Archbishop Joasaph (Kallistov)'s attitude toward the February Revolution in Russia

Abstract

The article will examine the attitude of the vicar of the Moscow diocese in 1918–1919, Archbishop Joasaph (Kallistov), to the February Revolution. The revolutionary events of 1917 began long before the February and October uprisings. Absolutely all strata of Russian society felt the influence of revolutionary ideas, including many prominent church figures who succumbed to the influence of such sentiments. The Holy Synod, prominent hierarchs and clergy at various levels perceived what happened either complacently or neutrally - the onset of a new era was expected. Against this background, it is interesting to trace the attitude to the events of February of one of the bishops of the Orthodox Russian Church, little known to the general public - Archbishop Joasaph (Kallistov). Throughout his life, Archbishop Ioasaph left little evidence by which one could reconstruct his attitude to the authorities; determine the range of political preferences and sentiments. It was noted that in 1913, in the rank of bishop, Ioasaph (Kallistov) took an active part in the festive celebrations dedicated to the 300th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty, where in sermons he noted that every Russian person should completely entrust himself to the tsarist power, be devoted to it even until death. After the February Revolution, Bishop Ioasaph did not make any loud statements, and a little after his appointment to the vicar Moscow cathedra, on April 9, 1917, Bishop Ioasaph addressed the clergy of the city of Moscow with an appeal not to speak on political topics in sermons. At the same time, his public agreement with the "open letter to the Moscow clergy" of the holy martyr Seraphim (Ostroumov) is quite indicative, from which one can conclude that Bishop Ioasaph carefully follows the spirit of the times, tries to correspond to the "new direction of life", but at the same time his position is reserved. As for church issues, here the restraint is even more noticeable. In a number of issues of the magazine "Moscow Church Voice" there is information about how Bishop Ioasaph rebelled against some provisions of the founder and inspirer of the "United Union of Clergy" of Moscow, Archpriest Nikolai Tsvetkov. The most verified result of the conducted research can be the conclusion that Archbishop Ioasaph was a good and active administrator, a bishop obedient to his superiors, while having a personal position. Thanks to the restraint and carefulness of the bishop's actions, the Moscow diocese avoided many strong shocks from the ill-considered and abrupt actions of a part of the revolutionary-minded clergy. The attitude towards the revolution was restrained, the actions of the archbishop in the political arena were cautiously in line with the "spirit of the times".