Вестник Екатеринбургской духовной семинарии (Jul 2023)
On the Centenary of the Greatest «Robbery» in the History of the Russian Church: the Renovationist False Council of 1923 Through the Eyes of Atheists, Schismatics and Orthodox Contemporaries
Abstract
The article examines the contemporaries’ perception of the Renovationist “Local Council” of 1923, the central event of the largest church schism in the history of Russia. It shows the view of its main unofficial initiators and curators: Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council L. D. Trotsky (Bronstein) and other Party and Chekist figures and institutions, which makes it possible to understand why this pseudo-council was needed and how it was guided to the intended goal. A brief overview of publications dedicated to this «Council» in the Communist press (“Pravda”, “Izvestia VTsIK”, “Bezboshnik”) is given. Next, the renovationist press is considered, both time-based and targeted (three editions of the false council materials, carried out in the 1920s). The publications of the schismatics fully convey the pathos of the church revolutionaries, on the one hand, and on the other — expose their spiritual and moral inconsistency (that is particularly evident in case of bishop Antonin (Granovsky), nominal chairman of the “Local Council”). The last part of the article shows the reaction to the false council of the Orthodox zealots of that time — from the hierarchs led by Holy Patriarch Tikhon, to the outraged church commoners who expressed their attitude to the “Judases” (Antonin, etc.), using the materials at hand. The most obvious historical analogy that the Orthodox saw when assessing the Moscow schismatic assembly of 1923 was the “Robber Council” in Ephesus, held in 449. In general, almost all concerned contemporaries of the event saw it primarily as a political action. The apparent lack of ecclesiality of the Renovationist «Local Council» strongly exposed the schismatics themselves and largely predetermined their ecclesiological collapse.
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