The Most Holy Governing Synod on the Eve and During the Revolution. An Historical and Sociological Essay

Abstract

The article analyzes the composition of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church in 1917. It presents the social portrait of the bishops who were members of the Synod just before and during the Revolution. The article explores the social origin, educational background, time of priestly and monastic ordination, and the length of office of all pre-Revolutionary Synodal members. The author then makes the similar analysis of the new Synod nominated by the “revolutionary” ober-procurator V.N. Lvov. The reshuffle was dictated by the wish to get rid of all associations of the Church with the Tsarist regime. At the same time, many members of the pre-Revolutionary Synod were instrumental later in the 1917 at the Land Council, when they promoted an alternative of the real Church's freedom - the sobornost' - now independently from the alleged advantages offered by the “Orthodox Empire.”