Priest G.S. Petrov and his 'case': legal process over the church journalist 1906–1907

2018

Vestnik Pravoslavnogo Svâto-Tihonovskogo Gumanitarnogo Universiteta: Seriâ II. Istoriâ, Istoriâ Russkoj Pravoslavnoj Cerkvi, Vol 85, Iss 85, Pp 11-29 (2018)

The priest and journalist Grigory Spiridonovich Petrov (Russ. Григорий Спиридонович Петров), both at the beginning of the 20th century and now, attracts the attention with his extraordinary popularity and his confl ict with the Russian Orthodox Church that condemned him for his journalistic anti-government activities. Both at the beginning of the 20th century and now, the attitudes to his condemnation by the Russian Church can be very diff erent, but the prevalent opinion is that Priest Grigory Petrov was condemned undesevedly; but with this said, the process over him (1906‒1907) is looked at lopsidedly, because one does not take into account and analyse his writing and content of the papers in the newspaper «Правда Божия» (eng. “The Truth of God”) edited by Petrov. The whole situation is evaluated from those positions that were created for a specifi c segment of public opinion by Petrov himself, who placed an emphasis on the legal unlawfulness of bith the case and the accusation. From the point of view of the author of the article, the topic in question must not be considered lopsidedly and requires certain defi nitions. One should bear in mind that it is not correct not to take into account the fact that the Russian Orthodox Church in 1906‒1907 was discussing the public activity of its representative and made an assessment of the preaching of an Orthodox priest, who became very fond of the socialisation of Christianity. One should also remember that at the time when when the decision about the condemnation of the anti-government acitivity of Petrov was taken, the Russian Church was part of government structures. This article draws on an expanded circle of sources and deals with the precedent of the church trial over priest Grigory Petrov, specifi es his social and religious views and demonstrates that there were grounds for his condemnation.

article

Russian

St. Tikhon's Orthodox University, 2018.

священник, публицист, Григорий Спиридонович Петров, дело Григория Петрова, 1906–1907 гг., Русская Церковь, епископ Арсений (Стадницкий), Синод, газета «Правда Божия», социализация христианства, History of Russia. Soviet Union. Former Soviet Republics, DK1-4735, History and principles of religions, BL660-2680