Religious Conversion as a Criterion for the Efficiency of Management Strategies in Late Imperial Russia

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The Sociological Institute of the RAS

Religious Conversion as a Criterion for the Efficiency of Management Strategies in Late Imperial Russia

V.B. Isaeva, PhD in Sociology, Associate Researcher

St. Petersburg

Abstract

The article considers forms, methods and factors of religious conversion as the criteria for the efficiency of the management strategies used by the tsarist authorities in late Imperial Russia. Religious conversion is interpreted within the framework of the legal regulation system of religions which was adopted in the 1830-1850s, and its empirical forms are identified. Religious conversion is defined as a transition from the “foreign religions” to Orthodox Christianity and a withdrawal from Orthodox Christianity to the “foreign religions”. Two forms of conversion are revealed: orthodoxization and apostasy. In the research the following factors of religious conversion are brought out: a) loyalty to the central government; b) cultural affinity of the ethnic group to the Russians; c) methods of religious conversion. Five types of methods are classified: 1) forced (the elimination of the church organization, repressions of believers and/ or clergy); 2) economic (material incentives); 3) educational (conversion through the native language of the believers, the development of their culture); 4) recruitment (the use of special social and communication strategies); 5) natural (population mixing, inter-ethnic marriages). Based on the reports of the Chief Procurator of the Synod, data from the census of 1897, and other sources the dynamics of religious conversion for 54 years (1860-1914) are analyzed, and its examination by denominations by decades is done. The author concludes that religious conversion indicates certain management strategies -- forced integration, gradual acculturation, or preservation of the status quo; their efficiency, existence or absence of the inter-ethnic tensions.

Keywords: religious conversion, Russian Empire, methods of religious conversion, factors of religious conversion, forms of religious conversion, statistics of religious conversion.

Аннотация

Религиозная конверсия как критерий эффективности властных стратегий в позднеимперской России

В.Б. Исаева. канд. соц. наук, ассоциированный научный сотрудник СИ ФНИСЦ РАН, 190005, Санкт-Петербург,

В центре внимания настоящей статьи находятся формы, методы и факторы религиозной конверсии как критерии властных стратегий, применяемых в Российской империи в пореформенный период и начале XX в., для управления мультикультурным разнообразием. Дается определение религиозной конверсии в рамках правовой системы регулирования вероисповеданий, которая сложилась в Российской империи в 1830-1850-е гг., выделяются ее эмпирические формы. Религиозная конверсия определяется как переход из иностранных вероисповеданий в православие и выход из православия в иностранные религии. Выявлены две формы конверсии: православизация и апостазия (выход из православия). Процессы религиозной конверсии интерпретируются в контексте национальной политики царских властей.

Идентифицируются факторы, обусловливающие религиозную конверсию: а) лояльность центральной власти; б) близость культуры народа к культуре русских; в) методы религиозного обращения. В исследовании классифицированы следующие методы обращения: 1) насильственные (ликвидация церкви, репрессии верующих и/или духовенства); 2) экономические (материальные стимулы); 3) просветительские (обращение с помощью родного языка верующих, развития их культуры); 4) рекрутирование (применение специальных социальных и коммуникативных стратегий); 5) естественные (смешение населения, межэтнические браки). На основе Всеподданнейших отчетов обер-прокурора Синода, данных переписи 1897 и других источников проанализирована динамика религиозной конверсии за 54 года (1860-1914 гг.) по конфессиям по десятилетиям.

Делаются выводы о том, что, во-первых, противоречивость национальной политики приводила к вариативности конфессиональной политики и, как следствие, к различным сценариям православизации, реализуемым в разных регионах Российской империи. Во-вторых, идентификация факторов, форм, методов и анализ динамики религиозной конверсии позволяют выявить и оценить интеграционные стратегии, применяемые царскими властями -- форсированную интеграцию, постепенную аккультурацию или сохранение статус-кво, степень их эффективности, существования/отсутствия межэтнической напряженности в регионах их применения.

Ключевые слова: религиозная конверсия, Российская империя, методы религиозной конверсии, факторы религиозной конверсии, формы религиозной конверсии, динамика религиозной конверсии.

Introduction

The article considers processes of religious conversion in late imperial Russia of the post-reform period and at the beginning of the 20^th century. Religious conversion is interpreted as a transition to a religion which is not indigenous to the territory of a certain ethnic group Smirnov M. Yu. Sotsiologiia religii: slovar'. St. Petersburg, 2011. P. 128.. A variety of possible conversion processes is determined by the framework of the state-confessional relations established in the country under review. In the late imperial Russia, such a framework can be characterized as ethnodoxy -- a system of ideas which tightly links the ethnic identity of a group with a particular religion and is enshrined at the state level Karpov V., Lisovskaya E., Barry D. Ethnodoxy: how popular ideologies fuse religious and ethnic identities // Journal for the scientific study of religion. 2012. Vol. 51, no. 4. P. 644.. In the context of ethnodoxy forms, methods and factors of religious conversion can serve as criteria of the management strategies used in the Russian Empire to manage multicultural diversity.

