o c e n t p e o p l e ." Reco unting the nu merou s acts of
v i o l e n c e a g a i n s t t h e C h u r c h , t h e P a t r i a r c h c a l l e d t h e
i s
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REVOLUTION OF 1917 AND THE MOSCOW SOBORf a i t h f u l ~ ~ t o r i s e u p i n d e f e n c e ' c r f t h e i n s u l t e d a n d
oppressed Church, even to s u f f e r f o r t h e c a u s e o f
C h r i s t i f n e c e s s a r y . "
T h i s f a m o u s p r o c l a m a t i o n o f t h e P a t r i a r c h i s d a t e d
J a n u a r y x g , I g I g . I n o r d e r c o r r e c t l y t o a s s e s s i t s
- m e a n i n g , i t i s n e c e s s a r y t o t a k e i n t o c o n s i d e r a t i o n t h e
f a c t t h a t i n i t , t h e " , B o l s h e v i k s " - a r e n o t ; d e f i n i t e l y
mentioned , that excommunication from the C hurch
w a s p a s s e d n o t u p o n d e f i n i t e i n d i v i d u a l s o r g r o u p s o f
i n d i v i d u a l s , b u t u p o n " t h e o u t c a s t o f m a n k i n d ." Ye t
i t w a s n o t d i f f i c u l t t o s u r m i s e w h o m t h e P a t r i a r c h
had in mind . He op enly s poke of the p o w e r which
"dis playe d ;unrestrained self-will and continuous
v i o l e n c e a g a i n s t e v e r y o n e ." This i nd efi nite exc om-
m u n i c a t i o n c o u l d n o t h a v e s t r i c t ` c a n o n i c a l e f f e c t . On
n o o c c a s i o n d i d a n y p r i e s t r e f u s e t h e s a c r a m e n t s o f t h e
s e r v i c e s t o C o m m u n i s t s w h o t u r n e d t o t h e C h u r c h ( a n d
t h e r e w e r e s u c h , e s p e c i a l l y a m o n g t h e s o l d i e r s ) . Th e
"ana thema" of the Patriarc h wa s in f act only_ the
energetic expression o f religious and, moral c o n -
demnation.n d i n t h i s j u d g m e n t t h e e n t i r e R u s s i a n '
Church s tood behin d the Patriarch .
I n 1 9 1 8 , however, the Church - no longer r e p r e -
s e n t e d t h e w h o l e R u s s i a n p e o p l e . A g a i n s t t h e b a c k -
g r o u n d o f t h e t e r r i b l e e v e n t s t a k i n g p l a c e i n t h e C i v i l
W a r , t h e a c t i v i t i e s o f t h e S o b o r r e m a i n e d c o m p a r e =
t i v e l y , unnoticed by the broad masses o f t h e p e o p l e .
S e v e r a l t i m e s s u s p e n d i n g i t s w o r k a n d h a v i n g b y n o
m e a n s f i n i s h e d i t , t h e S o b o r a d j o u r n e d i n t h e f a l l o f
x 9 x 8 , p l a c i n g - u p o n t h e P a t r i a r c h T i k h o n t h e h e a v y
b u r d e n o f a u t h o r i t y i n t h e C h u r c h , a t t h e m o m e n t o f
t h e v e r y s h a r p e s t r e v o l u t i o n a r y c r i s i s .
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CHAPTER I T
SEPARATION OF CHURC H AND STATE
THE d e c r e e r e g a r d i n g t h e s e p a r a t i o n o f C h u r c h a n d
State was publishe d on Janua ry 2 3 , 1 9 1 8 . I t c o n -
s i s t e d o f t h i r t e e n a r t i c l e s , t h e m a j o r p a r t o f w h i c h
o n l y d e f i n e d t h e s t a t u s n e c e s s a r i l y c o n s e q u e n t u p o n
t h e n e w s e c u l a r i z e d f o r m o f g o v e r n m e n t . I n p r i n c i p l e
i t p r o c l a i m e d f r e e d o m o f c o n s c i e n c e a n d f r e e d o m o f
f a i t h . A r t i c l e 2 s t a t e d : " W i t h i n t h e c o n f i n e s o f t h e
R e p u b l i c i t i s f o r b i d d e n t o p a s s a n y l o c a l l a w s , o r
' i s s u e d e c r e e s , w h i c h m a y h i n d e r o r l i m i t t h e f r e e d o m
o f c o n s c i e n c e . " A r t i c l e 3 s t a t e d : "Ever y c itizen may
c o n f e s s a n y r e l i g i o n o r m a y c o n f e s s n o r e l i g i o n ; e v e r y
l o s s o f l e g a l r i g h t s c o n n e c t e d w i t h t h e c o n f e s s i n g
o f a n y f a i t h o r c o n f e s s i n g o f n o f a i t h i s a b o l i s h e d . "
A r t i c l e S s t a t e d : " T h e f r e e p r a c t i c e o f r e l i g i o u s c e r e -
m o n i e s i s g u a r a n t e e d i n s o f a r a s i t d o e s n o t i n t e r f e r e
w i t h s o c i a l o r d e r . "
N e v e r t h e l e s s , t h e d e c r e e d i d n o t c o n s i s t e n t l y s u s -
t a i n t h i s l i b e r a l a t t i t u d e . F o u r o f i t s a r t i c l e s e n -
c r o a c h e d u p o n e s s e n t i a l r i g h t s o f t h e C h u r c h , b i n d i n g
i t s a c t i v i t i e s h a n d a n d f o o t . A r t i c l e1 3
p r o c l a i m e d a l l
p r o p e r t y o f t h e c h u r c h e s a n d o f c h u r c h s o c i e t i e s t o
b e t h e p o s s e s s i o n , o f t h e p e o p l e . A r t i c l e I i f o r b a d e
" o b l i g a t o r y c o l l e c t i o n s a n d a s s e s s m e n t s o n b e h a l f o f
c h u r c h s o c i e t i e s . " A n d A r t i c l e I 2 . r e a d s : ; , " No chu rch
or religio us soci eties have the righ t to posse ss
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$ PAAATION OP C HURC H . AND STATE
p r o p e r t y . The y d o . n o t h a v e t h e r i g h t o f j u r i d i c a l
p e r s o n s . "
In accor dance w ith the wording o f t h e l a s t
a r t i c l e , a l l e c o n o m i c a c t i v i t i e s o f t h e p a r i s h e s w e r e i n
f a c t r e n d e r e d i m p o s s i b l e . They could n ot have a
r e g u l a r b u d g e t , c o u l d n o t p r e p a r e e s t i m a t e s ( e . g . , f o r
r e p a i r o f b u i l d i n g s ) , d i d n o t h a v e e v e n t h e r i g h t o f
a s s e s s i n g t h e m s e l v e s . A r t i c l e 1 3 a p p r o p r i a t e d f r o m
t h e c h u r c h e s e v e n c h u r c h b u i l d i n g s a n d c h u r c h v e s s e l s ,
a l t h o u g h t h e n a t i o n a l i z a t i o n p r o c e d u r e w a s c i r c u m -
s c r i b e b y t h e f o l l o w i n g l i m i t a t i o n : " B u i l d i n g s a n d
o b je c t s u s e d s p e c i f i c a l l y f o r p u r p o s e s o f w o r s h i p s h a l l
b e a s s i g n e d b y s p e c i a l d e c r e e o f t h e l o c a l o r c e n t r a l ,
a u t h o r i t i e s f o r f r e e u s e b y t h e r e s p e c t i v e r e l i g i o u s
s o c i e t i e s ." The in def inite wor ding of t h i s a r t i c l e
t h r e a t e n e d e v e n t h e c o n d u c t i n g o f C h u r c h ' s e r v i c e s ,
and made m e n f e a r t h e w o r s t : W h a t i f t h e o r g a n s o f
G o v e r n m e n t s h o u l d r e f u s e t o i s s u e t h e n e c e s s a r y d e -
c r e e s o f a s s i g n m e n t ?
A n d , f i n a l l y , t h e g r e a t e s t a n x i e t y w a s c r e a t e d b y
A r t i c l e , 9 , w h i c h e n c r o a c h e d e v e n o n t h e s p i r i t u a l
a c t i v i t y , o f t h e C h u r c h . "The scho ol is separated
fro m the Church . R e l i g i o u s i n s t r u c t i o n i s f o r b i d d e n
i n a l l g o v e r n m e n t a n d p u b l i c s c h o o l s , a s w e l l a s i n
p r i v a t e s c h o o l s w h e r e g e n e r a l e d u c a t i o n a l s u b j e c t s a r e
t a u g h t . C i t i z e n s may t e a c h a n d b e t a u g h t r e l i g i o n
p r i v a t e l y
T h i s a r t i c l e f o r b a d e e v e n p r i v a t e , v o l u n t a r y r e -
l i g i o u s i n s t r u c t i o n i n t h e s c h o o l , w h i c h p a r e n t s ' c o m -
m i t t e e s e v e r y w h e r e i n s i s t e d u p o n . On the v er y d a y
o f t h e p u b l i s h i n g o f t h e d e c r e e , J a n u a r y 2 3 , t h e
Cen tral Co mmittee of the All-Russ ian Uni on o f
P a r e n t s ' O r g a n i z a t i o n s p r o c l a i m e d t h e p r o h i b i t i o n . o f
s1
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THE RUSSIAN C HURC H SINC E THE REVOLUTION
r e l i g i o u s t e a c h i n g t o b e « c o n t r a r y t o t h e p r i n c i p l e
o f t h e a u t o n o m y o f t h e R u s s i a n s c h o o l a n d a n e g a t i o n
o f t h e t r u e f r e e d o m o f c o n s c i e n c e . "
T h e d e c r e e r e g a r d i n g t h e s e p a r a t i o n o f C h u r c h " a n d
S t a t e n e c e s s i t a t e d t h e i s s u i n o f e x p l a n a t o r y i n t e r -
p r e t a t i o n s , w h i c h a p p e a r e d o n y s e v e r a l m o n t h s l a t e r ,
Au g u s t 24, 19 1 8 , a n d J a n u a r y 3 , 1 9 19 . T h e s e i n t e r -
pretations w ere far f rom favo urable to the Churc h .
R e l i g i o u s s o c i e t i e s w e r e p e r m i t t e d t o f i n a n c e t h e m -
s e l v e s o n l y b y v o l u n t a r y c o l l e c t i o n s . T h e c h a n g i n g o f
c h u r c h b u i l d i n g s i n t o c i v i l i n s t i t u t i o n s w a s p r o v i d e d
f o r ' i n t w o c a s e s : ( 1 )"
i f t h e r e s h o u l d n o t b e f o u n d
those des irous o f accepting the Church pro perty"
i . e . , if a parish sho uld not be orga nized), and
(2) "if as a result of need f or suc h premises f or
g e n e r a l l y u s e f u l p u r p o s e s , t h e l o c a l S o v d e p , r e s p o n d -
i n g t o t h e d e m a n d o f t h e w o r k i n g m a s s e s ( p r e f e r a b l y
i n p l e n a r y s e s s i o n ) s h o u l d p a s s t h e n e c e s s a r y r e s o l u -
t i o n . " A n d , f i n a l l y , t h e G o v e r n m e n t f o r b a d e r e l i g i o u s
instruction to children an d youths under ei ghteen
y e a r s o f a g e , e x c e p t p r i v a t e i n s t r u c t i o n i n g r o u p s n o t
e x c e e d i n g t h r e e p e r s o n s . I n t h i s m a n n e r a l l a t t e m p t s
a t t e a c h i n g r e l i g i o n i n t h e c h u r c h e s w e r e c h e c k e d , a n d
youth was giv en ove r to the mercy of the Gove rn-
ment's . a t h e i s t i c p r o p a g a n d a .
I n J a n u a r y , 1 9 1 8 , h o w e v e r , t h e f a i t h f u l f o u n d a l l
o t h e r t r o u b l e s s e c o n d a r y i n f a c e o f a n x i e t y f o r t h e
f a t e o f t h e c h u r c h e s a n d o f r e l i g i o u s s e r v i c e s . D i d n o t
the decree regarding the separation of Church and
S t a t e a c t u a l l y i m p l y t h e c l o s i n g o f t h e c h u r c h e s ? A
f e w d a y s b e f o r e i t s p u b l i c a t i o n , a n o r d e r w a s i s s u e d
f o r t h e r e q u i s i t i o n o f t h e A l e x a n d e r Nev s k y La v r a ,
i s P e t r o g r a d , ; t h e p r i n c i p a l m o n a s t e r y o f t h e c a p i t a l ,
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SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE
t h e r e s i d e n c e o f t h e M e t r o p o l i t a n a n d s e a t o f t h e T h e o -
l o g i c a l Acad emy . The prg mises o f t h e . f a v r a ' w e r e t o
b e t u r n e d o v e r t o t h e C o m m i s s a r i a t o f S o c i a l W e l f a r e .
A r m e d p a r t i e s w h i c h t w i c e e n d e a v o u r e d t o t a k e o v e r
t h e L a v r a w e r e m e t w i t h d e c i s i v e r e b u f f s o n t h e p a r t
o f t h e C h u r c h a u t h o r i t i e s , a n d o n J a n u a r y I 9 a g r e a t
c r o w d , w h i c h g a t h e r e d a t t h e s o u n d i n g o f t h e a l a r m
b e l l , r e f u s e d t o , a d m i t t h e s o l d i e r s . On Ja nu ary ; 21
there was a grea t sacred pro cessio n in Petrograd,
w h i c h r e g i s t e r e d t h e p r o t e s t o f t h e O r t h o d o x p o p u l a .
. n t i o n a ga i n s tt h e s e i z u r e o f i t s s a c r e d t h i n g s . TheGov ern ment sub mitted . T h e r e f o l l o w e d a n e x p l a n a -
t i o n t h a t i t h a d b e e n i n t e n d e d n o t t o c l o s e t h e m o n a s -
t e r y b u t t o h o u s e i n v a l i d s i n i t . H o w e v e r , t h e s t r u g g l e
had beg un throughout the who le of Russia . I n t h e
p r o c l a m a t i o n o f J a n u a r y 1 9 , a l r e a d y r e f e r r e d t o , t h e
Patriarc h Tikho n mentioned , in a dd ition to Alex
a n d e r - N e v s k y , t h e s e i z u r e o f t h e P o c h a e v s k a j a L a v r a ,
o n e o f t h e g r e a t e s t m o n a s t e r i e s o f t h e U k r a i n e ( i n
V o l h y n i a ) , a n d t h e d e s e c r a t i o n o f t h e d e e p l y v e n e r a t e d
c h a p e l o f t h e S a v i o u r i n P e t r o g r a d . A f e w d a y s a f t e r
t h e p u b l i c a t i o n o f t h e d e c r e e , t h e S o b o r e n t e r e d o n
i t s m i n u t e s : ( L ) " T h a t i n t h e g u i s e o f l a w p r o v i d i n g
f r e e d o m o f c o n s c i e n c e , t h e r e w a s a m a l i c i o u s a t t a c k
a g a i n s t t h e e n t i r e s t r u c t u r e a n d t h e , l i f e o f t h e O r t h o -
d o x C h u r c h , a n d a n a c t o f o p e n p e r s e c u t i o n a g a i n s t
i t ' ; a n d ( z ) " t h a t a n y p a r t i c i p a t i o n e i t h e r i n t h e p u b -
l i c a t i o n o f t h i s l e g i s l a t i o n h o s t i l e t o t h e C h u r c h , o r
a t t e m p t s t o e f f e c t i t , i s i n c o m p a t i b l e w i t h < m e m b e r ,
ship in the Orthodox Chur ch, and bring s -upon the
guilty pers ons o f Orthodox fai th the most severe
p u n i s h m e n t o f t h e C h u r c h , e v e n t o t h e e x t e n t o f e x -
communica tion . " S i m u l t a n e o u s l y w i t h t h i s r e s o l u t i o n
s 3
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THE AVSSIAW - C HURC H SINCE - THE REVOLUTIONt h e S o b o r a d d r e s s e d a p r o c l a m a t i o n t o t h e "Ortho-
dox people" ; "Unite all of yo u, men and women,
o l d a n d y o u n g f o r t h e d e f e n c e o f o u r i n h e r i t e d S a c r e d
Thin gs . . . f o r t h e p e o p l e ' s r u l e r s s e e k t o d e s p o i l
t h e p e o p l e o f t h i s h e r i t a g e o f G o d . . . . I t i s b e t t e r
to shed one' s blood and to become worthy of a
m a r t y r ' s c r o w n t h a n t o s u r r e n d e r t h e O r t h o d o x f a i t h
t o t h e e n e m y f o r - h i s a b u s e . " '
T h e p r o c l a m a t i o n o f t h e S o b o r m e t w i t h a l i v e l y
respo nse among the people . Ev ery where la ymen
u n i t e d f o r t h e d e f e n c e o f t h e c h u r c h e s . I n P e t r o g r a d ,
a f t e r t h e " B r o t h e r h o o d f o r t h e D e f e n c e o f t h e A l e x -
and er-Nevs ky Lav ra," who se members v ow ed to
d e f e n d t h e L a v r a " e v e n t o d e a t h , " h a d b e e n f o r m e d ,
u n i o n s w e r e o r g a n i z e d i n e a c h p a r i s h , n u m b e r i n g u pto 60,ooo members . I n M o s c o w s i m i l a r u n i o n s w e r e
u n i t e d i n a g e n e r a l c o u n c i l . The per son of the
P a t r i a r c h w a s s u r r o u n d e d b y a guard which was
m a i n t a i n e d b y t w e n t y - f o u r p e r s o n s i n t u r n . T h e m o v e -
m e n t f o u n d r e s p o n s e e v e n i n t h e p r o v i n c e s . E v e r y -
w h e r e t h e r e t o o k p l a c e s a c r e d p r o c e s s i o n s , n i g h t
v i g i l s , a n d m e e t i n g s o f p r o t e s t . The cr owd s we re
u n a r m e d , b u t i n s o m e p l a c e s , d u r i n g a t t e m p t s a t c o n -
f i s c a t i o n o f t h e c h u r c h e s , t h e y m a u l e d t h e c o m m i s s a r s .
