Josephitism

For virtually all centuries of its history, the Orthodox Church in Russia had been playing an important stabilizing and consolidating role, especially in the times of critical cataclysms. In the years of the Civil War it also didn’t take side of any of the belligerents; Patriarch and the Holy Synod were fighting for putting an end to the fratricidal discord and obsession with political passions, advocating tolerance and love of fellow men.

In the first decade of the Soviet State’s existence the attempts of the civil authorities to subdue the Orthodox Church, take it under total control, and turn into “an appendage of the state apparatus” (the Renovationists and other dissents) in general, ended with failure. It was at that time that the catacomb (secret) communities appeared, turning to illegal position.

The events of the late 1920s became a starting point for a new, most acute, crisis in the Patriarchal Church. The turning point was legalizing the Interim Patriarchal Holy Synod (IPHS) at the Deputy Acting Patriarch Metropolitan Sergiy (Stargorodsky), which required substantial concessions. The 1927 Declaration, meaning a retreat from indifference towards politics, has led to the appearance of a new form of the Patriarchal Church’s relations with the state. Exactly at that time the civil authorities established a total control over the internal church life. These compromises met with negative attitude of many priests and laymen.

The Noncommemorators (of the civil authorities and Metr. Sergiy)  movement founded in 1927 was widespread throughout the country: initially over 40 archbishops rejected administrative subordination to Deputy Patriarch and the IPHS.

Central place among the Noncommemorators was occupied by the strongest Josephite group named after its leader, Metropolitan of Leningrad, Joseph (Petrovykh).

The goal of the present paper is researching the Josephite movement, an attempt of a part of the clergy and believers to find their own (alternative to Sergian and catacomb) way of development in the form of legal or partly legal opposition to the Soviet state under the conditions of the strengthening of the totalitarian regime in the country.

The experience of the next decades demonstrates that the only alternative to the compromise way chosen by Metr. Sergiy was the clergy’s turning on an illegal position, eparchies and parishes’ self-government, and arising of the Catacomb Church. However, for most believers, priests, and hierarchs this proved unacceptable. Josephites chose the way of legal opposition, and their further fate was tragic.

There is no special works dedicated to the Josephites movement in neither Soviet nor foreign historiography. However, this subject is being touched upon in the context of Church history of the first half of the twentieth century in the papers of representatives of the official Soviet historiography, Moscow Patriarchate clergy, and foreign scholars. Authors usually stand on different church positions and adhere to opposite political views, which often causes distortions in describing the events of the epoch under discussion. Therefore, we believe it necessary to appraise the reliability of the researchers used in this paper considering the authors’ political and church likings and comparing it with their works’ concepts. Papers by Soviet historians of the Orthodox Church are of general review character and reflect the official ideology (N. S. Gordiyenko, M. S. Korzun, et al). Here the Church is presented as a reactionary anti-popular institution, while the Josephite movement is called “Black Hundred.”

In the works of contemporary historians V. A. Alekseyev and M. I. Odintsov dedicated mostly to the state religious policy in USSR neutral approach dominates toward the internal church struggle. Speaking about the “Josephite dissent,” Alekseyev remarks that it didn’t become a notable event in the history of the Orthodoxy.

Historical papers by clergymen of the Patriarchal Russian Orthodox Church Metr. Manuyil (Lemeshevsky), f. s.  Innokenty (Pavlov), A. I. Kuznetsov, and Metropolitan Ioann of St. Petersburg (Snychev) are of substantial interest. They contain many facts, though in terms of concepts they idealize Metr. Sergiy’s (Stargorodsky) church policy, lacking critical approach toward appraising his actions. Josephites are called schismatic, and Metr. Ioann claims that they profaned everything sacred for the Orthodox Church. Professor of the Leningrad University N. A. Meshchersky (died in 1986), who played an active role in the movement at its initial stage but later changed his position, adhered to the same stand in his memoirs.

Representatives of various trends in the Catacomb Church whose historical concepts not always coincide with each other hold a directly opposite opinion. Members of the Mother of God Center consider the Patriarchal Church after adopting the 1927 Declaration “one of the main cornerstones of the communist regime in USSR acting on Satan’s instigation.”  In his historical research he, while denouncing the Sergians, tries to avoid polemical extremes.

