Issues of the relationship between the Russian church and the Mongolian khans in the pre-revolutionary and soviet historiography

It seems indisputable that there are considerable blank spaces in studying history of church during the period of Mongolian sovereignty over Russia. In addition, completely different points of view in the pre-revolutionary and Soviet historiography on the aforementioned problem make some difficulties in interpretation of events. The purpose of this article is to consider results of researches about the role of the Orthodox Church during the period of Mongolian domination on the basis of achievements of the source study and historiography, taking into account modern methodological positions. It allows to define historians’ views on the place of the Russian church in the system of the Russian-Golden Horde relationship. The issue of relationship between the Russian church and the Mongolian conquerors was raised in the 16^th century because of the confrontation between the Josephites and Non-possessors. The khans’ grants were used by the Orthodox hierarches as an argument in a polemic about possession of church lands. In the 18^th century representatives of rationalistic historiography paid attention to the Russian church’s role during the Horde period (M. M. Shcherbatov). Veritable academic research of the problem began only in the 19^th century along with preparation of the general courses of the church history. Metropolitan Platon (Levshin), the archbishop Filaret (Gumilevsky) and especially archbishop Makari (Bulgakov) made a significant contribution in the problem statement, accumulation of data and defining primary approaches to studying. The research of the Moscow spiritual academy Professor E.E Golubinsky was to some extent a result of development of all pre-revolutionary historiography of the subject. Even now it might be assessed as one of the most comprehensive and full. P. P. Sokolov’s research and the other ones are also noteworthy. Russian sources were the main basis for the studying of relationship between the Russian church and Mongols in the 19^th- the beginning of the 20^th century since the Oriental sources were not adequately studied yet. History of the Golden Horde was also investigated not enough for making any difference. Khans’ labels were the only sources of the Golden Horde attracted for the solution of the specified problems. Studying of labels became a special field in historiography, so it has a significant value for the abovementioned issue. It is important to note that the authors of 19^th - the beginning of the 20^th century created an essential foundation for future researches. The Soviet period must be considered as less fruitful. In the majority of works devoted to history of church ideological and atheistic interests prevailed over scientific issues. The problem of relationship between the Russian church and the Golden Horde in these works was not comprehensively investigated. Soviet authors used the outdated or obviously tendentious approaches and conclusions based on M. N. Pokrovsky's concept. It led to a distortion of the role of clergy during domination of the Mongolian khans over Russian lands. New approaches to studying of this theme were outlined in researches in the last years of Soviet historiography. A conclusion about support provided by the Russian church to the Golden Horde which was dominating in the Soviet historiography seems to be speculative, predetermined by Marxist and atheistic methodology of historical studies in this period, since it has no actual confirmation in the written sources. So, the majority of authors who continue to write about the problems connected with history of church dramatically changed their assessments. The author declares no conflicts of interests.

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