In the Russian history the period following the Civil War, the so-called New Economic Policy period, is notable for the boost of public activity and numerous discussions on various issues of the country’s life. It was also the time when the government launched and carried out the renovation schism of the Russian Orthodox Church. The representatives of the newly formed religious groups took part in public disputes dedicated to the fates and fortunes of religion in the socialist society, they advocated for the right of existence of religious worldview in the new social environment. One of the popular religious speakers of the time was the leader and the mastermind of the renovation schism Alexander Vvedenskiy. The political authorities, pursuing antireligious aims, granted the outstanding renovationist permission to go on lecture tours around various regions of the country as well as to have verbatim reports of the public disputes he participated in published by state publishing houses. Despite having the above-mentioned works published, historiography suffers from an acute shortage of sources shedding the light on the regional aspect of the renovation leader’s rhetoric. This article both focuses on and introduces the memoirs, which have been kept safe at the State Archives of Novosibirsk region. They were recorded in 1924 in Irkutsk by a witness of Alexander Vvedenskiy’s lectures and of a dispute which ensued. The article provides the career details of the memoirs’ author, the editor of Irkutsk newspaper Vlast’ Truda (The Power of Labour) I. A. Goldberg, it restores some fragments of his life, which remained unrevealed until now. It brings to light and analyses the publications of periodicals of the time covering the controversy between the renovation hierarch and the antireligious community of Irkutsk. Consideration is given to some intricacies of the outstanding renovationist’s stay and his public speeches in Irkutsk.

Petrov Stanislav Gennadievich, Candidate of Sciences (History), Associate Professor, Senior Researcher, Sector of Archeography and Source Studies, Institute of History SB RAS, 8, Nikolaev st., Novosibirsk, 630090, Russian Federation, tel.: 8(383)330-36-71, e-mail: petrov_istochnik@mail.ru

Petrov S.G. The Dispute With the Renovationist Metropolitan Alexander Vvedenskiy in Irkutsk (1924): the Participant’s Memoirs. The Bulletin of Irkutsk State University. Series History, 2018, vol. 26, pp. 189-201. https://doi.org/10.26516/2222-9124.2018.26.189 (in Russian)

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