Military clergy reorganization in the Paul’s I of Russia military reform

Cover Page

Cite item

Full text / tables, figures

Abstract

The article examines an important historical stage in the development of military clergy. During this period, effective systems of military administration, training and recruitment and social protection of its members were established. In the process of the Emperor Paul's reform the military clergy acquired the features of a political institution. This was manifested in the active intervention of the state in the managerial system of the clergy. And the head of the military priests becomes the ober-priest of the Russian army and navy. A system of candidates’ selection for the positions of military priests has been built. A specialized educational institution was established for recruiting military clergy from the children of military clergy - the Army Seminary. After leaving the military department, martial ober-priests are provided with places in urban parishes, and martial priests are appointed to the rural churches of the dioceses from which they came to serve. A pension was introduced for the military clergy who were unable to continue serving because of age or illness. The military clergy were extracted from the subordination of the Holy Synod. And in the person of the ober-priest it was subordinated to the highest political leadership. As a result, the organization of the military clergy, which was optimal from the point of view of military-political management and effective use, was integrated into the military organization of the state. But this came into conflict with the canonical church norms and the position of the holy synod. After the tragic death of emperor Paul, this organization was largely dismantled.

About the authors

Alexey V. Vasilyev

Saint Tikhon's Orthodox University

Author for correspondence.
Email: alexv@pstgu.ru

Priest, Kandidat Politicheskih Nauk [Ph.D], Associate Professor of the Department of Systematic Theology and Patristics

23Б, Novokuznetskaya St., Moscow, 115184, Russia

References

  1. Barsov, T.V. Ob upravlenii russkim voennym dukhovenstvom. St. Peterburg: tip. F. Eleonskogo i K° Publ., 1879 (in Russian).
  2. Belyakov, A.P. “Istoriia flotskogo dukhovenstva i ego rol' v vospitanii voennykh moriakov dorevolyutsionnoi Rossii.” DeloRus. Accessed January 26, 2021. http://delorus.com/medialibrary/detail.php?ID=2292 (in Russian).
  3. Bergen, Doris. L. The Sword of the Lord: Military Chaplains from the First to the Twenty-First Century. South Bend, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2004.
  4. Bohanov, A.N. Pavel I. Moscow: Veche Publ, 2010 (in Russian).
  5. Freeze, G.L. “The Russian Levities: Parish Clergy in the Eighteenth Century.” In Russian Research Center Studies. 1977. Vol. 78.
  6. Goremykin, N.D. “Pavel Ozeretskovskii – pervyi po vremeni, ober-svyashchennik (Iz dnei Pavla I).” Russkaya starina 56, no. 12 (1887): 842–845 (in Russian).
  7. Hartley, J.M. A Social History of the Russian Empire 1650–1825. London and New York: Longman, 1999.
  8. Hartley, J.M. A Social History of the Russian Empire, 1650–1825. London and New York: Addison Wesley Longman, 1998.
  9. Hughes, L. Peter the Great. A Biography. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2002.
  10. Isakova, E.V. “Periodizatsiia istorii Instituta voennogo dukhovenstva.” Vestnik voennogo i morskogo dukhovenstva: Zhurnal Sinodal'nogo Otdela Moskovskogo Patriarkhata po vzaimodeistviyu s Vooruzhennymi Silami i pravookhranitel'nymi uchrezhdeniiami, no. 1 (2005): 40–48 (in Russian).
  11. Kapkov, K.G. Pamiatnaia kniga Rossiiskogo voennogo i morskogo dukhovenstva XIX – nachala XX vekov. Spravochnye materialy. Moscow: Letopis' Publ., 2008 (in Russian).
  12. Keep, John L.H. Soldiers of the tsar: Soldiers of the Tsar: Army and Society in Russia 1462–1874. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1985.
  13. Kotkov, V.M. Voennoe dukhovenstvo Rossii: Stranitsy istorii. St. Petersburg: Nestor Publ., 2003 (in Russian).
  14. Kotkov, V.M., and Kotkova, Yu.V. Voennoe duhovenstvo Rossii. Stranicy istorii: Ucheb. Posobie. St. Petersburg: [N.s.], 2005 (in Russian).
  15. LeDonne, J.P. The Russian Empire and the World, 1700–1917: The Geopolitics of Expansion and Containment. Oxford University Press, 1997.
  16. Nevzorov, N. Istoricheskii ocherk upravleniia dukhovenstvom Voennogo vedomstva v Rossii. St. Petersburg: Tip. F. G. Eleonskogo i A. I. Popovickogo Publ., 1875 (in Russian).
  17. Platon (Levshin), mitr. Moskovskii ‘Iz glubiny vozzvakh k tebe, Gospodi...’ Moscow: Palomnik; Russkii Dvor Publ., 1996 (in Russian).
  18. Vasilyev, A.V. “Genezis instituta voennogo dukhovenstva Rossiiskoi Imperii.” Nauka i voennaya bezopasnost', no. 4 (2016): 5–16 (in Russian).
  19. Znamenskii P.V. Istoriia Russkoi Tserkvi. Moscow: Krutitskoe Patriarshee Podvor'e, Obshchestvo lyubitelei tserkovnoi istorii Publ.; Paris: Bibliotheque Slave de Paris, Centr russkikh issledovanij v Medone Publ., 2000 (in Russian).

Copyright (c) 2021 Vasilyev A.V.

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

This website uses cookies

You consent to our cookies if you continue to use our website.

About Cookies