In the post-reform time, the tsarist authorities adopted policies of cultural integration toward the outlying ethnic regions and unification of a multinational empire. Russification and missionary activity of the Russian Orthodox Church were seen as the main instruments of the cultural integration. In this context, cases of mass religious conversions are of empirical interest since they indicate a certain interference by the authorities and the resulting inter-ethnic and religious processes, which were either peaceful and thus reflected the success of the integration policy, or were followed by tensions and conflicts that marked inefficiency, mistakes and violent acts taken against religious and ethnic groups.

In the historiographic literature of the pre-revolutionary, Soviet and post-Soviet periods, an analysis of the certain aspects of the problem of religious conversion processes from the perspective of strategies for managing ethnic and religious diversity has been developed. In pre-revolutionary historiography, the issue was addressed in the works of specialists in state and ecclesiastical law, who focused on the consideration of the legal status of religious denominations Reisner M. A. Gosudarstvo i veruiushchaia lichnost': Sbornik statei. St. Petersburg, 1905; Preobra- zhenskii I. V. Otechestvennaia tserkov' po statisticheskim dannym s 1840-41 po 1890-91 gg. St. Petersburg, 1897., as well as in the documents of the imperial time, examining processes of religious conversion in the context of confessional policies, their geography, causes and conditions of mass religious transitions Izvlecheniia iz Osobogo zhurnala Kabineta Ministrov 25-go ianvaria, 1-go, 8-go i 15-go fevralia 1905 g. o poriadke vypolneniia punkta 6 Imennogo Vysochaishego Ukaza 12 dekabria 1904 g. // Zhurnal Ministerstva iustitsii. 1905. No. 5; Vsepoddanneishii Otchet Ober-prokurora Sviateishego sinoda po vedomstvu pravoslavnogo ispovedaniia za [1884-1914] god. St. Petersburg, 1886-1916; etc.. It is also necessary to note the works of the Orthodox missionaries, in which the topic of management strategies is not touched directly; nevertheless they contain valuable materials with regard to the processes of religious conversion in ethnic groups of Siberian indigenous people as well as concerning social factors of sectarianism and Old Belief Veniamin (Smirnov). Ob obrashchenii v khristianstvo mezenskikh samoedov v 1825-1830 godakh. St. Petersburg: Print. E. Fishera, 1851; Zelenin D. K. N. I. Il'minskii i prosveshchenie inorodtsev: (K desiatiletiiu so dnia smerti N. I. Il'minskogo). St. Petersburg: Russkaia shkola, 1902; Bazarianinov V. Osnovnye prichiny i sushchnost' nashego sektantstva. Opyt filosofsko-psikhologicheskogo osveshcheniia sektantstva. Printed copy from “Missionerskogo obozreniia”, (1904. No. 1. No. 3). St. Petersburg, 1904.. The historiography of the Soviet period pays attention mainly to criticism of the confessional policy of the imperial period and to the analysis of the phenomenon of religious sectarianism Bonch-Bruevich V. D. Izbrannye sochineniia in 3 vols. Vol. 1: O religii, religioznom sektantstve i tserkvi. Moscow, 1959; Klibanov A. I. Religioznoe sektantstvo v proshlom i nastoiashchem. Moscow, 1973.. Modern scholarly literature is represented by works of both domestic and foreign authors AmbartsumovI. V. Nepravoslavnye khristianskie ispovedaniia v sisteme rossiiskoi gosudarstvennosti (konets XIX v. -- iiul' 1914): dis. ... kand. ist. nauk. St. Petersburg, 2014; Vert P Pravoslavie, inoslavie, inoverie: Ocherki po istorii religioznogo raznoobraziia Rossiiskoi imperii. Moscow, 2012. and covers the selected aspects of the study of the processes of religious conversion in the Russian Empire in the framework of national and religious policies implemented in relation to various ethnic groups Stetskevich M. S. Svoboda sovesti: uchebnoe posobie. St. Petersburg, 2006; Fedorov V. A. Russkaia Pravoslavnaia Tserkov' i gosudarstvo. Sinodal'nyi period (1700-1917). Moscow, 2003; Kappeler A. Rossiia -- mnogonatsional'naia imperiia. Vozniknovenie. Istoriia. Raspad. Moscow, 2000; Baturin S. P., Baturina T. V. K voprosu o veroispovednoi politike Rossiiskoi imperii na rubezhe XIX-XX vv. (na primere Sibiri). Vestnik Kemerovskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta. 2015. Vol. 1, iss. 4. P. 7-13., as well as the history of the certain denominations Concerning a comprehensive historiographic review of denominations of the imperial Russia, see Freeze G. L. “Confession in Tsarist Russia: an analytical review of historiography” // Bylye gody. Vol. 39. 2016 (2017). P. 261-281.. Thus the existing historiographical writings contribute to the holistic vision of the legal, national, and confessional contexts in which processes of religious conversion took place in late imperial Russia. However, despite the extensive historiographic literature, there are no generalizing works in which the problem of religious conversion is considered as a distinct phenomenon capable of serving as a criterion and an indicator of strategies used for managing the ethnic and religious diversity in late imperial Russia.

