Dissertation Information for Jennifer WynotNAME:
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SCHOOL: ADVISORS: COMMITTEE MEMBERS: MPACT Status: Fully Complete Title: Keeping the faith: Russian Orthodox monasticism in the Soviet Union, 1917--1939 Abstract: After the 1917 Revolution, monks and nuns faced difficult decisions about how to respond to the new atheist regime. To attempt to negotiate with the Soviets seemed to many like negotiating with the devil; as well, there was the danger that the Soviets would not honor their agreements. To use the Soviet institutions (especially collective farms) as tools to preserve their communities carried the same risks; however, in the early years of the Soviet Union, many monasteries chose that option as the best method of adaptation. Some \"monastery communes\" proved so economically successful that local governments rejected the efforts of antireligious workers to close them. After the Soviets closed all of the monasteries in 1930, monks and nuns found new ways to sustain themselves and their way of life. Some returned to the secular world and kept their monastic vows in private; others went underground, sometimes literally. Nuns often found their freedom of movement less restricted than their male counterparts. Many acted as couriers for hierarchs and other clergy in exile. Many lay people sought out revered elders and eldresses in exile to ask for advice and comfort, often at great risk for themselves. In monasteries proved to be better prepared to adapt to the Soviet regime than the institutional church due to their greater flexibility and ingenuity. Without monasticism\'s endurance, Orthodoxy would not have survived the Soviet period intact. |
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