Russian Church Research Articles

The distribution of patriarchal alms to non-beggarly categories of the population in the second half of the 17th century

The subject of the study is the records of the expense books of the Patriarchal State Order, which provide information about the financial assistance provided by the Moscow patriarchs to non-beggarly categories of the population: servants of the Patriarchal orders, participants in memorial services for secular and spiritual persons, prisoners of war who had previously been released from captivity, prisoners of prisons of all orders. The purpose of the study is to determine what the significance of patriarchal alms was for representatives of these categories. The author examines in detail the mechanism of giving alms in relation to each of them. Special attention is paid to the source aspect: petitions of potential recipients of alms were an important element of the clerical system of the Patriarchal State Order. They were part of the primary documentation that has not reached our days and can be partially reconstructed based on the texts of the expense books. The research is based on the methodological tools of auxiliary historical disciplines: first of all, Russian paleography, which opens up opportunities for analyzing the handwriting of officials who issued patriarchal alms and its recipients, as well as historical metrology and historical chronology. The analysis carried out allows us to form a detailed picture of the recipients of patriarchal alms who are not beggars. It should be noted that insufficient attention is paid to non-poor categories of the population in the modern historiography of Russian church charity. The results of the study indicate that such recipients could be those who are not necessarily poor in general, but currently in need of financial assistance, for example, servants of the Patriarchal Court who have fallen into difficult life situations. The same remark applies to former prisoners and "prison inmates and prisoners". Payments for participants of memorial services for secular and ecclesiastical persons – primarily for monarchs and patriarchs – were substantially closer to salaries and were carried out for performing certain functions at these ceremonies, however, in the text of the source they were also referred to as alms. It is concluded that the patriarchal alms was intended not only for the urban poor, but for those in need in the broadest sense of the word, which indicates its great importance for the Moscow society of the second half of the XVII century, makes it not a formality and exclusively part of the ceremonial, but a really important action from a socio-economic point of view of the Moscow patriarchs.

В. М. Металлов — священник, ученый, педагог

This article presents the experience of working in the genre of scientific biography of an outstanding representative of Russian culture at the turn of the XIX–XX centuries, priest Vasily Mikhailovich Metallov, who combined church service with scientific and pedagogical musical activity (to a lesser extent, composing).V.M. Metallov has come a long way from a provincial rural priest to the rector of the Kazan Church on Red Square in Moscow. Developing the talent of a research scientist, he achieved great results in the field of studying ancient Russian church music history, set forth in a number of fundamental works. In his extensive pedagogical activity, he sought to transfer his scientific knowledge to students of spiritual and secular educational institutions in Saratov and Moscow: the Saratov Theological Seminary, the Synodal School of Church Singing, the Moscow Conservatory of the Russian Musical Society, the Archaeological Institute.The central place in the secular ministry of V.M. Metallov was occupied by the Moscow Conservatory. In it, he continued the tradition of teaching the spiritual and musical training course «The History of Church Singing», the founder of which was Archpriest Dimitri Vasilyevich Razumovsky, and the successor Stepan Vasilyevich Smolensky. By his works and trying to preserve the presence of the spiritual and musical subject in the conditions of the reformation after 1917 of pre-revolutionary musical education at the Moscow Conservatory, V.M. In this way, he preserved the foundation, which in the future allowed the interest of musical researchers to revive in the national «monument» — the ancient Russian church music art.The article observes the chronological outline of the biography of V.M. Metallov, supplemented by a number of little-known details and documentary evidence discovered during the study of archival materials and documents.

Певческие рукописи Антониево-Сийского монастыря как источник по истории Русского церковного пения XVII в. (нотация, редакции текста, певческие стили)

