Congresses of Orthodox clergy and laity in the context of other forms of public self-organisation in 1917

2025

Вестник Православного Свято-Тихоновского гуманитарного университета: Серия ИИ. История, история Русской Православной Церкви, Vol 123, Iss 123, Pp 54-73 (2025)

The article examines the phenomenon of congresses of clergy and laity of the Orthodox Russian Church in 1917. The author proposes to compare these church forums with other forms of social self-organisation of the revolutionary time: with congresses, conferences, meetings of various social groups, public associations, cooperative organisations, as well as with councils of soldiers’, workers’, and peasants’ deputies. Such a comparison will make it possible to see more clearly the specifics of church forums and realise the scale of the church revolution of 1917. Having made the above comparison, the author shows that the intensity of the convening of church congresses was perceptibly inferior to the similar activity of other social groups and public associations. The congresses of clergy and laity became especially famous because of the conflicts of parish clerics and bishops that developed at some of them. However, compared to the changes that the system of civil administration at the provincial level underwent in 1917, the diocesan ecclesiastical authority was transformed to a minor extent. It’s important feature was that the Synod retained the decisive word in legitimising the congresses and their decisions. From the point of view of the procedure for forming their membership and the range of topics to be discussed, the congresses of clergy and laity were similar to the forums of professional associations, cooperative organisations and similar societies, which were formed on the basis of territorial representation and, in addition to general political issues, discussed primarily specialised topics directly related to their activities. The political statements of the church forums did not differ in essence from similar statements of other congresses in 1917. The main topic of the church congresses was the discussion of state-church relations and the future system of church government. At the same time, the proposals of the congresses concerning the future church structure were contradictory and depended on which group, clergy or laity, prevailed at a particular forum. The author notes that despite the fact that the congresses of 1917 were no longer organs of estate self-government, some of them bore their birthmarks and turned out to be an arena for resolving intra-estate conflicts. The internal heterogeneity of church congresses made them conflictual and distinguished them from the more monolithic forums of peasants or intelligentsia.

article

Russian

St. Tikhon's Orthodox University, 2025.

history of the russian orthodox church, russian revolution of 1917, church revolution of 1917, congresses of clergy and laity, election of bishops, public self-organisation, история русской православной церкви, русская революция 1917 г., церковная революция 1917 г., съезды духовенства и мирян, выборы епископов, общественная самоорганизация, History of Russia. Soviet Union. Former Soviet Republics, DK1-4735, History and principles of religions, BL660-2680