Renovationism
Renovationism[1] (Russian: обновленчество, romanized: obnovlenchestvo; from обновление, obnovlenie 'renovation, renewal') – also called Renovated Church (обновленческая церковь) or by metonymy the Living Church (Живая Церковь, Zhivaya Tserkov')[2] –, officially named Orthodox Russian Church (Православная Российская Церковь, Pravoslavnaya Rossiyskaya Tserkov'), and later Orthodox Church in the USSR (Православная Церковь в СССР, Pravoslavnaya Tserkov' v SSSR), was the official Christian Church in the Soviet Union in 1922–1946, which following the World War II was proclaimed as a religious movement that schismed from the Russian Orthodox Church in 1922. Sanctioned by the Soviet authorities, the movement ceased its operations in the late 1940s. In 1927 the movement was blessed by the future Patriarch Sergius of Moscow, a political move that allowed reformation of the modern Russian Orthodox Church in 1943 by Sergius (Stragorodsky).
"Living Church" redirects here. For other uses, see Living Church (disambiguation).
This movement originally begun as a grassroots movement among the Russian Orthodox clergy for the reformation of the Church, but was quickly influenced by the support of the Soviet secret services (CheKa, then GPU, NKVD), which had hoped to split and weaken the Russian Church by instigating schismatic movements within it.[3][4] The beginning of actual schism is usually considered to be in May 1922, when a group of Renovationist clergy laid claims to higher ecclesiastical authority in the Russian Church. Three days after the establishment of the new Church, the Soviet authorities arrested Patriarch Tikhon of Moscow on May 19.[4] In such manner both factions were calling each other names "Renovationites" and "Tikhonovites" (Russian: тихоновцы и обновленцы). The movement is considered to have ended with the death of its leader, Alexander Vvedensky, in 1946, although the last unrepentant Renovationist hierarch, Philaret (Yatsenko),[5] died in 1951.[6]
While the entire movement is often known as the Living Church, this was specifically the name of just one of the groups that comprised the larger Renovationist movement. By the time of the Moscow Council of 1923, three major groups had formed within the movement, representing different tendencies within Russian Renovationism: The Living Church of Vladimir Krasnitsky lobbied for the interests of married clergy; the Union of the Communities of the Ancient Apostolic Church (Союз общин древнеапостольской церкви - Содац SODATs) of Alexander Vvedensky; and the Union for the Renewal of the Church (Союз церковного возрождения) – the group of bishop Antonin Granovsky, whose interest was in liturgical reform; along with several minor groups.
History of the Renovationist Church[edit]
Beginnings and first period (1920s–1930s)[edit]
In 1919–1920, the Cheka officials began actively seeking contacts with those representatives of the Orthodox clergy who, in their opinion, were suitable for the role of destroyers of the unity of the Russian Orthodox Church. The first attempts to introduce an element of disorganization into the church environment, acting through hierarchs (or former hierarchs) from the patriarch's entourage, were not crowned with success. Therefore, the Cheka decided to act through the young white parish clergy, who are revolutionary in relation to possible intra-church transformations, leading the case to eventually quarrel between "the priests and the episcopate", married ("white") and monastic ("black") clergy. The special VI branch of the GPU became the coordinating center of all efforts to split the Church through the GPU (OGPU since 15 November 1923) headed by Yevgeny Tuchkov. The general management of the process of the split of the Church was concentrated (although not immediately) in the hands of the Politburo of the Central Committee (personally responsible – Leon Trotsky). By the spring of 1922, the necessary organizational preparations for striking the Church were completed. The right moment to start was needed.
Such an opportune moment soon presented itself on the occasion of the launch of a campaign to seize church valuables. As a special representative of the Council of People's Commissars, Leon Trotsky headed the work of the Commission on Accounting and Concentration of Values. On January 23, 1922, the members of the Commission agreed that work on the removal of valuables from existing religious institutions should begin in the near future in the two or three most important regions of the country (Moscow, Petrograd, Novgorod). Among the preparatory activities included work with representatives of the Church: "If necessary, individual representatives of the clergy may be involved, who, contrary to the anti-Soviet clergy, would sharply defend the government's measures, thus introducing a split among the clergy." After the events in Shuya on March 15, 1922, where the commission for the seizure of valuables faced massive and stubborn resistance of believers, Leon Trotsky on March 17, 1922, in a letter to Lev Kamenev, Vyacheslav Molotov and Timofei Sapronov, formulated 17 theses containing detailed instructions to the party-Soviet and Chekist bodies regarding the forms and methods of expropriation of church valuables (the leadership of the campaign henceforth focused on in the hands of party organs). Among other things, it was proposed to "decisively split the clergy" by taking under the protection of state power those clergy who openly advocate the transfer of church wealth to the state.
In the same month, the so-called "Petrograd Group of Progressive Clergy" was formed. The first program document of the group was the declaration on famine relief dated March 24, 1922, was signed by 12 clergymen. The participants of the Petrograd group immediately launched an active activity: Alexander Vvedensky and Alexander Boyarsky made reports almost daily, urging them to give away church values. Vladimir Krasnitsky did not make reports, but he tied ties with various institutions, in particular with the Cheka, which was then located on Gorokhovaya Street, 2. It was Krasnitsky who became the main organizer among the participants of the Petrograd group. Under his leadership, which, however, was disputed by Vvedensky and Boyarsky, the Petrograd group became the center of the nascent renovationist movement.
This move was quickly (18 June 1922) denounced by Agathangel as unlawful and uncanonical. However, for a brief time it seemed that the Renovationists had gotten the upper hand. The Renovationists, with full support of Soviet authorities, seized many church buildings and monasteries, including the famous Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow. In many dioceses, the married ("white") clergy was encouraged to take church government into their own hands, without approval of their diocesan bishops. Simultaneously, these bishops were often threatened and pressed to recognize the authority of the HCA. In effect, this resulted in "parallel" church administrations existing in one diocese and one city, one supporting the HCA and the other supporting the canonical bishop.
This campaign of terror had its effects: by the summer of 1922, more than 20 hierarchs had recognized the canonical authority of HCA, the most notorious of whom was Metropolitan Sergius (Stragorodsky) of Nizhny Novgorod, the future Patriarch. In many large cities, all of Orthodox church properties were in the hands of Renovationists. Before convening any general council to discuss their measures, the Renovationists began to implement radical reforms aimed at what they perceived to be the interests of the married clergy. Among the measures, changing the traditional order of ecclesiastic life were: