Abstract
The article considers the views of A. Kartashev, an outstanding theologian, Minister of Confessions of the Provisional Government, on relationship between church and state in Russia and the measures he proposed in order to reform them. What Kartashev advocated was not the complete separation of church and state, but rather such a “growing distance” between them which would give the Russian Orthodox Church independence and would allow the state to be secular rather than unilaterally confessional. During the short period when the Ministry of Religious Confessions was working, Anton Kartashev tried to be less involved into church administration, defended the interests of the religious department in the government, and supported a number of proposals from the Local Council. Kartashev began to implement the legal registration of the multi-confessional state system and consistently defended the interests of the Orthodox Church in other ministries and government departments. He gradually moved away from the doctrinal guidelines of the Provisional Government on the separation of church and state and became inclined to strengthen the influence of the church in the life of society, seeing its activities as a guarantee of the spiritual salvation of Russia. This approach did not coincide with the ideas about the role of the church in the life of society which had developed in liberal and socialist circles of that time and led to a discrepancy between the declarations of the Provisional Government and the activities it carried out in the church sphere. The article considers the reasons why Kartashev was able to pursue his line of confessional policy. The most important of these reasons was that neither the Provisional Government nor the Constitutional Democratic Party or the Socialist Revolutionary Party considered the problems of church-state relations a priority. They treated such problems in the context of general problems of the democratic transformation of Russia and attributed the right to solve them to the Constituent Assembly. It is emphasized that in the tense atmosphere of 1917 neither the Provisional Government nor the Russian Orthodox Church wanted to conflict with each other. In this situation, the compromise policy of Anton Kartashev suited both sides and softened the negative attitude of the church circles towards the activities of the Provisional Government.
Highlights
Kartashev is well known as an outstanding theologian, thinker, and historian of the Russian Church.1. His political activity as the last Chief Procurator of the Holy Synod and Minister of Confessions of the Provisional Government has been studied in much less detail. This fact is connected both with a short duration of his stay in power and with the fact that the confessional policy of the Provisional Government is studied relatively well
The study of Anton Kartashev’s political activity shows that his views on churchstate relations and the measures he proposed to reform them were clearly inconsistent with the ideas of the separation of church and state which circulated in liberal and socialist circles
It is the most important reason why the declarations of the Provisional Government did not correspond to its activities in the church sphere
Summary
The regulation stated that both Minister of Confessions and all his associates should belong to the “Orthodox confession.” The state had to give up state tutelage over all churches and confessions, giving them the right to define their own internal organization without the sanction “on the part of state authority.” But at the same time, Minister of Confessions was to receive the rights and duties “which belonged to Chief Procurator of the Holy Governing Synod and the Minister of Internal Affairs, according to their affiliation.” The compromise nature of the decree was emphasized by the fact that it was temporary It was to remain valid until the decisions of the All-Russian Local Council and the Constituent Assembly. The readiness of Kartashev as Minister of Confessions to engage in political dialogue with the Russian Orthodox Church and his compromise policy undoubtedly softened the generally negative attitude of the church circles toward the activities of the Provisional Government. While reproaching the Provisional Government for its inconsistent policy toward the church, Metropolitan Anastasii (Gribanovskу) stressed that his reproaches did not apply to Kartashev, who, “undoubtedly, sincerely promoted the canonical renewal of our church order.” The Bolsheviks’ accession to power interrupted Kartashev’s policy of cooperation between the Orthodox Church and the state
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