Religious Conversion, Culture, and Identity in Russia’s Western Borderlands, 1800-1855

FAIN: FA-232534-16

Barbara J. Skinner
Indiana State University, Terre Haute (Terre Haute, IN 47809-0001)

Participating institutions:
Indiana State University, Terre Haute (Terre Haute, IN) - Participating Institution

A book-length study on the consequences and impact of the forced mass conversions of Greek Catholics from Belarus and Ukraine to Russian Orthodoxy in 1839.

The year 1839 witnessed the largest mass conversion in the history of the Russian Empire, as 1.5 million Greek Catholics became Eastern Orthodox, with profound long-term implications for the cultural orientation and political loyalties in Eastern Europe. This study delves into multinational archives to assess the day-to-day experience of transforming parish material and liturgical culture, the impact of changes in religious education, and tensions expressed on all sides before, during, and after the conversion in eight Belarusian and Ukrainian provinces. It examines how both imperial officials and Belarusian and Ukrainian subjects adapted to the demands of each other with a variety of local results, challenging our understanding of Belarusian, Ukrainian, and Russian imperial identity development. In doing so, it offers a valuable contribution to European religious history and a deeper understanding of the cultural divisions that continue to shape contemporary events in the region.

Associated Products

"Russia's Scriptural 'Reformation" in the Late 18th and Early 19th Centuries" (Article)
Title: "Russia's Scriptural 'Reformation" in the Late 18th and Early 19th Centuries"
Author: Barbara J. Skinner
Abstract: The Russian Orthodox Church never experienced a movement that placed the authority of Scriptures over that of the Church, as was characteristic of the Protestant reformations in Western Europe. Nevertheless, an increased emphasis on the Scriptures and a desire to translate the Bible into the vernacular arose in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries in Russia. Aside from the work of the Russian Bible Society, scholars have not shed much light on this trend as it occurred within clerical education. This article argues that the episode of the Bible Society was a critical chapter within a larger story of important theological and pedagogical shifts within Russian Orthodox education and values. The roots of the Russian biblical translation effort extend back to the eighteenth century, when ethnic Russian clerical scholars gained the linguistic abilities in Greek and Hebrew to translate based on the ancient texts, and when more attention began to be paid to both vernacular Russian instruction and Scriptural study in the ecclesiastical schools. These trends flourished more deeply in the first half of the nineteenth century, with the rise of romantic nationalism and the evangelical message of the Bible Society. Thus, although Russia did not undergo a Reformation in the Western sense of the word, the Orthodox Church went through an internal reassessment of its teachings and approach to the Word of God that brought the Scriptures into a more central role without undermining Church authority and tradition.
Year: 2017
Primary URL: http://vivliofika.library.duke.edu/issue/view/2280/showToc
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: Vivliofika: E-Journal of Eighteenth-Century Russian Studies, Vol. 5 (2017): 73-102

“New Perspectives on Orthodox Clerical Education in Right Bank Ukraine, 1825-1855,” (Article)
Title: “New Perspectives on Orthodox Clerical Education in Right Bank Ukraine, 1825-1855,”
Author: Barbara Skinner
Abstract: Using archival documents from Russia, this article points to aspects of Orthodox and Uniate clerical education in the early nineteenth century that points to Russification and standardization of practices to more closely bind religious education in this part of the Russian Empire to that in the imperial core.
Year: 2016
Format: Other
Periodical Title: Shliakh u chotyry stolittia. Materialy Mizhnarodnoi naukovoi konferentsii “Ad Fontes – Do Zherel” do 400-i richnitsi zasnuvaniia Kyevo-Mogylians’koi akademii 12-14 zhovtnia, 2015 roku (Kyiv: National’nyi univ. Kievo-Mogylians’ka akademiia, 2016), 254-266.
Publisher: Kyiv-Mohyla National University, Kyiv, Ukraine

“Iconostases and Cathedrals: Creating Orthodox Sacred Spaces in Russia’s Western Borderlands, 1828-1855” (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: “Iconostases and Cathedrals: Creating Orthodox Sacred Spaces in Russia’s Western Borderlands, 1828-1855”
Author: Barbara Skinner
Abstract: A critical part of the conversion of 1.5 million Belarusian and Ukrainian Uniates to Orthodoxy in the 1830s involved transforming the all Uniate church interiors to meet the requirements for Orthodox services. This involved building iconostases, as well as removing organs and pulpits. Additionally, impressive edifices were needed to house Orthodox cathedrals; these were, where possible, created by adding Orthodox elements to Roman Catholic churches that had been damaged or closed by the Russian authorities. This paper will investigate the extraordinary effort involved in carrying out these mandates, as well as the wide-spread difficulties in funding and implementing them, and assess the degree to which the religious landscape and material culture in Russia’s western provinces lost many expressions of Polish and Catholic influence and began to reflect instead the Orthodox culture and modes of worship that were linked to Russia.
Date: 11/20/16
Conference Name: Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies annual convention, Washington, D.C

“The Russian Reformation of the Early 19th Century: Biblical Studies and Scriptures in the Vernacular Come to Russia,” (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: “The Russian Reformation of the Early 19th Century: Biblical Studies and Scriptures in the Vernacular Come to Russia,”
Author: Barbara Skinner
Abstract: This paper presented the same research that was published in Vivliofika in 2017 (see entry for the article "Russia's Scriptural Reformation").
Date: 03/10/17
Conference Name: Association for the Study of Eastern Christian History and Culture biennial conference

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