Kovyrzin Konstantin

“Fatal betrayal”of the Church: the question of “ecclesiastical bolshevism” at the Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church (1917–1918)

Abstract

The paper examines the phenomenon of “ecclesiastical Bolshevism”, i.e. a radical disruption of church order caused by the February Revolution of 1917. The term “ecclesiastical Bolshevism” refers to acts of insubordination of bishops, parish clergymen, monks and lay members of the Church to ecclesiastical authorities and their violating of canonical church discipline. The feature of the phenomenon was that the participants of inner church confl icts sought assistance from secular revolutionary authorities. The author points out the importance of documents from the Conference of Bishops and Judicial Commission of the Local Council of 1917–1918 for studying church confl icts on a diocesan scale. He analyses the activities of the special conciliar Commission designed to stop the disruptions of church order. The author concludes that the phenomenon of “ecclesiastical Bolshevism” was due to a number of reasons, the most important being the partial secularization of clergy and monastics and their loss of canon-law awareness. The external revolutionary factors became the catalyst for the critical tendencies already present in church life. The Local Council regarded “ecclesiastical Bolshevism” as a threat to the unity of the Church. The Episcopal Conference was considering the appeals of bishops deposed in the course of the “church revolution” from the very beginning of its work. The principal condemnation of “ecclesiastical Bolshevism” and the arrangements for countering it were defi ned in a special conciliar decree from April 6 (19), 1918.

Keywords

Russian Orthodox Church, Local Council, revolution of 1917, “ecclesiastical Bolshevism”, orthodox clergy, monks, laity

References

1. Krapivin M. (2013) “Vsevolod Putyata v kontekste religioznoj politiki organov VChK (1918– 1919 gg.)” [“Vsevolod Putyata in the context of the religious policy of the VChK, 1918–1919”]. Vestnik tserkovnoi istorii, 1/2, p. 247–311 (in Russian).
2. Leont’ev P. (1998) “Revolyuciya v Cerkvi: s``ezdy` dukhovenstva i miryan v 1917 godu” [Revolution in the Church: congresses of clergy and laity in 1917]. In Cerkov` v istorii Rossii, 2, p. 214–248 (in Russian).
3. Rogoznyi P. (2008) Tserkovnaya revolyuciya 1917 goda (Vy`sshee dukhovenstvo Rossij skoj Pravoslavnoj Cerkvi v bor`be za vlast` v eparkhiyakh posle Fevral`skoj revolyucii) [Church Revolution of 1917 (higher clergy of the Russian Church in struggle for power in dioceses after the February Revolution)]. St Petersburg (in Russian).
4. Rogoznyi P. (2017) “Duhovenstvo protiv Cerkvi v 1917–1918 gg. (“Cerkovnyj bol’shevizm” i cerkovnye bol’sheviki)” [Clergy against the Church in 1917–1918 (“Ecclesiastical Bolshevism” and the Church by the Bolsheviks)], in Epoha vojn i revolyucij : 1914–1922: Materialy Mezhdunarodnogo kollokviuma (Sankt-Peterburg, 9–11 iyunya 2016 goda) [The epoch of wars and revolutions, 1914–1922: Proceedings of St Petersburg International Colloquium (June 9–11, 2016)]. St Petersburg, pp. 375–390 (in Russian).
5. Zavitnovskij I. (2001) “Cerkovnaya revolyuciya i cerkovnoe ukrainstvo 1917 goda” [Church Revolution and the Church Ukrainstvo of 1917 year]. Vestnik molodykh uchenykh. Seriya: Istoricheskie nauki, 2001, vol. 2 (5), pp. 15–31 (in Russian).

Information about the author

Kovyrzin Konstantin

Academic Degree: Candidate of Sciences* in History;
Place of work: St. Tikhon’s Orthodox University for the Humanities; 6/4 Likhov pereulok, Moscow, 127051, Russian Federation;
Post: Senior Researcher;
ORCID: 0000-0001-6468-7321;
Email: kvk1983@yandex.ru.

*According to the International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED) 2011, the degree of Candidate of Sciences (Cand.Sc.) belongs to ISCED level 8 — "doctoral or equivalent", together with PhD, DPhil, D.Lit, D.Sc, LL.D, Doctorate or similar.