Эфиопское посольство 1895 года, церковно-государственные отношения и идейные искания консерваторов конца XIX века

Abstract

The article examines the religious and symbolic aspects of the Ethiopian Embassy (mission) to Russia (1895) in the context of church and state relations and ideological searching of Russian conservatives in the end of the 19th century. The visit of the Embassy to Russia aroused special interest of the Ober-Procurator of the Most Holy Synod K.P. Pobedonostsev who saw the people of the African State as supporters of the patriarchal values, so important for him, such as – patriarchal simplicity, devotion to traditions, genuine religiousness. For Pobedonostsev the embodiment of those values in Russia were the establishments related to his activities as head of the clerical office (primarily church schools for common people), that’s why he attached special importance to the visits of the African guests to those schools in the course of their mission. The visits were meant to reveal the spiritual kinship of the Christians from that distant country with Russian church life and consolidate their attraction to Russia.