Religion and Identity in Russia and the Soviet Union: A Festschrift for Paul Bushkovitch

Resistance and Accommodation: The Rite of Orthodoxy in Modern Russia

Religion and Identity in Russia and the Soviet Union: A Festschrift for Paul Bushkovitch. Nikolaos A. Chrissidis, Cathy J. Potter, David Schimmelpenninck van der Oye, and Jennifer B. Spock, eds. Bloomington, IN: Slavica Publishers, 2011, 165–89.       Resistance and Accommodation: The Rite of Orthodoxy in Modern Russia Vera Shevzov During   his   trip   to   Russia   in   1845,   the   Czech   author   and   political   journalist   Karel  Havlícek-­‐‑Borovský  wrote  the  following  regarding  a  liturgical  ritual  that   he  witnessed  in  Moscow’s  Dormition  cathedral  on  the  first  Sunday  of  Great   Lent:  “Nothing  like  this  can  be  found  anywhere  in  Europe!  For   the   sake   of   this   alone,   I   did   not   regret   the   long   and   dangerous   journey   I   took   through   Russia,  which  was  accompanied  by  much  discomfort.”1   Havlícek-­‐‑Borovský  was  not  the  only  one  who  found  this  service  of  inter-­‐‑ est.   While   the   cathedral   had   been   virtually   empty   when   he   arrived,   by   the   time  the  service  began,  it  was  packed  with  a  “thick  mass  of  people”  that  in-­‐‑ cluded  the  wealthy  in  their  furs  and  the  poor  workers  in  their  half  coats.  By   all   accounts,   the   celebration   of   this   rite   was   a   spectacle   that   drew   crowds,   even  in  pre-­‐‑Petrine   Russia.2  A.  N.  Muraviev,   writing  in  the  1830s  about  his   visit   to   Kazan’,   commented   on   the  “spectator”   quality  of  the  service,   which   many  people  came  to  view  as  a  “show.”3  Similarly,  in  describing  the  feast  as  it   took  place  in  the  Dormition  Cathedral  in  the  year  1900,  a  Moscow  newspaper   spoke  of  the  “enormous  mass  of  believers”  that  had  gathered  for  the  service   both  in  the  cathedral  and  in  the  square  outside.4                                                                                                                               1  Quoted   in   “O   Nedele   Pravoslaviia,”   Moskovskie   eparkhial’nye   vedomosti   (hereafter,   MEV),  no.  14  (1880):  107‒10.  Also  printed  in  the  newspaper  Bereg,  no.  16  (1880).  For   Havlícek-­‐‑Borovský’s   journey   through   Russia,   see   Michael   Henry   Heim,   The   Russian   Journey  of  Karel  Havlícek-­‐‑Borovský  (Munich:  O.  Sagner,  1979).   2  Archdeacon  Paul  of  Aleppo,  The  Travels  of  Macarius,  Patriarch  of  Antioch,  vol.  2,  pt.  5,   trans.  F.  C.  Belfour  (London:  Oriental  Translation  Committee,  1836),  45‒52.  For  a  sum-­‐‑ mary,  see  L.  P.  Rushchinskii,  Religioznyi  byt  russkikh  po  svedeniiam  inostrannykh  pisatelei   XVI‒XVII  vekov  (Moscow,  1871),  53‒54.     3  A.   N.   Murav’ev,   Pis’ma   o   bogosluzhenii,   vol.   1,   pt.   2   (1882;   repr.,   Moscow:   Russkii   dukhovnyi  tsentr,  1993),  169.     4  “Moskovskaia   khronika,”   Moskovskie   tserkovnye   vedomosti   (hereafter,   MTsV),   no.   19   (1900):  120‒21.  Writing  Penza  in  1866,  one  churchman   claimed  the  rite  drew  a  large   number  of  simple  folk  from  surrounding  villages  to  the  diocesan  cathedral.  He  attrib-­‐‑ uted  their  interest  to  the  commonly  held  view  that  simple  believers  were  particularly   fond   of   ritual   and   ceremony.   V.,   “Anafematstvovanie,”   Penzenskie   eparkhial’nye   vedo-­‐‑ 166 VERA SHEVZOV The  object  of  interest  was  a  liturgical  rite  that  took  place  annually  in  the   Orthodox  Church  in  Russia  on  the  first  Sunday  of  Great  Lent.  Known  as  the   “Sunday  of  Orthodoxy”  or  the  “Triumph  of  Orthodoxy,”  this  feast  was  cele-­‐‑ brated  for  the  first  time  in  Constantinople  in  843  with  the  support  of  Empress   Theodora  and  Patriarch  Methodius  in  honor  of  the  defeat  of  the  iconoclasts.5   In   its   inception,   it   served   to   assert   and   reflect   the   Orthodox   identity   of   the   Byzantine   Empire.   Initially,   the   liturgical   service   for   this   feast—the   “Rite   of   Orthodoxy”—linked   the   notion   of  triumph   with  icons  and   their  veneration.   The  rite  communicated  the  notion  of  victory  in  three  ways:  by  remembering   those   who   had   defended   images   and   the   devotional   logic   associated   with   their  veneration;  by  condemning  iconoclasts  and  their  views;  and  by  lauding   the   living   emperor   and   patriarch   or   local   bishop.6   Since   the   veneration   of   icons  was  intimately  tied  to  understandings  of  community  and  authority  and   to   relations   between   church   and   state,   the   idea   of   triumph   eventually   ex-­‐‑ panded  to  victory  over  “heretics”  more  broadly  understood.  The  commemo-­‐‑ ration  of  the  victory  of  icons  on  the  first  Sunday  of  Great  Lent,  therefore,  be-­‐‑ came  embedded  in  the  Orthodox  calendar  as  a  celebration  of  the  triumph  of   Orthodoxy  as  a  whole.   Russia   inherited   this   liturgical   rite   from   Byzantium,   and   over   time   it   served  to  declare  and  reaffirm  Orthodox  identity  in  Russia  as  it  had  in  Byzan-­‐‑ tium.   Although   pre-­‐‑revolutionary   Russian   church   historians   were   not   sure   precisely  when  this  rite  was  first  celebrated  in  Russia,  they  agreed  that  it  was                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     mosti   (hereafter,   PEV),   no.   5   (1866):   139‒44;   for   a   literary   account   of   this   rite,   see   Skitalets,  “Octava,”  Razskazy  i  pesni  (St.  Petersburg,  1902),  170‒239.   5  Andrew...