Of Religion and Empire: Missions, Conversion & Tolerance in Tsarist Russia

Russia's ever-expanding imperial boundaries encompassed diverse peoples and religions, yet Russian Orthodoxy remained inseparable from the identity of the Russian empire-state, which also launched conversion campaigns. This text investigates the role of conversion in Russian state building. How successful were the Church and the state in proselytizing among religious minorities? How were the concepts of Orthodoxy and Russian nationality shaped by the religious diversity of the empire? What was the impact of Orthodox missionary efforts on the non-Russian peoples, and how did these peoples react to religious pressure? In chapters that explore these and other questions, this book provides geographical coverage from Poland and European Russia to the Caucasus, Central Asia, Siberia and Alaska.;The editors' introductions and conclusion place the 12 original essays in broad historical context and suggest patterns in Russian attitudes toward religion that range from attempts to forge a homogeneous indentity to tolerance of complexity and diversity.Read less