“Through edinoverie to the religious reconciliation”: missionary practice in interpretation of the Kazan theological academy professor M.N. Vasilievsky

The subject of the article was the anti-schismatic missionary practice of M.N. Vasilievsky, who made a significant contribution to the decisions of the Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church of 1917-1918. At this Council was discussed the question of edinoverie -the form of accession to the Old-Believers of the official church, in which they kept the worship of old books and rites, but subordinate to the diocesan superiors dominant church. The aim of the research is to identify the stages of the formation of the ideas of Mikhail Nikolaevich Vasilievsky about edinoverie, as an instrument of influence on the Old-Believer. The sources of the research were periodicals of the Kazan Theological Academy «Pravoslavnyi sobesednik» («Orthodox interlocutor») and the local diocesan newspaper «Izvestiya po Kazanskoj eparhii» («News of the Kazan diocese»), containing information about mission trips and conversations with the Old Believers by M.N. Vasilievsky. Together with the analysis of his master’s dissertation, they make possible to show the ideas of the church activist about the strengths and weaknesses of the anti-schismatic mission and the changes that took place in the missionary community at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. In the course of studying the norms and ideals of the anti-schismatic missionary activity of M.N. Vasilyevsky the author made the following conclusions: First, the experience of M.N. Vasilievsky in diocesan missionary, whose duties included the regulation of the activities of “local missionaries” and the preparation of general reports, helped him to see and realize the main problems of the anti-schismatic mission. This led M.N. Vasilievsky to the idea of the need for active interaction of local and interregional diocesan structures through missionary congresses and commissions, the consolidation of relevant information on changes in the creed and household way of the Old-Believer communities. Secondly, as part of the study of the anti-schismatic activity of secular authorities during the reign of Emperor Nicholas I M.N. Vasilievsky expressed doubts about the effectiveness of the state system of supervision in relation to the Old Believers of 1825-1855 and he came to the conclusion of her complete failure. The published dissertation clearly indicates the author’s desire to indicate that only by joint efforts of the state and the church, but didn’t by experiments in the sphere of confessional politics (from repressive forms during the reign of Nicholas I to vesting the Old-Believers civil and religious rights in 1905), it is possible to correct the consequences of the church schism. Thirdly, under the influence of missionary conversations with the Old-Believers, he came up with the idea of the need to expand the rights of edinoverie and understanding it as a missionary institution that return the Old-Believers to communion with the Russian Orthodox Church. M.N. Vasilievsky defended this statement during the discussion of the state of the internal mission at the Pre-Council Presence (1917) and the Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church of 1917-1918. Proposal for the reform of the edinoveries church by M.N. Vasilyevsky was approved, which as a result equalized the status of edinoverie with Orthodoxy of the Russian church and allowed the edinoverie choose vicarial bishops. Subsequently, it has helped edinoverie to become an independent religious denomination.

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