Authors

Peter Flew¹;  ¹ UCL (SSEES), UK

Discussion

This paper looks at the movement to promote "monasticism in the world' by supporters of Patriarch Tikhon (Bellavin, 1865–1925), who looked for ways to disengage from Soviet life and remain faithful to their religious traditions. The paper examines the emergence of three communities located in centres of the old empire. Valentin Sventsitskii (1881–1931) in Moscow, Anatolii Zhurakovskii (1897–1937) in Kiev, and Ivan Andreevskii (1884–1976) in Leningrad, each made Serafim central to their religious identity, and went to Sarov and Diveevo monasteries just before they were forcibly closed in 1927. The communities they formed each taught its members to ascetically disengage from society and offered them alternative social networks to those promoted by the authorities. The paper shall explore the ways they forged an ‘adaptive response to Soviet-styled modernity’ (Catherine Wanner), and the reasons why they embraced Serafim as they tried to preserve religious tradition in the face of renovationism.