WORD AND DEAL: TOUCHES TO THE PORTRAIT OF THE CHURCH LIFE IN YADRINSKY UYEZD IN MAY 1917

Abstract

The article deals with the state confessional politics of the Provisional Government period. The emphasis is made on the regional aspect. The focus of attention is a specific episode of the events development in Yadrinsky uyezd of Kazan Governorate. In May 1917, one of the volost food committees by the “application of parishioners of all parishes” issued a resolution on the new rules of financial and bread support to the local clergy. Establishment of such norms exceeded their authority and caused a natural response. Fortunately the rural deans’ councils searching protection turned to the Provincial Commissar of the Provisional Government, pointing to the ineligibility of actions on the part of the local civil authority. The emphasis in the petition of the clergy was immediately placed on serious negative consequences, which the accepted document was capable to cause. The situation was not unusual: conflicts of secular and religious authorities took place in other volosts and uyezds. This happened against the background of peasants’ unrest. Provincial authorities in a categorical form ordered the uyezd leadership to “put in proper place” their local organization. In the analyzed example, the situation was resolved safely: by the decision of Yadrinsky uyezd committee of public safety, the standard act of the local body was cancelled, but the situation as a whole required not a point solution, but a holistic approach. In order to prevent such excesses in the future, special “Conciliation Commissions for the Settlement of Conflicts Arising between Parishioners and the Clergy in Kazan, uyezd towns and villages» were organized.