Negotiating Faith and Ethnicity: Conversions, Social Conflict, and the Russian Orthodox Clergy in Estland Province during the 1880s–1900s

Conversions to Orthodoxy in Western Estonia were part of the “Russification” policy of Alexander III. This chapter examines social conflict in the countryside, as described from the perspective of the Russian Orthodox priest Father Alexander Bezhanitskii (1858–1926) and his wife, Seraphima Bezhanitskaia (1857–1939). It focuses on the intersection of ethnic, social, imperial, and local factors. The chapter provides insights into religious conversions and the social identity of the Russian Orthodox clergy in the Baltic, exploring the shifting association between ethnicity and confession while testing the findings of other scholars. By examining the interaction between religion, ethnicity, and social status in the Baltic, this study contributes to a deeper understanding of the Russian clergy’s role in the imperial borderlands.