Between Polemics and Tolerance: Constructing the Religious Other Through the Censorship of Nicholas I

Abstract

This paper discusses the construction of the “religious other” and the notion of tolerance by the Russian censorship. By using the methods of Cambridge Methodological School, the paper explores the case at the highest censorship committee of the Russian Empire, the so-called “Committee of the April 2^nd, 1848”, devoted to define admissibility and limits of religious controversy and polemical theology, in particular, between the Orthodox, the Lutherans and other confessional groups. The author is trying to unpack the content of such terms as “heterodox” and “orthodox” in their evolving correlation, and the specific understanding of tolerance in Russia under Nicolas I.