The Schism. Historical and Critical essay on religious sects in Russia (chapter 7)

The article continues the previously undertaken work on the comprehensive study of the little-known French-language work “Le Raskol”, published in Paris in 1859. The main objectives of the research were the translation of the book into Russian, a comprehensive analysis of its ideological content and an introduction to the circulation of Russian historiography. This paper examines the seventh chapter of “Le Raskol”, dedicated to the results of the state-confessional policy of Nicholas I. In this chapter, the anonymous author provides a retrospective look at the historical development of the Russian Church schism. The essay demonstrates the failure of the secular government’s attempts to achieve religious uniformity through harsh administrative methods. The author thoroughly analyzes the complex of government measures against religious freethinking. The main emphasis is on the dualism of the policy pursued: it was dictated by the authorities’ desire for social stability, but inevitably gave rise to arbitrariness and violation of freedom of conscience. According to the author, the system of religious uniformity, natural for previous epochs, has lost its legitimacy as a result of humanity’s transition to a new stage of civilizational development. The final part of the chapter contains a lengthy apology for the reign of Nicholas I. The author, recognizing the excessive severity of individual decisions of the emperor, extols the national character of the Nicholas rule. The death of Nicholas I and the beginning of the reign of Alexander II, according to the author, open up the prospect of resolving the Old Believer issue through systemic liberal transformations. Thus, the current chapter presents the history of the Russian church schism as a mirror of the evolution of autocratic power: from attempts at total control over conscience to the granting of basic religious rights to the population.