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The significance of the Russian Orthodox diaspora and its effect on the Christian west
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 March 2016
Extract
The enforced emigrations caused by political or religious conflicts have often been an enriching and stimulating factor in the cultural history of mankind.
Lenin’s dictatorship based on red terror forced more than a million Russians to flee from their own country and settle down in various parts of the world. The Russian diaspora included a great variety of people, among them many well-known men. It will suffice to mention a few names: Ivan Bunin (1870–1953), Dimitry Merezhkovsky (1865–1941) in literature; Sergy Rachmaninov (1873–1943) and Igor Stravinsky (1882–1971) in music; Vasily Kandinsky (1866–1944) in painting; Fedor Chaliapin (1873–1938) and Anna Pavlova (1881–1931) in the theatre; Mikhail Rostovtsev (1870–1952) and Georgy Vernadsky (1887–1973) in history; Igor Sikorsky (1889–1972) in aviation; Nikolay Menschokov (b. 1900) in geology. All these people made a substantial contribution to the contemporary world of art and learning.
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- Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 1976
References
1 According to the statistics of the league of nations, two million one hundred thousand Russians left Russia before 1926.
2 See Zernov, [N.], [Russian] Emigré Authors [on Theology and Orthodox Culture] (Boston 1973)Google Scholar.
3 For statistics see Simon, G., Church, State and Opposition in the USSR (London 1974) PP 4–5 Google Scholar.
4 The martyrdom of Russian clergy under the communists is a proof of their faithfulness. Cases of apostasy were remarkably few.
5 See Zernov, [N.]|, [The Russian Religious] Renaissance [of the Twentieth Century] (London 1963)Google Scholar.
6 Lowrie, D. A., Saint Sergius in Paris (London 1954 Google Scholar). Besides St Sergius academy Russians founded the following other theological schools: one in Harbin in Manchuria and three in the United States: St Vladimir seminary near New York and St Tichon seminary, both belonging now to the autocephalous American church, and the seminary of the Holy Trinity in Jordan ville, under the jurisdiction of the synod church.
7 See Zernov, N., Three Russian Prophets, Khomiakou, Dostoevsky, Soloviev (London 1944).Google Scholar
8 See Zernov, Renaissance, cap 6 ‘Four Notable Converts’.
9 See Zernov, N., The Reintegration of the Church (London 1952).Google Scholar
10 Here I should like to enumerate the most outstanding religious writers in the diaspora and the subjects of their contributions.
Dogmatic theology: archpriest Sergei Bulgakov (1871-1944), metropolitan Anthony Khrapovitsky (1863-1936), archpriest George Florovsky (b. 1893). Theology and aesthetics: Nicolas Arseniev (b. 1888), Pavel Evdokimov (1900-1970), Konstantin Mochulsky (1892-1948), archbishop John Shakhovskoy (b. 1902), Vladimir Weidle (1895). Patristics and liturgiology: archimandrite Cyprian Kern (1899-1960), archbishop Basil Krivoshein (b. 1900), Abraam Pozov (1890), archpriest Alexander Shmcman (1921). Byzantology: archpriest John Meyendorff (1926), Dimitri Obolensky (b. 1918). Orthodox spirituality: metropolitan Anthony (Bloom, b. 1914), Nadejdą Gorodetskaya (b. 1901), Vladimir Lossky (1903-58), archimandrite Sofrony Sakharov (b. 1896). Church history: archpriest Nicolas Afanasiev (1893-1960), George Fedotov (1886-1951), Anton Kartashev (1875-1960), Peter Kovalevsky (b. 1901), Igor Smolich (1898-1970), Nicolas Žernov (b. 1898). Religious philosophy: Nicolas Berdyaev (1874-1948), Boris Vysheslavtzev (1877-1954), Simeon Frank (1877-1950), Ivan Uyin (1891-1974), Lev Karsavin (1882-1952), Nicolas Lossky (1870-1965), Lev Shestov (1866-1938), Feodor Stepun (1884-1965), Lev Zander (1893-1964), archpriest Basil Zenkovsky (1881-1962). Altogether more than three hundred Russian Orthodox authors published their works on various religious subjects during the first fifty years of Russian emigration. For the full list see Žernov, Emigré Authors.
11 A young friend of ours was taken as a hostage in our town in 1918. The commissar of justice promised his mother to release the boy in exchange for a heavy ransom. The mother sold everything, was helped also by friends and brought the money. The commissar took it and declared that her son has been killed the previous night, but that the money would be used for the extension of the red terror.
12 Another illustration of the same fact: in 1963 I published a book in London called The Russian Religious Renaissance of the Twentieth Century. Little notice was taken of it in the west, but when a copy of it reached Russia, it immediately attracted attention there and was translated and secretly reproduced in typescript by ‘Samisdat’. In 1974 this Russian translation with a preface written in Moscow, explaining the importance of the book to the Russian readers, was published in Paris.