Missionary Activity in Nizhny Novgorod Diocese in 1906-1916

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to analyze the activity of the internal Nizhny Novgorod mission of the brotherhood of the Holy Cross from 1906 to 1916. Significance of the “Decree on religious tolerance development” of 1905 is commented. On the one hand, it put the Nizhny Novgorod diocesan leadership in more complex conditions of missionary work, and on the other, contributed to the emergence of new forms of activity: missionary courses of national importance, free distribution of leaflets and pamphlets of religious and moral content, groups of adherents of Orthodoxy. It is noted that due to the pastors’ busyness such groups have not been established in all parishes. It is reported that the local missionary magazine was not organized. It is emphasized that fair conversations due to the rare participation of the old believers-dogmatists were aimed at the protection of the Orthodox state Church from the influence of “the split.” It is shown that anti-old believers mission of the brotherhood of the Holy Cross had a shortage of leadership capacity, having a spiritual and missionary formation. Data on reports of the brotherhood are provided, according to which the number of people attached to the state Church exceeded the number of old believers, and the main threat was the spread of sectarian and atheistic ideas. The author argues that the devaluation of traditional spiritual concepts after the defeat in the first world war led to a cooling of the peasants to religious questions.