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Patriarch Tikhon and the Preservation of the Old Calendar Style in the Russian Orthodox Church

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Abstract

The persistence of Old Style in the liturgical practice of local Orthodox churches is one of the most pressing religious problems of the 20th century. In the 1920s, the Bolsheviks, who seized power in Russia, tried to accelerate calendar reform in the Russian Orthodox Church. The dependence of the Soviet civil calendar on the church calendar, on the days of its fixed and moving holidays and their recalculation from the Old to the New Style, seemed cumbersome and unacceptable to the Bolsheviks. This article presents the results of a study of the unsuccessful experience of introducing the New Style into liturgical use during the difficult period of state–church relations, when the Russian Orthodox Church was headed by Patriarch Tikhon (1917–1925). The activities in the implementation of the calendar reform of special government bodies—the Anti-Religious Commission under the Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) (RCP (b))–All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) (ACP (b)) and the VI department of the GPU–OGPU Secret Division, which relied on representatives of the renovationist church schism loyal to the Bolsheviks—are considered. The history of resistance to the forced Gregorian calendar on the part of the clergy and believers who remained faithful to Patriarch Tikhon is traced. Particular attention is paid to the analysis of the decisions made by High Hierarch Tikhon on this issue, in the arsenal of means of pressure on whom the key place was occupied by the threat of repression against supporters of the Julian style and the resumption of criminal prosecution of the patriarch himself. It has been established that, in addition to the combination of holidays in the civil and church calendars necessary for the Bolsheviks, the recognition of the new style also contributed to another, no less important goal for the authorities: an even greater deepening of the renovationist church schism and the emergence of new strife and discord in the Russian Orthodox Church.

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Notes

  1. State Archive of the Russian Federation (GARF), Fund 3441, Inventory 1, File 464, Fols. 20, 20 verso, 39, 39 verso; Russian State Historical Archive (RGIA), Fund 796, Inventory 445, File 781, Fols. 2, 2 verso, 5, 6 verso.

  2. GARF, Fund 3441, Inventory 1, File 464, Fol. 41; RGIA, Fund 796, Inventory 445, File 781, Fol. 4.

  3. RGIA, Fund 796, Inventory 445, File 781, Fol. 15.

  4. RGIA, Fund 796, Inventory 445, File 781, Fols. 11–14 verso.

  5. Quoted from: V. Aksyuchits, The militant atheism of Leninism. http://www.pravoslavie.ru/71.html. Cited April 1, 2017.

  6. Collection of Laws and Orders of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Government of the RSFSR. Department One, No. 70, Art. 903, p. 1175 (1922); P. V. Gidulyanov, Separation of Church and State in the USSR: A Complete Collection of Decrees, Departmental Orders, and Rulings of the Supreme Court of the RSFSR and Other Soviet Socialist Republics: Ukrainian SSR, BSSR, ZSFSR, Uzbek, and Turkmen, Ed. by P. A. Krasikov (Moscow, 1926), pp. 58, 59.

  7. Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History (RGASPI), Fund 17, Inventory 112, File 443 a, Fols. 16, 17.

  8. Kremlin Archives: Politburo and Church: 1922–1925, Ed. by N. N. Pokrovskii and S. G. Petrov (Moscow, 1997), Book 1, p. 341.

  9. Izv. VTsIK, May 6 (1923); RGASPI, Fund 89, Inventory 4, File 177, Fols. 34–38; GARF, Fund À 353, Inventory 3, File 730, Fol. 41 verso; Acts of the Second All-Russian Local Council of the Orthodox Church (Moscow, 1923), p. 12; Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church 1923 (Bulletins) (Moscow, 1923), pp. 18, 19.

  10. RGASPI, Fund 17, Inventory 112, File 443 a, Fols. 32, 33; Fund 89, Inventory 4, File 115, Fols. 8, 9.

  11. RGASPI, Fund 17, Inventory 112, File 419, Fols. 5, 125, 126.

  12. RGASPI, Fund 17, Inventory 112, File 565 a, Fols. 5–7; Fund 89, Inventory 4, File 115, Fols. 17–19, 56–58.

  13. RGASPI, Fund 17, Inventory 112, File 565 a, Fols. 8, 9; Fund 89, Inventory 4, File 115, Fols. 20–23.

  14. RGASPI, Fund 17, Inventory 112, File 565 a, Fols. 10, 11; Fund 89, Inventory 4, File 115, Fols. 24, 25, 59, 60.

  15. Izv. TsIK SSSR VTsIK, July 31 (1923); Collection of Laws…, No. 70. Art. 678, pp. 1241, 1242 (1923); GARF, Fund A 353, Inventory 7, File 2, Fols. 9–11 verso; Trud, Aug. 1 (1923); P. V. Gidulyanov, Separation of Church…, pp. 59, 60.

  16. For more details on the release of the patriarch from arrest, see: N. A. Krivova, Power and the Church in 1922–1925: Politburo and GPU in the Struggle for Church Values and Political Subordination of the Clergy (Moscow, 1997), pp. 186–190; S. G. Petrov, “The release of Patriarch Tikhon from arrest: A source study of ‘repentance’ documents,” in History of the Russian Orthodox Church in the 20th Century (1917–1933): Materials of the Conference in Szentendre (Hungary), November 13–16 (Munich, 2002), pp. 213–237.

