The Contexts behind the Creation of Anton Kartashev’s Book about Holy Rus’

Abstract

Based on archival and published sources, the author analyzes complex contexts of writing a narrative about Holy Rus’ by a well-known émigré historian. The political and ideological contexts were determined by changes in the composition and sentiments of Russian refugees after the Second World War. On the one hand, the spread of “Soviet patriotism” among some emigrants of the first wave as a result of their acknowledgement of the decisive victory of the Red Army encouraged the historian to remind them about the anti-Bolshevik origins of the post-revolutionary emigration. On the other hand, his book represented a religiously grounded ideal which could serve as the basis for cultural and historical identity of the anti-Soviet “displaced persons”. The religious context was primarily determined by the failure to unite the Orthodox jurisdictions of Russian emigrants after the World War II, which required the historian to dissociate himself from the reactionary program of protagonists of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad. The situation was further complicated by the disagreement between older and younger generations of the representatives of the “School of Parisian theology”, which characterized the academic context. As a result, Kartashev had to disassociate himself with those of his disciples who did not follow his interpretation of the Chalcedonian dogma. Last but not least, the organizational and financial contexts, which also depended on the ideological and political contexts, meant that he could not seek financial support from the American curator of Saint Sergius theological institute in Paris, but applied for it to Novitsky brothers who organized fundraising activity among Russian Orthodox emigrants in the United States to ensure publication of the book.