Features of sentencing by Moscow revolutionary tribunal for the clergy and believers in 1918–1920

Abstract

The article analyzes the cases of the Moscow Revolutionary Tribunal, directed against the clergy and believers, deposited in the funds of the Central State Archive of the Moscow region. Along with high-profile processes, such as the "Case of the Council of United Parishes" ("The case of A.D. Samarin, N.D. Kuznetsov") 1919-1920, the Moscow trials ("The 1st and 2nd trials of churchmen") of 1922, which resulted from a campaign to seize church values, the author examines lesser-known cases accusing rural clergy of resisting the Decree on the separation of Church and state and counter-revolutionary activities. Analyzing the sentences of the Moscow Revolutionary Tribunal handed down in the period of 1918-1920s. with regard to the clergy and clergy, as well as laypeople, the author comes to the conclusion that the main purpose of the tribunal was a policy of intimidation of the clergy and believers, demonstration of the omnipotence of the new government and the permissiveness of its punitive bodies. The general trend in the work of the Moscow Revolutionary Tribunal was the practice of issuing initial demonstratively harsh sentences, which were immediately replaced by lighter, and sometimes even conditional, sentences at the same meeting of the tribunal. In some cases, the mitigation of sentences took place in several stages, as a result, even those initially sentenced to death were released within 2-3 years after arrest. The article notes that most of the clergy tried by the Moscow Revolutionary Tribunal no longer left the field of view of the organs of the Cheka-OGPU-NKVD and were subsequently arrested, many more than once. For them, the fact of conviction and even acquittal by the revolutionary tribunal became a kind of marker that marked the future victims of the repressive system.