From Empire to nation State: the Consolidation of the relationship between the Orthodox Church and independent Lithuania and Łatvia after the first Word War

• Authors: Sebastian Rimestad

Title variants

PL

Od Imperium/Cesarstwa do państwa narodowego: Umocnienie/utrwalenie stosunków między Kościołem Prawosławnym a niepodległą Litwą oraz Łotwą po pierwszej wojnie światowej

• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

The Orthodox State Church of the Russian Empire was radically reorganised in the wake of the First World War. In addition to the new internal structures including the re-introduction of the Moscow Patriarchate, this was especially necessary in the Eparchies now situated outside the Soviet Union, such as in the Baltic States. In each of these states, the ecclesiastic restructuring and the 'normalisation' of the relationship with the political authorities pursued specific paths. This article explores these developments in Lithuania and Latvia, where the Orthodox Church was first eyed suspiciously as imperial state institutions by the young nation states. In both cases, new ruling Archbishops were named in 1921, and both had to fight a hard battle for legal recognition of their church. However, after 'entering' secular state territory, both of them achieved a rather favourable modus vivendi with the secular authorities.

Keywords

EN

ORTHODOX CHURCH; LATVIA; LITHUANIA; 1920 S; RELIGION AND POLITICS

• Journal: Studia Podlaskie
• Year: 2012
• Volume: 20
• Pages: 211-224

Contributors

author

Sebastian Rimestad

• University of Erfurt, GERMANY