The Western Front of the Eastern Church: Uniate and Orthodox Conflict in 18th-Century Poland, Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia (review)

After Catherine II and her Habsburg and Prussian counterparts divided the lands of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, she found herself in possession of territories settled not as much by fellow Orthodox as by alien Uniates—the followers of a church that combined the Orthodox rituals and calendar with Catholic dogma and subordination to the pope. In The Western Front of the Eastern Church, Barbara Skinner explores the complex history of the Uniate and Orthodox churches in the Ruthenian (Ukrainian and Belarusian) palatinates of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which were incorporated into the Russian empire during the partitions of Poland in 1772, 1793, and 1795. Going beyond the theme of hostile relations between the two churches, the author skillfully incorporates into her narrative the abundant social conflicts, rebellions, Polish and Russian military interventions, and violence in the Ruthenian palatinates at the time of the partitions. This impressive and informative research proposes a new look at the history of the two churches in the region and links it to political instability, shifting borders, and the changing loyalties of local inhabitants.

Even though it focuses on the eighteenth century—specifically, on the reigns of Catherine II in the Russian empire and Stanislaw Poniatowski in the Commonwealth (roughly the early 1760s to late 1790s)—Skinner's narrative depicts the history of the Uniate church into the early 1800s. Founded by the Union of Brest in 1596, this church was a response of the clergy of the Ruthenian palatinates to religious reforms and confessionalization in both the Commonwealth and Europe in general. The formation of this church was preceded by the crisis within the Orthodox community and its slow reaction to Protestant and Catholic church reforms in the late seventeenth century. Although they shared one cultural background and were supported by intellectually similar elites, the two churches went in different directions. According to the ambitious project of its creators, the Uniate church attempted to unite with the Roman Catholic church dominant in the Commonwealth in order to obtain political rights and privileges not available to the Orthodox (23-24). The Orthodox church, on the other hand, gained the support of the Cossack Hetmanate and accepted the protectorate of Muscovy and the Russian empire in 1686. Skinner emphasizes that diplomatic tensions between the Russian and Polish states in the Ruthenian provinces forced the two churches to choose between two opposing loyalties.

The second and third chapters of the book explore in detail Uniate parish life, the development of Uniate moral theology, and the education of priests. In particular, Skinner recognizes the diversity of Ruthenian parishes in size and population (48) and the lack of uniformity in the Uniate liturgy (59). Development of the Basilian order within the church increased the quality of education and professionalism of the Uniates, enhancing their confessional distinctiveness in the late eighteenth century (79). This distinctiveness and the Russian and Polish-Lithuanian politics in the region escalated the confrontation between the Uniate and Orthodox churches. Both states attempted to implement a "one state, one religion" policy (100, 105) in the contested multiethnic and confessionally diverse Ukrainian and Belarusian palatinates. In its focus on analyzing the development of the Uniate church, however, the book does not examine in detail the advancement of the Orthodox church in the early eighteenth century. Skinner does argue that both churches developed under the patronage of powerful local elites that founded new schools and monasteries, but her work would benefit from a more detailed discussion of the connections between the Uniate parishioners and priests and their patrons, as well as how these patrons protected their protégés during turbulent social cataclysms preceding the first partition.

The partitions of Poland created new geographic and political borders for the Russian and Polish states. These borders did not coincide with the earlier fault line between the Western and Eastern churches, and...