Eastern Orthodox Confession in the Soviet Period

Abstract

This article traces changes in the practice of sacramental confession in the Soviet period, from 1917 to 1991. The combination of secularizing pressures, church closures, and fewer priests, meant that the routine, institutionalized aspect of confession before 1917, which had made individual confession something familiar to the average Orthodox Christian believer, vanished, replaced in most cases by the general confession. On the other hand, for religious “virtuosi,” confession became a more central element of religious life. The enthusiastic revival of individual confession in Russia after 1991 suggests that the changes during the Soviet period served as a kind of trial period for some forms of confession that were more similar to those of other traditions, only to have them rejected in favor of returning to precisely what had distinguished prerevolutionary imperial practice (and Roman Catholic practice before Vatican II): the linkage between individual confession and partaking of communion. Perhaps the surprising thing is not how much the practice of confession changed during the Soviet period in response to secularizing pressures, but rather how little.