The Princess Olga from Chuvashia: Imposture as a Religious Practice

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to introduce new data on the phenomenon of imposture in Chuvashia in 1920s-1930s. The paper draws upon the evidences form the local NKVD archives. Aleksandra Saratova, who claimed to be Olga, a daughter of the last Russian Tsar Nicolas II, was arrested in Chuvashia; later she and a few other people were executed. The investigation proved her close connections with the movement of True Orthodox Christians — istinno-pravoslavnykh khristian — an underground religious network strongly opposed to collectivization and the Soviet power in general. The paper tries to explain the resurgence of the phenomenon of imposture in the aftermath of the Revolution.