The Synodal Cantatory Collection of the State Historical Museum contains a complex of cantatory MSs from Antonievo-Siysky Monastery. Most of them date from the 17th century. This was the time when the Russian tradition of church singing was being actively transformed. At Antonievo-Siysky Monastery, these changes took place quite intensively, and the Siysky complex of MSs is a valuable source for the history of Russian church singing of the transitional period. All types of musical notation, known in the ancient Russian manuscript tradition of the 15th — 17th centuries, are found in Antonievo-Siysky cantatory MSs, including “double-signs” (Rus. двознаменники), as well as several pre-reform MSs with a naon edition, in which cinnabar marks of the same period as the main text are affi xed. The complex allows us to trace how the preferences of Siya’s scribes and singers in using a certain type of notation changed during the 16th — 18th centuries. According to the edition of the verbal text, Siysky MSs are divided into three groups, i.e. pre-reform, transitional, and post-reform. The variety of editions of the verbal text makes it possible to study the methods of Nikon’s editors of the Printing House (Rus. Печатный двор) and their monastic followers. The repertoire of chants found in Siysky MSs shows that Siya’s professional singers had excellent knowledge of both the cantatory heritage of the late 15th — 16th centuries and the achievements of their contemporaries from major centres of singing of that time.

Письма на Валаам эмигранта протоиерея Симеона Солодовникова 1930–1933 гг.

The publication presents letters from Paris of the period 1930-1939 by two emigrant priests - Archpriest Simeon (Solodovnikov) and then hegumen Stefan (Svetozarov). Both pastors have subordinated to Metropolitan Eulogius (Georgievsky), but after his transition to the Constantinople Patriarch subordination, they departed from him. Archpriest Simeon was subordinated to the Synod of Russian Bishops Abroad, and Hegumen Stefan remained loyal to the Moscow Patriarchate. Both wrote to the Valaam Monastery, which remained on the territory of independent Finland after the revolution and, together with the Finnish Orthodox Church, had been subordinated to the Patriarch of Constantinople since 1923. The monastery never broke the connection with the motherland, prayed for the suffering Russian Church, the Abbot corresponded with Metropolitan Sergiy (Stragorodsky) while there was an opportunity. But the monastery also tried to maintain relations with compatriots in exile. The letters confirm this. The authors shared their thoughts on the positions taken by representatives of different jurisdictions into which the Russian Orthodox community abroad split, explained their choice of jurisdiction, and talked about the difficulties of emigrant life. The letters are published for the first time and help to recreate the images of our compatriots who lost their homeland after the revolution, and to trace their further fate. In addition, the publication recreates the atmosphere of jurisdictional disputes in the Russian abroad and clarifies the motives of their participants.

Этноконфессиональные аспекты существования церковной кафедры Таматархи Зихийской в XI в.

The article attempts to examine the history of the Zich Archbishopric of Tamatarcha in the XI century in the con-text of ethno-confessional relations that developed between the autochthonous population and Russian settlers who arrived on the Taman Peninsula due to the formation of the principality of Tmutarakan, ruled by Russian dukes. The major scientific problem, which gave rise to a number of contradictory hypotheses and assumptions in modern science, is the question of the jurisdictional affiliation of the church organization of Tamatarcha in the so-called “Russian period” in the XI century. For the purposes of the study, the main facts of the Russian ethnic presence in Taman in the XI century are considered: the peculiarities of the exercise of princely power; relations with the autochthonous population and neighboring tribes of the northwestern Caucasus; relations between the Russian princes and the church community of Tamatarcha, for which in 1022 Prince Mstislav Vla-dimirovich built a votive church of the Mother of God. Particular attention is paid in the work to the Russian church hierarchy in Tmutarakan, among which the personalities of the Monk Nikon of Pechersk and Bishop Nicholas of Tmutarakan, who was the ruling bishop of the Zich diocese during a certain period, are singled out. The ecclesiastical administration of the Tamatarch diocese in the 2nd half of the XI century is studied in the context of the state-confessional policy of the “triumvirate of the Yaroslavichs” – the leading political group of Old Russian dukes in this period.

PIOTR TOLSTOY AND SAVVA RAGUZINSKY AS TRANSLATORS OF THE PETRINE ERA: LANGUAGE SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES

