The paper is written within the fulfilling a state task of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation (project no. 33.2177.2017/PCh)

The article examines church-state policy of the Soviet government and its attitude to the Renovationist schism in the Russian Orthodox Church. On the basis of archival materials the authors discuss the main features of the renovation policy and its impact on the religious life of the population of the Altai Republic in the 1920–1930s. Provoked by the Soviet authorities, Renovationist schism confused the clergy, but did not fully achieve the planned aims. Conservative believers did not accept the reformed Church and at the first opportunity took sides with the traditional Orthodox Church, headed by Patriarch Tikhon. Because of the failure of the Renovationist movement, the Soviet government came to the conclusion about the need to shift state-conservative policy to the phase of active anti-religious propaganda, which was gradually accompanied by arrests and executions of both the revisionist and traditional Orthodox clergy.

Key words: state-confessional policy, Renovationism, the Russian Orthodox Church, Altai province, Soviet period

DOI: 10.22250/2072-8662.2017.2.35-41

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About the author

   

Petr K. Dashkovskiy – DSc (History), Associate Professor, Head of the Department of Political History, National, State, and Confessional Relations, H

ead of the Laboratory of the Ethnocultural and Religious Studies of the Faculty of Mass Communications, Philology and Political Science, The Altai State University;

61 Lenin prosp., ASU, Barnaul, Russia, 656049; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

   

Natalya P. Siebert – Postgraduate student at the Department of Political History,

National and State-Confessional Relations of the Altai State University;

61 Lenin prosp., ASU, Barnaul, Russia, 656049; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.