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E-book
Author Wynot, Jennifer Jean, 1971-

Title Keeping the faith : Russian orthodox monasticism in the Soviet Union, 1917 1939 / Jennifer Jean Wynot
Edition 1st ed
Published College Station, Tex. : Texas A & M University Press, ©2004

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Description 1 online resource (xviii, 235 pages) : illustrations
Series Hugh M. and Eugenia Stewart series on Eastern Europe
Eugenia and Hugh M. Stewart '26 series on Eastern Europe
Contents The church on the eve of the 1917 revolution -- Revolution, Civil War, and famine, 1917 1922 -- The new economic policy years, 1921 1928 -- The good Friday of Russian monasticism, 1928 1934 -- The descent into hell, 1934 1939
Summary In Keeping the Faith, Jennifer Jean Wynot presents a clear and concise history of the trials and evolution of Russian Orthodox monasteries and convents and the important roles they have played in Russian culture, in both in the spiritual and political realms, from the abortive reforms of 1905 to the Stalinist purges of the 1930s. She shows how, throughout the Soviet period, Orthodox monks and nuns continued to provide spiritual strength to the people, in spite of severe persecution, and despite the ambivalent relationship the Russian state has had to the Russian church since the reign of Ivan the Terrible.Focusing her study on two provinces, Smolensk and Moscow, Wynot describes the Soviet oppression and the clandestine struggles of the monks and nuns to uphold the traditions of monasticism and Orthodoxy. Their success against heavy odds enabled them to provide a counterculture to the Soviet regime. Indeed, of all the pre-1917 institutions, the Orthodox Church proved the most resilient. Why and how it managed to persevere despite the enormous hostility against it is a topic that continues to fascinate both the general public and historians. Based on previously unavailable Russian archival sources as well as written memoirs and interviews with surviving monks and nuns, Wynot analyzes the monasteries? adaptation to the Bolshevik regime and she challenges standard Western assumptions that Communism effectively killed the Orthodox Church in Russia. She shows that in fact, the role of monks and nuns in Orthodox monasteries and convents is crucial, and they are largely responsible for the continuation of Orthodoxy in Russia following the Bolshevik revolution. Keeping the Faith offers a wealth of new information and a new perspective that will be of interest not only to students of Russian history and communism, but also to scholars interested in church-state relations
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 215-221) and index
Notes English
Print version record
Subject Orthodox Eastern monasticism and religious orders -- Soviet Union -- History
RELIGION -- Institutions & Organizations.
Orthodox Eastern monasticism and religious orders
Kloosterwezen.
Russisch-Orthodoxe Kerk.
Kerk en staat.
Communisme.
SUBJECT Soviet Union -- Church history. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85125711
Subject Soviet Union
Genre/Form Electronic books
Church history
History
Form Electronic book
LC no. 2003018573
ISBN 9781603446402
1603446400
1299053068
9781299053069