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

Crying Their Hearts Out: A Case of Public Penance in the Era of Catherine the Great

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, 107–25.       Crying Their Hearts Out: A Case of Public Penance in the Era of Catherine the Great Nikolaos A. Chrissidis On  24  March  1766,  Catherine  the  Great  (r.  1762‒96)  issued  a  remarkable  mani-­‐‑ festo.  She  ordered  that  the  supply/quartermaster  officer  of  the  Life  Guards  of   the   Preobrazhenskii   Regiment,   Aleksei   Zhukov,   and   his   wife   Varvara,   who   had  been  condemned  to  death  for  the  murders  of  Zhukov’s  mother  and  sister   in  1754,  should  finally  pay  for   their  crimes.  Specifically,   Catherine   declared   that  the  two  convicts  (who  had  been  held  in  custody  together  for  almost  12   years  after  the  crimes)  should  perform  a  series  of  public  penances  in  Moscow   churches,  after  which  they  were  to  be  incarcerated  in  separate  monasteries  for   20  years  working,  praying,  and  asking  for  God’s  forgiveness.  If  one  were  to   judge   by   the   absence   of   similar   manifestoes   during   her   reign,   Catherine’s   decision  was  an  unusual  one.  Not  in  that  it  involved  commutation  of  the  pen-­‐‑ alty   or   lessening   of   its   severity   (something   that   she   regularly   proceeded   to   do);  rather,  it  was  unusual  in  that  the  sentence’s  very  commutation  involved  a   Church-­‐‑approved,  minutely  choreographed  ritual  of  public  penance  through   which  a  series  of  messages  about  imperial  authority  and  criminal  punishment   were  broadcast  to  Russian  society.1                                                                                                                             I  thank  Teresa  Miguel,  Barbara  Olszowa,  and  Mike  Widener  of  the  Yale  Law  Library   for  their  generous  assistance.  I  also  benefited  greatly  from  comments  of  participants  in   the  Yale  workshop  in  honor  of  Paul  Bushkovitch  and  in  the  2009  meeting  of  the  Study   Group   on   Eighteenth-­‐‑Century   Russia   in   Hoddesdon,   England.   Jennifer   Spock   pro-­‐‑ vided  valuable  and  timely  criticism  and  editorial  help.  Some  of  the  arguments  of  this   article  have  been  subsequently  used  in  Galina  O.  Babkova,  “Reprezentatsiia  ‘milosti’:   Delo  A.  i  V.  Zhukovykh  v  kontekste  reformironaniia  ugolovnogo  prava  v  Rossii  vtoroi   poloviny  XVIII  veka,”  in  Verkhovnaia  vlast’,  elita  i  obshchestvo  v  Rossii  XI‒pervoi  poloviny   XIX   veka:   Rossiiskaia   monarkhiia   v   kontekste   evropeiskikh   i   aziatskikh   monarkhii   i   imperii.   Vtoraia   mezhdunarodnaia  nauchnaia   konferentsiia,  24‒26  iuniia   2009  goda.  Tezisy  doklakov   (Moscow,   2009),   http://www.kreml.ru/ru/main/science/conferences/2009/ power/thesis/Babkova/ (accessed  10  November  2009).   1  Karen   Rasmussen   has   argued   that   Catherine   deliberately   commuted   both   physical   and  political  death  (i.e.,  exile  and  deprivation  of  rights)  penalties  through  devising  a   theatrical  and  non-­‐‑bloody  version  of  public  disgrace.  Rasmussen,  “Catherine  the  Great   and  the  Image  of  Peter  I,”  Slavic  Review  37:  1  (1978):  63.  On  the  distinctions  between   physical   and   political   death   in   the   18th   century,   see   E.   Anisimov,   Dyba   i   knut:   108 NIKOLAOS A. CHRISSIDIS This   article   is   an   attempt   to   describe   and   analyze   the   public   penance   ritual  appended  to  the  manifesto  of  1766  and  to  place  it  in  the  context  of  Cath-­‐‑ erine’s  legal  and  church  policies.2  I  argue  that  Catherine  the  Great  used  this   case,  which  by  all  indications  accidentally  had  fallen  through  the  bureaucratic   and  judicial  cracks,  to  burnish  her  credentials  both  as  a  truly  Orthodox  mon-­‐‑ arch   and   as   a   benevolent,   strict   but   also   compassionate,   merciful   tsarina.3   Appropriating   Orthodox   practices   of   public   penance   and   arranging   for   the   widest  possible  public  exposure  for  the  penitential  occasions,  Catherine  also   delivered   multiple   messages   to   various   audiences   and   engaged   in   a   sort   of   public  relations  performance  in  the  realm  of  justice  and  ecclesiastical  policy.4   Dramatis Personae *   Aleksandr   Petrovich   Zhukov,   a   Collegiate   Councilor,   member   of   the  gentry5                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     Politicheskii   sysk   i   russkoe   obshchestvo   v   XVIII   veke   (Moscow:   Novoe   literaturnoe   obo-­‐‑ zrenie,  1999):  498‒99,  550‒51.     2  The  manifesto,  the  description  of  the  public  penance,  the  sermon  composed  for  the   occasion,  the  convicts’  prayer  and  short  entreaty,  and  the  deacon’s  supplicatory  prayer   have   all   been   published   in   Polnoe   Sobranie   Zakonov   Rossiiskoi   Imperii   (hereafter,   PSZ)   113   vols.   (St.   Petersburg:   Tipografiia   II-­‐‑ogo   Otdeleniia   Sobstvennoi   Ego   Imperator-­‐‑ skogo  Velichestva  Kantseliarii,  1830‒1916),  17:  615‒20.  I  have  also  consulted  the  origi-­‐‑ nals   of   these   and   other   documents   of   the   case   held   in   the   Russian   State   Archive   of   Ancient  Acts  (hereafter  RGADA),  Judicial  Affairs,  fond  22,  opis’  1,  number  170.  A  note   on  folio  I  indicates  that  this  collection  of  documents  was  found  among  the  papers  of  G.   N.  Teplov  (1717‒79).  Teplov  was  Catherine’s  personal  secretary  for  six  years  starting   in  1762.  See  Wallace  L.  Daniel...