I n a n u m b e r o f p l a c e s t h e R e d t r o o p s f i r e d , a n d t h e r e
were many killed and woun ded -e . g . , i n T u l a , K h a r -
k o v , a n d o t h e r p l a c e s . F i n a l l y , t h e o p p o s i t i o n w a s
c r u s h e d . T h e C o m m u n i s t p o w e r m a d e t h e d e c r e e r e -
g a r d i n g t h e s e p a r a t i o n o f C h u r c h a n d S t a t e c o m p l e t e l y
e f f e c t i v e w i t h i n t h e l i m i t s w h i c h i t c o n s i d e r e d n e c e s -
s a r y .
1 T s e r l o v n i o V i e d o m o s t i , No . 3 - 4 , i q j 8 . Q u o t e d b y Ttlino$,
at . , , c i t .
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SEPARATION OF C HURC H AND . ETAT* -
I n w h a t a c t u a l forms did t h i s s e p a r a t i o n f i n d e x -
pressio n? The most radical w as t h e i n a u g u r a t i o n n o f
t h e s e c u l a r i z a t i o n o f t h e s c h o o l . The teach ing of
r e l i g i o n t o c h i l d r e n w a s forbidd en not only in the
s c h o o l but in the chur ches . The clerg y w ere left
practically without income, and ne arly every where
e v i c t e d from the parish houses, wh ich had now been
n a t i o n a l i z e d . Only i n t h e v i l l a g e s t h e c l e r g y r e t a i n e d
t h e i r h o m e s a n d l a n d , t h i s l a t t e r g r e a t l y d i m i n i s h e d .
A l l t h e commercial enterprises belongin g to the
C h u r c h , s u c h a s c a n d l e - f a c t o r i e s a n d p r i n t i n g -hops,
w e r e c o n f i s c a t e d . O n l y t h e c h u r c h b u i l d i n g s w e r e l e f t ,
a n d t h e s e , a f t e r a n i n v e n t o r y , w e r e t u r n e d o v e r t o
t h e o r g a n i z e d p a r i s h e s , a l o n g w i t h r e s p o n s i b i l i t y - f o r
maintainin g them a s w e l l a s f o r g u a r d i n g a l l t h e v a l u
a b l e e c c l e s i a s t i c a l o b j e c t s w h i c h t h e y c o n t a i n e d . I f t h e
p a r i s h , b y r e a s o n o f p o v e r t y o r b e c a u s e o f f e w n e s s o f
p e o p l e , w a s unable to maintain the chu rch, it was
t u r n e d o v e r t o t h e l o c a l S o v i e t , which, as we have
s e e n , i n a n y c a s e h a d t h e r i g h t t o a p p r o p r i a t e t h e
b u i l d i n g f o r a n y p u r p o s e i t m i g h t d e c i d e u p o n . Ho w
w i d e l y ' d i d t h e S o v i e t s m a k e u s e o f t h i s p r i v i l e g e ?
In t h e f i r s t p l a c e , t h r o u g h o u t t h e w h o l e R e p u b l i c a n d
w i t h o u t e x c e p t i o n , p r i v a t e c h u r c h e s w e r e c l o s e d - - i n
s c h o o l s , b a r r a c k s , g o v e r n m e n t i n s t i t u t i o n s , e t c . , a l t o -
g e t h e r a v e r y c o n s i d e r a b l e n u m b e r . These were con-
v e r t e d i n t o d a n c i n g - h a l l s , c l u b s , o r t h e a t r e s . Whe re
i n s t i t u t i o n s w e r e o c c u p i e d b y Reds o l d i e r s , d e s e c r a t i o n s
were frequent . I k o n s a n d s a c r e d o b j e c t s w e r e o f t e n
destroyed or covere d with blasphemous scribb lings .
A g r e a t n u m b e r o f f a c t s i n t h i s c o n n e c t i o n , a s r e l a t e d
to the, south of Russia, and ba sed upo n, m a t e r i a l
g a t h e r e d b y a C o m m i s s i o n und er Gener al Denik in,
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THE RuSSrAw CHURCH SINCE THE REVOLUTIONi s c o n t a i n e d i n t h e " B l a c k B o o k , " e d i t e d - b y A . A .
V a l e n t i n o f f . '
C a s e s o f s e i z u r e a n d p r o f a n a ti o n o f p a r i s h
c h u r c h e s , e s p e c i a l l y i n . t h e v i l l a g e s , w e r e r a t h e r i n f r e -
quent . I n t h i s r e g a r d t h e w a v e o f r e l i g i o u s f e r v o u r
o f J a n u a r y , 1 9 1 8 , d i d n o t p a s s w i t h o u t e f f e c t . The
a u t h o r i t i e s a b a n d o n e d t h e i r e n c r o a c h m e n t s o n c h u r c h
s e r v i c e s , c o n s i d e r i n g . t h e m a n i n e r a d i c a b l e s p i r i t u a l
r e q u i r e m e n t o f t h e m a s s e s , a n d o n l y i n e x c e p t i o n a l
circumstances infri nged u pon them . The closing of
c h u r c h e s w a s m o s t f r e q u e n t i n t h e w o r k e r s ' s e c t i o n s ,
w h e r e M a r x i s t p r o p a g a n d a m a d e d e e p i n r o a d s , b u t i n
t h e v i l l a g e s g e n e r a l l y o n l y w h e r e t h e p r o x i m i t y o f a
n u m b e r o f c h u r c h e s r e n d e r e d i t d i f f i c u l t f o r t h e i m -
p o v e r i s h e d p o p u l a t i o n t o s u p p o r t t h e m . N e v e r t h e l e s s ,
e v e n i n t h e v i l l a g e s w e k n o w o f c a s e s o f w r e c k i n g a n d
e v e n o f t h e b u r n i n g o f c h u r c h e s . I n t h e c i t i e s a g r e a t
number of shrines were closed and demolished ; i n
M o s c o w i t s e l f a n u m b e r o f - c h u r c h e s w e r e t o r n d o w n ,
o n e o f t h e m , i n c i d e n t a l l y , i n o r d e r t o c l e a r t h e -g r o u n d
in f ront of the statue o f Vorov sky . I n t h e s p r i n g
of 1923, info rmation came fr om wid ely sepa rated
l o c a l i t i e s r e g a r d i n g t h e p u b l i c b u r n i n g o f i k o n s , -' a
r e s u l t o f t h e c a m p a i g n o p e n l y s p o n s o r e d b y t h e B o l -
shev ik Pravd a . "
M o s t p i t i f u l o f a l l w a s t h e f a t e o f t h e m o n a s t e r i e s .
I P u b l i s h e d i n P a r i s , 2 9 2 5 . Also an Englis h editio n, 1924,
bea rin g the title "The Assault of Heav en, " and a Germane d i t i o n .
g . I a v e s t i a V a i k (Offi cial or gan o f the Sov iet Gove rnment) .
Mosc ow , No . 78 (2825 ), 2923 .
3I b i d .
• Prav da [ O f f i c i a l o r g a n o f t h e R u s s i a n C o m m u n i s t ( B o l s h e v i k )
) P a t t y ] . , Mos co w, No . i 2 7 , May , 2923 .
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SEPARATION OF Z".HURGH AND STATET h e i r s e c u l a r i z a t i o n began, as we have seen, e v e n
b e f o r e t h e p u b l i s h i n g o f t h e d e c r e e . I n t h e d e c r e e
i t s e l f a n d i n t h e i n s t r u c t i o n s r e l a t e d t o i t w e f i n d
nothing regard ing the monasteries . In re spo nse to
i n q u i r i e s f r o m t h e p r o v i n c e s , t h e F i f t h S e c t i o n . o f t h e
C o m m i s s a r i a t o f J u s t i c e e x p l a i n e d t h a t " t h e f a t e o f
t h e m o n a s t e r i e s r e s t s u p o n t h e j u d g m e n t o f t h e l o c a l
Sovie ts, depen ding upon the purpos e to which they
c o n s i d e r i t d e s i r a b l e t o a s s i g n t h e m , s u c h a s t o s a n a -
t o r i u m s , f a r m s , s c h o o l s , a s y l u m s f o r i n v a l i d s o l d i e r s ,
o r f o r t r a n s f o r m a t i o n i n t o s o m e s o r t o f u s e f u l h u s -
bandry . " A s a r e s u l t , p r a c t i c a l l y a l l o f t h e m o n a s t e r i e s
i n R u s s i a w e r e l i q u i d a t e d , a n d t h e m o n k s s c a t t e r e d .
R e g a r d i n g t h e s u c c e s s o f t h e s e c u l a r i z a t i o n , t h e o f f i c i a l
o r g a n s u p p l i e s t h e f o l l o w i n g f i g u r e s : u p t o t h e f a l l o f
1920, 6 3 7 m o n a s t e r i e s h a d b e e n l i q u i d a t e d ; b y 192 2 ,
49 more had been added . Howev er, i n t h e i n t e r e s t s
o f a c c u r a c y i t s h o u l d b e n o t e d t h a t b y n o m e a n s i n a l l
c a s e s d i d c o m p l e t e l i q u i d a t i o n t a k e p l a c e . In ma ny
m o n a s t e r i e s s o m e o f t h e o l d m o n k s w e r e l e f t t o l i v e
o u t t h e i r d a y s , i n t h e c a p a c i t y o f w a t c h m e n o r w o r k e r s
a t t a c h e d t o t h e n e w i n s t i t u t i o n s . I n p l a c e s w h e r e h i s -
torical monasteries wer e made ov er into museums
( s u c h a s t h e r e n o w n e d T r o i t z k y - S e r g i e v s k a j a L a v r a ) ,
a number of monks remained as caretakers . F i n a l l y ,
i n s o m e p l a c e s s m a l l d o m e s t i c d w e l l i n g s w e r e r e t a i n e d
under the form of legalized ag ricultural communes .
I n M o s c o w i t s e l f o n e c a n s t i l l f i n d s e v e r a l m o n a s t e r i e s
w i t h r e g u l a r a s c e t i c l i f e . There hav e even b een re-
t a i n e d s e v e r a l a l l - R u s s i a n c e n t r e s o f p i l g r i m a g e ( a t
t h e r e l i c s o f r e n o w n e d s a i n t s ) , w h i c h a r e e x p l o i t e d b y
t h e l o c a l S o v i e t s . I t w a s o n l y i n A p r i l , 1927, t h a t t h e
a u t h o r i t i e s c l o s e d t h e S a r o v m o n a s t e r y , m a d e f a m o u s
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THE RUSSIAN CHURCH SINCE THE REVOLUTIONb y S a i n t S e r a p h i m . T h e r e v e n u e f r o m p i l g r i m s s t o p -
p i n g a t t h e m o n a s t e r y h o s t e l s h a s s a v e d t h e s e s a c r e d
places from the gener al fate of bei ng dos ed and
d e s t r o y e d .
I n g e n e r a l , t h e S o v i e t p o w e r h a s a l l o w e d t h e p r e -
s e r v a t i o n o f r e l i g i o u s s e r v i c e s a n d t h e r e l i g i o u s o r g a n -
i z a t i o n o f t h e f a i t h f u l , a l t h o u g h i t h a s d i s p l a y e d a n
evid ent tenden cy toward s limiting them as much as
p o s s i b l e . But what abo ut the d ecr eed " freedom of
c o n s c i e n c e " ? I f b y t h e t e r m f r e e d o m o f c o n s c i e n c e i s
u n d e r s t o o d n o t o n l y t h e f r e e d o m o f r e l i g i o u s c e r e -
m o n y b u t a l s o t h e f r e e d o m t o c o n f e s s r e l i g i o n , t h e
freedom to preach and ev angelize, then one cannot
s p e a k o f f r e e d o m u n d e r t h e r e g i m e o f t h e C o m m u n i s t
d i c t a t o r s h i p . L o c a l Sov iets not inf requ ently pro-
h i b i t e d e v e n p r e a c h i n g i n t h e c h u r c h e s , o r d e m a n d e d
t h e p r e v i o u s p r e s e n t a t i o n o f t h e s e r m o n f o r c e n s o r -
s h i p . Tolera ting the sermon i n the chur ches , the
authorities practically have forbi dden religio us
a d d r e s s e s i n public meetings outside the church,
especia lly by laymen . Every public expres sion o f
religiou s convi ction in Communist Russia has b een
accompanied by risk-discharg e f rom employment,
a r r e s t , e x i l e , a n d , i n t h e f i r s t y e a r s , e v e n e x e c u t i o n .
D u r i n g t h e e x p u l s i o n o f p r o f e s s o r s f r o m t h e u n i v e r -
s i t i e s , w h i c h t o o k o n a m a s s c h a r a c t e r i n 192 2 . and
1 9 2 3 , t h e i r a t t i t u d e t o w a r d s r e l i g i o n w a s t h e m a i n
f a c t o r . In 1921 the r ec tor o f Sar atof f Uni ve rs ity
( t h e p h y s i c i s t Z e r n o f f ) w a s a r r e s t e d a n d d i s c h a r e d
s i m p l y b e c a u s e h e h a d a p p e a r e d i n t h e l o c a l c a t h e
t o g i v e a d d r e s s e s o n r e l i g i o u s - p h i l o s o p h i c a l s u b j e c t s .
T o s p e a k i n d e f e n c e o f C h r i s t i a n i t y i n S o v i e t R u s s i a
i s j u s t a s d a n g e r o u s a s t o s p e a k a g a i n s t s o c i a l i s m o r
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SEPARATION OF CHURCH'' AND STATE
t h e d i c t a t o r s h i p o f t h e p a r t y . e s h a l l s e e l a t e r t h a t
the Co mmunist party combine s i n i t s i d e o l o g y
s t r u g g l e a g a i n s t c a p i t a l i s m a n d s t r u g g l e a g a i n s t Go d .
B y 'a c e r t a i n i n c o n s i s t e n c y, ' t h e a u t h o r i t i e s t o l e r a t e
t h e e x i s t e n c e o f a f e w t h e o l o g i c a l s c h o o l s , o r , r a t h e r ,
c o u r s e s f o r t h e p r e p a r a t i o n o f p r i e s t s . U p t o 1 9 2 3 t h e
T h e o l o g i c a l I n s t i t u t e i n P e t r o g r a d , t h e s u c c e s s o r o f
t h e c l o s e d T h e o l o g i c a l A c a d e m y , c o n t i n u e d t o w o r k .
T h e t e r r o r o f 1 9 2 3 , h o w e v e r , c a u s e d i t t o c l o s e i t s
d o o r s . S u b s e q u e n t l y m o d e s t p a s t o r a l c o u r s e s w e r e
opened . The s chi smatic "Renov ated" Chu rch h a s
t h r e e h i g h e r s c h o o l s , i n M o s c o w , P e t r o g r a d ; a n d K i e v .
If one leave s aside the Renov ated Church, t h e
m o s t l i k el y e x p l a n a t i o n f o r t h e e x i s t e n c e o f t h e P e t r o -
g r a d C o u r s e s ( i n c i d e n t a l l y , w i t h v e r y f e w s t u d e n t s a n d
l i m i t e d i n i t s a c t i v i t i e s ) i s t h e d e s i r e o f t h e a u t h o r i t i e s
t o c o n t r o l t h e a t t i t u d e o f t h e c h u r c h i n t e l l i g e n t z i a .
T h e r e i s l i t t l e n e e d t o s a y t h a t p r i n t e d d e f e n c e o f
t h e f a i t h i s i m p o s s i b l e . N o t i n p r i n c i p l e b u t i n p r a c -
t i c e t h e c e n s o r f o r b i d s t h e i s s u i n g o f a n y b o o k s o f
r e l i g i o u s c o n t e n t . E x c e p t i o n s , a n d t h o s e v e r y r a r e ,
a r e m a d e f o r t h e s e c t a r i a n s a n d R e n o v a t e d C h u r c h .
