Established in 1800, edinoverie (translated as "unity in faith") was
intended to draw back those who had broken with the Russian Orthodox
Church over ritual reforms in the 17th century. Called Old Believers,
they had been persecuted as heretics. In time, the Russian state began
tolerating Old Believers in order to lure them out of hiding and make
use of their financial resources as a means of controlling and
developing Russia's vast and heterogeneous empire. However, the Russian
Empire was also an Orthodox state, and conversion from Orthodoxy
constituted a criminal act. So, which was better for ensuring the
stability of the Russian Empire: managing heterogeneity through
religious toleration, or enforcing homogeneity through missionary
campaigns? Edinoverie remained contested and controversial throughout
the 19th and early 20th centuries, as it was distrusted by both the
Orthodox Church and the Old Believers themselves. The state reinforced
this ambivalence, using edinoverie as a means by which to monitor Old
Believer communities and employing it as a carrot to the stick of
prison, exile, and the deprivation of rights. In Unity in Faith?,
James White's study of edinoverie offers an unparalleled perspective of
the complex triangular relationship between the state, the Orthodox
Church, and religious minorities in imperial Russia.
