Herman Kazansky’s demarche against the «Oprichnina»: Historical realities and interpretations

Abstract

This article discusses the debatable question about the demarche of Herman Kazansky against the Oprichnina. The author analyzes this event and suggests that Herman supported Metropolitan Philip (Kolychev) in his speech against the expansion of the Oprichnina policy in 1567. Over time, Herman’s act began to become overgrown with ecclesiastical legends. In the Life of the saint, written in the 1660s at the behest of the Kazan Metropolitan Lawrence II, it was first said, that Herman defended Metropolitan Philip during the Council trial in the fall of 1568. After the inspection of Herman’s relics in 1889, a version of his death at the hands of the oprichniks appears in the church press. Thus, by the early 20th century, the eparchial government of Kazan presented Herman as a martyr who stood up for the disgraced Metropolitan Philip and was executed by order of Ivan the Terrible. Sources from the 16th century completely refutes the first part of this image, the act of opening the relics of Herman of Kazan in May 1923 — the second one.