I n s p i t e o f n u m e r o u s a p p l i c a t i o n s , t h e C h u r c h h a s n o t
y e t b e e n p e r m i t t e d e v e n t o p r i n t G o s p e l s , p r a y e r -
b o o k s , o r i n d i s p e n s a b l e l i t u r g i c a l b o o k s . P r i n t i n g i n
t h e C h u r c h S l a v o n i c l a n g u a g e i s a l t o g e t h e r p r o h i b i t e d .
F u r t h e r m o r e , t h e a u t h o r i t i e s h a v e t a k e n e v e r y p o s -
s i b l e m e a s u r e f o r t h e d e s t r u c t i o n o f t h e o l d r e l i g i o u s
l i t e r a t u r e . I n t h e n a t i o n a l i z e d b o o k s h o p s a n d s t o c k -
r o o m s o f p u b l i s h i n g h o u s e s g r e a t q u a n t i t i e s o f s u c h
l i t e r a t u r e w e r e s e i z e d a n d s e n t t o t h e p a p e r f a c t o r i e s
o r s o l d b y w e i g h t i n v a r i o u s l o c a l i t i e s f o r u s e a s w r a p -
p i n g p a p e r b y m a r k e t t r a d e s m e n . I n t h e c o u r s e o f t h i s
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THE RUSSIAN CHURCH SINCE THE REVOLUTIONoperation a large number o f s c i e n t i f i c a l l y v a l u a b l e
w o r k s w e r e l o s t , s u c h a s " t h e e d i t i o n s o f t h e " P a l e s -
t i n e S o c i e t y " a n d o f t h e t h e o l o g i c a l a c a d e m i e s . I n a l l
t h e p u b l i c l i b r a r i e s , e x c e p t f o r t h e u n i v e r s i t i e s a n d t h e
C e n t r a l G o v e r n m e n t - l i b r a r y , b o o k s o n r e l i g i o n w e r e
c o n f i s c a t e d , t o g e t h e r w i t h a g r e a t q u a n t i t y o f p h i l o r
s o p h i c a l , h i s t o r i c a l , s o c i o l o g i c a l , a n d e v e n a r t i s t i c
l i t e r a t u r e .
T y p i c a l o f t h e m i n u t i a e o b s e r v e d i n t h e p e r s e c u t i o n
o f r e l i g i o n w a s t h e o b l i g a t i o n i m p o s e d b y t h e c e n s o r
t o p r i n t t h e w o r d " Go d " a n d o t h e r s a c r e d n a m e s i n
s m a l l l e t t e r s . This c avil wo uld seem to be a minor
t h i n g , b u t i t p r o v e d v e r y i m p o r t a n t f o r t h o s e w i t h
s e n s i t i v e r e l i g i o u s c o n s c i e n c e . I n t h e r e g i m e o f p e r -
s e c u t i o n o f t h e C h u r c h , m a n y a u t h o r s c o n s i d e r e d t h a t
f o r t h e m t o s u b m i t t o t h i s o b l i g a t i o n w o u l d b e a n a c t
o f f o r m a l a p o s t a s y . We k n o w o f a c a s e w h e n t h e
p u r e l y s c i e n t i f i c , h i s t o r i c a l - a r t i s t i c r e s e a r c h e s c o n c e r n -
i n g t h e n e w l y r e s t o r e d i k o n o f t h e V l a d i m i r s k y V i r g i n
( o n e o f t h e m o s t r e m a r k a b l e p r o d u c t i o n s o f B y z a n t i n e
p a i n t i n g ) c o u l d n o t b e i s s u e d b e c a u s e t h i s c o n d i t i o n w a s
u n a c c e p t a b l e t o t h e a u t h o r . B u t t h e e a s i l y u n d e r s t o o d
s e n s i t i v e n e s s o f a u t h o r s w a s m a n y t i m e s m a g n i f i e d i n
t h e t o u c h i n e s s o f t h e c e n s o r . T h e c e n s o r f o r b a d e n o t
o n l y p u r e l y t h e o l o g i c a l o r e v i d e n t l y C h r i s t i a n w o r k s ,
b u t e v e n b o o k s o n t h e h i s t o r y o f t h e C h u r c h a n d o n
t h e s c i e n c e o f r e l i g i o n i n g e n e r a l , e x c e p t f o r p u r e l y
p r o p a g a n d i z i n g a t h e i s t i c l i t e r a t u r e . How ev er , this
w i l l n o t s e e m r e m a r k a b l e t o t h o s e w h o k n o w t h a t t h i s
s o r t o f a d m i n i s t r a t i v e p e r s e c u t i o n ( e v e n e x i l e ) w a s
d i r e c t e d n o t o n l y a g a i n s t r e l i g i o n b u t a g a i n s t e v e r y
s o r t o f p h i l o s o p h i c a l o r h i s t o r i c a l i d e a l i s m . T h e e x i l e
o f R u s s i a n p h i l o s o p h e r s t o f o r e i g n c o u n t r i e s i s c l e a r
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SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATEe v i d e n c e o f t h i s . I t may b e n o t e d f u r t h e r t h a t t h e
stru~ l e a g a i n s t i d e a l i s m , i n the mind of the con-
vinced Communist, draws fro m the same source as
h i s s t r u g g l e a g a i n s t r e l i g i o n : i d e a l i s m i s p o t e n t i a l l y
r e l i g i o u s , v e r y r e f i n e d , b u t a n o l e s s d a n g e r o u s f o r m
o f m y s t i c a l c o n t a g i o n .
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CHAPTER IIITHE PERSECUTION OF RELIGION
ANALYSIS o f t h e d e c r e e c o n c e r n i n g t h e s e p a r a t i o n o f
C h u r c h a n d S t a t e , a n d t h e c i r c u m s t a n c e s o f i t s r e a l i z a -
t i o n , p r o v i d e s a g r e a t d e a l o f m a t e r i a l w i t h w h i c h t o
a n s w e r t h e g e n e r a l q u e s t i o n : Do e s C o m m u n i s m c o n -
d u c t o p e n p e r s e c u t i o n a g a i n s t t h e C h u r c h a n d r e l i g i o n
i n g e n e r a l ? H o w e v e r , t h i s m a t e r i a l i s n o t s u f f i c i e n t l y
e x p l i c i t . T h e C o m m i s s a r i a t o f j u s t i c e , w h i c h h a s c o n -
c e n t r a t e d i n i t s F i f t h D e p a r t m e n t a l l a f f a i r s r e l a t e d
t o t h e s e p a r a t i o n o f C h u r c h a n d S t a t e , i s e s s e n t i a l l y
t h e b e a r e r a n d g u a r d i a n o f r e v o l u t i o n a r y l e g a l i t y -
an idea which was new and exceptional, and by no
m e a n s g e n e r a l l y o b l i g a t o r y i n t h e s y s t e m o f S o v i e t
a d m i n i s t r a t i o n , e s p e c i a l l y i n t h e f i r s t y e a r s o f t h e
d i c t a t o r s h i p . I n i t s i n s t r u c t i o n s t o l o c a l a u t h o r i t i e s
t h e C o m m i s s a r i a t f r e q u e n t l y r e s t r a i n e d t h e f a n a t i c a l
d e s t r o y e r s o f c h u r c h e s , r e m i n d i n g ' t h e m o f t h e p r o -
clamation provid ing freed om of conscience . I t i s
c h a r a c t e r i s t i c , h o w e v e r , t h a t t h i s s a m e C o m m i s s a r i a t
i n t h e b e g i n n i n g c o n d u c t e d a t h e i s t i c p r o p a g a n d a . I t
i s c l e a r t h a t t h e r e c a n n o t b e t a l k o f t h e n e u t r a l i t y o f
t h e G o v e r n m e n t i n m a t t e r s o f f a i t h . Ther e may only
be ques tion as to the means to be employed in the
s t r u g g l e w i t h r e l i g i o n . I n f u l f i l l i n g i t s t a s k t h e
C o m m i s s a r i a t o f J u s t i c e f o l l o w e d a c a r e f u l c o u r s e ,
falling bac k upon the Gove rnment's mono poly of
c u l t u r e .
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THE PERSECUTION OF RELIGION
But there were other organs which conducted the
struggle more openly, even glaringly. At the very
time when the circulars regarding the freedom of con-
science were being distributed, the Tch6ka through-
out the whole of Russia were shooting priests andbishops . The archives of this terrible institution are
inaccessible; its affairs were conducted so summarily,
with such a minimum of paper procedure, that it is
questionable whether at any time it will be possible
to establish the exact number of victims of the terror,
or to discover motives o f accusation .' According to
the approximate conclusion of General Denikin's
Commission, published in The Times in March,
1922, 28 bishops and 1,215 priests were shot during
the years 1918-1919 .' According to official data of
the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, 2obishops and 1,414 priests had been executed up to
1922 . When the "Renovated" Bishop, Nikola'Kashinsky (Solovejtchik), came from Russia (1926he gave the following figures
White clergy (priests) . . . 2,691
Monks . . . . . . . . . 1,962
Nuns and other o rdained ranks 3 .447
8,ioo
None of these figures pretend to accura cy .
However, the undisputed fact that mass execution s
of the clergy took place does not exhaust the evidence
of persecution against the Church . These terrible
figures do not constitute the largest sums in the
1 Cf . Melgunoff, "The Red Terror in Russia ." Berlin, 1924 .
a Taken from P. N. Miliukoff, "Russia in Trans formation"
I . , p, 194. Paris, 1927 .
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THE RUSSIAN CHURCH-. SINCE TH8 RIVOLUTION
bloody totals . According to approximate data of the
Denikin' Commission for the same period, there were
6,775 professor s and teachers, 8,8oo doctors, etc . ,
in the general figure of I,716,118 (1) killed. The
bloody machine of the terror was not instituted
against the Church alone, and other professions from
among the intelligentzia gave even larger numbers of
victims .
Another evasion of the charge of persecution is
attempted by raising the question of political motives
necessitating the terror-i . e . , the possibility of
political guilt of the clergy .
Knowing the loyalty of the clergy to the Tsa rist
regime, it was easy to reach the conviction that
ministers of the Church had to play an outstanding
part in the " White " counter-revolutiona ry move-
ment. However, this supposition is entirely arrone-ous . In actual fact, in the territory of the White
overnments, the clergy, especially the bishops,
Messed and inspired the troops, but these representa-
tives of the Church, who took a definite side in the
Civil War, for the most part evacuated Russia along
with the defeated White troops in 1920What we see in the interior of Red Russia is some-
thing quite different. Here, after the first wrathful
gestures of the Sobor and the Patriarch in the begin-
ning of 19 18, a change set in, not, however, in the
attitude towards the anti-religious revolution, but in
establishing practical relationships with it . As early as
March, i 9 , I 9 , the representatives of the Sobor con-
ducted negotiations with the authorities to secure
p o s s i b l e favourable interpretation of the decree for
the Church. The popular movement in defence of
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THE PERSECUTION OF RELIGION
the Church was not so powerful as the leaders of the
Church had , hoped. Soon they understood that they
could not speak in the name of on e hundred million
Orthodox, that the former ' Orthodox peasant Russia
in its broad masses had been won over by the Com-
munist Revolution . The leaders of the Church soon
understood the hopelessness of open struggle and the
danger of bringing the Church under heavy fire,possibly endangering even the holding of services . o f
worship. According to Orthodox conceptions, t h e ,
cult so completely embraces the public service of the
Church, that for its preservation the leaders were .
ready to make great sacrifices. We shall see when , wespeak of the internal life of the Church, that this line
of conduct was dictated by purely religious, mystico- .
as cetic conception s-conception s inherent to Ortho-
doxy renewed by the regenerated Church .
Wehave one very valuable impression of thepolitical attitude of the Patriarch in the summer of
x 9I 8, belonging, to a witness who unquestion ably
commands confidence, Prince G. N. Trubetzkoy, theformer Russian . minister in Serbia . Five years after
this date, at the time of the trial of the Patriarch, he
made the following statement to the Vienna repre-
sentative of the telegraph agency Russpress : - " As a
worker in the White Movement, I visited the Patri,
arch Tikhon and asked him to send his blessing to
the White armies, secretly if necessa ry . I ws . ex -
pected . to convey his blessing to , the Don, and , I
guaranteed that this secret would not be disclosed . ; I
endeavoured to persuade the Patriarch to, do this, f o r -
the reason that his blessing would greatly raise the
morale of the troops . But the Patriarch was unmov-
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THE RUSSIAN - CHURCH SINCE THE IZVOLUTION
able, and even in this decisive moment did not alter his
conviction that the clergy must stand outside politics
and political struggle." In a letter to the editor of the
Russian newspaper Rul, published in Berlin, July 1 7 ,
1923, the Prince inserted into this interview the
following correction, still further emphasizing the
non-political attitude of the Patriarch : " I did not
ask the permission of the Patriarch to give his bless-
ing to the tro ops of the Volunteer Army . . . . I re-
quested the permission of His Holiness to give in his
name a blessing personally to one of the outstanding
leaders of the White Movement, under condition of
maintaining absolute secrecy . However, the Patriarch
did not find even this possible, so strongly did he hold
himself aloof from any sort of politics . " '
On the first anniversary of the October Revolution
(October 2 1 , I9I8), the Patriarch addressed a long
communication to the Soviet of People's Commissar s .
Recounting all the misdeeds of the Bolsheviks against
the people and the Church, the Patriarch concluded
with the remarkable words : " It is not for us to judge
earthly powers ; all authority from God would draw
unto itself our blessing if it were in truth the ' servant
of God,' for 'rulers are not a terror to good works,
but to the evil' (Rom. x i ii . 3 ) . However, to you whouse your- power for the persecution and the destruc-,
tion of the innocent, we issue our word of admonition :
celebrate the anniversary of your coming to power by
the release of the imprisoned, the cessation of blood
letting, of violence, of ruination, of restraint of
faith ; turn not to destruction but to the construction
of order and law ; give to the people the respite from
1 Rul (Berlin Russian daily), No . 798. July 17,-19 : 9 3 -
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THE' PERSECUTION 'OF"-RELIGION
civil warfare which they have longed for and de-
served . For otherwise the blood will be on your ownhead. ' For all they that take the sword shallperish with the swo rd' (Matt . xxvi . 52) . "
` Despite the vigour and sharpness of this remon-
strance, it is easy to see in it the patriarch's recognition
of the Bolsheviks a s de jure in authority. In the
fifteenth century the Metropolitan Philip of Moscow
similarly admonished Ivan the Terrible, yet without
calling for revolt against him as Tsar . It was the
admonition of . a pastor, not the proclamation of a
political enemy .
A year later, in 1919, in an encyclical datedSeptember 25, -the Patriarch imposed on the priest-
hood responsibility for keeping aloof from the Civil
War " I remember how we," continued PrinceTrubetzkoy, "
standing at that time close to the
Volunteer Army in Southern Russia, were distressed
over the,epistle of the Patriarch ; but, subsequently .
I could not help but admire his wise restraint . Where-ever bishops an d priests conducted prayers for the
victorious advance of the Volunteer Army, the dergy
shared the fate of this army and were obliged' hastily
to abandon their parishes, to the great detriment of
the Church. "
This brings us back to the question of the counter-
revolutionary crimes of the clergy . So far as records
ar e available, they show that in practically every
instance where punishment was imposed for political
offence, it was on account of conducting prayers for
the White Guards.' But was it possible for a simplepriest to refuse the passing troops their natural de-
C1. "The Assa ult of Heaven . "
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TIRE RUSSIAN CHURCH S1Ntz THE RVOLUTION
mind to dedicate their advance with prayers? Not
a l l the priests after this "crime" abandoned their
parishes for safety with the retreating White Army .
Many remained for torture and death . As for the
Reds, no prayers were requested ; they got along with-
out the blessing of the Lord .
In the majority of cases the priests were arrested
and shot without guilt of any sort . They succumbed
along with the "hostage " bourgeoisie, along with
the landowners, merchants, barristers, and other repre-
sentatives of the liberal professions and political
parties. The terror which the Communist Party con-
ducted had not a perso nal, but class char acter, in
accordance with the spirit of Marxist philosophy .
11 We are exterminating the bourgeoisie as a class,"
writes Latzis, one of the leading workers in the
TchEka, in the "Weekly Gazette " of the Extra-
ordinary Commission. "In drawing up evidence, do'not look for incriminating material to prove that the
person under prosecution acted by deed or wordag ainst the Soviet power . The first question which
you must ask him is, what is his ancestry, education,
or profession . These questions must determine the
fate of the accused . Therein lies the meaning and the
essence of the Red terror . " '
The, priests perished as representatives of the
"bourgeoisie," a category corresponding to the~~ aristocracy " of the French Revolution. Is thereevidence which would allow us to say that the keen
edge of the Red terror was directed against them with
especial hatred? I believe that one may answer this
question affirmatively . The evidence regarding Voro-
'1 Quoted from Miliukoff,of-,cit.,p. 187-188 .
