‘You Have Judged It Opportune to Adjust the Dioceses Division according to the New Civil Division ...’ The Report of Bishop of Omsk Arcadius to Metropolitan of Nizhny Novgorod Sergius and the Holy Synod in 1929

Abstract

The article offers a source study of the report of bishop of Omsk Arkady to Metropolitan of Nizhny Novgorod Sergius and the Holy Synod made in 1929. The text analysis allows to address the problem of relationship between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Soviet authorities. The report, which is published here, allows to follow the sequence of territorial redistribution of the Omsk diocese in 1920s. The problem of its authorship is considered. Having studied a copy of the report in the archival investigative file stored in the archive of the Federal Security Service of Russia Directorate for the Omsk Region, the author establishes that the document was prepared by Archpriest V.F. Infatiev, leader of the Omsk Tikhonovtsy and rector of the Fraternal Church in Omsk. Biographical and historical–genetic methods have been of most use in the research. Biographical method allows to study the document in connection with life and activities of its authors. The historical genetic method, based on materials of the Omsk diocese, shows how the Soviet state used the administrative redistribution of dioceses to obstruct church administration. It sought to fragment and weaken large dioceses that were fighting new church schism. The article reveals the specifics of administrative and territorial reorganization in the Omsk diocese, which boundaries kept changing for a variety of reasons. First, the Soviet power had not forgotten that Omsk of the capital of White Russia, and Novonikolaevsk (Novosibirsk) was made capital of Soviet Siberia. Reconstruction of diocesan borders in accordance with new Soviet administrative–territorial division disrupted traditional church administration. Some cities still gravitated towards Omsk, but over time they were separated from the Omsk diocese. Secondly, the Bolsheviks provoked and supported the inter-church struggle for power, in which many church leaders were then actively involved. This resulted in separation of a number of territories from the Omsk diocese. Thirdly, while the Kyrgyz (Kazakh) republic was being formed and developed, some of its large cities were subordinate to Omsk. The work may be of interest to researchers studying Russian society in the pre–war period, history of the Russian Orthodox Church, and activities of the Soviet Special Services concerning religious institutions.