Non-Chalcedonian (Ancient Eastern) communities and the foreign policy of the Russian state and the Church. Late 19th and early 20th centuries

Abstract

The article analyzes the contacts of the Russian state and Church in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century with the non-Chalcedonian communities - the Assyrian-Nestorians of Northern Persia and Eastern Turkey, the Syro-Jacobites of Mesopotamia, the Monophysite Church of Ethiopia. These undertakings, largely determined by the desire to strengthen the religious and ideological influence of Russia in the strategically important regions of the world, were not, at the same time, purely pragmatic. Factors of a cultural and symbolic nature were also of great importance, namely, the opportunity to get in touch with the heritage of ancient churches, whose historical roots dates back to biblical times, to take them under Russia's protection and thereby elevate the role of the Russian Church in the international stage. Russia's help would make it possible to reveal the cultural riches hidden in the bowels of remote religious communities, to create the basis for the revival of Christianity in the vast expanses of Asia and Africa. The doctrinal basis for expanding contacts with non-Chalcedonian churches was the idea of the proximity of their doctrine to the dogmas of the Orthodox Church. The undertakings of the Russian church-state structures resulted in the foundation of the Russian mission in Urmia (Persia), the conversion of part of the Nestorians and Syro-Jacobites to Orthodoxy, the strengthening of ties with the church of Ethiopia, and help to Ethiopian Christians in returning the shrines of Jerusalem that once belonged to them. Successfully developing activity was interrupted by the First World War and the revolution. However, the relationship of the Russian Church with the non-Chalcedonian confessions continued in the second half of the 20th century.