BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES IN THE CONTEMPORARY HISTORY OF THE RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH: BY THE EXAMPLE OF THE ARTOBOLEVSKYS, A FAMILY OF HEREDITARY CLERGYMEN

Abstract

Background. The topic of considering the time of repressions against the peoples of the former Russian Empire and the persecution of the Russian Orthodox Church has been getting more and more urgent since the mid-1980s. The scale of the events of the 1920–1930s as well as the cruelty of the new government and the executors of its will are striking. All the documents of that time have not been studied yet, there are still many questions, which means that there is no full understanding of those events by the society. The aim of the article is an attempt to see the tragedy of the whole nation through individual human destinies, the priests’ in particular. The tragedy was even bigger as whole dynasties were destroyed. Materials and methods. The study is based on the funds of the State Archive of the Russian Federation, the State Archive of Penza region, church periodicals of Penza and Vitebsk, as well as documents of the Moscow Theological Academy. The historical-biographical and historical (diachronic) methods were used. Results. An array of various documents disclosing previously unknown periods of the Artobolevskys’ life was studied. Conclusions. In the process of studying the events of the crucial time the inevitability of complete destruction (in this case of the Church as a structure) is observed. It did not matter for the authorities how valuable a particular person was to society. Only objective circumstances (the beginning of the Great Patriotic War) softened the situation (i.e. allowed weakening of persecutions). It is also obvious that the presence of priestly families (in this case, the Artobolevskys) made it difficult for the Soviet authorities to destroy the Church.

Keywords

• persecution of the orthodox church
• artobolevsky
• priest
• historical and biographical method
• penza seminary