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Secularization and Pious Subversion: To the Constitution by Rail

In: Russia on the Move

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  • Sylvia Sztern

    (Hebrew University of Jerusalem)

Abstract

Here I investigate the crucial role of railroads in Russian modernization from by focusing on additional aspects of the institutional change that technological innovation brought about in nineteenth-century Russia. Supplementing tangible aspects of modernization, I argue that the new technology challenged the Greek Orthodox legitimacy of Tsarism by thrusting Russia’s spiritual cultures into a state of flux. Massive canonization gatherings, defection to the revolutionary Old Belief (Starovery), and retreat to other piously subversive sects, as well as secularization, destabilized the empire’s spiritual base. The emerging institutional competition caused the intra-ecclesiastical structure of the parish to transition from hierarchical-authoritarian to egalitarian and participatory. The Russo-Japanese War, instigated to distract discontent, ended in a debacle in 1904, destabilizing the army. By launching allodial reform in 1906, Tsar Nicholas II sought to re-legitimize the empire by improving the peasantry’s living standards. Bearing in mind the incongruence of individual property rights and autocratic rule, I find that the railroads paved the way to the Constitution.

Suggested Citation

  • Sylvia Sztern, 2022. "Secularization and Pious Subversion: To the Constitution by Rail," Studies in Economic Transition, in: Russia on the Move, chapter 0, pages 271-318, Palgrave Macmillan.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:stuchp:978-3-030-89285-2_7
    DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-89285-2_7
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