Autocracy and the Vatican on the Eve of the "Imperialist War": A Russian Foreign Ministry Document in Translation

Abstract

Traditionally, the Russian tsars were anti-Catholic in their sentiments and policies. As a consequence of Russia's long struggle with Catholic states such as Poland and Lithuania, the animosity of Russian monarchs toward the Latin Heresy of Papal Catholicism intensified. During Nicholas I's reign (1825 1855) a reign of terror against all minority faiths was launched in Russia, but it was especially directed against the Catholic religion in conquered Poland.1 Believing that all his subjects must be faithful to Orthodoxy or their loyalties would gravitate to another state, Nicholas sent his gendarmes (the security police), accompanied by Orthodox priests, into areas that were heavily populated with Catholics. Here they closed and in some cases wrecked the churches and schools, arrested the priests, and began a campaign to educate the Catholics in the advantages of becoming Orthodox Christians. To escape imprisonment, many Catholic priests went into hiding, while hundreds of their parishioners, in order to avoid converting to a faith that they could not embrace voluntarily, fled abroad, first to Western Europe and later to the United States. Many of the Catholics, however, retaliated against Nicholas's repressive policies. Combining with nationalists and other dis gruntled elements of the Russian Empire, they staged a rebellion in Poland in 1831. Since the rebellious groups were disunited and had failed to win the support of the peasants, their revolt