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Clerical Outsiders: The Edinoverie Priesthood in Imperial Russia, 1800–1917
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 June 2020
Abstract
Founded in 1800, edinoverie was a missionary mechanism that offered converts from ‘schismatic’ Old Belief the use of their anathematised rituals within the Russian Orthodox Church. However, the edinoverie clergy's distinctive social characteristics and working conditions stymied successful integration into the caste-like clerical estate. These representatives of an alternative form of Orthodoxy chiefly championed by Old Believers therefore remained on the periphery of the confession. This demonstrates the limits of intraconfessional diversity within the imperial Church: even when championed by ethnic Russians, the Church was reluctant to sponsor alternative visions of Orthodoxy in its own ranks.
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- Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2020
Footnotes
This article was written with the financial support of the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (RFBR), project No. 20–49–660015/20: ‘Ekaterinburg-Sverdlovsk as an intellectual centre of Russia in the age of industrial modernity: milestones in formation from the end of the nineteenth to the end of the twentieth centuries’.
References
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39 Ibid. 35.
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48 P. Zlotnikov, ‘Неправда “Правды православия” и “Глагола времен” об особом единоверческом епископе и австрийщине’ [The falsity of “The Truth of Orthodoxy” and “Word of the Times” about a special edinoverie bishop and the Austrian hierarchy], Миссионерское Oбозрение [Missionary Review] iv (1907), 593.
49 Figures compiled from N. I. Dranitsyn, Адрес-календарь Нижегородской епархии на 1904 г. [Address book of Nizhnii Novgorod diocese for 1904], Nizhnii Novgorod 1904, 149–305.
50 Пермский епархиальный адрес-календарь на 1882 [Perm diocesan address book for 1882], Perm 1882, 106–11.
51 Вятская епархия: историко-географическое описание [Viatka diocese: an historico-geographical and statistical description], Viatka 1912, 82–3.
52 Suslova, ‘Единоверие’, 228.
53 N. M. Kutepov (ed.), Памятная книга по С.-Петербургской епархии [Commemorative book on St Petersburg diocese], St Petersburg 1899, 201–6.
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56 Shleev, ‘К открытию’, 3; RGIA, f. 796, op. 197, VI ot. 3 st., d. 111.
57 Второй Всероссийский съезд православных старообрядцев (единоверцев) в Н. Новгороде 23–28 юлия 1917 года [Second all-Russian congress of Orthodox Old Believers (edinovertsy) in Nizhnii Novogord, 23–28 July 1917], Petrograd 1917, 60; Деяния собора православной Российской церкви [Acts of the council of the Orthodox Russian Church], Moscow 1918, vii. 84.
58 Freeze, Parish clergy, 57.
59 By 1905 two-thirds of all parish priests received a subsidy: ibid. 453.
60 For parish guardianships see A. L. Beglov, ‘Приходские попечительства при православных церквах Российской империи в 1890-е гг.: итоги 30-летней деятельности’ [Parish guardianships in Orthodox churches of the Russian Empire in the 1890s: the total of 30 years of activity], Российская История [Russian History] vi (2014), 104–27.
61 ‘Притязания единоверцев’ [Assertions of the edinovertsy], Церковно-Oбщественный Вестник [Church and Society Herald] cxxix (1878), 2.
62 For Verkhovskii's selection by Nicholas see T. A. Verkhovskii, Стародубье: записки прот. С.-Петерб. Никольск. единоверческ. церкви Т. А. Верховского [Starodube: the notes of Archpriest T. A. Verkhovskii of the St Petersburg Nikolskaia edinoverie church], Kazan 1874, 20.
63 Quoted from F. Kiprianovich, ‘Устроение единоверческой церкви в Риге’ [Construction of the edinoverie church in Riga], Рижские Епархиальный Ведомости [Riga Diocesan Gazette] iv (1914), 106.
64 GASO, f. 6, op. 4, d. 68, l. 9.
65 V. P., ‘К вопросу о состоянии единоверия в Сибири’ [On the question of the standing of edinoverie in Siberia], Томские Eпархиальные Bедомости [Tomsk Diocesan Gazette] viii (1884), 14.
