ABSTRACT

In 1775, Catherine II established the diocese of Slaviansk and Kherson in those territories recently acquired from the Ottoman Empire as a result of the Russo-Turkish War. The Empress christened the new southern vistas, Novorossiia (New Russia), and immediately launched a project to transform the sparsely populated lands and integrate them into the Russian Empire. Catherine viewed religion in utilitarian terms and considered the Orthodox Church, in particular, as a very important “instrument” to realize her ambitions. As a reflection, perhaps, of her aspirations to increase the population of the southern borderlands through intentional colonization, she appointed, successively, the Greek prelates Voulgaris and Theotokis as bishops of the new diocese. The bishops, Theotokis in particular, endeavoured to realize Catherine’s self-evidently reasonable, yet abstract, goal of harmonizing a discordant periphery peopled with Orthodox Christians, Old Believers, Dukhobors, and a host of others of indeterminate identity, with an idealized Russian and Orthodox imperial centre. The reality of the frontier, however, compelled Theotokis to reach some concord with a universe of porous and fluid boundaries between faiths, ethnicities, and empires, the best example of which was his idea of accommodation with the Old Believers known as edinoverie.

摘要

1775年，凯瑟琳二世在俄土战争后从奥斯曼帝国手中购得的那些领土上建立了斯拉维扬斯克和赫尔松教区。皇后将新的南部远景命名为“新罗西西亚”（新俄罗斯），并立即启动了一个项目，以改造人口稀少的土地并将其纳入俄罗斯帝国。凯瑟琳以功利主义的眼光看待宗教，并特别将东正教教会视为实现其雄心壮志的非常重要的“工具”。为了反映她通过有意殖民增加南部边境地区人口的愿望，她先后任命希腊主教沃加里斯和特图托基斯担任新教区的主教。主教，特别是Theotokis，努力实现凯瑟琳的不言而喻的合理性，仍然是一个抽象的目标，目的是使理想化的俄罗斯和东正教帝国中心与东正教徒，旧信徒，Dukhobors和许多其他身份不确定的人协调一致。然而，边疆的现实迫使Theotokis与信仰，种族和帝国之间的多面性和流动性边界达成某种共识，最好的例子是他与老信徒们融洽相处的想法。edinoverie。