Sergii (Stragorodskii) in the Russian Orthodox Diocese of Finland: Apostasy and Mixed Marriages, 1905-1917

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SEER,T782 A\O. i,januarv 2004 Sergii (Stragorodskii) in the Russian Orthodox Diocese of Finland: Apostasy and Mixed Marriages, I 905-1917 SIMON DIXON ATfirstsight,confessionalsquabbleswithina groupofisolatedKarelian parishes might seem no less peripheral to the great affairsof church and statein Russiathan theywere to the geographyof the empire.Yet, in fact, the repercussionsof religious rivalriesin the Grand Duchy of Finland in the aftermath of the Russian toleration edict of I7 April 1905 went far beyond the personal anguish of the unfortunate individualscaught up in the nets of interdictionand anathema. Three broadercontextsmakethe subjectworthyof furtherinvestigation. First,it throwsnew light on a formativeepisode in the careerof one of twentieth-century Russia's most influential prelates. Sergii (Ivan Nikolaevich Stragorodskii,I867- 1944) is generallyrememberedas the Patriarchelected, shortlybefore his death, under Stalin in September 1943. His reputation has been further coloured by his controversial declaration of loyalty to the Soviet regime on I9 July I927.1 Among historiansof Orthodoxy, Sergiiis familiaralso as a clericaljournalistin the I930s,2 and as a participant in both the conciliar movement of Simon Dixon is Professor of Modern History at the University of Leeds. This article forms part of a project on Russian religious rivalry funded by the British Academy, the Royal Society of Edinburgh and the Caledonian Research Foundation, whose support is gratefully acknowledged. Chris Chulos, Geoffrey Hosking, Peter Waldron and Marina Vituhnovskaja kindly suggested improvements. ' D. Pospielovsky, TheRussianChurch undertheSovietRegime,2 vols, Crestwood, NY, I984 (hereafter, Pospielovsky, Russian Church),i, pp. I8-I 2, 142-62 passim, 194-209; idem, The OrthodoxChurchin the Historg of Russia, Crestwood, NY, I998, pp. 249-52; M. V. Shkarovskii, 'The Russian Orthodox Church versus the State: The Josephite Movement, 1927--1940', SlavicReview,54, 1995, pp. 365-84; M. I. Odintsov, 'Deklaratsiia mitropolita Sergiia I9 iiulia 1927 g. i bor'bavokrugnee', Otechestvennaia istoriia, I992, 6, pp. I 23 40; N. Struve, Pravoslavie i kul'tura,Moscow, 2000, pp. 246-51. 2 He was, for example, the driving force behind (and frequently sole contributor to) early editions of the Journal of the Moscowv Patriarchate: see ZhurnalMloskovskoi Patriarkhiiz 193I -19359gd0y, Moscow, 2001. SIMON DIXON 51 1905-o6 and the religious-philosophical assemblies of I90I-03,3 though, as we shall see, it is hard to sustain the prevailing view of him as a 'progressive reformist' in matters theological.4 By contrast, his biographers have allowed the years Sergii spent as archbishop of Finland between 1905 and I9 I7 to pass almost without remark.5 Secondly, I hope to demonstrate Russian nationalism's damaging impact on the relationship between church and state in the empire. Finnish scholars have tended to see conflict between Orthodox and Lutherans in terms of a struggle between an imperialist power and the emergent Finnish nation. So indeed it was, though matters on the Orthodox side were confused, as is well known, by debates between Finnish and Russian 'parties' over the language question in schools and the liturgy. A further complication was created by competing Finnish and Russian constructions of the Karelian nation.6 Historians based in Finland have illuminated all these matters in a series of important studies based mostly on materials available there.7 But by bringing to J. XV\.Cunningham, A Vanquished Hope: The Mlovement for ChurchRenewal in Russia, 1903 o906, Crestwood, NY, I98I, pp. I56-57, I6I-62, and passim; J. Scherrer, 'Die Petersburger Religios-Philosophischen Vereinigungen', Forschungen zur osteuropdischen Geschichte ,19, I973, pp. i oi-o6 and passim. 4 Pospielovsky, Russian Church,i, pp. I83-86 (p. I85). See also M. I. Odintsov (ed.), 'Krestnyi put' patriarkha Sergiia: dokumenty, pis'ma, svidetel'stva sovremennikov', OtechestVenneIarkhivy , 1994, 4, esp. pp. 58-6I. 5 As, for example, in the otherwise surprisingly informative Patriarkh Sergiii egodukhovnoe na.sledsto,Moseow, 1947, and M. I. Odintsov, RusskiepatriarkhiXX veka,Moscow, I999, pp. 147-203 (pp. I52-53). 6 Significant articles by the key modern authority, M. A. Vitukhnovskaia, include: 'Karely i Kareliia kak "iabloko razdora": Russkaia vlast' i pravoslavnaia tserkov' protiv karel'skogo natsionalizma', in Rossiiai Finliandiiav XVIII-XXvv.. spetsifika granitsy,St Petersburg, I999, pp. 239-53; eadem, 'Cultural and Political Reaction in Russian Karelia in I906-I907: State Power, the Orthodox Church and the "Black Hundreds against Karelian Nationalism"', Jahrbhicherffir Geschichte Osteuropas, 48...