The activities of the orthodox clergy in Volyn at the end of the 19th – beginning of the 20th century (based on materials from the Volyn diocesan gazette)

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to analyze the characteristics of the activities of the Orthodox clergy in Volyn on the basis of materials published in the Volyn Diocesan Gazette; to identify the reasons for the negative attitude toward Protestants and Roman Catholics; to highlight the role of deans (blagochynnyi) in exercising control over the activities of the parish clergy; to trace the relationships between parish priests and psalmists; to characterize the clergy’s attitude toward the revolutionary events of 1905; and to examine the specifics of relations with Orthodox Czech colonists. The research methodology is based on a combination of general scientific principles, scholarly approaches, and special and general research methods, the key ones being the comparative-historical, problem-chronological, and historical-typological methods. Considerable attention is paid to the use of content analysis, which made it possible to objectively analyze materials from the periodical press. The scientific novelty lies in the fact that, on the basis of reports and memoranda of the clergy of the Russian Orthodox Church, the author analyzes the specifics of the activities of the Orthodox clergy in Volyn during the studied period, their relations with parishioners, the causes of conflict situations among representatives of the clergy, and their attitudes toward people of other faiths and denominations. Conclusions. The activities of the Russian Orthodox Church in the Ukrainian lands, including Volyn, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were ambiguous, which is reflected in a number of documents from the period under study. One of the most important and objective sources for studying various aspects of the activities of the Orthodox clergy in Volyn, as well as for highlighting the supervisory functions of deans, are their reports and memoranda on the situation in the deanery districts, since these documents formed the basis of the characteristics of the diocese sent to the Synod. A separate group of documents consists of priests’ reports on the situation in Czech colonies and the attitude of Orthodox Czechs toward church services. In the documents of the consistory, not only the general condition of the deanery district was analyzed, but also whether church documentation and archives were properly maintained; both the positive and negative aspects of the activities of parish priests were described in detail. Particular attention should be paid to materials that highlight the negative aspects of the activities of certain priests and the punishments imposed on them by the diocesan authorities. Given the polyethnic composition of Volyn’s population and the presence of representatives of various confessions in the region, considerable attention is paid to issues of relations with them.