Activities of the internal mission of the Tambov diocese to combat religious sectarianism in 1905-1917

Abstract

The year 1905 brought many changes in the work of the Tambov sectarians, but they were not connected with the revolutionary events of 1905-1907. The situation that developed in this regard in the Tambov province generally confirms the all-Russian situation. Contrary to the hopes of the revolutionaries, the sectarians not only did not play any active role in the revolutionary events of those years, but also generally behaved much more loyally to the government. One of the most important reasons for this behavior was the adoption of new religious legislation even before the revolution. We learn about the reaction of the Tambov missionaries to the adoption of new laws regarding sectarianism from numerous publications in the local church press. Thus, the Tambov missionaries realized that with the advent of new religious legislation, the Russian Orthodox Church entered a new period in its history. The state no longer saw the sectarians as its enemies and refused to prosecute them, which put the Church missionaries in fundamentally different conditions. Having lost state support, they were now left alone with the sectarians. This state of affairs significantly changed the attitude to the internal mission. The goals of the internal mission also changed. If earlier, at least, the desire to completely end sectarianism was declared as such, now the missionaries were going to move from the offensive to the defensive. One of the new forms of missionary work after 1905 was the organization of unions among the parish clergy. The first of these in the Tambov diocese was the missionary union created in 1906, which included five parishes with the center in the village of Mitropolye. Its goal was to exchange the experience of the clergy that were part of it and to work together against the sectarians. The members of the union were engaged in organizing religious processions, holding public readings, discussions, distributing spiritual literature, etc. Then, following the example of the Metropolitan, other missionary unions appeared. Another interesting form of work was holding special courses for training and educating missionary assistants - the so-called Orthodox scribes. Practice showed that even a very well-prepared missionary often lost to sectarian preachers who did not have a theological education, but spoke to people in a language they understood. After 1905, Tambov missionaries began to talk about the need to create a so-called people's parish mission, which implied the activities of activists from among ordinary believers. Circles of zealots of piety began to play a special role in it. An important place in the activities of the internal mission was occupied by diocesan missionary congresses, which usually took place "in the footsteps" of all-Russian ones. Summing up the history of the internal mission in 1905-1917, the author of the article notes that its activities were undoubtedly much more active and diverse than in the previous 30 years. Nevertheless, the failure of the sectarian attempts to redraw the religious map of the Tambov province is primarily connected not with internal educational work, but with the unwillingness of the population itself to change its faith. Therefore, the significance of the internal mission should be assessed not from the point of view of the effectiveness of polemics with sectarians, but from the point of view of activities aimed at deepening the churchliness of those who continued to remain members of the Russian Orthodox Church.