66 GAKO, f. 237, op. 70, d. 49, l. 33ob. Old Believers refused to recognise saints created by the Orthodox Church after 1666–7: Mitrofan of Voronezh was canonised in 1832. The term shchepotniki translates as ‘pinchers’, an insult directed at the way in which Orthodox believers made the sign of the cross by ‘pinching’ three fingers together. Old Believers often regarded shaving a sin: they had the same attitude to European (‘German’) fashions. Omutninsk was a factory settlement, hence the reference to the managers.
67 N. V. Lysogorskii, Единоверие на Дону в XVIII и XIX в. (по 1883 г.) [Edinoverie on the Don in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries (to 1883)], Sergiev Posad 1915, 606–9.
68 GASO, f. 43, op. 3, d. 35, ll. 37–120.
69 V. M. Skvortsov (ed.), Деяния 3-го Всероссийского миссионерского съезда в Казани, по вопросам внутренней миссии и расколосектантства [Acts of the third all-Russian missionary congress in Kazan on questions of the internal mission, the schism, and sects], 2nd edn, Kiev 1898, 236.
70 Kutepov, Памятная книга, 201–2.
71 P. Ershov (ed.), Справочная книга Пермской епархии на 1912 год [Reference book of Perm diocese for 1912], Perm 1911, 107.
72 ‘Подужемский единоверческий приход’ [Poduzheme edinoverie parish], Архангельские Eпархиальные Bедомости [Arkhangelsk Diocesan Gazette] xi (1896), 118.
73 Varushkin, ‘О единоверии’, i. 271.
74 Тобольский епархиальный адрес-календарь на 1897 год [Tobolsk diocesan address book for 1897], Tobolsk 1897, 227–8.
75 V. P., ‘К вопросу’, 10.
76 ‘К истории православного старообрядчества (единоверия) в Екатеринбургском уезде’ [On the history of Orthodox Old Belief (edinoverie) in Ekaterinburg district], Екатеринбургские Eпархиальные Bедомости [Ekaterinburg Diocesan Gazette] xxiii (1905), 799–801.
77 RGIA, f. 1473, op. 1, d. 24, ll. 275ob–276ob.
78 Varushkin, ‘О единоверии’, i. 314.
79 Пензенская епархия: историко-статическое описание [Penza diocese: an historic-statistical description], Penza 1907, 290–1.
80 S. Shleev, ‘Благочинные единоверческих церквей’ [Deans of edinoverie churches], Правда Православия [The Truth of Orthodoxy] x–xi (1908), 2.
81 GARF, f. 63, op. 50, d. 232, l. 3.
82 RGIA, f. 831, op. 1, d. 51, ll. 2–8.
83 I. Nevestin, ‘Раскол в селе Поиме и учреждение единоверия’ [The schism in the village of Poima and the establishment of edinoverie], Пензенские Eпархиальные Bедомости [Penza diocesan gazette] x (1868), 389.
84 GASO, f. 6, op. 4, d. 71, l. 23.
85 GAKO, f. 237, op. 139, d. 1816, l. 265ob.
86 GAKO, op. 8, d. 627, ll. 1–5. For the prohibition against Old Believer marriage see Paert, I., ‘Regulating Old Believer marriages: ritual, legality, and conversion in Nicholas i's Russia’, Slavic Review lxiii/3 (2004), 555–76CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
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88 Деяния, vii. 46.
89 ‘По поводу нововведение в некоторых единоверческих церквах’ [On the introduction of novelty into some edinoverie churches], Московские Eпархиальные Bедомости [Moscow Diocesan Gazette] iv (1878), 46.
90 Деяния, vi. 110.
91 RGIA, f. 796, op. 204, 5 otd., 1 st., d. 32, l. 11.
92 RGIA, f. 796, op. 88, d. 534, l. 1.
93 Amendments were made in 1832, which allowed Orthodox who had not taken any sacraments in ten years to join edinoverie, and in 1885, which reduced the period to five years.
94 NART, f. 4, op. 1, d. 6902, l. 24.
95 V. P., ‘К вопросу’, 12–13.
96 GASO, f. 1, op. 1, d. 2, ll. 92–3ob.
97 TsANO, f. 570, op. 559 (1897), d. 83, l. 1ob.
98 EAA, 1655.2. 2571.19–24.
99 EAA, 1655.2.2607 (unpaginated).
100 E. Sarancha (ed), Труды II и III Всероссийских съездов православных старообрядцев (единоверцев) [Works of the second and third all-Russian congresses of Orthodox Old Believers (edinovertsy)], Mikhailovskaia Sloboda 2018, 314.