Materials for the History of the Orthodox Church in the North and Northeast of China in the early 1930s

Abstract

In the context of the available data on the history of Orthodoxy in the north and northeast of China, the article provides new information characterizing various aspects of the existence and activity of the Orthodox Church in the early 1930s. This time was quite difficult for Russian emigrants in the territories under consideration. They were the main bearers of Orthodoxy. The research uses general scientific methods of collecting, analyzing and synthesizing material, which is especially important when working with sources, as well as special methods of historical cognition. The chronological method made it possible to characterize events in their sequence, the comparative historical method made it possible to compare facts and phenomena in different time periods. The main conclusion of the study was the observation that at the time under consideration, the conditions of existence of representatives of the Orthodox community in the region were complicated by a number of factors. These are punitive campaigns to the places of their residence of the Red Army detachments, the establishment of the puppet regime of the state of Manchukuo, the strongest flood in Harbin. This led to the closure of a number of Orthodox churches and a significant outflow of parishioners. The article is based on little-known and unknown archival documents, which, in some cases, repeat the information found in publications, while in some cases they give completely new, previously unknown facts. A series of events in the early 1930s led to the fact that a significant part of the representatives of the Russian emigration ‒ Orthodox for the most part, left the region, going further into China, and then beyond its borders. This, in turn, led to a reduction in the number of Orthodox believers, the income of priests fell, churches began to close.