The paper examines the linguistic features of the translations of historiographical works made by Piotr Tolstoy and Savva Ragusinsky from Italian in the first quarter of the 18th century. These are translations of Paul Ricaut’s treatise The History of the Modern State of the Ottoman Empire and Mavro Orbini’s book Il regno degli slavi. The similarity in the usage of certain lexemes and grammatical constructions (phasic verbs, constructions with the pronoun kotoryi and the repetition of the referent, the substantive infinitive) is analyzed. The presence of common linguistic features in the translations under consideration is primarily due to the fact that they are characteristic of the Russian Church Slavonic language of the Peter the Great era as a whole. The commonality of the constructions used by the two authors arises both because of the translated nature of the texts considered, and because of their similar status.The intensity of the use of certain constructions in the editions of two translations is also influenced by the direction of editorial change during the preparation of Russian texts for printing, which was carried out by different people at different times. The detected lingistic differences (grammatical calques, a specific indicator of evidentiality) relate to the level of local linguistic phenomena. The analysis involves the original works of Piotr Tolstoy and the translation of the Quran from French, printed in 1716 in St. Petersburg, which may also be associated with the name of Tolstoy. According to the parameters considered, the translations of Piotr Tolstoy turn out to be closer to the translation of Savva Raguzinsky than to his own writings.

On the «Field» (Trial by Combat) in Russian Law in the 15th — Early 17th Centuries

The «Field» (trial by combat) is a procedural institution known to the sources of law of medieval Rus’ at least from the 13th century. For several centuries, the «field» was widely used as a means of proof, and was subject to detailed legal regulation as early as in the 15th century. A number of major regulatory legal acts regulated the conditions and procedure for the trial by combat, its legal consequences and the amount of «field duties». The possibility of participating in such a trial was also regulated by law in detail. The surviving materials of judicial practice make it possible to clarify this information and assert that the participants to the trial of combat could have been not only the plaintiff, defendant, witnesses and their «hires,» but also the judges who considered the case before the reporting procedure. In addition, slaves who represented their masters and were not considered «hiremen» could take part in a trial by combat. It should also be noted that, despite the negative attitude towards trials by combat on the part of the Russian Church, monks and clergy did not refuse to participate in the «field». At the same time, the legal papers show that they understood the bias of this means of proof and a gradual decrease in the number of fights, which became rare as early as in the 16th century, although the final disappearance of traces of this legal institution from legislation occurred only in the 17th century.

Nikolay Lisovoy: “I am a Conservative!” (Review of Nikolay Lisovoy’s Work in the Soviet Period)

This article delves into the works of Nikolay Nikolayevich Lisovoy (1946–2019) during the initial 45 years of his life, which coincided with the Soviet era. It was during this period that the main concepts of his creativity were formulated: the Orthodox Empire and its relation to the Church, the history of Russian theology, the history of the Russian Church and its saints, Russian conservative journalism from the late 19th to the early 20th century, and the Russian spiritual and political presence in the East. Nikolay Lisovoy’s youth was marked by the peak of his poetic creativity, and he primarily considered himself a poet. To the contemporary reader, Nikolay Lisovoy is largely known for his writings on the Holy Land and his activities in the Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society (IPPO). However, during the considered period of his creative output, these themes were not yet at the forefront of his attention, thus his main contributions to the development of Russian conservative thought remain practically unknown. Based on Nikolay Lisovoy’s personal archive and his early publications, the author analyzes his works written during the Soviet era, delves into the origins of his creativity, and identifies individuals who significantly influenced his formation. Of particular interest is the examination of Nikolay Lisovoy’s works at the intersection of disciplines: physics, philosophy and theology, semiotics and linguistics, history and canon law, historiosophy and political science. Nikolay Lisovoy’s creative output is explored using materials from his personal archive within the context of the epoch, taking into account individuals who had a particular influence on him, including his mother Olga Talantseva, Fyodor Sukhov, Vasily Shulgin, Archimandrite Innokenty (Prosvirnin), Tatyana Glushkova and others.This publication, commemorating the 5th anniversary of Nikolay Lisovoy’s passing, aims to initiate a comprehensive study of Nikolay Lisovoy’s spiritual and scientific legacy from the first 30 years of his creative path, which unfolded during the Soviet period, and and introduce it to the scientific society. By 1991, Nikolay Lisovoy laid the foundations of concepts that are extremely relevant to conservative thought today. The most important of them is the idea that Russia was and remains an Orthodox Empire, destined to resist the entropy threatening humanity and originating from the West. Above all, he considered himself a conservative.The author of the article has been a disciple of Nikolay Lisovoy since 2003, actively promoting his works. After being ordained as a priest in 2013, he regularly performed confession, communion, and administered the last sacraments for the scholar and his spouse.