Forms and Factors of Religious Conversion in the Context of the National and Confessional Policy in the Late Imperial Period

The legal system which regulated the possibilities of changing religious identity in late Imperial Russia emerged in the 1830s-1850s and had existed until 1905 when it was significantly modified. The legislative base of regulation of the confessional system was formed by the “Charter on the Prevention and Punishment of Crimes”, which was included in the body of the laws of 1835; the “Code of Criminal and Correctional Penalties” (1845) and the “Charter of the Religious Affairs of Foreign Confessions” (1857). According to this system of regulation of the religious sphere, all confessions were divided into the dominant (the Russian Orthodox Church, hereinafter the ROC), tolerable and intolerable. Irreligious identity was not recognized as possible. Non-Orthodox confessions were officially called “foreign” and were under the jurisdiction of the General Directorate of Religious Affairs of Foreign Confessions, which was incorporated into the Ministry of Home Affairs in 1832 and was renamed the Department of Religious Affairs of Foreign Confessions (hereinafter the DRAFC). The Russian Orthodox Church was administered by the Synod headed by the Chief Procurator.

According to the system of legal regulation, “freedom of religion” was approved, which implied the possibility for each ethnic group of practicing its religion in the territory of the Russian Empire. However, as noted by the Russian historian M. S. Stetskev- ich, in fact, it was religious toleration since freedom of religion means a free choice of a religion and legislative equality of confessions, which is clearly contrary to the realities of the imperial period Stetskevich M. S. Svoboda sovesti: uchebnoe posobie. St. Petersburg, 2006. P. 218.. The classification of confessions into dominant, tolerable and intolerable, established at the state level, determined the set of opportunities, privileges and restrictions for the religion of the each category. Orthodoxy as the dominant religion had a higher status among other religions and churches and enjoyed some benefits. It is noteworthy that only the Russian Orthodox Church had the right to missionary activity in relation to representatives of any religion. The only legal restriction was the prohibition of forced conversion. Nevertheless, as will be illustrated below, this regulation was repeatedly violated, which was approved at the highest level. In the Charter of the Religious Affairs of Foreign Confessions, the prohibition to impede conversion to Orthodoxy of disciples of foreign faith was emphasized. Violation of the prohibition was subject to criminal punishment -- the imprisonment for the period from two months to two years. Conversion of the Orthodox to another faith was not allowed both at the institutional level -- in the family (upbringing in another faith), in the process of missionary work; and at the individual level -- the individual withdrawal from Orthodoxy. In all cases, that was punished either by imprisonment or by exile, and/or by deprivation of all rights, by homilies with Orthodox priests Ibid. P. 208-231.. religious russian orthodoxy multicultural conversion

Therefore within the framework of the legal regulation of the religious sphere, which developed in the Russian empire in the first half-middle of the 19^th century, religious conversion can be defined either as a transition from “foreign confessions” to the dominant religion, and then it takes the form of orthodoxization, or withdrawal from Orthodoxy to other religions and then it is apostasy. Orthodoxization was the only legitimate form of religious conversion, while any form of apostasy was illegitimate.

The established legal system of regulation of confessions existed until 1917, but in 1905 some alterations were made, albeit not changing its fundamental principles; nevertheless, they were significant in relation to religious conversion. In 1905, a “Decree on Strengthening the Principles of Religious Toleration” was adopted, which relaxed the policy regarding interfaith transitions.

The decree regulated the possibility of withdrawal from Orthodoxy to other faiths upon attaining the age of majority. In 1906, criminal penalties for apostasy, for impeding conversion to Orthodoxy, for belonging to a schism, etc. were abolished. Despite those legal changes, the system of state control and regulation of religions, which included the institutions of the Synod and the DRAFC, continued to exist. The gradation of religions into the dominant, tolerable and intolerable, in which the ROC remained the most privileged denomination with the exclusive right to missionary activity among representatives of any religion, was also maintained. Thus, an important consequence of the reforms of 1905-1906 was a legitimization of apostasy, which was the result of the expanding the possibilities of religious choice.

Despite the fact that apostasy was officially legitimized only in 1905, in practice this prohibited form of religious conversion had existed throughout the period under consideration -- the post-reform time and the beginning of the 20^th century, and in certain cases was mass.