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TAE PERSECUTION OF RELIGION
b i e f f f , President of the Tchika m-Perm, may be a p p l i e d
not to him alone. His secretary gave evidence in adeposition to the French Lieutenant, Adrian Souber
biel (February x o, 1919) :u Toward the clergy, Voro-
bieff's-attitude was that' of hatred, and he called them
' black magpies.' I can confirm that he shot many
priests and monks." 1
The chronicle of the Red terror allows us dogeneralize this attitude . From among a great number
of instances we . give the following : ' 1 In Poltava
Government the Red Army seized the Spasso-Preo-
brajensky Monastery, occupied and bega n to rob and
desecrate it. After a short time their officer ordered
the Superior, the Abbot Ambrosius, to gather all the
monks together . Part of them were absent, so there
gathered altogether twenty-five persons . It wasannounced that they were under arrest, and they were
ordered to turn over the keys to the monks' cells and
to all the other quarters of the monastery . Then the
monks were ordered to fetch firewood, with the ex-
planation that they were all to be burned . However;
the approach of the Volunteer Army broke up this plan .
It was impossible to delay, so they hurriedly drove
all the arrested monks out of the city and thence to
the railway station . Here, in the darkness of the
night, they began to shoot them in groups. Theshooting bega n with the Superior Ambrosius, whowas killed by the Communist officer Bakai with his
revolver . Afterwards the Red soldiers began to shoot
the rest. Seventeen monks were killed, the remaining
seven, being only wounded,'saved their lives by simu-
lating death " (August 6, 19 i 9) .
1 Quoted from "The Assault of Heaven . "
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THE. RUSSIAN CHURCH -SINCE THE' REVOLUTION
There is evidence of special hatred towar d the
Church in those tortures and "qualified" execution s
which in some places were inflicted on the clergy .
We have information regarding the most beastlycruelty, which we are not yet in a position to confirm .
Nevertheless, the bodies of the executed which were
exhumed and photographed by the Whites confirmthe most awful rumours a nd testimonies . We are told
of a case of impaling in Poltava, as in Kherson of a
priest who was hung o n a cros s, etc . An Englishdiplomatic agent reported to his Government that
Andronik, Bishop of Perm, was buried alive .' There
is no need to say more. This hatred toward theclergy on the part of the -Tcheka officials completely
harmonizes with confirmed instances of the mostcynical sacrilege in the churches, especially those occu-
pied by the Red Army during the Russian Civil War .
However, the question of persecution of theChurch is less to be decided by various, although
numerous, cases of violence, than by the avowed char-
acter of the entire system, by the spirit of Bolshevism .
Russian Communism makes the strugg le with religion
one of its chief objectives . In the "Programme of the
Communists," Bukharin says : " Faith in God is a
reflection of the most abominable of earthly relation-
ships-faith in slavery ." Every member of the Party
is required to conduct anti-religious propaganda. For
observing Church ceremonies (marriage, baptizing of
children) he may be excluded from the Party. Thesame objective stands before the Comsomol (theCommunist Youth Association). (Paragraph 5 of theSection concerning Political-Educational Work of the
1 Melgunoff, op . c i t .
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THE PERSECUTIOIaj_ OF _RELIGION
Russian Comsomol.) The programme accepted at . t h e
Third Congress, October 2, I92o, reads as follows
"Rearing its members to be convinced Communists,
the Russian Comsomol conducts an ideological
struggle with the religious plague which is consum-
ing t h e young generation of workers and aids the
representatives of the bourgeoisie to deceive the
people."' The reference here is not to the Church as
connected with the old regime and not to one oranother religious organization, but to the very prin-
ciple of religious faith, which is so hateful to Com-
munism .
" We must act so that every blow to the traditional
structure of the church, to the clergy, etc . , will be
turned into a blow aga inst religion in general ."
" Even to the blind it is clear to what extent a decisive
struggle is necessary against the priests, whether they
call themselves pastors, abbots, rabbis, patriarchs,
mullahs, or the pope ; and similarly it is inevitable that
at a certain' stage this struggle must be carried on as a
struggle against God, whether He is called Jehovah,
Jesus, Buddha, or Allah ." Thus writes one of the in-
augurators of the anti-religious struggle, the old
Marxist, L. Stepan off.' To be sure, this attitudetoward religion is no novelty in Marxism . The re-
nowned phrase, ' 1 Religion is opium for the people,"
which is written large on the wall of the City Hall
opposite the shrine of the Iversky Virgin, is a quota-
tion from Marx . But in none of the European socialist
parties or groupings has the struggle against religion
a N. Bukharin, " Programma Kommunistoff," p . 5 t .
2 "Purposes and Methods of Anti-Religious Propaganda,"
PP. 18-37 .Moscow, 1923 .
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THE RUSSIAN CHURCH SINCS -
.
THE IEYOLUTIOIi
been put to the fore as in Russian Communism. Outof atheism they have made a new creed, preachedwith real religious fanaticism . Communism has castout of its programme the classical watchword of social
democracy- , Religion is a private matter . " ForCommunism, religion is a social enemy against which
struggle is obligatory . Many Russian church peoplebelieve that its anti-Christian motive constitutes the
jugular vein of Bolshevism . Perhaps this is an exag-
geration : neither Lenin nor Trotzky was able person-
ally to devote time to anti-religious propaganda . TheCivil War, the internal social struggle (terror), and the
economic problem occupied the entire attention of
these chief leaders . However, this propaganda
attracted to its service not a few of the strong Com-munist leaders, ideologists, and theoreticians, whoproved unsuited for essentially practical or economic
work. We name Lunacharsky, Jaro slavsky (secretaryof the Central Control Commission of the, Party), and
the above-mentioned Stepan off . Bukharin also de-
votes no little attention to this matter . As regards the
form of the struggle and the organization of propa-
ganda, it is necessary to make a distinction between
two periods-the period of the Civil War and theyear s following the Civil War . The dividing line
comes in 1922 .
During the Civil War the Bolsheviks had little
time for the Church . While by no means hiding their
attitude towards it, and working off their hatred by
pers ecuting individual priests, ora nizing lectures
(Spitzberg, Lunacharsky), etc., they' did not under-
take the struggle on a broad programme. Leavingthe Patriarch in freedom, they even seemed to forgive
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THE PERSECUTION OF lELIGION
him the anathema which he proclaimed in r 9 I S . Thes t r u g g l e w i t h the Church was concentrated, as wehaveseen, in the Commissa riat of justice, whence local
Soviets were i n s t r u c t e d , anti-religious agitators were
sent out and literature distributed . In i g I g special
success accompanied the "exhibit method" ofstruggle with Orthodoxy-the exposure of relics .
The blow seemed to be extremely well aimed . For the
masses, the cult of the saints occupied nearly the
central place in religion .' The Russian people believed
in ' the mira culous preservation of the relics of the
saints ; their splendid shrines constituted centres of
wors hip, attracting thousands of pilgrims . No oneknew exactly what lay beneath the bro caded coverings
in these gilded coffins . The simple people and evena large part of the clergy were convinced that the
bodies of the saints were preserved as in life . Werethey pious legends or pious frauds? Learned theo-
logians and bishops who conducted investigation s in
regard to the relics, of course, knew their secrets . In
reality there was no secret, for much had been written
about the matter . But there are few who read works
of science or research . The legend was maintained upto the very revolution, and the Bolsheviks decided
to blast it and so to strike a blow at the very heart of
the people's faith .
At the end of 1918 there began a move of exposing
relics, carried out under especially imposing circum-
stances, for the sake of publicity . Photographs, even
cinema films, were taken of the certain occas ions,
where exposure was made by priests and monks f o r -
cibly set to the task. In the majority o f t h e c o f f i n s
there were .found simply bones or dummies of padding
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TUN R1 SS!AN_C•HURCH SING$ THE 'REVOLUTION
stuffed in canvas to resemble a human body . It
seemed that the religious deception was unmaskedin plain sight . But the Bols heviks were mistaken in
their reckoning s . Everywhere the desecration of
coffins brought forth an explosion of religious feeling .
There was no open opposition, but legends of,
newmiracles were born and spread throughout Russia .
They told of Commissars destroyed by heavenly
anger, of disturbed saints appearing to haunt the un-
godly, of real relics being miraculously hid, so as not
to be liven up to the enemy, and in place of them-
selves eaving only the few bones which the investi-
gators discovered. Above all, in some places the relics
were found actually to be in the con dition of mummi-
fied bodies . Such bodies were tra nsferred to Moscow
to the Museum of Hygiene (! ), apparently for the
purpose of ro oting out the superstition ; but evenhere they were made objects of r everence on the part
of Or thodox visitors .
The exposure of relics was the sharpest form ofan ti-religious propaga nda during the first period of
the revolution . So long as military Communism wasconducting the struggle at the front in the Civil War,
cultural lie in Russia remained comparatively free,
however strange this may seem at first glance . This
refers to the Church, to the universities, to the Press,
etc . It is true that there was no political Press except
that of the Government, but religious, philosophical,
and scientific publications were not suppressed by the
military censorship, which was the only one thatexisted during these years . "NE .P ."1 put an end to
this, however . Par tly eman cipating the peas an try and
1 "New Economic Policy . "
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THE PERSECUTION OP RELIGION
s m a l l industry from the yoke of Communism, the
' " N .E .P. " marked the beginning of the endeavour to
crush out r e l i g i o u s freedom in Russia. Beginningapproximately with 1922, the Bolsheviks threw a l l the
ideological forces at their disposal into the devastating
of bourgeois culture . The exiling from Russia of a
number of Russian philosophers an d writers was a
sign of this change . Simultaneously there went on
the proletarization-i. e ., the tearing down of the uni-
versities, the penetration of the Comsomol into the
schools, the establishment of the"Glavlit " and pro-
vincial " lits," a censoring apparatus which precluded
in Russia any philosophical or social literature except
that of Marxist character . Now the strug gle with the
Church became the focus of intern al policies . Thepropaganda of godlessness assumed hitherto unheard-
of proportions. On March 31, Ig22, in the MoscowPravda we read : " The inauguration of anti-religious
work among youth was approved by a special council
of our party anti-religionists . The All-RussianCouncil of Political Education (Politprosviet) heartily
welcomes this initiative . " This programme wascarried out unswervingly .
In the schools they demanded that the teachers
actively participate in the propagation of godlessness .
On the great holidays, such as Easter and Christmas,
special lectures were given to explain to the children
the superstitious and pagan sources of Christian c e r e -
monies and beliefs. Tiny children being brought up i n
Government "children's homes" were instilled with
atheism as the official symbol of faith . Here is an
example of a picture from life printed in the Pravda,
June 4, 1923 (No . 242), regar ding a n incredible
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THE RUS AN CHURCH: SINCE Tf*- REVOLUTION
voting which took place in the children's home inKrementchug .
" Who believes thai there is a God, raise his hand ."
Up come three, four, seven . . . two are dropped .
"Who is against God?"Up comes a forest of hands .
A cheerful cry : " Hurrah, God hast lost . "
The preaching of godlessness was combined with
the propaganda of proletarian morality, which ir\ .prac-
tice was immorality. Incidentally, while the questionnof the school and of children's immorality only slightly
pertains to our subject, it is, of course, related to it
for the reason that the wearing down of all religious
feelings could not but affect the helpless minds of the
children . As is well known, children in Soviet Russia
practically from infancy must pas s through the pre-
paratory work of the Communist Party. The three,
successive age group organizations are called : "Octobrists," " Pioneers," and "Comsomol." Religiousconviction s a re still permitted amon g Octobrists an d
Pioneers, although the propaganda of atheism isheartily carried forward . But the Comsomol (the upper
class es of the middle school, an d the higher s chool,
together with the working youth and part of thepeasant youth) consists of those who are atheists, by
conviction, who are obliged by their constitution, as
we have- seen, to conduct anti-religious propaga nda .
The Comsomol in Russia numbers not less than onemillion members .
It was at Christmas, 1922, that the Comsomol firs t
brought its atheist propaganda out on the street, en-
deavouring, with its sacrilegious carnival, to insult the
religious feelings of Christians . In all the chief cities
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THE PERSECUTION. OF RELIGION
of Russia, parades were organized as parodies of the
Orthodox sacred processions . A Soviet semi-official
correspondent picturesquely , describes the " Comsomol
Christmas" i n Moscow in the following manner : '
"The God-fearing Moscow population saw a rares p e c t a c l e . From the Sadowa to the Place of the Revo-
lution there stretched an unending procession of gods
and heathen priests . It was a splendid method for
lear ning about this thousand-year-old fanaticism.
Here was a yellow Buddha with short feet and hands
giving the blessing, squinting and exhaustinglyrog uish ; and the Babylonian Marduk, the Orthodox
Virgin, Chinese bonzes, and Catholic priests, the
Roman Pope i n his yellow tiara, giving the b l e s s i n g
to new adepts ; a Protestant pastor on a high pole;
Russian priests in typical stoles, offering for a small
price to marry anybody . And here a monk sitting on
a black coffin with exposed relics . He is praising his`
wares for possible purchasers . A student from Sverd-
l o f foff Communist University splendidly acts a comedy
of p r i es t l y greediness .
We need no rabbis !We need no priests !
Down with the bourgeoisie !
Down w i t h t h e k u l a k s ! " Z
Similar mockery took place all over Russia . Hereand there the celebration was concluded by burning
the "gods," as in Tiflis, where the day was made the
occasion for turning over the former military cathedral
to the Comsomol. The population, and no t o n l y , the
f a i t h f u l , l o o k e d upon this hideous carnival with dumb
1 Iavestia Vsik. January io, z923 .
The "tight-fisted," the popular name f o r w e ll - t o - d o p e a sa n t , ,
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TILE RUSSIAN CHURCH SINCE THE REVOLUTION
horror . There were no protests from the silent streets
-the years of terro r had done their work-but nearly
everyone tried to turn off the road when it met this
shocking procession . I, personally, as a witness of the
Moscow carnival, may certify that there was not a
drop of popular pleasure in it. The parade movedalong empty streets and its attempts at creatinglaughter or provocation were met with dull silence on
the part of the occasional witnesses .
That evening blasphemous dramatic presentationstook place in mos t of the theatres, concerning whos e
nature one may judge from the title of one of the
most widely distributed anti-religious plays, "The
Immaculate Conception." Followinthe" ComsomolChristmas" came the "Easter" of-1923. However,the failure was evident . In fact, this gross insulting of
religion brought to life a cor responding reaction in
the form of a strengthening of religious feelings, and
a protest in the broad masses of the population . Scott
the carnivals were abandoned, though blasphemousplays and "educational" lectures were continued .
At subsequent great holidays, however, the Comsomol
members have not been able to abstain from the satis-
faction of passing by the churches singing their char-
acteristic songs, and even creating disturbances in the
churches themselves . But the hoo liga n char acter of
the an ti-religious s truggle was already meeting con-
demnation on the part of the leaders . " The strugglewith God must be conducted by education, byscientific organization." A whole series of books(Stepanoff, Pokrovsky, and others) is devoted to -the
methodology of anti-religious propaganda. For thispurpose there a re established numerous 'clubs of the
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THE PERSECUTION OF RELIGION
"godless" (bezbojniki) . There is a special Govern-
ment publishing house called "Atheist ."' There are
several bookshops in the capital which deal only in
this propagandist literature . The "natural science"
point of view on religion is combined with theMarxist view, that religion is only an aspect of class
exploitation . -Radical historical criticism is drawn
upon to provide material forthe struggle, especially
against Christianity. The book by Drews, "TheGrist Myth," and the works of other authors of his
school, furnish powerful weapons . In recent years the
theory advan ced by Drews has become in its way a
Communist dogma . In contrast to Kautsky and to the
old Marxist conception of Jesus as a social reformer,
they demand now from the Communist the assertion
Christ never existed . I know of a case when an ex-
perienced propagandist on the anti-religious front, a
professor of the Leningrad University, lost his Com-
munist career because, his scientific training would not
allow him to adjust himself to the new dogma .
But Drews is too heavy an instrument for themasses . For them, and especially for youth, there i s
published a "comic" magazine " Bezbojnik (God-l e s s ) ." It is hard to conceive of anything moreinsipid or wretched than this "'humour . " Thetalentless pictures with unending similarity give
constantly the same sort of caricatures of Jehovah,
Christ, the Virgin, and the titles constantly emphasize
that these "Gods " are in the service of the bour-
geoisie. A crude pornography runs through thisimpious literature .
There can be no doubt regarding the purpose of
the governing power in Russia . It is endeavouring to
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THE RUSSIAN CHURCH SINCE -THR REVOLUTION
destroy all religion. And in view of this purpose, all
the executing and exiling of the clergy, all the re-
straints put on the activity of the Church, cannot but
be looked upon as real persecution. For the executions
and the exilings they always find pretences wherebythey can continue the fiction of the freedom of faith .