Погребальные сооружения при Ryska kyrkan (Висбю, о. Готланд): уточнение атрибуции

The paper deals with the chronology and cultural definition of two funerary objects found during the excavations of the “Russian Church” (Ryska kyrkan) in Visby (Gotland, Sweden). A comparative analysis of one of them, close to the Liljestenar tradition, shows that its own date lies within the 12th–14th centuries, and its artistic features are characteristic rather of Western Europe, primarily England, of the late Middle Ages. This is not a standard tombstone of this type, but a complex composition, including the image of large and succulent leaves, not similar to the schematic ornaments of Västergötland. The second object, a stone lining in the shape of a human body with a niche for the head, has so far been associated with the Russian (namely Novgorodian) tradition (O.M. Ionnisyan and others). But in this case it should be dated no earlier than the end of the 14th century, as only from that time anthropomorphic coffins came into use in Russia, and exclusively in the Moscow Principality. The lining from Visby obviously belongs to the western branch of the tradition of anthropomorphic stone receptacles for the human body: such cuttings are known in Europe from the 10th–11th centuries, they appear as a stone linings during the Crusades in the 12th century, and as whole sarcophagi – later, in the 13th century. They are well known in Scandinavia as well. As a result, the identification of the funerary object from Visby changes: this model is not brought here from Russia, there are simply no such products in Novgorod. As for the whole sarcophagi made of limestone, they will begin to appear in Russia not earlier than the end of the 14th century. Thus, during the excavations of Ryska kyrkan nothing of Russian origin was found. The new interpretation of the funeral complex in Visby also makes a change in the history of the burial structures of Russia. It allows to bring to the discussion of the problem of the appearance of white stone sarcophagi of Moscow a group of stone linings with a niche for the head, common in Northern Europe.

ОПЫТ СОПОСТАВИТЕЛЬНОГО АНАЛИЗА САМОВОСПРИЯТИЯ КРЯШЕН ПО МАТЕРИАЛАМ ПУБЛИЧНЫХ ВЫСКАЗЫВАНИЙ НАЧАЛА XX В. И СОВРЕМЕННОСТИ: САМОИДЕНТИФИКАЦИЯ И ФАКТОР КАТЕГОРИЗАЦИИ

The article draws a comparison of sources on Kryashen selfidentification from the early twentieth and early twenty-first century. I use R. Jenkins’ theory on self-identification and categorization as inside and outside descriptions of groups to understand the specificity of Kryashen self-perception. While there is a variety of works on the topic of Kryashen identity, the factor of an “external gaze” at their community is less studied. Drawing upon a thematic analysis of texts by Kryashen activist intellectuals D.G. Grigoryev (1906) and N.V. Mamakov (2018), I make it clear that these authors consider Kryashens to be a separate Orthodox Christian people that faces institutional imposition of “Tatar-ness”, so they appeal to the state and the Russian Church in defense of their own identity. They also highlight the role of intelligentsia in consolidation of Kryashen identity and point that Kryashens are not a well-known people in Russia. Existent differences between the texts are generally explained as historical and genre particularities. Expressions of Kryashen social activity on the topic of their identity represent a unique field of research for today’s Russia, a detailed study of which facilitates deepening of theoretical comprehension of self-identification vs. categorization clashes, the role of rejection of expected social roles in identity.

The Original Appearance of the Kazan Church in the City of Ustyuzhna

Comprehensive scientific research has been carried out, including laser scanning of the attic space of the Kazan Church in Ustyuzhna (Vologda region), which has much in common with the Smolensk Church in the village of Gordeevka in Nizhny Novgorod, where, among other things, traces of the original decoration of the facades of the church before the rebuilding of the XIX century were found. In the course of field studies in 2023, it was possible to confirm the presence of an internal brick staircase embedded in the ground floor level to an unfinished (but originally intended for construction) bell tower. Illustrations of decorative elements of the facades, now hidden from view and located in the attic space, are presented. Comparison with domestic and foreign trends of the late 17th century and particular features of the construction of the «Stroganov» churches makes it possible to attribute the architectural monument in question to the galaxy of churches built by Grigory Dmitrievich Stroganov in the context of the experience of using the order system in Russian church architecture. Based on the given set of features, a conclusion is made about the initial finishing of the facades. Similar to the Smolensk Church, the original surface of the walls of the Kazan Church was, in all likelihood, unplastered chain brickwork with lime-sand grouting.

