The cause of Arseniy Matseevich as an "indicator" of the ideology of the church conservatism at the Catherinian age: historiographical aspect

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On the materials of the historico-biographical treatises and furthermore the generalizing and monographic works in history of the Russian Orthodox Church and the social and political thought the historiographical appraisals and treatments of the ideological content and motivation of the church opposition to the Catherine's II policy led by metropolitan of Rostov Arseniy Matseevich is examined. This problematico-historiographical review is realized in the context of the Russian conservatismʼs origins and development from its initial oppositional version to the posterior incarnation. The Russian Pre-October and émigré "secular" historians (V. S. Ikonnikov, A. V. Kartashev) appraised Arseniy Matseevichʼs struggle against the secularization church estates decreed by Catherine II as the manifestation of the class economical egoism of the highest clergy only. These authors denied any "ideal" (spiritual and ideological) motives of his opposition to the Catherinian policy. Contrary to this viewpoint in the apologistical treatise about Arseniy Matseevich published in 1912 the priest M. S. Popov represented him as the principal ideological fighter for the Church's independence of the Catherinian absolutist regime. The Soviet historiography and the majority of the contemporary Russian historians assertes the "class egoistical" economical motivation of Arseniy Matseevichʼs opposition to the Catherinian politics and confronted his oppositional church conservatism with its "system" version personified by the metropolitan of Moscow Platon (Levshin).