The problem of relations with common people in the activities of the Imperial Orthodox Palestinian Society (late 19th — early 20th centuries)

The activities of the Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society (IOPS), founded in 1882, reflected important trends in the socio-political and ideological development of Russia in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Created mostly on order to strengthen the political influence of Russia in the Holy Land, and to assist the pilgrims arriving there, the IOPS, from the point of view of its founders, had another extremely important task – to develop the contacts between the power structures and the conservative upper classes of society with the masses of the common people. Seeking to reach this goal, the IOPS launched the extensive publishing activities, established its local departments in the dioceses and organized there the so-called popular readings dedicated to the Holy Land. In the course of these activities, a number of problems emerged related to the question of the ways and mechanisms of interaction between an educated society and the masses. It was necessary to realize what subjects and forms of presentation of the material would attract the people to the greatest extent, what forms of communication should be used, how much the consciousness of the intelligentsia differs from the system of ideas of the social lower classes. The solution of these issues was supposed to help strengthen the religious foundations of people's self-consciousness in the period of growing socio-political turbulence. The conservative leaders of IOPS also believed that developing of the above-mentioned activities would give them the opportunity to comprehend the peculiarities of the common people’s worldview. The beginning of the revolution in 1905, the development of secularization tendencies and the aggravation of social contradictions did not allow the IOPS to fulfill the intended program. However, its activities became an important page in the history of Russia in the pre-revolutionary period.