Anticipating Max Weber: Discussion about the church at the Religious and Philosophical Assemblies in 1901–1903

This article dwells upon a specific aspect of the discussion about the Church, which took place at the Religious and Philosophical Assemblies in Saint Petersburg between 1901 and 1903. The initial impulse was given in 1901 by Mikhail Stakhovich, who raised the issue of the freedom of conscience. Many representatives of the Russian Church opposed this idea; the article argues that this controversy was fueled by nearly incompatible understandings of the relation between the Church and the society. Participants of the Religious and Philosophical Assemblies represented two different approaches to this ecclesiological problem. Stakhovich and other proponents of religious liberty considered free and conscious faith of the individual as the main sign of the Church. Thus, they regarded the Church as a particular and clearly distinguished community. On the contrary, their opponents were inclined to see the Church as coinciding with the society in general, so that they treated the notions “Russian” and “member of the church” as synonyms. It is suggested that the emergence of these two conflicting concepts during the discussion represented greater processes which took place not only in Russia, but also in Europe and North America. This is supported by contrastive analysis: ecclesiological viewpoints represented in Saint Petersburg are compared to the two notions coined by Max Weber, i. e. “churches” („Kirchen“) and “sects” („Sekten“). It is shown that participants of the Religious-Philosophical Meetings arrived at very similar notions several years before Weber’s works were published. These findings are used to assess the effect of Orthodox apologist’s speeches during the Meetings.

Происхождение одной восточнославянской редакции текста Книги деяний апостольских (еще раз к вопросу о языковой избыточности)

The article focuses on a curious case of mutual influence of closely related Slavic idioms functioning as liturgical and, more widely, bookish languages in the late Middle Ages, namely on the specificity of the Russian Church Slavonic translation of a verse from the Acts of the Apostles (9: 34). An attempt to study the history of Church Slavonic editions of the text under discussion shows that three main editions are represented in the Slavonic tradition. The origin of two of them is generally quite transparent: one is a direct translation of the Byzantine Greek text; the other is a kind of alignment of the text with the semantically similar episode of the healing of the paralytic, presented with some variations in all four Gospels. However, no textual reasons for the emergence of the third – Eastern Church Slavonic and the Russian Synodal edition that succeeds it – can be found. The key to the origin of this East Slavonic version is purely linguistic – and even less so, accentological – circumstances connected with the fluctuation of the stress of the imperative mood verb forms in the South Slavic area in the absence of such fluctuations in the East Slavic dialects, on the one hand, and the different accentuation of two similar lexemes – a verb and a noun – represented in alternative editions of the Book of Acts fragment under discussion, on the other. Several book monuments show how East Slavic scribes, who confused the verb form, which had an unusual South Slavic accent, with the normally accented noun form, made the appropriate corrections to the text, resulting in a completely new textual version of the fragment. Finally, a number of remarks are made about translation techniques and the problems of textual redundancy. The main assertion here is that the translation collision discussed in the main part of the article might not have occurred if the original Slavic translation had reflected some of the linguistic redundancy present in the Greek original. However, the Slavic translators apparently preferred the laconism of the text.

А.В. Назаренко как филолог

The notes below deal with that side of life and works of the historian of Ancient Rus’ and the Russian church Alexandr Vasiljevich Nazarenko which is connected with his philological education, his philological talents and interests, and his philological studies that greatly influenced his scientific achievements. Especially important is his philological contribution to the source-critical studies of German Medieval texts that preserved information on Eastern Europe and the monuments of Old Russian ecclesiastical literature. Philological education enabled A.V. Nazarenko to professionally interpret German people- and place-names as well as the terms and to retrieve additional historical information. His works are a model of integrated, historical and philological, approach in historical studies.

