Nikita S. Erokhov “The Tsar converts to Catholicism”: Confessional hierarchies, perception of the decree of Tolerance and religious violence in the Northwestern borderlands of the Russian Empire after the 17th of April, 1905

Abstract

The article examines cases of religious violence (looting of churches, cemeteries, attacks on parishioners of the Orthodox Church) by Catholics in the Northwestern borderlands of the Russian Empire against Orthodox Christians living in this region shortly after the issue of the decree of religious tolerance. Based on the description of cases of looting of churches and cemeteries (and, in some cases, their motivation), it is concluded that the looting had a symbolic meaning, was intended to “cleanse” the sacred space of the church or cemetery from the attributes of the “dirty”, “dog” faith, and that they were motivated by the idea that had developed in the Catholic environment of Orthodoxy as an “unclean faith”. It is demonstrated that the surge of religious violence by Catholics after the decree of April 17, 1905 was caused by a specific combination in the worldview of Catholics in the provinces of the North-West Region of ideas about the Russian emperor with the previously mentioned perception of Orthodoxy as an “unclean faith”. It is concluded that cases of attacks on churches and cemeteries, forcing some Orthodox Christians to convert to Catholicism can be interpreted as a case of “redirection” by Catholics of bureaucratic motivations for the mass conversion of Catholics to the “royal faith” in the 1860s, and that such “redirection” was intended to designate the emerging (in the opinion of the Catholics themselves) new confessional hierarchy in the North-West Territory after April 17, 1905.

Keywords:

The Northwestern borderlands of the Russian empire; The decree of tolerance 17th of April 1905; Religious violence

For сitation:

Nikita S. Erokhov. “The Tsar converts to Catholicism”: Confessional hierarchies, perception of the decree of Tolerance and religious violence in the Northwestern borderlands of the Russian Empire after the 17th of April, 1905 // The Historical Reporter. 2026. Vol. 58. P. DOI:

Nikita S. Erokhov

first year Postgraduate student at the School of Historical Sciences, Faculty of Humanities, National Research University Higher School of Economics. Moscow, Russian Federation.

e-mail: nikita1312er@gmail.com

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