Spiritual Censorship During the First Russian Revolution

Abstract

The article is devoted to the status of spiritual censorship during the First Russian Revolution.The general weakening of state control over the press and the publication of the manifesto on October 17, 1905 led to significant changes in the legislation on censorship of spiritual works and its application in practice. The abolition of pre-censorship, simplification of the procedure for opening new publishing firms, and a change in the system of restrictions characterize the press legislation after the manifesto of October 17. On the other hand, the rapid involvement of the clergy in political life has shown the danger of dividing clerics into parties and even the emergence of open confrontation within the Church. Finally, some representatives of the clergy associated themselves with radical political movements through the press. All of the above spoke about the transformation of freedom of speech into a rampant passion, dangerous for readers and authors. On the agenda was the question of the need for stabilization in the intellectual life of the Church. The restoration of censorship control was carried out by the Church Synod through the publication of a number of resolutions. Some of them were aimed at returning the next issue of institutional Church publications to the preliminary censorship rules.Others focussed on the limitation of the clergy's ability to speak out on political issues on the pages of not only church, but also civil publications. As a result, censorship control over Church-owned publications was fully restored. However, outside the administrative influence of the Church Synod and other Church structures, the possibility of uncensored publications on subjects of the church remained.