The Church's valuables confiscation in Vladimir
Abstract
The article reveals the content of measures of Church valuables confiscation in the Vladimir in 1922. Valuable works of art and antiquities were confi scated from Vladimir temples and monasteries under the support of the established confi scation commissions of religious values. We specifies that the Soviet regime had great fi nancial difficulties and was looking for a way out of the situation by increasing currency budget mainly through export and sale abroad of Church property. The famine in the Volga region was the main occasion to replenish the treasury confiscated Church property. On the basis of archival sources established that the confiscation of Church valuables in Vladimir began on March 17, 1922 on the basis of the instruction «On the confi scation of Church valuables». Local authorities were instructed to monitor compliance with instructions. Information on seized property collected provincial Finance Department. If the believers wanted to leave liturgical items, they offered to replace these appropriate items by the monetary or material equivalent. The article noted that the first withdrawal values were subjected from the richest temples and monasteries. In total, this procedure were subjected more than 46 Vladimir churches, cathedrals and monasteries. The total number of seized items amounted to about 27 pounds. Archival sources recorded the facts of the active resistance of the clergy in the Vladimir diocese. The anti-government rumors spread in the Vladimir temples. The fi nancial authorities, experts of the provincial museum and ordinary people were involved for the confiscation of Church property. It is concluded that the campaign for the confiscation of Church valuables in Vladimir was successful. Sold items received the Public repository of the Republic, the Financial Department of the all-Russian Central Executive Committee, the Vladimir province museums.
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