Elijah the Prophet in Crime and Punishment

Post-Soviet scholarship has produced a plethora of new studies on Konstantin Pobedonostsev, focusing on his political “conservatism” and its current relevance. This scholarship, however, has marginalized two critical dimensions – the religious (so important to Pobedonostsev) and the transnational (so powerful a force because of post-1870 globalization). This study offers a critique of the new scholarship and draws on archival materials to reassess Pobedonostsev’s role as chief procurator (ober-prokuror) of the Holy Synod. Here it is argued that: (1) Pobedonostsev was not the embodiment of sterile negativism (as many claimed), but rather insisted that the change be gradual and based on Russian reality, not foreign models; (2) Pobedonostsev’s influence declined not only in the government (as is well known), but also in the Church; (3) Pobedonostsev became increasingly alienated from the “Church” and clergy, coming to identify with “simple believers”; (4) to meet their needs, Pobedonostsev laboured to build parish schools and reopen parish churches, and in the 1890s focused on religious writing; (5) at odds with the Church hierarchy, Pobedonostsev increasingly identified with the parishioners as the real repository of piety.