| Abstract [eng] |
The book is not only useful and informative. It can also be regarded as one of the first steps in applying and developing the ‘new imperial history’ theoretical approach in research into the government’s religious policy and the evolution of Orthodox and Old Believers’ religious education in the Baltic region in this period. The development of Orthodoxy in the Baltic countries, and to a lesser extent, the Old Believer faith, from 1840 until 1940, is described more in terms of the changing historical situation being affected by numerous factors, which was actually much more complex and also multi-dimensional. In any case, the history of Orthodoxy in our region does not fit the standard image of being a tool in the tsarist government’s policy of Russification, remembering that up until 1905, the Old Believer faith was still a target of this unfavourable tsarist policy. These communities obeyed, implemented or searched for alternatives, or disagreed to various degrees, and opposed the government’s political orders, and yet also managed to thrive, religiously and culturally. The Orthodox and Old Believer communities became an inseparable part of the history of the entire, and at the same time differing, modern, multi-ethnic and culturally varied Baltic countries. Now, thanks also to the efforts of this collection of articles and their authors, they are becoming increasingly less standard, multi-faceted and living participants in forming the ‘new’ historical narrative on the Baltic countries. In this narrative, alongside the ethnocentric approaches (imperial and national), an orientation towards practices and discourses, case studies, and a reflection of perspectives and narratives is also becoming more apparent. |
