The Jesuit Mission and the Local Catholic Community in Smolensk

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the life of the Smolensk Catholic community during first decades after the conclusion of the Russian–Polish peace treaty of 1686. Smolensk’s Catholic community consisted predominantly of noblemen and continued to exist in the city after 1654, when Russia took Smolensk from Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Catholics were granted religious freedom in the Eternal Peace treaty, and in 1686 an unofficial Jesuit mission was even established in Smolensk. However, as unpublished Russian documents reveal, policies towards local Catholics were ambivalent. Although the Moscow government closed the mission in 1690 and a few Catholics were oppressed by local voivodes, Moscow did not prosecute Catholics systematically, nor did it intend to eradicate them totally. Moreover, despite these restraining policies, a Catholic community in Smolensk district continued to exist at least until the end of 1720.