This resulted from the fact that the confessional policy of the late imperial period was closely related to the national policy of the tsarist authorities, which indeed determined rights and privileges of each religious group, and political measures which should be adopted within the confessional policy to a particular religious-ethnic group. This is confirmed by the system of privileges of tolerable religions enshrined in the Charter of the DRAFC. M. Reisner, the contemporary of the empire, analyzes the Charter from this point of view and builds a hierarchy of tolerable religions according to the scope of rights and privileges that they had. He concludes that it is built on the national principles: confessions that do not represent entire nations are at a lower level, while peoples with an ancient culture and tradition of statehood occupy a higher position Reisner M. A. Gosudarstvo i veruiushchaia lichnost'. P. 160-162..

Despite its predominant position, the Russian Orthodox Church remained subordinate to the state and limited and guided by its national policy. The synodal reform carried out by Peter I radically changed the position of the Russian Orthodox Church, making it dependent on the state and transforming it into a political instrument of the tsarist authorities. It is in the context of the national policy that the factors that determined the processes of religious conversion, the existing forms of religious transitions and the methods used for their implementation evolved. It must be emphasized that while the fundamentals of the established legal system for regulating confessions remained unchanged throughout the second half of the 19 ^th century and the beginning of the 20 ^th century, the course of the national policy changed in the 1860s, which immediately had consequences in the sphere of inter-ethnic and religious relations. Religious conversion can serve as a bright indicator of these processes.

The Russian historian and sociologist B. N. Mironov distinguishes the basic principles of the national policy in the pre-reform period. The first principle concerned maintaining the status quo of the outlying ethnic regions in the case of their loyalty to the central government -- their administrative management and its legal base, culture, language and religion were preserved. Secondly, under the same condition of loyalty, the government provided assistance and cooperated with the non-Russian elites.

The third political principle of the tsarist authorities was to endow the non-Russian peoples with rights and privileges as compared to the Russians Mironov B. N. Upravlenie etnicheskim mnogoobraziem Rossiiskoi imperii. St. Petersburg, 2017. P. 143-163, 170-182.. As the German historian A. Kappeler notes, the priority was the stability and loyalty of the non-Russian peoples to the Russian monarch; estate and dynastic, rather than ethnic, religious and linguistic principles played an integrative role Kappeler A. Rossiia -- mnogonatsional'naia imperiia... P. 120.. Therefore, it can be argued that in the context of national politics in the pre-reform period interethnic and confessional relations in Tsarist Russia were conditioned mainly by the criterion of loyalty/disloyalty of an ethnic and religious group to the central administration.

With the beginning of the Great Reforms in the country there was adopted the unification policy in the form of, first of all, cultural and linguistic integration. The need for the national policy shift was driven by the influence of European nation-states and the need to transform the Russian Empire into a modern state of such a type, the need to modernize it through systematization of management in the legal, administrative and social spheres, making its structure homogeneous and uniting its peoples on the basis of cultural and linguistic principles. Other important motives for the political shift were the national movements and the Polish uprising of 1863. The main tools of cultural and language integration were Russification and conversion to Orthodoxy. However, their application was not consistent and varied depending on the circumstances, which resulted in the contradictions in the national policies of the tsarist authorities in the post-reform period. The unevenness of the assimilatory national policy of the central administration in relation to different ethnic groups was determined by the factors of their loyalty to the central government, which reflects the preservation of the principles of the pre-reform policies.

The second significant factor influencing acculturation strategies was cultural affinity of the ethnic group with the Russian culture: the higher the degree of cultural affinity was, the more radical assimilation measures were taken; the less the similarity was, the greater the probability of the status quo policies was Ibid. P. 203.. Thus, despite the declared policy of cultural and linguistic integration and unification, the real political measures varied in accordance with the principles of the loyalty to the authorities and cultural affinity.

The above mentioned factors -- the assimilation pressure in accordance with the criterion of loyalty/disloyalty to the tsarist administration and cultural affinity of the assimilated ethnic group to the Russian culture -- are also essential for religious conversion, namely orthodoxization, used as an integration principle. It was those factors which determined methods of religious conversion used. In the present study, the following methods of religious conversion were identified: forced, economic, educational, recruitment, natural.

The inconsistency of the national policy entailed the variability of the confessional policy, and as a result, various orthodoxization scenarios implemented in different regions of the Russian Empire. Based on the analysis of empirical data for 54 years (1860-1914), namely, a consideration of statistical data of the Reports of the Chief Procurator of the Synod, statistics of the 1897 census and other sources, I consider the management strategies implemented by the tsarist authorities through the criterion of religious conversion -- its forms, factors, methods and dynamics.

Forced and Economic Methods of Religious Conversion as the Criteria of the Forced Integration Strategy