Abstract:
The legislative acts of the Provisional Government regulating the functioning of
religious organizations has not been sufficiently studied. The bills, which were
created in the various ministries of the Provisional Government and failed to
become law, are virtually unexplored. On the wave of political events in Russia
in February and March 1917, the nondenominational Provisional Government
came to power. There arose the need for a comprehensive reform of public ad minist
ration in Russia and, in particular, church-state relations. In the bowels of the
Minist ry of Internal Affairs of the Provisional Government, there was created a
structure that developed the draft laws on the status of various denominations:
1) the group on general religious issues; 2) the commission for the revision of
the statu tory provisions about the Roman Catholic Church in Russia; and 3) the
group on issues relating to the Old Believers. This publication focuses on the
acti vities of this final group. The main outcome of this group, working in close
alliance with representatives of the Old Believers, was the creation of the draft law
on the “legalization” of the third Orthodox Church in Russia (after the Russian
and Georgian Orthodox Churches), that is, the Old Orthodox Belokrinitskaya
Hierarchy, which, in 1988, became known as the Russian Orthodox Old Belief
Church. The resulting bill, dated 18 October 1917, was submitted to the Provisional
Government for approval. However, it was not approved because of the
overthrow of the Provisional Government on 25 October of that same year. The
present article introduces this 1917 bill to “legalize” the Russian Old Orthodox
Belokrinitskaya Hierarchy into scholarly awareness.
