The main directions of the fight against schismatic movements in the second half of the 19th century in the Russian Empire at the state and church levels

Abstract

Introduction. In the modern world, there are different directions of faiths. Christianity, Islam and Buddhism are the main religions, but there are separate groups of people who, under the influence of odious leaders, form independent currents that differ from traditional faiths. One of the oldest sects – Jehovah's Witnesses today includes from 8 to 9 million people. Efforts are being made at the State level to preserve the unity of the Russian Orthodox Church and strengthen the basic spiritual values. With the adoption of the decree of November 9, 2022 "On the approval of the Foundations of State Policy for the preservation and strengthening of traditional Russian spiritual and moral values", the main moral guidelines underlying the all-Russian civic identity were fixed at the legislative level. In this regard, the problem of studying the history of the emergence of sectarian and schismatic movements, analyzing the degree of harmful influence on the development of society, the state and the position of the Church remains relevant. This article is devoted to the analysis of state and Church policy in relation to sectarian and heretical movements in Russia. The author studies legislative policy, church literature, analyzes the results of research by pre-revolutionary authors on this issue. Materials and methods. The main sources of the work are the "Code of Criminal and Correctional Punishments", legislative acts, the results of the First All-Russian Population Census for 1897, as well as the study of the ethnographerfiction writer Pavel Melnikov "Letters about the split". The analysis of sources made it possible to study the process of tightening the fight against heresy and determine the principles of its division according to the degree of harmfulness. Results. The author comes to the conclusion that the reasons for the beginning of heretical movements lie in attempts to reform the system of statechurch relations, as well as in the active penetration of foreign culture and religion into Russian soil. The attempts made to violently combat heresy did not give the expected results. Sectarians skillfully disguised themselves as ordinary parishioners and even visited temples. Only through the joint efforts of the Church and the state was it possible to restrain the mass withdrawal from the bosom of Orthodox culture. Conclusion. A new wave of large-scale reform of state-confessional relations contributed to the weakening of control and legalization of sectarian activities, including in the field of education. The temporary truce of the authorities and religious organizations from 1905 to 1917 allowed the creation of an entire Old Believer educational system. At the same time, the Old Believers had absolute freedom and only some communities received legal status.