The State and the Orthodox Clergy in the Election to the Fourth State Duma of the Russian Empire

The article studies the role of the Orthodox Church in the elections to the Fourth State Duma. In the conditions when the social foundation of the existing system was losing its stability, the government sought to use the clergy’s power to get the necessary composition of deputies. At the same time, the Church had its own reasons to participate in the elections and play a significant role in the future Duma. The clergy did not hide their dissatisfaction with the Decree on Religious Tolerance dated April 17, 1905, according to which all confessions were given considerable freedom of activity, but the Orthodox Church remained in its former dependence on the state. The clergy wanted greater autonomy while taking a privileged position; they were striving for the restoration of patriarchate and for the changes in church life. The article provides the reasons for dissatisfaction of the clergy with the policy of the Third Duma (decision to transfer parochial schools to the state ownership, projects to expand the rights of Old Believers, etc.), which stimulated their participation in the election campaign. The article studies the contribution of Chief Procurator V. Sabler and the Holy Synod to the election campaign. It is noted that the government’s attitude to the Church’s participation in elections was ambivalent: on the one hand, the government used the clergy as a political resource; on the other hand, given the existing contradictions, it limited the independence of the Church (instructions to the governors, the grouping of priests into special preliminary congresses of church leaders within the landowning curia, etc.). A lot of priests were displeased with the pre-election manipulations of the authorities. They understood that the government used them as powerless extras without conducting any significant church reforms. Not only progressive-minded priests but also conservatives did not accept the policy of expanding religious freedoms that was clearly outlined after the adoption of the Decree on Religious Tolerance dated April 17, 1905. The author concludes that the elections to the Fourth State Duma led to the growing alienation of the church from the state.

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