The Romanovs: Their Empire, Their
Books.
The Political, Religious, Cultural, and Social Life of Russia's Imperial House
Case
8: Faith
Monks from the Valaam
Monastery, fishing on
Lake Ladoga. From the album of original
photographs Vidy Valaamskago monastyria
[Views of the Valaam Monastery], ca. 1880s.
From the library of Emperor Nicholas II.
NYPL, Slavic and Baltic Division.
Photographic Services & Permissions
In the seventeenth century, Moscow's public culture
was still firmly anchored in Orthodoxy and under
the aegis of the church. Although Peter the Great
peremptorily reoriented the cultural life of the
elites toward Western European secular models,
the church – and religion – continued
to play a major part in the private life of the
people and in ceremonial displays of tsarist authority.
The Russian empire was made up of peoples of many
different faiths, and even within the Russian Orthodox
Church there were divisions and dissension that
persisted over centuries. Many among the common
people withdrew from the official, state-dominated,
church and formed separate communities of Orthodox "Old
Believers" as well as various sects, which were
persecuted, and often prosecuted, for their deviation
from the official church.
Next Section: Case
9: Sellers, Salesmen, and Buyers
