Creation and activity of parish councils in 1917–1918. (on the materials of the Tula diocese)

Abstract

The article examines the stage of democratization of church life in the Tula diocese in the conditions of 1917–1918, the period of an extremely complex process in the history of the Church-revolutionary ferment in the parishes, which became a consequence of the February Revolution in Russia. Based on the analysis of available archival documents, the author reproduces a picture of the «parish revolution», when parish councils were created, taking control of church property, resolving tax issues, and also electing members of clergy. Under the influence of the revolutionary events, the deans and the diocese were viewed as useless institutions, robbing the population. The article concludes that in most cases the «parochial revolution» of 1917 led to the formation of a new utilitarian attitude towards the Church in the «lower classes», the meaning of which was the rejection of the content of the church organization. The idea of elective bodies of diocesan administration, which attracted the clergy, who were working for church renewal in the pre-revolutionary period, painfully hit the position of the clergy themselves; was the beginning of the destruction of the church organization.