D. Suslova E.

CHURCH PARISHES ON THE NORTHWEST OF RUSSIAN STATE IN THE 16–18TH CENTURIES: NATURE AND EVOLUTION IN THE HISTORIOGRAPHY

Authors

D. Suslova E.

Keywords:

Rural parish, district (volost’), church parish community, peasant community, traditional society, village priest, Russian Orthodox Church, North-West region, Russian state, Early Modern Time.

Abstract

The article reveals the essential characteristics of an orthodox rural parish in the Northwestern region of the Russian State in the 16th – 18th c. It ex-amined the conception of evolution the parish, which is the widely accepted in the Russian historiography. According to the conception, a parish as a lowest church unit and a religious community initially matched with a rural district (volost’) and a peasant community, but it gradually transformed into the bureaucratic structure that established control under parishioners. The author believes that the traditional division of the history of the parish into two periods (16–17 c. and 18 c.) excludes a significant stage that embraces the end of 17th and the first half of 18th c. The reconstruction of social and kinship ties allows tracing the clue elements in the formation of parishes’ structures in North-West of Russia and estimating the relation inside the parish and its interaction with the local power.

CHURCH PARISHES ON THE NORTHWEST OF RUSSIAN STATE IN THE 16–18TH CENTURIES: NATURE AND EVOLUTION IN THE HISTORIOGRAPHY