Traditions of Lay Orthodoxy in the Russian North

Abstract

History books and political propaganda have taught us to think about Russian culture in geographical terms, as something that is an integrated whole. Political develop­ ment over the past few years under the banner of 'federalism' has led to a number of political and economic declarations about the diversity of the regions, but behind all these declarations there are short-term economic interests connected with the avail­ ability or absence of resources, the varying depth of the economic crisis and the level of political ambition of regional politicians. More often than not we remain unaware of the fundamental diversity of historical background and of the resulting diversity of culture, mentality, religiosity and socio-political orientation. Despite this, and even given the unitary and centralised nature of Muscovite power, the historical memory of Tver', Saratov, Vladivostok or the North-West varies considerably. Holy Rus', on whose land walked hundreds of heroes of the faith, where to this day every little town has its ancient churches, where great icon­ painters laboured, where our ancient history took place, where the Russian people suffered from the Tatar yoke and lived through the Times of Troubles of the seven­ teenth century, is but a relatively small part of our homeland. A slightly bigger area is formed by the territory where there were aristocratic estates (some of which survive to this day in continued decline), which were the hearth of classical Russian culture of the nineteenth century. The history of the Volga region since its settlement by Russians is no older than that of Massachusetts and for the Pacific Maritime region the antiquity of Virginia could be an object of enormous envy. However, the uniform, monolithic, universally acknowledged version of Russian history, culture and religiosity has primarily Muscovite features, plus features of central Russia, which was the heart of 'Holy Rus and was part of Muscovy from ancient times. All the lands acquired by the Muscovite state were supposed to receive ideology along with the system of government. Even the local inhabitants were often not fully aware of the ideological diversity of these lands. Over the years some of the historic features of the regions were lost or uprooted (especially under the Bol­ sheviks). Where there were gigantic construction projects to which vast numbers of people moved and where the map was peppered with islands of the Gulag and where the rule of the NKVD was the basic form of local government, it was virtually impossible for any kind of historic roots to be preserved. On the other hand there were regions that largely escaped the traumas of the Soviet era. We can speculatively note historic features of the regions which no longer play any role in real life today; on the other hand we may fail to notice, or write off as insignificant, something which was formative for the present reality of some part of our country.