RELIGIOUS CONVERSIONS OF THE ARMENIANS TO ORTHODOXY IN THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE (MID-19TH – EARLY 20TH CENTURY): MOTIVES, TYPOLOGY, AND RESULTS

Abstract

An analysis of the religious conversions of persons of Armenian confession to Orthodox allows the author to evaluate them as a special phenomenon in the history of Russian-Armenian church relations, as well as to establish the features of economic, social, national, and confessional policies of the Russian Empire in the Transcaucasus in the 19th – early 20th centuries. The sources are the unpublished documents in Russian from the collections of the National Archives of the Republic of Armenia. Based on the available archival sources, it was established that the cases of the adoption of Orthodoxy by the Armenians were caused by three motives: 1) economic, 2) various situations of a non-economic nature, and 3) coercive measures. Despite the absence of a special “Armenian mission” among the Orthodox priests, the cases of Armenians’ conversion to Orthodoxy, especially those made for economic reasons, were rather actively encouraged by the Russian Orthodox Church. For the Russian government, the Armenians who converted to Orthodoxy were seen as a reliable social base in the Transcaucasus. The relevance of studying the issue is since, in the 20th century, despite the contradictions of the synodal period, the Russian Orthodox Church built relations with the Armenian Apostolic Church based on the principles of friendship, good neighborliness, and mutual assistance. Today, this factor contributes to the strengthening of both church and political relations between Russia and Armenia.