But these pretensions deceive no one . Russian Bol-
shevism has cleverly refused to close all the churches
and proclaim all priests to be outlaws, as was done in
the French Revolution . Nevertheless, the hatred of
the Communists for religion is sharper and more
radical than was that of the French Jacobins . Theyfight no t against Christianity only, but agains t the
very idea of religion and even a gainst every kind of
idealistic philosophy. Not only the Orthodox andCatholic clergy suffer in Russia : rabbis are arrested,
synagogues are closed, the printing of books i n ancient
Hebrew is forbidden . Of all the faiths it is probablethat Mohammedanism has the greatest freedom,though even Islam comes under the general ban . Fear-
ing the fanaticism of the Eastern peoples, and in view
of the general political stake in the MohammedanEast, Communism tolerates, in spite of its decrees, the
religious s choo ls of the Mohammedans . But complete
freedom from persecution obtains only among the
semi-barbarian heathen peoples, toward whom the Bol-
sheviks act carefully, as towards ethnog raphic sur-
vivals . As a result of this s trang e religious policy,
paga nism in the form of religious dualism, con jurst,
and similar forms, has experienced during recent years
an unexpected revival in fa r corn ers of Russia, even
in the parts which from time immemorial have beenOrthodox .
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CHAPTER I TTHE "RENOVATION" SCHISM
THE .new religious policy of the Communist powerhas not been limited to the spread of atheistic propa-
ganda . As regards the Orthodox Church, efforts have
even been made to rupture it from within-and in part
successfully. In the spring of 1922 a schism tookplace in the Church :which even up to the present
divides it . into two, although unequal, parts . In order
to understand this so-called "Living Church" or"Renovated Church" schism it is necessary to make
certain explanations .
Up to the present time the minutes of the councils
of the central organs of the Communist Party on
Church question s have not been published, so we do
not know who is principally responsible for inspiring
the religious policy of the Party. But so far as the
views of the leaders find expression in the Party
Press, we note two points of view. One, which wemay, call doctrinaire, struggles with religion as such,
with every sort of religion, making no distinction be-
tween religious forms . For Communists of this type,
rationalistic and democratic confessions seem the most
dan gerous, because they ar e more deceptive for the
masses. "No compromise with r e l i g i o n " i s t h e i r watch-
word. The other type may be called opportunists,they recognize the energy alive in religious " . p r e ) j u -
dices," and desire t o roo t them out step by step ; for
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i
THE RUSSIAN CHURCH SINCE THE REVOLUTION
'these the change fro m Orthodox cons ervative forms
of religion to more free or sectarian forms is con-
sidered desirable. They maintain, for instance, that
Protestantism and the rationalistic sects are stages in
the wearing out of Christianity, and are willing t0
grant them comparative support. The Baptists inRussia received from Lenin himself the privilege of
free preaching, and even special Red passports, guaran-
teeing them this privilege. The same refers to certain
other sects, Seventh Day Adventists, Pashkovites, and
others .
But the granting of relatively free activity to these
sects did not weaken the dominating place of the per-
secuted Orthodox Church . A group of Communists,
therefor e, got the idea of an Orthodox "Reforma-
tion," a reformation representing principally political
interests. The question before them was the follow-
ing : Might it not be possible, in place of the incorri-
gible, fundamentally counter-revolution ary Tikhon
Church to create a democratic, revolutionary Church,
loyal to the Soviet power? Although the " sovietiza-
tion " of the whole Orthodox Church might not beaccomplished, yet it should be possible to chip off
from it a revolutionary minority, and with its help to
establish a dictatorship in the Church similar to that
existing in the universities and in literature . In the
universities there had just been made the successful
experiment with "Red professors ." Leaning on the
handful of professors who called themselves socialists,
and on the Comsomol, the Party was able to master
the higher schools . October in the universities,
October in the theatre, why not October in the
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THE RENOVATION" SCHISM
Such, approximately, was the trend of thought
which, in I g 2 2 , led the Party to the S ing of a
Church revolution. This was a victory oft h e oppor-
t u n i s t s o v e r t h e d o c t r i n a i r e s , a l t h o u g h f o r t h e C h u r c h
it brought a new wave of terror . It is not without
reason that from this time on, Church p o l i c y i s
'directed not from the Commissariat of justice but
from the terrible G.P.U. (the new name of, theTcheka) . A t t h e h e a d o f t h e e c c l e s i a s t i c a l s e c t i o n o f
t h i s i n s t i t u t i o n t h e r e w a s p l a c e d a m y s t e r i o u s p e r so n ,
hitherto unknown, a certain Tutchkoff, who at the
p r e s e n t t i m e o c c u pi e s i n R u s s i a t h e p o si t i o n o f s e c r e t ,
so to speak underground (similar to all the institu-
t i o n s of the G. P .U.), Ober-procuror of the Russian
Church.
But neither the G.P.U . nor the Party was able
openly to take upon itself the organizing of the
Church revolution . It was not so much the-c o n s t i t u -
tional freedom of c onscience . a s t h e at h e i st i c e t h i c s o f
t h e Party which made any participation in the re-
formation of the Church impossible for them . For
this they found other people . We have already
acquainted ourselves with the democratic movement
in the clergy and with its failures in the Moscow
Sobor . R e m a i n i n g i n t h e m i n o r i t y , t h e c l e r i c a l d e m o -
c r a t s d i d n o t l e a v e t h e C h u r c h b u t w o r k e d i n i t , with-
o u t , m e e t i n g o p p o s i t i o n , i n s p i t e o f t h e c o n s e r v a t i v e
attitude of the majority. Those siding with Com-
munist social principles were able to advance their
i d e a s f r o m c h u r c h p u l p i t s , e s p e c i a l l y i n t h e w o r k i n g -
m e n ' s s e c t i o n s . S u c h a p e r s o n w a s t h e p r i e s t B o y a r s k y
in Petrograd . His Christian Communism did not
hinder him from being a professor i n the Theological
5 3
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THE RUSSIAN CHURCH SINCE ?HE It$'VOI:UTION
Institute, which in the first years of the revolution
succeeded the old Theological Academy. AnotherPetrogra d liberal priest, Alexander Vvedensky,brought certain reforms into the Liturgy, endeavour
ing to harmonize mystical Christianity and modern
culture. His brillian t sermons made him one of the
most popular priests in the former capital ; the Metro-
politan Benjamin, valuing his zeal and talent, main=
tained toward him an attitude of paternal friendliness
and took him as companion during his pastoral visits .
A third representative of the movement, the priest
Egoroff; beginning also with the reform of the cult
and the establishing of a Communist brotherhood, did
no t remain within the fold of the Church, but died
as the head of the small community of sectarians, con-
sisting largely of intelligentzia . Notwithstanding the
toleran ce exercised by the hierarchy toward such
radical priests, the latter were unsatisfied . Theythirsted for a fundamental rejuvenation of theChurch, a real reformation, and in this they found
themselves in agreement with desires proceedingfrom
the headquarters of the :Communist Party .
We.do not know the moment of formation of this
unnatural union of Church reformers with atheists
which appeared in the open in the spring of x922 .
Did the Communists support a movement spon-taneously arising within the Church, or did they
themselves project it, in collaboration with revolu-
tiona ry churchmen? The latter seems the more likely
(in certain particulars) but, as I must repeat, we have
no direct evidence of this .
As is well known, the occasion for the schism was
the terrible famine of T92I-1922 and the related
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THE' RENOVATION' SCHISM
question of the confiscation of the church treasures .
In August, 1921, the Patriarch called upon the Church
to make collections on behalf of the famine sufferers ;
creating an All-Russian Church Committee for the
Help of Famine Sufferers, but this organization wasdisbanded by the Bolsheviks, who feared any
or ga nized public effor t, especially of the Church,
and the sum which it had collected was taken over
by the Government Committee. The distrust camefrom both sides : the authorities feared the initiative
of the Church ; the Church, like all the intelligentzia,
distrusted the authorities, fearing that the moneycollected for the famine-stricken would be spent for
other purposes . This disintegrated the desire to meet
the national calamity and dampened the spirit of sacri-
f i c e . In February, 1922, i n a l l the (Bolshevist) papers
there' was begun a campaign for the confiscation of
church treasures, in which fantastic estimates were
made of their quantity and value . The Patriarch gavehis permission (February 19) for the transfer to
Government agents of objects which were not essential
for the cult, but insisted on the transfer being volun=
tary. The Church desired to contribute, not t o bethe object of robbery .
It must be noted that the notion of private property
had by no mean s died out, in spite Of the abortive
attempt of Communism, and both the populationgenerally and the authorities felt that the ikons
and sacred vessels, as heretofore, belonged to the
Church. On February 21 , a resolution was passed` by
the All-Russian Centra l executive Committee " t o p r o -
teed with the confiscation of church treasures and to
. transfer them to the -organs of the Commissariat of
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THE RUSSIAN CHURCH SINCE THE REVOLUTION
Fina nce for aiding the famine-stricken . The P a t r i -
arch . replied 'to this decree by his encyclical of
February 28, in which he stated : "We call uponfaithful followers of the Church even a t the present
moment to make such contributions, desiring onlythat these contributions may be the response of aloving heart to the needs of a neighbour, only that
they may actually provide real help to our suffering
brothers . But we cannot approve the withdrawalfrom the churches, even though it be by voluntarycontribution, of the sacred objects, whose use for
other than services of worship is forbidden by the
canon s of the Ecumenical Church, an d is punishable
as sacrilege-laymen by excommunication, ordainedperso ns by dismissal from Orders ."
This epistle clearly forbade the clergy to turn over
church sacred objects to agents of the Government .
Evidently, however, the authorities consciouslyso ught conflict, desiring to discredit the 'Church in
the eyes of the people. The condition s laid down by
the Patriarch, in the absence of a free Press,, remained
unknown to the broad masses. To show up theChurch a s the enemy of the suffering an d dying popu-
lation was more advantageous to the Communiststhan, in a greement with the Church, to receive the
treasures which they demanded . The confiscation was
effected throughout Russia (principally by tearing
off the precious metals and jewels from ikons), but led
to the opposite results . For the first time since the
events of early 19 18, the masses showed readiness to
defend the things they held sacred. The people, who
had permitted the desecration of relics, rose in defence
- o f i k o n s . Yet there was no general revolt . Crowds of
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pimple surrounded the churches, hindering the com-
missions from carrying away the treasures, in some
places making use of fists and stones. The priestKrasnitzky, at the trial of the Petrograd Metropolitan
Benjamin, stated that there were 1,41 q. local cases of
sanguina ry excesses .' The decree was carried out in
full, yet the robbing of the churches gave the People's
Commissa riat of Finance altogether only 23,997 pudsof silver, and a certain quantity of gold and Jewels'---a
figure which the official orga n r ecognized as ridicu-
lously small .' The wealth of the Church turned outto be a myth .
But the a sa n~ ina ry excesses' , claimed still more
bloody victims than fell in the local disturbances . In
each city in Russia court trials were begun . Thou-sa nds of priests, bishops, and laymen were brought to
trial before revolutionary tribunals, now held in
p u b l i c a s distinguished from the trials, of 1918-1920.
Everywhere death sentences were passed. Scores o f
executions mark this fatal summer (1922) for the
Church. In the Moscow trial, which took place inMay and resulted in eleven death sentences, the Patri-
arch gave . evidence as a witness . As the author o f the
February epistle, he asked that all the guilt might be
borne by himself. As a result he was deprived ofliberty (con fined in a mona stery) and remanded for
t r i a l. This was the moment which the revolutionary
group in the clergy used for revolt .
1 Pravda, No . 110, 1922 Moscow.
2 The figures when put into English weight equivalents a re,
approximately : gold, 993 lbs . ; silver, 823,267 lbs . ; pearls,
1o lbs . ; platinum, etc ., 2,g71 lbs . ; diamonds, etc., 1,31,3 carats .
IS Isvestia Vsik . December 19, 1922 . Moscow.
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1 1
THE RUSSIAN' CHURCH' SINCE THE .REVOLUTION
From the very beginning of the campaign, the
Petro gr ad gro up came out openly, i n meetings and i n .
newspapers, i n favour of the confiscation of the
treasures on behalf of the famine-stricken . The priest
Vvedensky spoke with pass ionate eloquence, winning
over a great many. Certainly the conscience of manyof the faithful was torn by conflicting claims . Theywanted to contribute, but were indignant at enforced
confiscation . They gladly gave up the "treasures,"
but wished to retain the " holy things "-even though
it be by providing the money equivalent of them .
In response to the encyclical of the Patriarch, the
Petrograd group replied by a sharp letter in the news-
papers, heralding the beginning of the schism . After
the arrest of the Patriarch, the, priests Vvedensky andBielkoff, together with their Moscow fellow-worker, -
Kalinovsky, visited the Patriarch (May 1 2 ) i n prison,
with the permission of the authorities . They referred
t o the death sentences which had been passed, putting
responsibility for them on the Patriarch, and, for the
welfare of the Church, demanded his temporary,abdication until the convening of a Sobor . The Patri-
ar ch, factually deprived of the possibility of ad-
ministering the affairs of the Church (being in prison),
signed a memorandum turning over the temporaryaministration of the Church to the senior Metro-
politan, Agathangel of Jaroslavl . The actual text of _
the Patriarch's memorandum in reply to the written
demand of the delegation reads as follows : "Thepersons named above ( i . e . , the priests signing the
request) to accept and transmit to His Grace, the-
Metropolitan Agathangel, on his arrival', in Moscow,'
the affairs of the Synod, with the participation of the
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THE RENOVATION " _ 'SCHISM
s e c r e t a r y Numeroff." This clearly- states that this
up of .opposition priests was authorized t o be the
l ink between the imprisoned Patriarch and the Metro -
SAga thangel . Such are the facts, communicated
by the Patriar ch himself after his release (in the
encyclical, July 1 5 , 1923), and recognized even by the
o f f i c i a l historian of the Renovated Church . '
But the group of,Church revolutionaries, distort-
ing the p l a i n meaning ' of the ;,memorandum, built,
upon- it the foundation of a Church revolution . Theyan no unced that the Patriar ch had abdicated and had
transferred authority to them-i . e ., to the new Higher
Church Administration. They proposed to Agath-angel; of Jaroslavl that he enter the revolutionary
Higher Church Administration, thus legalizing the
revolution . After his refusal, Agathangel was arrested ,
and" exiled to Narym, a most unhealthy' region of
Siberia . In compensation- f o r this refusal, twobishops (Antonin and Leonid) joined the priest-
revolutionaries, and the new Higher Church Ad=ministra tion,- accepting also so me laymen into i t s
membership, ann ounced itself the supreme authority
in the Russian Orthodox Church. On May 14, in
the - lzvestia of the All-Russian Central Execu-tive Committee, there- was published the -declaration
of the revolutionaries . . Beginning by extolling the
Soviet Government, it concluded by char ging the'
Church` with counter-revolutionary activity,' even
with - attempts to "create a coup d ' e t a t . "
The Metropolitan Agathangel was able, before his
exile, to issue an encyclical prohibiting relationships
1 " P r o f e s s o r Titlinoff, "The New Church," P . 5 5 . ' P e t r o g r a d ,
1923 .
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THE RUSSIAN CHURCH SINCE THE- REVOLUTION
with the new Higher Church Administration, and
the priest Vvedensky was excommunicated by theMetropolitan Benjamin of Petrograd . The responseto this action came in the form ora fearful explosionof the terror . The Higher Church Administrationdeprived of their robes all bishops and priests who
declined to recognize its authority, and the G.P.U.
immediately arrested them . These two institutions
worked in close contact . Practically all the bishops
loyal to the Patriarch were arrested that summer
(1922) ; mos t' of them were exiled . Beginning withthis period, exiling to remote places in Russia o r
Siberia took the place of execution (although notalways) in the practice of the G .P.U. It must not beforgotten that simultaneously the public trials of
those who had hindered the confiscation of churchtreasures were continued. In Petrograd, after a sensa-
tion al trial, the Metropolitan Benjamin, and three
other pers on s were shot .' His meekness, his readi-
ness to suffer death for Christ, his great modesty, his
exceptional thoughtfulness for others, for the welfare
of the Church-made an ineradicable impression onall the witnesses of this great trial, even in the ranks
of the Communists. He became a veritable martyrfor the Russian Church. The Renovated priests,among them Kra snitzky, who gave false evidence be-
fore the court, immediately became traitor s in ' the
eyes of the people. The stone thrown by an oldwoman at the head of Vvedensky was an expression
of the general hatred toward him which had takenthe place of his former popularity .
1 Cf . account o f one who attended t h e t r i a l , p u bl i s h e d i n
"The Assault of Heaven . "
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THE a RENOVAT1c$N" SCHISM
Under the threat of imprisonment and possible
execution,
rankbeing without bishops, the larger part
of .the rank and f i l e o f t h e priesthood recognized, un-
willingly, the authority of the Higher ChurchAdministration . The Government recognized only ,
the H.C.A. a s de facto at the head of the Orthodox
Church in Russia ; the Patriarch and all who followed
him were placed i n a half-outlaw condition . ThePatriarchal Church went underground . Services ' of
worship in private homes, and secret bishops, gave it
a "catacomb " character. It seemed as though theRenovation had won a great victory . It was at this
time that it developed a progra mme of reform, with
which we shall become acquainted .