The new anti-Sergians position is close to the one of the latter. For instance, Z. Krakhmalnikova directly connects establishment and development of the Soviet totalitarianism with Moscow Patriarchate’s position.

An important contribution into studying the Russian Orthodoxy was made by foreign researchers, mostly emigrants from Russia. Their works are also considerably influenced by their own church position. For example, Arch-Presbyter Vasily Vinogradov, Arch-Priest Ioann Meyendorf, Metropolitan Eleupherius (Bogoyavlensky) point out the general relevance of Metr. Sergiy’s position. The declaration, in their view, didn’t add anything new to Patriarch Tikhon’s statements on loyalty.

To the contrary, the works by anti-Sergians (M. Polsky, I. Andreyev, V. Stepanov (Rusak), L. Regelson) are dedicated to the resistance movement in the Russian Church in general; the Josephite movement isn’t marked out and is mentioned only as one of the forms of church resistance. These authors are convinced that Metr. Sergiy betrayed the new martyrs languishing in Soviet death camps and made an immeasurably deeper compromise with the authorities than his predecessors, thus betraying Patriarch Tikhon and Acting Patriarch Metr. P¸tr (Poliansky).

Most objective and scientifically weighted stand is taken by Western historians: Dmitry Pospelovsky, Nikita Struve, I. O. Christostomus (Blashkevich), Hans-Dieter Depman et.al. A considerable share of attention was paid to the problems of the so-called church distemper of the late 1920s by D. Pospelovsky. He regarded the Josephite movement in Russia an extreme rightist dissent and believed that Josephites attempted to form a parallel church, often not distinguishing the activities of the Josephite and Catacomb clergy. Pospelovsky claimed that Metr. Sergiy’s declaration was basically continuing the line of Patriarch Tikhon and Deputy Acting Patriarch Metr. P¸tr, however, without attaching due importance to allowing since 1927 the authorities’ control over the Church’s manpower policy (every appointment of a clergymen was to be sanctioned by state bodies).

It is also worth mention that by objective reasons the voluminous foreign historical literature is based on a limited number of sources and uses materials from Russian archives only to a little extent. Major sources for the present paper were materials from the St. Petersburg Central State Archive (SPb CSA). The diocesan archive created only a few years ago contains virtually no materials dated before 1945; therefore the SPb CSA sources are unique. Most of them previously were classified and closed for researchers, while those accessible weren’t involved into scholarly circulation. Working as the archive’s principal research fellow, this author had an opportunity to systematically study necessary inventories and documents. The SPb CSA contains on the subject under discussion mostly materials of state institutions regulating the activities of religious organizations in Leningrad oblast. The largest documents complex is preserved at the Fund of the Leningrad City Executive Committee (f. 7384), in the inventory of the City Commission on Religious Affairs, which in 1931 replaced the Registration Desk for Societies, Unions, and Religious Organizations, inheriting its archives. These are, first, cases on monitoring the activities of Leningrad churches, in part, Josephite ones, including historical references, inventories, questionnaires and lists of the twenties’ members and clergymen, reports on parish meetings, correspondence, etc. Data on closing and demolishing churches, holding religious festivities, arresting and exiling clergymen are also of extreme value. Similar information on oblast scale is preserved at the Fund of the Leningrad Oblast Executive Committee (f. 7179).

Materials of the district inspectors on religious affairs and registration desks did not survive completely. They are best represented at the Petrograd (f. 151), Moscow-Narva (f. 104), and October (f. 4914) district executive committees in Leningrad. Little known about instructions of the higher organs are kept there. A considerable part of similar documents in Vasileostrovsky, Smolny, and a number of other district executive committees are still closed for researchers.

Valuable information was picked up from the Petrograd Province Council Fund (f. 1000), including correspondence between the Leningrad City Executive Committee and District Political Headquarter in the late 1920s – early 1930s. Unfortunately, the correspondence concerning repressive anti-church campaigns of the second half of the 1930s is still classified.

The closing period of our subject, cessation of the last Josephite community’s activities during the World War II, is covered in the materials of the Fund of the Authorized Council on the Russian Orthodox Church Affairs in Leningrad Oblast (f. 9324). Besides, a number of selections of documents on internal church struggle in the 1920s were studied at the Library of the St. Petersburg Theological Academy.

