The Religious Policy of the Russian Empire in the Captured Territories of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (On the Example of the Volyn Province at the End of the 18th-The First Half of the 19th Century)

Authors

Andrii Shevchuk, Zhytomyr Polytechnic State UniversityFollow
Oksana Markevych, Zhytomyr Ivan Franko State UniversityFollow

Author ORCID Identifier

Andrii Shevchuk,

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9023-5214

Oksana Markevych,

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0457-8697

Abstract

The article investigates the peculiarities of the implementation of the religious policy of the Russian Empire in the territories that were captured as a result of the partitions of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, on the example of the Volyn province in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The role of local administration, in particular governors, in the implementation of the imperial confessional policy and the mechanisms of integration of the Orthodox Church into the state apparatus are analyzed. It is established that after the November Uprising of 1830-1831, religious policy was radicalized, which manifested itself in the forced liquidation of the Greek Catholic Church and increased control over the Roman Catholic clergy. Particular attention is paid to the analysis of court cases involving the clergy and mechanisms for protecting the religious rights of the Orthodox peasantry. On the basis of archival materials, the author reconstructs the legal and procedural mechanisms for considering religious offenses and highlights the specifics of the clergy's inclusion in the judicial system of the empire. The authors demonstrate the dichotomy between declarative religious tolerance and the practical implementation of integration mechanisms, as well as the complex interaction between central and local authorities in matters of confessional policy. The study reveals the role of the religious factor as an instrument of socio-cultural transformation and unification of the controlled territories within the Russian Empire.

Recommended Citation

Shevchuk, Andrii and Markevych, Oksana (2025) "The Religious Policy of the Russian Empire in the Captured Territories of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (On the Example of the Volyn Province at the End of the 18th-The First Half of the 19th Century)," Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe: Vol. 45 : Iss. 1 , Article 5.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.55221/2693-2229.2596
Available at: https://digitalcommons.georgefox.edu/ree/vol45/iss1/5