The orthodox parish clergy’s role in the peasant reform implementation in 1861 (based on Kyiv huberniya materials)

Abstract

The purpose of the research is – to clarify the Orthodox parish clergy’s role in the peasant reform implementation in 1861, based on Kyiv huberniya (province) materials The methodology of the research includes the main principles of systematization, scientificity, historicism, as well as the use of general scientific methods of analysis, synthesis, generalization, comparison. The scientific novelty is that the authors, having used published and previously unused archival sources, materials of periodicals, showed the Orthodox parish clergy importance in the peasant reform of 1861 on the example of Kyiv huberniya (province). The Conclusions. During the peasant reform implementation, the authorities used the nationalized Orthodox Church for the ideological support actively, as its influence on the population was significant. The parish clergy’s activities were regulated by the central church and diocesan administrations’ instructions, which, threatened the “strict responsibility”, demanded that an arbitrary, and even more incorrect, explanation of the manifesto should be avoided. In the church periodicals (“Kyiv Diocesan Gazette”, “The Guide for the Rural Pastors”) which were published for the clergy, the samples of sermons on this purely secular event could be found. The Orthodox clergy were obliged to form a positive assessment of the agrarian transformation, to promote the “correct” understanding of the peasant reform, to perform duties in favor of the landlords, to present it as the Emperor’s care. A particularly important task that the parish priests undertook to perform was to fight the protests among the peasantry, who were dissatisfied with the agrarian transformations’ predatory nature in 1861. The Orthodox Church, as part of the state apparatus, performed the demanded task successfully, in particular, approved and blessed the peasant reform.