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[German Version] (Sep 8, 1879, Vyatka [Kirov] – 1942?), church historian. Until 1918 he was a lecturer at the Theological Academy of St. Petersburg, a leading representative of the reform-oriented forces on the All-Russian Church Council of 1917/1918 (Russia: III), and in the 1920s a supporter of the so-called “Living Church” movement, which advocated reforms and cooperation with the Soviet regime. In the 1930s, he was condemned to a long prison term for anti-Soviet propaganda; nothing is known of…

[German Version] (May 21/Jun 2, 1827, Moscow – Mar 10/23, 1907, St. Petersburg), graduate of the Imperial Law School (1846), instructor in Russian civil law in Moscow (1859–1865), tutor appointed by the tsar to train his son and heir in St. Petersburg (1861), procurator general of the Holy Synod (1880–1905). Pobedonostsev considered himself a representative of “rational conservatism”; his political actions – always with “the people” ( narod) in mind – were guided by the idea that autocracy went hand in hand with Orthodoxy. Although he contributed substantially …

[German Version] (Nov 7, 1866, Kozlovskie Vyselki, Ryazan’ Gubernia – Jun 1934, Moscow), was from 1902 to 1918 professor of moral theology at the Moscow Spiritual Academy and from 1919 to 1927 lecturer in philosophy and political economy at various secular institutions. One of the most original Russian theologians at the turn of the century, with a rejection of juridical categories that was characteristic of Orthodox soteriology in that period he developed an interpretation of redemption (VI, 4.b)…

[German Version] is the title given to a leading secular official within the tsarist state. In the course of the reforms of Peter the Great in Russia, the patriarchate was abolished in 1721 and replaced by a clerical collegium, the so-called “Most Holy Synod” (Synod, Holy), within which the procurator general, as the “eyes” of the tsar, had a monitoring function. In the 19th century, through the procurators Prince Alexander Nikolaevich Golycin (1803–1817) and Count Nikolai Alexandrovich Pratasov (…

[German Version] I. General Russia (Russ. Rossiya) has been known by that name only since the early 18th century (Peter the Great). Previously the name Rus’ had been in common use; the earliest documents used it to designate both the land and its people. The origin of the term Rus’, a feminine singular noun, is disputed; etymologically it most likely derives from Finnish Ruotsi (“Sweden”). The historical and geographical heartland of Russia can be defined as the territory of the upper Dvina, the upper Volga, and the upper and middle Dnieper. The southern step…

[German Version] (νάρϑηξ), before the naos, a kind of entrance hall on the west side in early Christian, Byzantine, and Orthodox churches. The term, originally denoting a reed-like plant, is used from the 6th century on in the context of church architecture (IV). Where there is a further anteroom before the narthex, a distinction is made between the inner (eso-) and outer (exo-)narthex. From the 9th century on, the narthex is decorated with a special program of images, corresponding to its form and f…

[German Version] (Jan 1[Sep 9?],1863, Kurdjuma, province of Saratov – Jun, 1937, Kazan), professor of patristics, dogmatics, and philosophy at the Kazan Spiritual Academy. In resolute opposition to L. Feuerbach’s religious criticism, Nesmelov strove for a scholarly philosophical justification of the Christian faith. For Nesmelov, the possibility of attaining an awareness of God lies in the inner contradiction between the conditioned existence of the human being and the unconditional character of h…

[German Version] (Čaadaev; May 27/ Jun 7, 1794, Moscow or Nižnij-Novgorod – Apr 14/26, 1856, Moscow) was an important Russian philosopher of history. When the first of Chaadayev's “Philosophical Letters” appeared in 1836, Chaadayev was publicly declared insane. Chaadayev responded with his Apology of a Madman (1837) – first published in Russia in 1906. For Chaadayev, much as for F.W.J. Schelling, the unity of faith and reason is a central motif of his thought. Accordingly, Chaadayev considered the goal of history to be…