«Half-believers» Parishes of Pskov Eparchy: From History of Seto Folk Parishes

Abstract

The subject of this research is history of parishes in the Pskov-Pechorsky Region related with Seto folk. Historical area of this small Finno-Ugric ethnic group embraces modern territory of the Pechorsky District and south-eastern parts of Estonia. Seto are Orthodox Christians and Russians call them poluvertsi (half-believers). Seto culture is usually seen in isolation from established parish system in the borderland of the Pskov-Pechorsky Region and Estonia. The author of article aims to trace principal changes of Seto church life in conditions of constantly shifting state affiliation and political regimes from late XIX century to present time. The source base of research are press materials, published testimonies of eyewitnesses, documents of the State Archive of Pskov Oblast (GAPO) and information gathered by author in ethnographic expeditions of 2007-2017. The research applies historical-comparative and ethnographic methods. The article reveals involvement of Seto in parish life at different stages of their history. Due to their ignorance of Russian language, they couldn’t participate consciously in church services and were involved in Estonian language environment in the period of their incorporation in the Estonian Republic in 1920-1940s. In Soviet period they insisted on their right for independent “Estonian” parish. Today in Russia Seto are included in Russian-speaking church environment and in Estonia parish life. The article emphasizes the role of parish clergymen in establishment of Seto parishes. It puts in academic researches new data about the Soviet period of the Pskov Eparchy i.e. the practice of bilingual Church services in mixed Russian-Estonian parishes. Finally author comes to conclusion about construction of Seto ethno-confessional identity in dependence of political interests of Russia and Estonia in XX-XXI cc. which eventually influenced their culture.