Description of the clergy in rural Russia : the memoir of a nineteenth-century parish priest
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Description of the clergy in rural Russia : the memoir of a nineteenth-century parish priest
Cornell University Press, 1985
- : pbk
- Other Title
-
Описание сельского духовенства
Available at 11 libraries
  Aomori
  Iwate
  Miyagi
  Akita
  Yamagata
  Fukushima
  Ibaraki
  Tochigi
  Gunma
  Saitama
  Chiba
  Tokyo
  Kanagawa
  Niigata
  Toyama
  Ishikawa
  Fukui
  Yamanashi
  Nagano
  Gifu
  Shizuoka
  Aichi
  Mie
  Shiga
  Kyoto
  Osaka
  Hyogo
  Nara
  Wakayama
  Tottori
  Shimane
  Okayama
  Hiroshima
  Yamaguchi
  Tokushima
  Kagawa
  Ehime
  Kochi
  Fukuoka
  Saga
  Nagasaki
  Kumamoto
  Oita
  Miyazaki
  Kagoshima
  Okinawa
  Korea
  China
  Thailand
  United Kingdom
  Germany
  Switzerland
  France
  Belgium
  Netherlands
  Sweden
  Norway
  United States of America
Note
"First published as Opisanie selʹskogo dukhovenstva in Paris, 1858."--T.p. verso
Bibliography: p. 211-214
Description and Table of Contents
Description
Religious life has been perhaps the least explored and most poorly understood aspect of imperial Russian history. This annotated translation of a dissident priest's expose of the parish clergy adds significantly to our knowledge, providing a graphic picture of the Orthodox church in the mid-nineteenth century. For the first time, we are able to grasp the profound importance of the church in the everyday lives of ordinary men and women.I. S. Belliustin's Description of the Clergy in Rural Russia was published abroad and smuggled back into the empire in 1858, on the eve of the Great Reforms. Its shocking depiction of a church pervaded by venality and ignorance created a sensation in high society and government circles. It generated a new sense of self-awareness among the younger clergy and sparked a reform movement that climaxed in the years just before the 1917 Revolution. Much more than a chapter in the history of Russian Orthodoxy, Belliustin's memoir is a major document in Russian social history. Throughout, the author ranges beyond the seminary and the parish to touch on almost every aspect of village life. Gregory Freeze has translated this text and supplied extensive annotations. His introduction is a masterly-and long-needed-survey of the church's role in the social and political life of imperial Russia.Written by a wry and trenchant observer, this portrait of rural Russia will be read with interest by students and scholars of Russian history, of the Orthodox church, and of the social and religious history of nineteenth-century Europe.
by "Nielsen BookData"