It must be noted, however, that the movement was
not unified. It immediately broke up into several
groups, organized along the line of parties . Practic-
ally each one of the leaders had his own personal
"Church"-i. e . , a group of priests subordinated to
the general Higher Administration . Krasnitzky
headed the"Living Church," Antonin " The Union
of Church Regeneration," Vvedensky the "Union ofParishes of the Ancient-Apostolic Church." TheLiving Church at first was the stron gest of these
organizations . For the bro ad masses its name became
the general title of the movement . Under this name
(The Living Church) a journal was issued, which re-
flected theoriginal reforming pas sion of the move-
ment. Some of these groups were more radical, othersmore conservative, but, looking at them as a whole,
one is astonished to see how insignificant are the
purely religious or ecclesiastical' motives of their
reformation and how preponderant and dispropor-61
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THE RUS SIAN CHURCH SINCE . THE UVOLUTION
tion ate the revolutiona ry character of their tactical
methods and phraseology .
m
F i r s t of _all, these groups endeavoured to remain
and to call themselves Orthodox . They did not en-croach upon any of the dogmas o r Sacraments of the
Church. They had no particular theological idea what-
ever to put as the basis of the new reformation . Their
ideas were such as had been commonplace in Ortho-
dox liberalism, proceeding from the early , Slavophils,
from Vladimir Solovieff, and others . One can say with
certainty that these ideas are shared . b y many of the
representatives of the Tikhon Church : such a s the
idea of the legitimacy of development, of progress i n
Church forms, in legislation, in the cult, in theological
thought. One can discover only a general spirit of
rationalism, only the absence of feeling or the
ystical and the ascetic side of religion . Tere werecertain echoes of Protestantism in the unsuccessful
attempt to abandon the cult of relics--a questionwhich was presented at the first Reformed Sobor,
but, meeting with opposition, remained undecided .
The entire reformation was directed_ along the line
of the cult and the canonical structure of the Church .
For some the reform of the cult found expression in
the movement toward simplification, towards compre-
hensibility-hence the conducting o f Liturgy in the
Russian language (as against the usual Church-
Slavonic). Others--e.g., Vvedensky, Antoninwished t o conduct the eucharistic ceremony openlybefore the congregation, though in the Eastern.Church it has always been mysteriously celebrated
i n the sanctuary, behind the screen of the "RoyalDoors." In the new practice, the doors were not
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THE "RENOVATION" $CIUSM
closed, ; t h e s e c r e t eucharistic prayers were recited aloud
(Vvedensky), finally, the sanctuary lost its significance
and, the altar was placed in the middle of the church
(Antonin) .
The general pro gr amme of cano nical reforms was
dictated less by the spirit of Protestantism than by, the
11 class" claims of the White (married) clergy, turned
simultaneously against the episcopacy and against the
laity. The second marriage of, the
clergy-i. e . ,
permis-
sion for widowed priests to marry a second time-and
the appointing of bishops from the White (mar ried)
clergy--these were the two chief points o reform .
The following is a characterization of the tendencies
of the first Reformed Congress (August, 1922) byone who joined the movement but who was without-the enthusiasm of the first period 1 "The chief atten-
tion of the Congress was directed towards the struggle
with mon asticism and mon astic influence, and toward
the strengthening of the leading role for the White
clergy ." 'The Con gress emphasized the dan gerous in-
fluence of mona sticism in the fate of the Church and
practically made an end to the monastic institution .
It demanded the closing of all city-monasteries (a few
s t i l l -remained) and their transformation into parish
churches, for the reason that monks have no place in
ordinary life. The village monasteries were to betransformed into working brotherhoods, similar to
the usual type of agricultural communes a nd pro-
ducing co-operatives; otherwise into c l i n i c s , asylums,
.or homes for the aged, with the requirement that the
monks should learn the requisite occupations . As,re- .
gards those monks holding hierarchical positions who1 Titlinoff, "The New Church," pp i4 f
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THE RUSSIAN 'CHURCH - SINCE THE REVOLUTION
opposed the ren ovation of the Church, the Congr ess
requested the new Church authority to depose themimmediately, and to deal similarly with such person s
in future .
"For the improvement of the episcopacy, the Con-
gress proposed that immediately, without awaitingthe Sobor, episcopal appointments be opened not o nly
to widowers but to marr ied clergy . In order to crush
all Church counter-revolution, the Con gress recom-
mended the most decisive measures, up to deporta-
tion of the guilty fro m their dioceses . Incidentally,
the Con gress resolved to disband immediately thos e
parish councils which opposed the Renovation Move-
ment, and to form new councils con sisting of pers on s
recommended by the priest and made responsible to
him. The opponents of this resolution were threatenedby punishment, even up to excommunication .iscussing
the future internal construction of the Church,
the Cong ress went so far as to pass a r esolution re-
cognizing as fully franchised laymen only those who
carry out in life the principles of the Living Church ."
The dictatorship of the parish priest is expressed
in this resolution in a most ra dical form . However,"depor tation from the diocese " might be car ried out
only by the Government authorities-G.P.U. Theresolution thereby recognizes the con nection between
the Living Church and this institution . I t , is i n the
relation of the Renovated Church to the State that
one finds the key to the understanding of the schism .
The Living Church rising against the Churchof the Patriarch accused the latter of political counter-
revolution . In the avowal of the political sins of the
old Church (under the Tsar's regime) lies the prin
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THE "RENOVATION" SCHISM
cipal source of the revolution ary sentiment of the
Living Church. "The Church must be essentially theexpression of union of love and truth, and not a
political orga nization, not a counter-revolution ary
p a r t y , " proclaims the declaration of this group the day
after their revolt .' However, it did not even attempt
to maintain a non-political position . The documentjust cited begins with a characterization of the positive
achievements of the Soviet Government and expresses
regret that"the Church actually remained aloo f in
this struggle in the cause of truth and the welfare of
mankind." The journal The Living Church, con-
ducted a campaign in defence of the Christian mean-
ing of the Communist revolution . Although not all
the grouping s of the Renovation were draped to -the
sa me extent in Red bunting yet the Sobor of 1923
proclaimed the Communist revolution a " Christian
creation." "The sun of social truth shone above the
world on October 25, 1917 . . . though unbelieving,
the Government has undertaken the task which we,
believing Christians, must fulfil," stated Vvedensky
in his speech proposing an expression of thanks to
Lenin as " the tribune of social truth ." The reso lu-
tion of the Sobor states : " Having listened to the
report of the Archpriest Vvedensky, the All-Russian
Sobor of the Orthodox Church proclaims to theChurch and to all mankind that at the present moment
all the world is divided into two classes : t h e c a p i t a l i s t -
exploiters and the proletariat, by whose labour and
blood the capitalist world has constructed its fortunate
state . In. all the world only the Soviet Government of
Russia has undertaken the struggle with this social
l a v e s i a Yzik, No. io6, May 14,, 19zs .
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THE RUSSIAN CHURCH SINCE THE REVOLUTION
evil. Christians cannot be passive observers in this
struggle . The Sobor proclaims capitalism a deadly
sin, and struggle with it the sacred duty 'of Christians .
The Congress calls attention to the fact that the
Soviet power, in its system of government, alone
in the whole world is realizing the ideals of the
Kingdom of God. Consequently, every believing-churchman must not only be a loyal citizen, but also
persistently struggle in union with the Soviet power
or the realizing of the ideals of _ the Kingdom of
God . "
The Renovated Sobor in January, 1925, in its con-
gratulation to the Government, had the bad taste to
call this mixture from the Gospels and Marxism"religious Leninism," for getting . Lenin's avowedgodlessness . The same Sobor requested the Govern-
ment's "favourable attention " in view of the "un-questioned value of its work for the State . "" 1 1 This(the Renovation Movement) must unquestionablypromote the improvement of the standing of theSoviet Government, even among its enemies abroad,
and the final strengthening of the Soviet regime
within . "
In the two year s between the Sobor of 1923 an d
the Sobor of 1925, the revolutionary sentiment faded .
Instead of world revolution there had taken place
only the strengthening of the Soviet regime in Russia .
This evolution partly corresponds to the evolution of
Communistic policy. Only one thing remains clear,the continued endeavour of the Reno vated Church to
remain under the protection of the Government .
Herein lies the key to the whole movement . The idea
of social revolution, it is true, governed the Russian
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THE "RENOVATION " " SCHISM'
.masses during the f i r s t years after " October,'. '
but it took on such a clearly atheistic character that
it remained foreign to the bosom of the Church .
Sympathy with Communism was very rarely met with
in the Church . The ordina ry parish c l e r g y , entirely
unrelated to the people ( c f . the resolution of the
August Congress, 19 2 2 ) and nurtured throughout the
centuries in the spirit of bureaucratic submission to
the State, was entirely immune to infection by the
principlesof the . revolution . This infection was in-
jected by a few priests-democrats Vvedensky, Boyar-
sky. Kra snitzky was a doubtful chara cter . He hadalways been known as an . extreme monar chist, a
memberof the "Russian Assembly," who, . while a
student in the Theological Academy, wrote a disserta-
tion against socialism and, at the time of the famous
Beiliss affair in 1913, made a speech about Jews using
Christian blood in their cult . Among the Living
Churchmen there were a great number of formermonarchists-" black hundreds "-but most of t h e
adherents were passive or- indifferent .
It is characteristic of the membership of the move-
ment that there participated in it not so much the
younger as the older groups of the clergy, "resp ect-
able" priests, etc. For this group the thought of loss
of, Government protection was unbear able. Not being
ready to suffer martyrdom, imprisonment, or exile, it
so ught the mercy of the new authority without any
particularly difficult compromises with its religious
conscience . . Hence comes the peculiar, combination of
moderation in religious programme with verbalradicalism in politics . The Red formulae of the revo-
lution were simply expressions of servility, and sub-
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THE RUSSIAN CHURCH - SINCE THE REVOLUTION
mission to the authorities was the favourite theme in
Renovated sermons .
In this mann er the tradition s of the old Syno4ical
Church continue to live in the Renovated Church .
Only the phra seology is changed, the spirit remains
the same . It would be a great mistake to give verbal
credence to the Renovated and construe the opposition
between them and the Patriarchal Church to be the
opposition between revolution and counter-revolu-tion. Church counter-revolution certainly exists-outside Russia, in the emigration (more precisely, in
certain parts of the emigration). The PatriarchalChurch is the Church cleansed in the fire of the revo-
lution, internally deeply non-political . TheRenovatedChurch is the old, traditional ecclesiastical order only
camouflaged in revolution ar y colour . Neither a revo-
lution ary Church no r even a revolution ary sect was
constituted in Russia, for there was no place for it .
The Russian Revolution was anti-religious, andreligion was not revolution ary . This fact, which has
deeply disappointed many who lon ged for refor mation,
must be borne in mind in order to understand themeaning of events in recent Russian Church history .
The professional programme of the Renovatedclergy (as distinct from the reforming pro gramme of
its leaders) was realized' in the Sobor of May, 1923 .
This Congress, which the Renovated consider theSecond Sobor of the Russian Church after revolu-tion, was in point of fact the Sobor of a separatist
fraction . The partisa ns of the Patriarch did not par-
ticipate in it. At this Sobor, mon asticism was pra c-
tically liquidated . Second marr iage of the clergy waspermitted, and the . "White episcopacy" was estab-
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THE KRENOVATION" SCHISM
l i s p e d . A number of priests received mitres- ,-
the new Church had practically no canonical bishops .
Readers and lower clergy were made into priests .
There was opened a wide field for pers on al ambition .
Vvedensky, from being a priest, was immediatelymade Metropolitan, and s oon thereafter, in recogn i-
tion of his service as preacher, was given the title of
"Apologist-Evangelist ."
The Patriarch remained in prison, but not abdic-
ating his post, as the Living Churchmen had an-nounced . Tocomplete the revolution there remained
for them nothing else but to degrade him. They con-
demned the Patriarch in absentia, though he declined
to recognize himself as under the jurisdiction of this
Sobor. The trial consisted of listening to three accusa-tory speeches without defence or witnesses . Moreover,consent to the prosecution of the Patriarch was one of
the points in the questionnaire which had to be filled
in by members of the Sobor before it began its work,
and, consequently, a condition for participation in it .
The judgment on the Patriarch was included in thepolitical resolution from which we have alreadyquoted, and which still further emphasized thepolitical character of this action : "The Holy Soborof the Orthodox Church in 1923 condemns thecounter-revolutionary struggle and its methods-
methods of hatred of mankind . In particular the Sobor
grieves at the anathema proclaimed on the SovietGovernment and on all those adhering to it. TheSobor a nn ounces that this anathema has no validity .
On the basis of Church canon the Sobor hereby pro-
claims the Patriarch Tikhon deprived of his position
and of monastic status and returned to his former lay
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THE RUSSIAN- CHURCH SINCE THE 'REVOLUTION
condition . Hereafter the Patriarch Tikhon is the lay=
man Vasily Belavin." The Sobor proclaimed thePatriarchate itself to be a counter-revolutionary in-
stitution and abolished it .
When they info rmed the Patriarch Tikhon, in his
imprisonment, of the resolution of the Sobor, he wrote
on it : " Not valid. The humble Tikhon, Patriarch of
Moscow an d of all Russia . "
But the triumph of the Renovated was imaginary
and turned out to be short-lived. They were able,
having the friendly collaboration of the G.P.U , to
seize the majority of the churches and even to attract a
large portion of the White clergy . But their influence
on the laymen was entirely insignificant . We quote the
words of the moderate Renovated laymen, cited above,
summarizing the results of the first stage of the move-
ment : "The first sin of the ecclesiastical-renovated
movement lay in its separating from the Churchmasses . The Living Church was unable to attract the
lay elements into the sphere of its influence ."' Yet the
financial basis of the Church lay in the laity, in their
voluntary contribution s . Very soon the Renovatedwere obliged to feel the influence of this powerful
factor . Episcopal mitres constituted poor compensa-
tion for empty Church treasuries . The emptiness of
the churches themselves was plain evidence of the
attitude of the people .
We have said that in the firs t months after the
revolution the Church was prepared even to . a c c e p t
an illegal position, " to enter the catacombs." In this
condition the episcopate found itself. For the parish
priesthood, however, there remained another way out,
1 Titlinoff, "The New Church," p . ao .
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THE - " RENOVATION ~ ~ SCHISM
which many took advantage o f . Discontinuin the
mention of the Patriarch in the cul t , they nev l e s s
declined to submit t o the new Higher ChurchAdministration, announcing themselves--i . e ., their
parishes--to be Autocephalic. This condition was
canonically absurd, but legally invulnerable under the
Soviet Constitution, The Patriarchal Church wasbroken up into a mass of separate communes with
secret con nection between them . The authorities had
no more basis for persecuting them than any sectarians .
There was even an heroic minority which made no
compromise and con tinued to pray for the Patriarch
unafraid of arrest. After the period of the sharpest
terror (executions) had passed, the strength of these
confess or s was triumphant over the weakness of the
timid . Priests of the Renovated began a mass return
to the Patriarchal Church . They were gladly received
on condition of public penitence .
One may well ask why the authorities did not exert
their entire strength in order to destroy the Patriarchal
Church. But it must be remembered that in the policyof the Soviet Government towar d religion there has
never been complete unanimity . In 1923 we see inits Press the domination of the tendency which wehave called doctrinaire . The Communists cast ridicule
upon the new Church . The or ga nization of the LivingChurch is called by the Izvestia an ecclesiasti
N.E.P . trust, (No . 22o, 192,2) . Particularly character-
i s t i c . i s the peech of Bukharin, delivered after theclosing of the Living Church Sobor, stating thatthe Sobor did not live up to the expectation s o f the
Government. The Living Church people did notsecure the con fidence or esteem of the mass of the
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THE RUSSIAN CHURCH SINCE THE REVOLUTION
f a i t h f u l , who s a w i n t h e m o n l y d e s e r t e r s a n d h e r e t i c s .
Bukharin is in favour of liquidating the present
Higher Church Administration, looking upon the
activity of Antonin and his collaborators a s " p e t i t
b o u t e o i s h a b i t s ." "The churches must be wiped off
the face of the earth as the breeding ground of
counter-revolution . The struggle against the Church
should be entrusted to comrade Dzerjinsky (the then
head 'of the G. P .U . ) . Citizen Belavin should be
executed . "
However Utopian the first part of Bukharin's de-
mands (regarding the Church) may have been, the
t h r e a t w a s v e r y r e a l a s c o n c e r n e d t h e P a t r i a r c h . From
a l l t h e c o r n e r s of R u s s i a t h e r e w er e r e c ei v e d ( a s a l w a y s ,
i n s p i r e d ) r e so l u t i o n s o f w o r k e r s ' a n d p e a s a n t s ' g a t h e r -
ings demanding the death sentence for the Patriarch .
