Mapping Out Holy Rus: The Formation of Sacred Geographies in Russian Pilgrim

Abstract

This article analyzes the popular edificatory journal, Russian Pilgrim (Russkii Palmonik), published in Russia from 1885–1917. Part of the late imperial boom in the religious periodical press, Russian Pilgrim fully embodied some key perspectives held by Orthodox clergy, laity, and political functionaries during this tumultuous period in Russia’s history. At the same time, its unique illustrated format and thematic focus enabled it to interpret and represent those perspectives in a distinctive and particularly effective way. Our special interest is in the ways in which the journal uses visual and literary representations of pilgrimage to draw a particular cognitive map of Russian spiritual geography, and, correspondingly, to augment a national Orthodox self-consciousness. To this end, we examine how Russian Pilgrim’s depictions of religious sites of nationwide and local significance creatively engage—and reenvision—the popular conception of “Holy Rus” in the context of the journal’s contemporary historical, religious, and political realities.