page_title: Christianity in the 19th century
section_title: Russia
hierarchical_section_title: Christianity in the 19th century / Eastern Orthodox Church / Russia
caption_attribution_description: The Moscow Kremlin. Taken from the German Wikipedia.
context_page_description: Characteristic of Christianity in the 19th century were Evangelical revivals in some largely Protestant countries and later the effects of modern Biblical scholarship on the churches. Liberal or modernist theology was one consequence of this. In Europe, the Roman Catholic Church strongly opposed liberalism and culture wars launched in Germany, Italy, Belgium and France. It strongly emphasized personal piety. In Europe there was a general move away from religious observance and belief in Christian teachings and a move towards secularism. In Protestantism, pietistic revivals were common.
context_section_description: The Russian Orthodox Church held a privileged position in the Russian Empire, expressed in the motto Orthodoxy, Autocracy, and Populism, of the late Russian Empire. At the same time, it was placed under the control of the tsar by the Church reform of Peter I in the 18th century. Its governing body was the Most Holy Synod, which was run by an official (titled Ober-Procurator) appointed by the tsar.
  The church was involved in the various campaigns of russification, and accused of involvement in anti-Jewish pogroms. In the case of anti-Semitism and the anti-Jewish pogroms, no evidence is given of the direct participation of the church, and many Russian Orthodox clerics, including senior hierarchs, openly defended persecuted Jews, at least from the second half of the 19th century. Also, the Church has no official position on Judaism as such.
  The church, like the tsarist state, was seen as an enemy of the people by the Bolsheviks and other Russian revolutionaries.
caption: Churches of the Moscow Kremlin, as seen from the Balchug
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