Orthodox clergy during the Tambov peasant uprising of the 1920s

Abstract

The article examines the peasant popular uprising that took place in the Tambov province in the 1920s. The Church, as the guardian of spiritual and moral principles, was the first enemy of the godless government and people for whom the meaning of life was the desecration of shrines and the destruction of the Christian foundations of society. Many documents have been published and many studies have been written about the events of the peasant uprising in the Tambov region. But the compilers of collections of documents and authors of publications very rarely touched on the stories of the persecution of the clergy. The author fills this gap and comes to the following conclusions: the peasant uprising in the Tambov province, with its scale, political resonance and consequences, was an event of all-Russian significance. Understanding perfectly well what a danger the traditional peasant way of life represented for the new system, the party leadership did not forget about the religious worldview of the overwhelming majority of the rural population and did everything to put an end to it. Without idealizing the peasant uprising, the Tambov Orthodox clergy stood up to defend the persecuted faith, which was united by the pastors and the flock. In a fierce confrontation with the godless authorities, they opened the count of martyrs on Tambov land.

pravoslavnoye dukhovenstvo, tambovskoye krest'yanskoye vosstaniye 20-kh godov KHKH veka, Tambovskaya guberniya, krest'yanskiy uklad zhizni, mucheniki za veru. V stat'ye rassmatrivayetsya krest'yanskoye narodnoye vosstaniye, kotoroye proizoshlo v Tambovskoy gubernii v 1920-kh godakh XX veka. Tserkov' kak khranitel' dukhovno-nravstvennykh printsipov byla pervym vragom u bezbozhnoy vlasti i lyudey, dlya kotorykh smyslom zhizni stalo poruganiye svyatyn' i razrusheniye khristianskikh osnov zhizni obshchestva. O sobytiyakh krest'yanskogo vosstaniya na Tambovshchine opublikovano mnogo dokumentov i napisano nemalo issledovaniy. No sostaviteli sbornikov dokumentov i avtory publikatsiy krayne redko kasalis' syuzhetov o presledovanii dukhovenstva. Avtor vospolnyayet etot probel i prikhodit k sleduyushchim vyvodam, chto krest'yanskoye vosstaniye v Tambovskoy gubernii svoimi masshtabami, politicheskim rezonansom i posledstviyami yavilos' sobytiyem obshcherossiyskoy znachimosti. Prekrasno ponimaya, kakuyu opasnost' dlya novogo stroya predstavlyayet soboy traditsionnyy krest'yanskiy uklad zhizni, partiynoye rukovodstvo ne zabyvalo o religioznom mirovozzrenii podavlyayushchego bol'shinstva sel'skogo naseleniya i vse delalo dlya togo, chtoby pokonchit' s nim. Ne idealiziruya krest'yanskoye vosstaniye, tambovskoye pravoslavnoye dukhovenstvo vstalo na zashchitu podvergayushcheysya goneniyam very, kotoraya byla yedina u pastyrey i pastvy. V zhestokom protivostoyanii s bezbozhnoy vlast'yu ono otkrylo soboyu schet muchenikov na tambovskoy zemle.