E q u a ll y l o u d w a s t h e e x p r e s s i o n o f d i s s a t i s f a c t i o n o n
t h e p a r t o f E u r o p e a n p u b l i c o p i n i o n . One can believe
t h a t t h e c i r c u m s t a n c e s o f i n t e r n a t i o n a l p o l i t i c s ( p a r -
t i c u l a r l y t h e E n g l i s h a t t i t u d e ) a v e r t e d t h e f a t e w h i c h
was being prepared for the Patriarch. The trial was
several times postponed, showing the uncertainty of
t h e a u t h o r i t i e s . In the last analysis, although the
Bukharin method was not to be used in destroying
t h e C h u r c h , y e t t h e s t r u g g l e a g a i n s t a l l r e l i g i o n s w a s
to be continued, and, consequently, there was no
ground for supporting the Living Church . Yet it
s h o u l d b e a l lo w e d t o l i v e , f o r t h e e x is t e n c e o f a s c h i s m
wad profitable for anti-religious propaganda-much
more useful, indeed, than a revolutionary State
Church . The Living Church might be able to seduce
"those little ones ." As the Izvestia wrote, "the
R e v o l u t i o n a n d t h e S o vi e t p o w e r i s l e a s t o f a l l i n n e e d
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THE "RENOVATION" SCHISM
of verbal expressions of loyalty on the part of the
Church. For us it is sufficient if the Church seriously
and finally ceases counter-revolutionary activity." But
the Bolsheviks knew very well that the Patriarch was
not g u i l t y of counter-revolution . We have seen thatas early as in September, z g I g, he addressed to the
clergy an encyclical concerning the no n-participation
of the Church in politics a nd advising "submission to
the instruction s of the Soviet Government when they
are not contrary to faith and conscience ."
The Patriarch had been ready to sacrifice person al
ambition for the sake of the Church and now he con-
firmed-his position . We have no information regard-ing the negotiations which led to the publication of
the well-known letter of June 16, 1923, but it is clear
that the Patriarch speaks, in good faith . In this letter
he recog nizes his guilt before the Soviet Government
at the beginning of the revolution , he promises to
exhibit loyalty in relation to the Soviet Government,
and rejects the monarchist movement inside Russiaas well as in the emigration s . (The las t point is in
reference to the Sobor held in December, 1921, in
Sremsky Karlovtzi, Jugoslavia, at which, under the
presidency of Antony Khrapovitzky, there was passed
a resolution concerning, the necessity of restoring the
Romanoff dynasty in Russia . )
Judging by its style of composition, the document
signed by the Patriarch could not have been composed
by him. He signed the prepared text, sacrificing itsform. This sacrifice brought him comparative free-dom, and to the Church its head . The charge ag ainst
him was dropped, an d he pass ed the las t year an d a
half of his life in the Don Monas tery (Mos cow) under
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THE RUSSIAN CHURCH' SINCE THE REVOLUTION
the surveillance of agents, but able to receive visitors
an d to go to the Moscow churches to officiate at
services. Tutchkoff did not let him out of sight .
The meeting of the Patriarch with the bishops was
made ' difficult in the extreme . Nevertheless, the re-
turn of its head to the Church had a great mor al
significance. The masses met their "Father" with
enthusiasm. The ranks of the Renovated meltedrapidly. Churches, together with penitent priests,
were turned into "Tikhon " churches . Soon thenumber of the Renovated churches in the cities fell
to about one-third of the total number-a proportion
which is maintained up to the present time . Accord-
ing to the latest information received from Russia, in
the summer of 1927, the number of the OrthodoxTikhon parishes is 3S,000, that of the Renovated
17,000 (the Ukrainian Autocephalic Church 3,ooo) .
The Patriarch Tikhon died on March 8, 192S .
His death made a tremendous impression on thewhole of Orthodox Russia. Hundreds of thousandscrowded to his funeral in the Don Monastery . This
demon stration of popular love and faithfulness re-
minded the Moscow population of the great funeral
of Lenin. Befor e his death the Patriarch signed adocument, analogous to the letter of 1923, in which
he bequeathed to his successors loyalty to the Soviet
power, and once again condemned the Karlovtzibishops . The authenticity of this
atestament " was
questioned, but without adequate grounds., TheMetropolitan Peter, one of the three candidatesnamed by the Patriarch for the post of locum tenens,
certifies to its authenticity . The election of a newPatriarch was impossible for the reaso n that the
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THE "RENOVATION" SCHISM
authorities would not gran t the old' Church permis
sion to . hold a Sobor. The administration of the
Church came into the hands of a " guardian of the
Patriarchal throne ." The Metropolitan Peter, who
declined the Renovated proposal of peace, was so on
arrested, and authority actually passed into the hands
of the Metropolitan Sergius -of Nijni-Novgo ro d .
In the beginning of 1926 this bishop had madeefforts to conduct the election of a Patriarch by means
of a circular memorandum vote of the bishops, and
this was made the .occasion for the new devastation of
the Orthodox hiera rchy in 1926. Not only Sergius,
but a . whole series of "successors " were arrested,
one after the other . Yet the name of the locumtenens Peter continued to be used in the ritual, and
the memory of the Patriarch Tikhon was stronger
than - any hierarchical force in holding the Church
together .
The evolution o f-the Renovated movement during
the last few years is extraordinarily characteristic . It
has endeavoured more and more with each year tosmoo th over the traces of its revolution ary origin .
Already in the autumn of 1923 it announced the dis-
char ga of those of its roups whose names had become
hateful to the people .' Since Kras nitzky an d Bishop
Antonin declined to submit to this decision, the
Living Church and The Union of Regenerationdrag along their existence a s little sects, each defying
the other . The Renovated desire no other title than
Orthodox. At the 1923 Sobor, the MetropolitanAlexander Vvedensky, who continues the leader of
the movement, announced : "Renovation is Ortho-doxy, and the Renovated are Orthodox ." Since their
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--THE RUSSIAN CHURCH SINCE THE REVOLUTION
Church is now headed not by the Higher Church
Administration but by a Synod (here also a r eturn to
tradition), it became proper to call it the " Synodical
Church." In order to present greater semblance ofcanonicity, the Synod elected as its chairman theBishop Eudokim, whose consecration in the episco-
pacy dated from lon g before the schism .
At the '1925 Sobor the extremes of the first year s
of the movement were condemned . It was resolved
to avoid appointing married bishops . They had longago given up the new calendar, also under thepressure of the conservative mas ses . The Patriarch
Basil III . , of Constantinople, sent a complimentary.
epistle to the Sobor of 1925, and it seems that certain
other Eastern Patriarchs have also formally or in-
formally recognized the Synodical Church. Ingeneral the Orthodox East, deceived by the nameu synodical," tends to see in it a,direct continuance of
the old Synodical Church . From the canonical .point
of view this is entirely wrong . The old RussianChurch inheritance lives in the Patriarchal Church .
But if on e speaks o f the spirit of the old Synodical
Church, of bureaucratic subjection to the State, then
one may say that in the present Synodical Church
there truly lives the synodical spirit, not "renovated"
by the revolution . Politics, together with hatred for
the memory of the Patriarch, alone distinguish the
Synodical Church from the Patriarchal . The speechof the Metropolitan Vvedens ky in opening the Sobor
of 1925 was an out and out political denunciation . '
' Cf . Viesinik Sviatieshevo Synoda Rossieskoy Pravoslavnoy
Tserkvi (Organ of the Renovated Syno dical Church), No . i-z,
igz6. Moscow76
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THE "RENOVATION" ' SCHISM
Realizing the failure of the movement, the
Renovated several times endeavoured to make peace
with the Tikhon Church on the bas is of recogn ition
of its hierarchy. Small gr oups of Tikhon priests and
even bishops (winter of 1925-1926) were prepared to
enter upon such an agreement. But they stumbled
on the protesting cons cience of the Church people,
who could not forgive the Renovated the blood which
they had shed or the betrayal of their brother priests
to the anti-Christian Government . Arrests of bishops
and priests of the Patriarchal Church, exile to Siberia,
to Solovki, etc., were almost an everyday occurrence .
A letter from Russia printed i n the Russian emigr ant
Press in July, 1927, gives the names and cathedra
of 117 bishops who were in exile on January 1, 1927 .
The letter adds that this list is not complete ; regard-
ing 4o exiled bishops definite information is lacking . 1
And on every occasion, as is not denied by theG.P.U., the gr ounds for condemnation lay in de-nunciation by some one of the Renovated priests .
The Synodicals themselves were not subject to re-
pression . Notwithstan ding the contempt with which
the Communists look upon them, the Governmentor ga ns have had two distinct attitudes towards the
Church groups . Only the Synodicals have been per-
mitted to issue an official organ, to publish brochures
(polemical) ; certain of their leaders have been able
even to hold public lectures . It would appear that,
among the Orthodox,' the Metropolitan Vvedenskyenjoys a monopoly of public religious addresses in
Russia . He travels throughout the whole of Russia
with lectures on various religious subjects, even
1 Posliednia Novosti. Paris Russian daily. July ss, 1927.
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THE RUSSIAN :CHURCH SINCE THE REVOLUTION
appearing in debates against the Communists. Byway of privilege, he is permitted publicly to defend
Christianity. One of his debates with Lunacharskycreated a strong impression on Father d'Herbigny,
who notes this in the report of his visit to Russia .
The reverend author was unable, unfortunately, tosecure any interviews with representatives of thePatriarchal Church (meetings with foreigners sub-
jected them to dangers) . Consequently he condemnedthe old Church and received an entirely erroneousimpression rega rding the essentials of disa greement
(the question of priests shaving their beards, and the
struggle for the calendar seems to occupy his principal
attention) . '
A brief summary may be in order. We do' notdeny the existence of disinterested reformatory en-
deavours on the, part of certain leaders of the schism,
no r that this tendency follows the line of the old
liberal movement in the Russian Church . But these
ideological tendencies from the very beginning were
ruined by the crimes of political intriguers a n d ' later
submerg ed in the shadow of old r6gime opportunism .
The miserable failure of the reformation has com-promised for the future the healthy ideological con-
tents- of this movement .
A few words in regard to the Church in theUkraine. Here the Church schism was complicatedby the development of a third,' so-called Autocephalic
Ukrainian Church . Its tendency is definitely
1 D'Herbigny, " L'Aspect Religieux de Moscou en Octobre,tgzs .. " Cf . also the objective chronicle, published in the several
numbers of the Irenihon,, Catholic monthly. Amay.sur-Meuse,
Belgium.
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THE "RENOVATION" SCHISM
nationalistic . It takes its s ource from unwillingness
' t o submit to the Moscow Patriarch. Not finding inthe Ukraine a single bishop ready to become head of
their Autocephalic Church, the priests-nationalists got
along without bishops. Eventually they con secratedbishops for themselves by a ceremony unheard of in
Orthodoxy, and broke off the Apostolic succession of
the hierarchy. Hence comes their popular denomina-tion as "self-consecrated ." They conduct services in
the Ukrainian tongue and have followers not so muchin the villages as in the cities, among the nationalistic
intelligentzia. In the Ukraine, therefore, we find
three Church org anization s struggling between them-
selves, and each calling itself Orthodox . Recently the
self-con secrated were persecuted by the authorities,
.who, suspect the political-separatist tendency of their
moement. It would appear that the persecution hasconsiderably weakened their Church. Only theSynodical Church receives the comparative protection
of. the authorities in the Ukraine .
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CHAPTER VTHE INNER LIFE OF THE ORTHODOX CHURCH
IN conclusion we should like to lift the curtain hiding
the inner spiritual life of the persecuted but un-
crushed Russian Church. All observers are in agree-
ment that Russia, in spite of the apparent victory of
Communism, is passing through a religious regenera-
tion. But foreign observers are condemned to see
only the extern als, whereas the real Christian Russia
is doomed to silence. We take the liberty, therefore,
of concluding our review of the Church since therevolution with a rather long quotation from a letter
from Russia printed in the Paris religious j ourn al
Pout . '
Now, as formerly, the Church is the nationalsan ctuary . Nowhere but in the Church does on e find
the breaking down of class barriers, the liberating joy
of unity, of communion between many people other-wise held far apart fro m each other . But the wor-shippers are not the same as ten years ago . Ordinary,
simple folk no long er fill the churches . Rather onesees a majority of the intellectuals, particularly in the
c i t i e s . These are of very different types and havebeen brought to the Church in many different ways .
Some find in her arms conso lation for their bereave-
1 Pout, Russian Religious-Philos ophical Quarterly, No z,
pp . 3-12, "A Letter from Russia." Pario .
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THE INNER LIFE OF THE ORTHODOX CHURCH
ment, some a shelter for their wounded love ofcountry. Others, the young and hopeful, are not
driven to her by sorrow and suffering, but areattracted by love and hope an d by the youthful en-
thusiasm that the Church awakens in them. Many of
our clergymen and bishops now come from the ranksof the laymen. It would be an exaggeration to say
that the intellectuals outnumber the others, but they
are a very considerable fraction of our con gregations .
Many workmen attend the suburban churches, as domany tradesmen. The latter have somewhat resumedtheir, place in society, with the economic regeneration
of the country, and, more than any other class, retain
both the outward appearance and the conservativetraditions of the old Russia .
And what of their numbers? They are very large,but it is difficult to say whether they form a minority
or a maj ority of the na tion . We have nb accuratestatistics,, and can judge only by the size of our con-
gregations . . Our churches are filled, but not to over-
flowing . When we con sider that the edifices turned
over to the Living Church are practically empty, it,
would appear that the total attendance is smaller than
before the revolution . Neither is it increasing rapidly .
The terrible years o f I9I7-1920 were a period of
religious revival. Since then conversions have beenless frequent. That part of the intelligentzia which
stoo d aloof from the Church is not caught up in the
present stream of return to it, it is deeply rooted in
the old trenches of positivism or absorbed in thesearch for material well-being . Amon g the city poor,
the Baptists and different sects of 1 ' Brethren "-find
many new adherents. The simplicity of their moral81 F
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THE RUSSIAN CHURCH SINCE THE REVOLUTION
preaching an d the strictness o f their person al lives
attract many. Among the cultured, the old infatua-
tion for Tolstoi, theosophy, and even for Roman
Catholicism has vanished. The Orthodox Church has
rallied to itself practically all the truly religious-
minded among our intellectuals. One consolation isthat we have no more " dead leaves," in the phrase of
Tiutcheff. None among us attends in order "to do
the proper thing," or "to stand well in the com-munity." On the contra ry, some are prevented fromattending because they hold official positions . Those
who come pray here as perhaps they never beforeprayed .
In, the villages we witness a different picture
although our knowledge of conditions there is far less
general. We can judge only from what we see invillages near a railway, and consequently more or less
influenced by city manners. Unquestionably Russiastill has a great number of secluded corners where
condition s remain as they have been for centuries,
almost untouched by the revolution. But can therebe many such corners, after the tremendous upheaval
which rocked the very foundations of the nation?
The first thing we notice in the villages is that the
churches are nearly empty. As a rule, only womenan d old men a ttend service. The youth have imbibedthe teaching of a theism . The middle-aged who havecome back from the war, after travelling far and wide
over the . world, have brought with them a large dose
of scepticism, or at least religious indifference . Only
now is the village living through a period of -en-
lightenment, two hundred years behind the rest ofEurope, but without special enthusiasm at that . The
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THE RUSSIAN CHURCH, SINCE THE REVOLUTION
the i n f l u e n c e of laymen in the Church . The Bolshevist
law separating Church and State turned the churches
over to parish committees of twenty elected repre-
sentatives. They keep the church building in repair,
call and dismiss pastors, and exercise the fullest rights
of congregational autonomy. Rarely does a bishopventure t o interfere in a parish, election. Consequently
the priest's hold on his parish is entirely dependent
o n h i s moral and religious authority. Even matters of
church policies and ritual are often taken out of his
hands by the laymen . - The parish committee deter-
mines whether the building is t o belong to the-Living
or to the Patriarchal Church, whether the generalpolicy is to be extreme" or "moderate ." As a rule, the
laymen are conservative. A priest passing over to the
Living Church i s nearly always obliged to manoeuvre
so as to abolish the old committee and secure the
election of a new one ; but this usually results in an
empty church and the break-up of the parish . Fre-
quently the main support of the priest in the parish
l i e s i n the "brotherhoods," which exist both for men
and women. They have a double purpose . They take,
care of the church building, they hold frequent (occa-
sionally all night) prayer services, they have frequent
corporate 'Communion ; all this makes the brother-
hood into a religious commune, sometimes living avery intense religious life . But it would be impossible
not to mention here the darker sides of the brother-
hoods, the dominating influence of the individual in
the person of the priest, and of the occasional un-
healthy exaltation of these organizations, which con-
sist principally of women . During the period of the
schism many of these organizations blindly followed
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THE INNER LIFE OF THE ORTHODOX CHURCH
sound common sense of our peasants makes them
incurably suspicious of all kinds of theories, which
have so much attraction for our city labourers .
Nevertheless, this propaganda undermines the oldfaith. So' the peasant is preoccupied just now with
what he considers practical things . He has becomeintensely interested in the cultivation of the soil . Hehas lost the feeling of mystery that formerly sur-
rounded his conceptions of agriculture . But he has a
conservative instinct that makes himwant to keep the
Church as a ritualistic institution . Girls rarely consent
to marry without a religious ceremony, and eventhe Communists are obliged
to yield to thisa
super-
stition." Children are still baptized ; the burial service
is read ; the traditional Church holidays are ob-
served. There i s a peculiar renaissance of ethno-
graphic . ceremonies, practically pagan, and recently
even of real - paganism in the North of Russia, result-
; ng in a dual faith . But alongside you find new ideas
which are penetrating into the villages by means of
Communist newspapers, the cottage library, dramatic
presentations, and the revolutionary songs of theyouth .
