Appeals of the Vicar Bishops of the Tomsk Diocese for Help to the Starving in 1922 (Vicariates of Biysk and Novonikolaevsk)

Abstract

Based on the local publication of episcopal appeals to the clergy and believers for help to the starving, the article considers the history of the campaign to confiscate church valuables in 1922 that rarely being in focus of research before. The mass famine of 1922 was a consequence of the severe drought and the social and economic experiments of the Bolsheviks. Under the guise of fighting hunger, a campaign was launched to confiscate church valuables. This campaign became a key moment in the relationship between the Soviet government and the Russian Orthodox Church. This paper publishes previously unknown copies of two appeals of the vicar bishops of the Tomsk diocese, addressed to the participation of the clergy and believers of the Biysk, Zmeinogorsk and Novonikolaevsk church districts in helping the starving in 1922. These appeals are stored in the State Archives of the Novosibirsk Region. The paper shows the historical outline underlay drawing up of appeals by vicar bishops. It analyzes the use of these sources in historiography, demonstrates examples of interpretations by researchers of the content of appeals. It establishes that the episcopal epistle was influenced by both hierarchical dependence on spiritual authority and anti-religious pressure of secular authorities. These sources are valuable in that they reflect the consolidated positions of the diocesan clergy and believers, their reaction to everything that was happening then in state-church relations. It is important to notice the features of the typographical set of the texts of these appeals since they were published in the form of leaflets in local printing houses. This article publishes the appeals taking into account modern scientific standards of editorial archaeography.