The Russian Orthodox Church In The 19th Century

There was a minor religious gap that influenced both sides. Western Europe consisted of Moors, Christians, and Jews. Russians didn’t have such a broad religious gap, comparable to that of

(Document C) The religious dissagreements of the Roman and Christian church lead to the determining of the leader of the Orthodox

When Constantine moved the capital to Constantinople the Christian churches of Rome and Constantinople found themselves at odds. They ended up differing on many subjects. Over the years they gradually grew apart until the final split happened in 1054. This continues to today. The differences are slight but significant. The Roman church continued with using Latin as the official language, giving the Pope the ultimate authority, but not allowing priests to get married (Doc C). Whilst the Eastern Orthodox church decided to have Greek as the official language, instead of a Pope they had a ceremonial leader, also known as the Patriarch (who could marry); this is because Constantinople failed to see the Pope as the supreme authority. Their interpretation of the bible was also a bit different (Doc C). In the world there are about 120,845,374 people who worship Orthodox Christianity. Though there are many branches of it. Most of the religion stays in the Eastern side of the world, except the 5,000,000 or so Americans (Doc C). If it hadn’t been for the Byzantines stepping out

They also did other jobs such as protected the Tsar’ family and intercepted mail to make sure it was safe. Undercover agents were placed everywhere to protect the Tsar. The Orthodox Church was another way the government tried to improve the resentment within the country. The Orthodox Church was a major influence over the Russian people so the government turned it into a government department in the 1900’s to get more power and was run by a lay official appointed by the Tsar. Making the Orthodox Church a government department meant that the opinions within the church were expressed in favour of the Tsar and so the church in fact played a big role in the Russification of the empire as the government caused it to be this way. However this made Russia even more difficult to govern as people thought the priests were ‘no better than the peasants around him, he was paid by the state and was inferior to the middle and upper classes.’ He was seen as ‘a government agent and a hypocritical tool of the possessing classes.’ This made Russia difficult to govern as no one paid an interest in what the church had to say any more. The Okhrana tried to stop this opposition towards the government and the church but were very inefficient and did nothing to stop the assassination of

Many things reflect Russia’s diverse culture but two main things are art and the church.

One of Russia’s most famous monuments is St. Basil’s Cathedral located in Red Square. It is said that the cathedral is located where another church with a cemetery stood. That cemetery is said to be the cemetery in which the

The privileged nobles, who possessed land and serfs, supported his autocratic rule. The main theme of the Russian history in the 19th century is that the non-nobles who detested the Czarist government asked for an improvement in their disconsolate and deprived life. When the Czarist government ignored this matter they revolted for the first time in 1905 and than for the second time in 1917 by which the Czarist government was finally overthrown. Hungry strikers on March 8, 1917 mobbed the streets of Petrograd, their demand was bread. In order to appease the misery of his people Czar Nicholas II resigned his throne to his brother, Michael. His brother knew that everyone hated Czardom so he rejected the throne on March 15. The Provisional Government than took over and Czardom after ruling Russia for three centuries came to an end.

The Orthodox Church in Russia, seeing the advancing tide of Islamic power in the East, declared its independence from Constantinople in 1448, five years before the fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans. In 1589 the patriarchate of Moscow was established and formally recognized by Patriarch Jeremias II of Constantinople. For the Russian people and their tsars, Moscow had become the so-called third Rome, direct heir to the imperial and ecclesiastical supremacy of ancient Rome and Constantinople. The patriarchs of Moscow

In 1917, Russia was crumbling into pieces. The World War I was draining all of Russia’s resources. There was shortage of food throughout the country, which left people starving. At the battlefront, millions of Russian soldiers were dying, they did not possess many of the powerful weapons that their opponents had. The government under Czar Nicholas II was disintegrating, and a provisional government had been set up. In November of 1917, Lenin and his communist followers known as the Bolsheviks overthrew the provisional government and set a communist government in Russia. However, in 1924, Lenin died and Josef Stalin assumed leadership of the Soviet Union, which was the name for the communist Russia. Stalin was a ruthless leader who brought

Fr. Justin Havens gave a lecture about the history, principles and practices of the Orthodox church and emphasized that Christ should be the focus of our education, and our every thought and action. He described how religion is primarily about making ourselves better and orthodox focuses on becoming like the best human, nonetheless divine being in existence, Jesus Christ. His attributes, perfections, motivations, teachings, lifestyle and everything about Him is the epitome of goodness. Thus the succession in church leadership, from Jesus, to Peter, throughout the generations to various bishops is described as one of the key reasons why orthodox Christianity is perceived as God’s ordained church on the earth as well as the amazing durability of the religion as approximately 160,000 Orthodox followers were slaughtered, significantly reducing the religion’s population. However, as Fr. Havens

“Beginning with the reign of Constantine I and the establishment of the Byzantine Empire, the Eastern Christian church became a tool of the Emperors. Byzantine Emperors and Empresses played a dominant role in the Eastern church and used the Christian religion to strengthen the Empire internally, to spread Byzantine cultural and political influence, and at times, to fortify their own power”

As well as pragmatic reforms, the Bolsheviks also used terror in order to consolidate their power from 1917-1924. In December 1917, the Bolsheviks created a new secret police institution (the Cheka) to provide security, encourage class warfare and bring the army under tighter control. An attempt on Lenin’s life in August 1918 saw the Cheka take harsh reprisals against all suspected enemies in what became known as the ‘Red Terror’. The middle class, former nobility and the clergy were key targets. During the Civil War, the Kadet party was outlawed and its leaders arrested. Russia had become a one-party state. The Cheka also killed the Tsar and his family to prevent them being used as a symbolic rallying point for counter-revolution. Despite compromising Communist ideology, these ruthless measures were successful in suppressing internal opposition and thus consolidating Bolshevik power.

he Russian Orthodox Church when through many troubles during the Soviet Union Era. When the Tsarist government was overthrown and Bolsheviks took over, the Russian Orthodox Church was without official state backing for the first time in its history. The new Communist government issued a decree that declared freedom of religious and anti-religious propaganda which banned church programs from television and led to a decline in church power and influence.

Like Russian art, Russian architecture has evolved through the ages, from the Byzantine and Eastern Orthodox styles of the Kievan Rus, to modern Western European styles (Whittaker, n.d.). If traveling throughout Russia, a distinctive style is apparent on all Russian churches. These churches, which were first built of wood, then of stone, usually have crosses topping rounded or onion domed towers. In fact, one of the most recognizable cathedrals in Russia, St. Basil’s Cathedral, which was commissioned in 1555 by Ivan the Terrible and is located in Red Square, in the city of Moscow, is a shining example of this type of decorative Russian architecture (History Channel, 2017).

brotherhood that the members of the Church had toward each other. It was not, to be sure, an arbitrary communism and bears no relation to communists of today, but the