The Clerical Policy of the Zemstvo Liberal Fronde of Chernihiv Province (1860-80s)

Chernihiv province zemstvo unanimously supported the proposal of V. Varzar and held: not to allocate 100 rubles from the budget of Oster povit zemstvo as a fee to the parish priest, since the clergy of the region previously got mentioned fees regularly; the specified funds should be directed to the maintenance of the staff of peasant local courts officials and the justices of the peace Журналы заседаний очередной сессии Черниговского губернского земского собрания 1889 года, состоявшейся с 15 по 25 января 1890 года. № 9. С. 210-213; Земский сборник Черниговской губернии. Чернигов: Земская типография, 1890. № 8..

Conclusions

Summarizing the results of the study, we can assert that the analysis of little-known and little-studied historical sources, some of which are being introduced to international scientific circulation for the first time, allows us to state the fact that the clerical policy of the zemstvo liberal party of Chernihiv province was an organic and integral part of the ethno-confessional program of the studied oppositional trend in the liberation movement of the Russian Empire in the second half of the 19^th century.

Church reforms implemented by Russian absolutism, despite their progressiveness, were unable to solve the issue of financial support for the clergy. Clerical circles hoped to solve that problem through the functioning of parish trusteeships, the budgets of which were formed from the funds of patrons and large-scale cooperation with the zemstvo institutions, which, in the clergy's opinion, had all the opportunities to support the institutes of the Russian Orthodox Church in the regions.

The categorical reluctance of the zemstvo institutions to allow the clerics to influence and control the processes of public education in the zemstvo schools on the one hand, and the fundamental refusal of the clergy for the zemstvo institutes to elect the priests and the heads of parish trusteeships, and for the local self-government bodies to control the expenses of the budgets of parish trusteeships and the activities of Church institutions on the other hand, did not give an opportunity to implement in practice the progressive idea of cooperation between the zemstvo institutions and clerical circles. The taxation of assets introduced by the zemstvo institutions of the region was perceived by the Church as an insult, a violation of the established legislative norms of the Russian Empire, and a disrespect for the interests of the clerical world.

Despite the failure of the idea of cooperation between the institutions of the Russian Orthodox Church and the zemstvo self-government institutions, the regional zemstvo liberal party officially offered the priests and clerics of the region to become the hired employees of the zemstvo institutions with clearly defined professional duties and official fees exclusively from the zemstvo budgets. With the assistance of the mentioned tools, the progressives hoped to democratize the clerical corporate body from within, to ensure the loyal attitude of the clergy to the liberal opposition, and to comprehensively strengthen their political influence among the parishioners - the peasants, who were the basic electorate of the zemstvo electoral processes.

Initiation of the Counter-Reform era radically changed the nature of the relationship between the clergy and members of the opposition aristocratic fronde. The clerical world and the zemstvo liberal party became competitors and later opponents. So, the representatives of the Church, disappointed in the church reforms of Alexander II, accepted the 'new' course of Emperor Alexander III with great enthusiasm. The representatives of the zemstvo opposition considered being categorically unacceptable the ultimate demands of the Russian Orthodox Church to the zemstvo institutes in the field of public education and financing of a large-scale network of renewed church- parochial schools as a spreader of reaction and political restoration in the state. As a result, on the initiative of the regional zemstvo liberal members, the zemstvo bodies refused to finance the activities of the region's clergy.

However, despite the great deterioration of relations between these institutions, the zemstvo liberal party and the clergy of the region did not become irreconcilable antagonists. The absolute majority of oppositionists were Orthodox and always demonstrated strong loyalty to the institutions of the Church.

In general, historical sources convincingly show that the relationship between the Russian Orthodox Church and the liberal opposition fronde of Chernihiv province in the second half of the 19^th century had undergone an evolution: from aspirations of partnership and practical attempts at cooperation to social competition, and later opposition to each other. The demarcation line of those metamorphoses was the revolutionary change in the domestic political course in the Russian Empire from the era of modernizations of Alexander II to the era of political reaction of Alexander III. In our opinion, the failure of the extensive interaction of the Church with the system of elected institutions of local self-government became one of the reasons for the systemic crisis of Russian absolutism at the end of the 19^th century.

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