  17. RGASPI, Fund 17, Inventory 3, File 360, Fol. 9; Kremlin Archives…, Book 1, pp. 282, 283.

  18. Kremlin Archives..., Book 1, pp. 526, 527.

  19. RGASPI, Fund 17, Inventory 3, File 360, Fol. 10; Kremlin Archive…, Book 1, pp. 283, 284.

  20. RGASPI, Fund 17, Inventory 3, File 360. Fol. 3; Kremlin Archives…, Book 1, pp. 284, 285.

  21. Acts of His Holiness Tikhon, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, Later Documents and Correspondence on the Canonical Succession of the Highest Church Authority: 1917–1943, Ed. by M. E. Gubonin (Moscow, 1994), pp. 333–335.

  22. Izv. VTsIK, July 4 (1923); July 6 (1923); Vestn. Russ. Khrist. Dvizh., No. 115, 75–77 (1975); Kremlin Archives: Politburo and Church: 1922–1925, Ed. by N. N. Pokrovskii and S. G. Petrov (Moscow, 1998), Book 2, pp. 349–355.

  23. Kremlin Archives, Book 1, p. 531.

  24. Kremlin Archives, Book 1, p. 423.

  25. Acts of His Holiness Tikhon…, p. 299.

  26. Investigative Case of Patriarch Tikhon: A Collection of Documents Based on Materials from the Central Archive of the FSB of the Russian Federation, Ed. by N. A. Krivov (Moscow, 2000), pp. 360–362.

  27. Investigative Case of Patriarch Tikhon…, pp. 362, 363.

  28. Acts of His Holiness Tikhon…, pp. 333–335.

  29. Bogoslovsk. Sbornik, No. 6, 264–267 (2000); Vestn. Russ…, pp. 88–90.

  30. RGASPI, Fund 17, Inventory 112, File 565 a, Fols. 37–39; Central Archive of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (TsA FSB), Fund 2, Inventory 1, File 138, Fols. 183–185.

  31. Izv. TsIK SSSR VTsIK, Dec. 5 (1923); Dec. 7. See also: GARF, Fund A 353, Inventory 7, File 2, Fol. 19; P. V. Gidulyanov, Separation of Church…, p. 60.

  32. Kremlin Archives, Book 1, p. 532.

  33. Acts of His Holiness Tikhon…, p. 335.

  34. Izv. TsIK SSSR VTsIK, Dec. 19 (1923).

  35. Acts of His Holiness Tikhon…, p. 336.

  36. Kremlin Archives, Book 1, pp. 532, 533.

  37. GARF, Fund A 353, Inventory 7, File 16, Fols. 32, 32 verso.

  38. Acts of His Holiness Tikhon…, p. 336.

  39. GARF, Fund À 353, Inventory 7, File 16, Fol. 32.

  40. Kremlin Archives, Book 1, pp. 533, 534.

  41. The fact that the new style by January 1, 1924, became the cause of new discord in the dioceses of the Russian Orthodox Church is evidenced, for example, by the provincial information report of the Tuchkov VI Department of the SO OGPU “On the State of Orthodox Churchmen in the S.S.S.R.,” in which required information about the attitude of the clergy and believers to the new style was presented. (Kremlin Archives, Book 2, pp. 367, 368, 371, 380, 381, 384, 385, 387, 391).

  42. Izv. TsIK SSSR VTsIK, Mar. 22 (1924); Pravda, Mar. 22 (1924); Kremlin Archives, Book 1, p. 290; Book 2, pp. 414, 415.

  43. Acts of His Holiness Tikhon…, pp. 332–338.

  44. Izv. TsIK SSSR VTsIK, Mar. 22 (1924).

  45. RGASPI, Fund 17, Inventory 112, File 775, Fols. 11–13.

  46. RGASPI, Fund 17, Inventory 112, File 775, Fols. 11–13.

  47. Investigative Case of Patriarch Tikhon…, p. 387.

  48. Izv. TsIK SSSR VTsIK, Nov. 25 (1924).

  49. GARF, Fund 1235, Inventory 41, File 6, Fol. 35.

  50. Izv. TsIK SSSR VTsIK, Feb. 19 (1925); Collection of Laws and Orders…, No. 9, Art. 66, p. 102 (1925); P. V. Gidulyanov, Separation of Church…, p. 61.

  51. GARF, Fund 1235, Inventory 41, File 4, Fols. 240, 240 verso.; Izv. TsIK SSSR VTsIK, Feb. 10 (1925); Collection of Laws and Orders…, No. 8. Art. 55, pp. 90, 91 (1925); P. V. Gidulyanov, Separation of Church…, pp. 62–64.

  52. RGASPI, Fund 17, Inventory 3, File 473, Fol. 2; File 484, Fol. 4; File 486, Fol. 4; File 487, Fol. 2; Inventory 163, File 460, Fol. 12; File 471, Fol. 35; File 473, Fol. 21; File 474, Fol. 22.

  53. RGASPI, Fund 17, Inventory 3, File 488, Fol. 3; Inventory 163, File 475, Fol. 27.

  54. RGASPI, Fund 17, Inventory 3, File 496, Fol. 7; Inventory 163, File 483, Fol. 61.

  55. RGASPI, Fund 17, Inventory 3, File 496, Fol. 6; Kremlin Archives, Book 1, pp. 297–299.

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  1. Institute of History, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, Russia

    S. G. Petrov

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Translated by B. Alekseev

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Stanislav Gennad’evich Petrov, Cand. Sci. (Hist.), is a Senior Researcher and Head of the Sector of Archaeography and Source Study at the Institute of History of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

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Petrov, S.G. Patriarch Tikhon and the Preservation of the Old Calendar Style in the Russian Orthodox Church. Her. Russ. Acad. Sci. 93 (Suppl 1), S66–S74 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1134/S1019331623070110

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