This author also used materials of the repressive bodies.

Investigative cases on the “Buyists,” supporters of Bishop Aleksiy (Buy), trials (1930 and 1932) recently were declassified and passed to the Center for Documenting Contemporary History of the Voronezh Oblast (CDCH VO). They cover the history of the Josephite movement in the Central-Chernozem Oblast in 1928-1932 and contain biographic data of Voronezh-based Josephites, including renowned religious figures like Bish. Aleksiy (Buy), Arch-Priests Ioann Steblin-Kamensky and Nikolai Dulov, Archimandrite Ignaty (Biriukov), and many others (f. 9323, op. 2, c. P-17699, P-24705).

Materials of the case of the “Kazan Branch of the All-Union Center of the True Orthodox Church Counterrevolutionary Religious-Monarchist Organization” (1931) are preserved at the Republic of Tatarstan KGB archive. They contain information on the 33 accused Kazan clergymen and intelligentsia representatives among whom were former professors of the Theological Academy, parish priests, nuns, two bishops – Nectary (Trezvinsky) and Joasaph (Udalov), and others (f. arch. inv. Case, c. 2-18199).

The investigative case of the True Orthodoxy organization of Moscow and Tver Eparchies (1930-1931) is kept at the State Archive of the Russian Federation (SARF). Sixty-three persons were brought into court: Serpukhov and Tver clergymen and laymen, including Bish. Maksim (Zhizhilenko), Arch-Priests Aleksandr Kremyshensky and Aleksandr Levkovsky (f. 10035, op. 1, c.28850). This author studied also cases of the Serpukhov-based Josephites (1928, c. P-51903), The True Orthodoxy organization in the Zagorsk, Klin, and Skhodnia districts of the Moscow Oblast (1931, c. P-60406), Arch-Priest Sergiy Goloshchapov (1937, c. P-32867), and others at the SARF.

The case of the Samara Branch of the True Orthodox Church (1930) from the Archive of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation Samara Administration (f. arch. inv. case, c. P-17773) and also materials from the Center for Documenting Contemporary History of the Kostroma Oblast and Archive of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation Ivanovo Administration considerably extended the idea of the activity of the Non-Commemorators of the Volga Region.

A number of declassified investigative cases of Ukrainian Josephites were examined at the Central State Archive of Public Organizations of Ukraine. A twenty-volume 1932 case there is of utmost interest. It reflects the activities of the True Orthodox Church in all the republic’s regions: Donbas, Podillia, Kyiv, Kharkiv, Odesa, Dnipropetrovsk oblasts. Among the convicts were Bishops Pavel (Kraterov), Joasaph (Popov), Father-Superior Varsonofy (Yurchenko), Arch-Priest Grigory Seletsky (f. 263, op.1, c. 65744). Other cases also deserve special mention: of the Ukrainian Non-Commemorators (1931, c. 66923), Josephite priests of the Kyiv Eparchy: Yevgeny Lukyanov (1931, c. 50566), Andriy Boichuk (1937, c. 60260), and Nikolai Venglinsky (1930 and 1938, cc. 51915, 63334).

Materials of the Archive of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation St. Petersburg and Oblast Administrations were studied particularly thoroughly, including investigative cases of Josephite leaders: Archbishop Dimitry (Liubimov), Bishops Sergiy (Druzhinin), Vasily (Doktorov), Arch-Priests Vasily Veriuzhsky, Viktorin Dobronravov, and others. The case of the Josephite monks (1932) can serve as an example. It involved around 60 persons: inhabitants of the Aleksandro-Nevskaya Laura, nuns of the former St. John, Resurrection, and Novodevichy Monasteries, brethren of the Kyiv-Pechersk Laura Church in Leningrad, Valaam monks, et. al. (f. arch. inv. Case, c. P-75829).

The author expresses his gratitude to Irina Osipova for granting part of the materials on the history of Josephites and Josephite movement in Moscow and Moscow Oblast.

The researched documents and materials allow to cover rather completely the history of the Josephite movement in its major centers. However, this author hopes to proceed with his work on studying the problem, in part, by costs of further research in archives.

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