The Clergy of Ukrainian Dioceses of the Russian Orthodox Church in Spiritual and National Revival (1907-1914)

Abstract

After the defeat of the First Russian Revolution of 1905-1907, the church-reform movement continued to develop and strengthen in the regions of sub-Russian Ukraine. Patriotic clergy sought to return national traditions, customs and rites to society and the laity, advocated further Ukrainization of religious and secular education, weakening or elimination of the Synod and the autocephaly of the Orthodox Church. The period under study is characterized by the emergence of Ukrainian church periodicals, further work of the clergy on translations and editions of the Holy Scriptures, collections of sermons and prayer books in Ukrainian, the creation of Ukrainian libraries in religious schools, the activity of clergy in celebrating the anniversaries of Taras Shevchenko and their activity in "Prosvita". An important role was also played by the youth of religious educational institutions: during their protests the main demands were the issue of Ukrainianization of the educational process. An important achievement of the patriotic clergy was the decision of the Podilsky Diocesan Congress on the appeal to the Holy Synod and obtaining permission from him to introduce subjects on the Ukrainian language, literature and history of Ukraine as extracurricular in the Podilsky orthodox theological seminaries. Protests were important for the spiritual and national revival actions of religious youth in Podillia, Volyn, Poltava, Ekaterynoslav, Odessa theological seminaries and Kyiv orthodox theological academy. Among the main demands of the protesters there were the issues of holding church reforms, democratization of the educational process and implementation of the subjects for the study of Ukrainian history and literature. The struggle of the Orthodox clergy for the democratization and Ukrainization of the Orthodox Church in Ukraine in the period 1907-1914 became the main basis for strengthening the movement for the autocephaly of the church and formed its future personnel reserve.