Собор святых, в земле Красноярской просиявших. К вопросу иконографии

At the turn of the XX-XXI centuries the list of saints of the Orthodox Church has been replenished with an impressive number of names of new martyrs and confessors who suffered during the Soviet era. In this regard, such a phenomenon as the "Synaxes of the Saints of the Diocese" has spread widely. As you know, each Catholic memory of saints established in the Church involves veneration, therefore, new celebrations appear dedicated to the Synaxes of the ascetics of the Russian Church in various regions of the country. And this means that right now new iconographic images of the New Martyrs and locally venerated saints are being born. Modern icon painters are actively engaged in the creation of icons and temple paintings that glorify the new saints and tell about the torment and executions to which they were subjected. In 2015, the Synaxe of Saints of the Krasnoyarsk Metropolis was established. To date, only three icons dedicated to the Synaxe of the Krasnoyarsk Saints are known. The article for the first time examines the process of adding the iconography of the Synaxe of the Krasnoyarsk Saints within the framework of church canonical art, defines its historical and partly theological aspects, analyzes compositional and stylistic devices, shows the role of symbolism in revealing the image, determines the uniqueness of the figurative solution, identifies some problems and trends in the development of modern church art. painting in Krasnoyarsk. The author for the first time introduces new names of Krasnoyarsk masters and their works into scientific circulation.

Певческие рукописи Антониево-Сийского монастыря в Синодальном певческом собрании (ГИМ): палеография и штрихи к истории монастыря и монастырской библиотеки

The Synodal Singing Collection of the State Historical Museum contains a complex of singing manuscripts from the Antonievo-Siysky Monastery. Most of them date from the 17th century. It is the time when the domestic tradition of church singing was intensively transformed. In the Antonievo-Siysky Monastery, the process of changes proceeded quite actively, and the Siysky complex of manuscripts is a valuable source on the history of Russian church singing in the transitional period.All types of musical notation, known in the ancient Russian manuscript tradition of the 15th–17th centuries, are presented in the Antonievo-Siysky singing manuscripts, including double-signs (dvoznamenniky), as well as several pre-reform manuscripts with a naon edition, in which cinnabar marks modern to the main text are affixed. The complex allows us to trace how the preferences of the Siya scribes and singers in using this or that type of notation in practice changed during the 16th–18th centuries.According to the edition of the verbal text, the Siysky singing manuscripts are divided into three groups: pre-reform, transitional and post-reform. The variety of editions of the verbal text makes it possible to study the methods of work of Nikon's editors of the Printing House and their monastic followers.The repertoire of chants recorded in the Siysky manuscripts reflects the excellent knowledge of the Siya master-singers both the singing heritage of the end of the 15th–16th centuries and the creative achievements of their contemporaries from the major singing centers of that time.

Towards an “Ecumenical” Council Inside of Orthodoxy!

Ecumenism is a recurrent theme in Orthodox theological debates, but the syntagma “Orthodox ecumenism” is rarely used because it seems to be very restrictive and inappropriate. However, in exceptional situations, such as a war between two Orthodox peoples, I think it might be more than necessary. In the first part of this essay, I will discuss how the mirage of a “third” Rome and the partnership with the Kremlin makes the Russian Church an adversary of ecumenism inside of Orthodoxy. Any Church that blesses a war, aggression, and confrontation and shows imperial tendencies is excluded de facto from the communion with other Churches. In the second part of my work, I will analyze the consequences of the “schism” created by Patriarch Kirill in the bosom of Orthodoxy. What were (or what were not!) the positions of other Orthodox Churches when Patriarch Kirill blessed the war and betrayed the principles of the Gospel of Christ? Why is there a need for a so-called “Ecumenical Orthodox Council” and what are the chances of this happening?

Правовой статус старообрядцев в Российской империи: нормативное закрепление и особенности обеспечения в 1907–1914 годах

Introduction. The article is devoted to the problems of applying the norms enshrined in the legislation of the Russian Empire and departmental regulatory legal acts relating to Old Believers after the First Russian Revolution. By decrees of April 17, 1905 and October 17, 1906, Old Believers were granted “freedom of belief and prayer at the behest of their conscience,” but in real life, the Old Believers’ rights to free confession were significantly limited by local authorities.
 The purpose of the study is to determine the conflict of law norms that provided subjects of the Russian Empire with “freedom of beliefs and prayers at the behest of ... conscience”; identify the features of the application of these norms by executive authorities in 1907–1914.
 Theoretical and methodological basis. The main methodological principles of the study were the principles of historicism, the unity of theory and practice, the comprehensiveness of the study of social processes and phenomena, the unity of the historical and logical. The main methodological approach of the study was determined to be a systematic approach. General scientific (historical, functional, theoretical modeling, hypothesis building) and special (formal legal, historical legal, comparative legal) methods of legal research were used.
 Results. The analysis showed that the position and, accordingly, the normative acts of the Synod as an executive body in a number of cases were in conflict with the by-laws (orders, clarifications, etc.) of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Their strict subordination to each other, necessary for the full functioning of the legal system, was absent in imperial legislation. The specification and application of legal norms largely depended on the position of the department. Despite their differences, law enforcement was determined by the discretion of a specific official, even a low rank, who had the opportunity to choose between regulations of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Synod of the Russian Church, which had the same legal force. This led to the Old Believers’ distrust of local executive authorities.