As a rule, the village clergy have not passed
through the purifying fire of persecution. They re-main timid and oppressed,. not much above theirfellow villagers i n culture and education . Materially
they have lost some of their revenues, but the village
still gives them enough to live upon-in any casemore than the school-teachers. When at a certainperiod the schools were made dependent upon local
support one after the other was closed . The Sobor of
19 r7-1918 had a noticeable effect in strengthening
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THE INNER LIFE OF THE ORTHODOX CHURCH
their priests into the Living Church Movement, andthese circumstances seem to have cooled the en-thusiasm f o r brotherhoods .
During the period of the imprisonment of thePatriarch, the-exiling of bishops, and the apparent
triumph of the Living Church, together with the
defection and equivocation of many of the pastors,
the hierarchical basis of the Church was badlyshaken. Each Church lived its own life, not de-pending upon the authority of the central Church
administration, frequently even developing a lackof faith in it. The faithful gathered around thefew priests who remained firm, and occasionally even,
figuratively, descended into"catacombs " or gave
special attention to the voice of the a startzy." Onecan still note the traces of this peculiarity of parish
life . . The boundaries of episcopal authority remain
undefined. A bishop who has shown himself to be atrue confessor, who is a hierarch of strong will and
severe life, may firmly rule the Church and depend
upon obedience. But as a general rule the authority
of the episcopacy is now weakened at the expense ofthe growing influence of the lower clergy and laymen .
This does not contradict the increased longing for
authority and a canonical basis for the life of the
Church. However, spiritual authority frequentlyoutweighs canonical authority . In this matter also the
present moment is one of change. It is necessary toreview and to make over many things . For instance,
many of the darker aspects of parish democracy have
come to light. There are well-founded charges thatthe exceptional influence of laymen in the parish at
times interferes- with the independence of the priest .
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TH,E . RUSSIAN CHURCH SINCE THE REVOLUTION
In church committees the voice of the more . well-to-
do part of the community has greater weight .
Attracted by the beauty of the ritual and by financial
success, it is sometimes inclined, not to value -moral
purity or the spiritual zeal of the pastor .
The years of persecution were, for the Church, a
period of weakening of its outward unity andsolidarity. There were actually moments when it was
without the administration and without a head except
the Holy Spirit living in it . Perhaps herein is to be
found the great miracle of its redemption and its in -
destructible inner solidarity . One should not over-
estimate the importance of various acts proceeding
from even very highly placed hierarchical authority .
Such acts were accepted or declined, according tothe degree to which they satisfied the hidden
mysterious consciousness of the Church . The Patri
arch was the living heart of Russia, in him was con-
centrated the love and prayers of the whole Church ;
as a result, there moved in the Church an invisible,
blessed power. But it is not possible to measure this
power by the administrative actions of the Patriarch .
In the absence of freedom of speech and the difficul-
ties attending personal conversations, these actions
were variously construed, troubling some and con-tradicted by others . But never did .they lead to a
cris is , and never did they shake the reverence for him
who was looked upon as the vicarious sufferer for the
whole of the Russian Church. The Patriarch was thepraying protector and the voluntary sacrifice forthe whole of Russia, rather than its leader and
administrator, and the way chosen by him, in spite of
a l l . uncertainties and recognized mistakes, was the
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THE INNER LIFE OF THE ORTHODOX CHURCH
way of salvation . In this it is impossible not' to see
the special outpouring of Grace, which has not de-
parted from Russia .
What have been t h e spiritual fruits plainly pro-
duced within the Russian Church? I shall begin with
the most evident, visible t o a l l observers. We havewitnessed a remarkable adornment of Divine service .
It now possesses a severe beauty that could notformerly be found . Never before has' it been per-
formed in so solemn and spiritual a manner. Andalthough the- secret of this new revelation of spiritual
beauty lies principally in the deep faith of the serving
priest, yet the new spirit has taken hold of all those
worshipping in the churches, giving clarity and a rich-
ness of impression to each word of the reader, every
exclamation of the deacon . In nearly all, even in the
smallest churches, there are beautiful choirs . Thefaithful are loath to quit the temple . They love the
long services, sometimes lasting on festival days for
five hours .
The reformation of the ritual proclaimed by the
Living Church followed the line of returning to old
forms of worship, reviving forgotten ritualistic tradi-
tions. In the attempt to enrich the ritual, the North
borrowed somewhat from the Orthodox Ukraine .
Such, for instance, was the acceptance of the Lenten
"Passion " and the service of burial of the Virgin at
the all-night v i g i l service before Assumption . In a
few cases, though this is with great circumspection,
new prayers have been introduced into the ritual .
But it is clear to all that the living meaning of
the ritual is revealed in the eucharistic service, in the
i n n e r a t t i t u d e o f t h e faithful toward it, For many it
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THE RUSSIAN CHURCH SINCE THE REVOLUTION
has again become a true mystery . The Cup is seldom
presented in vain ; many take Communion and all
share in their joy . They speak of a "Eucharistic
Movement " in the Russian Church, which may be
considered as the fruit of the work of Father John
of Kronstadt, though there is yet no uniformity in
practice. This is a question of greatest importance,
and it is decided by each pastor and by each layman
in his own way. Some urge frequent participation in
the Communion, but require worthy preparation ;
others demand Communion at each service of theLiturgy. There are some believers, though not many,of course, who take Communion every day, others
every week, but principally Communion is taken atthe great feasts . The exceedingly difficult question
of confession which is connected with this movement
is also variously solved . Some practice corporate con-
fession ; others ; though very few, separating the one
sacrament from the other, permit participation in the
Eucharist without confession . The majority retainconfession, obligatory and secret. Thus we see that
even in this central question of Church life there
appears considerable freedom and the absence of
external regulation .
From the Church, from the ritual, there proceed
various spiritual, streams which feed the customary
and family life, but these personal and family fruits
of the Church are not easily measured . Among somey o u w i l l s e e t h e r e v i v a l o f O r t h o d o x c u s t o m s , e l s e - e
where you will see rooms made into oratories andapartments into monasteries . In the noise of the great
cities, along with monstrous "godless" demonstra-tions, there is blazing the fire of ascetic and spiritual
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THE INNER LIFE OF THE ORTHODOX CHURCH'
life. Private prayer,-sometimes prayer meetings, com-
plement worship in the church .
As is well known, national shrines. and monasteries
throughout the whole of Russia have been desecrated
and destroyed. But it is probably not known to all
that this destruction was not complete. As heretofore,
in the summer time, pilgrims go on foot to the shrine
of St, Seraphim,' and to Kiev f o r Assumption. Some-
times there appear new centres of pilgrimage, as i nPodolia,'where a vision of the Crucifixion served as
the occasion for a great movement of pilgrims. Theneed for miracles, the thirst for visions of heavenly
mysteries, is still strong in all ranks of Church people,
though it was especially marked during the years of
persecution and famine . At that time one frequently
heard of visions, prophecies, or miraculous signs .
It was during this period that there occurred inSouthern Russia the renovating of ikons and cupolas,
and the appearance in the village of Kolomensk, near
Moscow, of the Ikon of the Sovereign Virgin, sym-
bolically receiving the crown of the last Russian Tsar .
The monastic idea, which a short time ago seemed
to belong to the past ages, isaga in growing popular .
Not all monasteries have been closed . Here and there
they still exist under the name of 1 1 labouring com-
munities," some even in the capital itself . Othershave been converted into institutions where aged
cripples and invalids are allowed to pass the remainder
of their lives as custodians and keepers of sacred
objects and relics that have been declared to be objects
of art worthy of preservation by the existing Govern-
1 In April, 1927, the monastery at Sarow was closed, and the
relics of St. Seraphim removed to an unknown destination.
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THE RUSSIAN CHURCH SINCE THE REVOLUTION
ment. In some places young novices are accepted intomonastic life with the customary ceremony, but taking
no other vows than to be prepared to suffer and to
be crucified for the world . These monasteries attract
many, but monastic life is to-day possible for only a
few. So the ascetic ideal seeks a new outlet, which isfound by uniting in lay communities while still living
the life of the world . These groups keep in close
touch with the Church, but are not in the same degree
under the guidance of the clergy .
Even "startchestvo " 1 has passed beyond the con-
fines of monastic walls. Sometimes a parish priestfamous f o r his ascetic life and deep spiritual insight
becomes known as a " staretz." Not infrequently he
is a priest deprived of his parish by the Soviet authori-
ties. Such men wield great influence over largenumbers of people. These non-monastic startzy
occupy somewhat the place of father-confessors t o
their followers. Their influence, which is more wide-
spread than formerly, must be regarded as a new
feature of Russian life .
The influence of father-confessors is not limited to
the sacrament of confession, but occasionally, direct-
ing the whole of life in all its daily difficulties and
trials, the father-confessor becomes the director of
conscience .
The ascetic and mystical strain is particularlynoticeable in modern religious tendencies. It isevident, for instance, in the attraction which . laymen
x Startchestvo : the institution or custom of turning forspiritual guidance to aged and particularly venerated monks,
popularly known as " startzy," famous for saintliness and spiritual
g i f t s ,
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THE INNER LIFE OF THE ORTHODOX CHURCH
find in the ascetic literature of the early Church .
However, this tendency is not the only, perhaps not
the dominating one, for along with it there is active,
practical Christianity, finding various forms . Occa=
sionally it bears the character of Orthodox "evange-
l i s m , " giving primacy to active love . Under present
conditions such evangelic love is closely related to the
regeneration of the apostolic ideal-preaching the
Gospel . You meet many people, touchingly selfless,
who give themselves entirely over to the, task of
saving their brothers, sowing the Word of Life, and
laying up nothing for the morrow .
And, finally, among the Christian intelligentzia,
there is particularly strong the demand for the incarna-
tion of Christianity in practice, not in personal life
so . much as in general cultural work . There arise
questions, certainly not new, concerned with the
Christianizingg of culture, with the possibility or
practicability of this endeavour, regarding the future
of the Church and the fate of theocracy . , Here wefind the continual development of subjects presented
by Vladimir Solovieff, and growing out of h i s theo-
logical school. Various answers are,' of course, given,
just as the attitudes towards these questions are
various-from the apocalyptic view, expecting a
cataclysmic .end of the world and paradoxically reject-
ing all problems of culture, up to the optimistic
acceptance of the new life (in Russia, that created by
the revolution) as the foundation on which to build
a new Christian . s o c i e t y .
I f , on the one hand, there is a lively interest in
questions of social and national life, on the other,
for the mystically inclined intelligentizia the more91
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THE RUSSIAN CHURCH SINCE THE REVOLUTION
characteristic questions are those of dogmatic theology
(for example, the, dogma of redemption), problems
connected with "imyaslavchestvo,j l which thoughnot disturbing the Church, and not affecting themasses, has yet attracted many followers in theo-logically authoritative circles . But interests are inter-
woven. Even the mystics are necessarily obliged todetermine for themselves-even though negatively-
their attitude towards culture, and among the socially
active there is a great attraction in ascetic problems .
Christian thought suffers more than Christian life
from severe oppression. The Word is in fetters,intercourse between individuals very limited . We,know that many write without any hope that they
will see their books published . This gives an exclu-
sive importance to oral teaching . The pulpit, alsobound by official fetters, cannot satisfy the great
thirst, though it has given birth to many remarkable
preachers . Among them we witness the tendencies of
which we have already spoken as existing in the whole
Church-ethical questions and questions regarding
apologetics are the prevalent ones . The vacancy that
cannot be filled by public speech is often satisfied by
private intercourse . At the present moment it has
reached in Russia a very high degree of intensity . It
often manifests itself in corporate prayers ; the absence
of scientific organization is supplemented by the in-
tensity of religious fervour . In such an atmosphereeven abstract differences of opinion and theoretical
disputes-very hot sometimes-do not generally pro-
1 That is, mystical realism, renewing the theological move-
ment (St. Gregory Palama) of the fourteenth century in theByzantine Church, in which the name of God was worshipped.
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THE INNER LIFE OF THE ORTHODOX CHURCH
duce any ill-feelin , any inner separation ; do not
stand in the way ofa brotherly communion between
people of very different points of view . Life in the
midst of a Church that is persecuted, life in the midst
of Christ's enemies, face to face with schism, constant
communion in the same divine service and in thesacraments-all, this produces a feeling of t unity
even among thse following different ten encies and
possessing different religious opinions .
With this voice from Russia we conclude ourscattered notes. The time for objective history has
not yet come. The most important material i s s t i l l
kept in archives . No one of our contemporaries has
yet shared his personal recollections . Herein lies the
excuse for the numerous gaps and inaccuracies of the
present work, which can only pretend to serve as an
outline f o r future investigations .
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APPENDIX
THESE pa es had already been written when, in the
summer of 1927, there took place events which may
mark the beginning of a new era in the life of the
Church in Russia . The Metropolitan Sergius, tempo-
rary locum tenens, being released from prison on
July 29, addressed an encyclical to the Church, from
which it is evident that, as a result of his negotiations
with the Soviet Government, the latter has agreed to
register a new «Tikhon " Synod attached to the
locum tenens, thereby giving recognition to a central
organization for the Tikhon Church. Furthermore,it became known that the Metropolitan Sergius isendeavouring to secure legalization for the diocesan
administrations, the Church schools, a Church Press,
and permission to proceed with the election of a new
Patriarch at an All-Russian Sobor . In a word, somesort of a concordat seems to be in formation between
the Church and the Soviet Government .
The Metropolitan Sergius in the above-mentionedencyclical, which is countersigned by seven bishops,
members of the new Patriarchal (Tikhon) Synod, calls
upon the faithful, especially the clergy, to showloyalty in their attitude towards the U
.S .S.R. and its
Government, and condemns the terroristic acts ofcounter-revolutionaries . Referring particularly to the
representatives of the Church in emigration, the .
Metropolitan Sergius proposes that they certify to
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APPENDIX
their political loyalty (to . the Soviet Government) or
drop their adherence to the Moscow Patriarchate .
- Certain expressions in this epistle have created con-
fusion and provided occasion for saying, especially
abroad, that the Tikhon Church has broken up, in the
sense of capitulation before the Bolsheviks . At pre-
sent it is impossible to estimate the significance and
the consequences of this important action . But from
what we already know, it is clear that to speak of
capitulation is not in order. The Metropolitan
Sergius more than aa year ago conducted negotiations
with the authorities regarding the legalization of the
Church, following out the testament of the deceased
Patriarch. In the course of these negotiations he pre-
sented the authorities with various projected declara-
tions, of which the best known was the so-called
"Appeal of the Orthodox bishops from the Solo-vetzk Islands to the Government of the US.S.R ."
In this appeal, in the name of the exiles, the un-
deserved persecution of the Church was denouncedand the nature of its present position was painted in
clear outline : complete loyalty in political and social
questions, and an uncompromising attitude towards
the materialistic spirit of Communism . It is beyond
question that this declaration best of all expresses the
real attitude of the Russian Church towards the
Government. The unduly sharp political expressionsin the final redaction of the encyclical of the Metro-
politan Sergius evidently represent insertions similar
to the same kind of expressions found in the last
proclamation of the Patriarch Tikhon .
The Russian Church is making great sacrifices in
questions o f personal and political dignity, but this
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THE RUSSIAN CHURCH SINCE THE REVOLUTION
does not make it the servant of the authorities . Agreat gulf separates the "loyalty " of the Patriarch
Tikhon and the Metropolitan Sergius from theservility of the Renovated .
It istanother question as to how far this step, taken
by the Metropolitan Sergius, will be crowned with
success-i . e ., is the Government willing to cease the
r6gime of persecution and to give the Church a peace
ful existence? The future will show this . But evenin case of failure attending the step taken by the
Metropolitan Sergius, it will retain its significance . ,
one of the stages on the way to a concordat between
the Church and the State .
Naturally the Russian emigration was unable to
present a united answer to the appeal for "loyalty"
proceeding from the Metropolitan Sergius . It divided
on this question. The Metropolitan Eulogius (Paris),
appointed by the Patriarch Tikhon as the head of the,
Churches in Western Europe, gave for himself, as
well as in the name of his clergy, the signature de-
manded regarding loyalty, in the sense of not par-
ticipating in political affairs . The Balkan bishops,grouping themselves around the Metropolitan
Anthony and the so-called Karlovtzy Synod (Jugo-
slavia) with equal decisiveness cut themselves off
from Metropolitan Sergius . Incidentally, this only
widened the schism in the emigration which for a
long time has separated the Metropolitan Eulogius
and the Metropolitan Anthony on this very funda-mental question : the non-participation in politics on
the part of the Church, and the recognition of inner
unity between the Church in the emigration and the
Church in Russia .
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