Russian Orthodoxy and the politics of national identity in early twentieth century

Abstract

In the wake of the 1905 revolution some of the prelates and the lower
clergy of the Russian Orthodox Church joined the politics of the newlyemerged
Right and radical Right. Contrary to the assumptions of Soviet and
Western historians, the Orthodox clergy did not do so primarily out of innate
conservatism of loyalty to the autocracy. Church leaders sought to substitute
empowerment through rightist support for what they felt the tsarist state had
abandoned. That was the Church’s traditional privileges in Russia, such as the
exclusive right to missionary activity and the identification of the character of
the tsarist state with Orthodoxy. Yet Orthodox hierarchs approached the Right
as ideological teachers seeking to redefine nationalist beliefs about “Russianness”
according to the Orthodox faith. Participation in rightist political activity
also compensated rank-and-file Orthodox clergy for the contempt of Russia’s
educated élite and for the state’s negligence towards clergymen’s pressing
material needs.