Неровный штрих к картине межцерковных отношений середины 1930-х гг. Письмо митрополита Московского Сергия (Страгородского) Патриарху Константинопольскому Вениамину (Псомасу) по поводу Совещания русских зарубежных иерархов под председательством Патриарха Сербского Варнавы (Росича)

The published letter was written by the Deputy Patriarchal Locum Tenens Metropolitan Sergius (Stragorodsky) to the Patriarch of Constantinople Benjamin (Psaomas). The occasion was a meeting of the heads of the main movements of the Russian Church abroad in 1935, chaired by Patriarch Barnabas of Serbia. As a result of the negotiations, the Russian Church Abroad, the North American Metropolia and the Western European Exarchate restored communication among themselves. This caused discontent of Metropolitan Sergius (Stragorodsky), who hoped to subordinate the entire Russian church abroad. Attempts to influence Patriarch Barnabas were unsuccessful. In this regard, the Deputy Patriarchal Locum Tenens appealed to Patriarch Benjamin of Constantinople. Russian Russian Orthodox Church In his letter, the Metropolitan pointed out that the Serbian Church wants to create a kind of "double" of the Russian Church on the basis of the Russian Church Abroad, and then at the Pan–Orthodox Council to achieve the necessary solution - the introduction of second marriage for the clergy.The appeal to the Fanar looks strange for several reasons. Firstly, the Patriarchate of Constantinople openly supported the Renovationist schism in those years and, almost at the same time, uncanonically, without asking the opinion of the Moscow Patriarchate, transferred the Latvian Church to its jurisdiction. Secondly, the Serbian Church, and especially the Russian Church Abroad, which was under its patronage, were against non-canonical innovations, and it was naive to assume that they would promote the second marriage of the clergy. The published letter of Metropolitan Sergius had no consequences. Later, when the situation of the Russian Church improved, the parties tried not to recall this letter, as well as other polemical messages.

The Problem of Transmitting Church Tradition in the Works by Sergey Fudel

The article is dedicated to one of the most relevant issues in religious thought—the preservation of church tradition. The interest in this issue became particularly acute for Russian religious thinkers of the 20th century, who witnessed radical changes in living conditions and collective consciousness. The article examines the interpretation of the issue in the works by Sergey Fudel (1900–1977), a church writer and carrier of pre-revolutionary Russian culture. He had communication with outstanding spiritual figures spanning the late 19th to the 20th centuries, confessors of faith, and new martyrs. The church and historical context of Fudel’s works is explored, clarifying the connection between the writer’s views on the transmission of church tradition, his own biography, the figures of his mentors, and the existence conditions for the persecuted Church, evidenced in Fudel’s writings. The article sheds light on the writer’s response to changes in the conditions of church life in the mid-20th century and the feeling of a “generation gap” that emerged in him. It reconstructs Fudel’s notion of the “monastery in the world” as an environment where church tradition is preserved. The correlation between Fudel’s concept of church tradition and his ecclesiological views is illuminated. The research findings lead to the conclusion that the phenomenon of the “hidden Church” as an alliance of “two or three” disciples of Christ was not, in Fudel’s view, a temporary solution stemming from the era of persecutions. Instead, the writer regarded such an experience as an exposition of the Church’s original teaching about itself and an enduring model of church relations. Like many others, Fudel acknowledged the providential significance of trials undergone by the Russian Church. However, he insisted that the experience of the “hidden Church” revealed the original teaching of the Church about itself, preserved throughout the ages. The article also considers the relationship between Fudel’s views and other approaches to the “generation gap” problem. Fudel’s evaluation of previous eras, marked by the “external prosperity” of Christianity, allows characterization of his attitude towards various concepts of tradition, both classical, tracing back to the times of the Byzantine Empire, and those contemporary to the writer.