The Eastern Orthodox Church in Bessarabia: Uniformization and Russification Processes in the First Half of the 19th Century
The Eastern Orthodox Church in Bessarabia: Uniformization and Russification Processes in the First Half of the 19th Century

Summary/Abstract: The topic, approached from a diachronic point of view, focuses on the pastorate of the diocese led by Gavriil Bãnulescu-Bodoni, Dimitrie Sulima and Irinarh Popov. In this period, both the policy of the tsarist authorities and the actions of the diocesan leaders tried to completely transform the institution of the Orthodox Church in Bessarabia into an instrument similar to the Russian Orthodox Church, which was primarily intended to fulfill the function of Russification. The black-and-white treatment of the role of the Orthodox Church in the history of Bessarabia did not allow highlighting all the nuances related to the role of this institution and its leaders for the spiritual-cultural life in the region. For these reasons, we propose an analysis of the behavior of the three leaders of the ecclesiastical-administrative unit established in 1813, and their vacillation between the local Orthodox tradition and the requirements and pressures coming from the leadership of the Russian Empire. These eventually led to the establishment of a hybrid “body”—a Romanian-Russian Church (we refer to the existence in the Orthodox Church in Bessarabia of a majority of Romanian believers and of a Russian imperial Church and administrative leadership). A meticulous analysis of the actions undertaken by either Bodoni or Popov is quite necessary, both in terms of their sympathies with the Romanian parishioners and in terms of personal interests and the fulfillment of instructions received from the Holy Synod of St. Petersburg, as an exponent of the autocratic regime.

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