Missionary Translations of the Divine Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom into the Languages of the Indigenous Peoples of the Russian Empire

The translations of the Divine Liturgy into the languages of the indigenous peoples of the Russian Empire were created by Russian missionaries, primarily in the nineteenth century. Their objective was to prevent a mass exodus from Orthodoxy to Islam or paganism and offer the local population a more comprehensive understanding of Christianity. The article expounds on this phenomenon within the context of the ongoing debate regarding the translation of the liturgy into Russian. The article encompass the translation of sacred texts into the Komi language by St. Stephen of Perm and addresses the circumstances in the early nineteenth century when emperors issued decrees mandating the translation of the liturgy. A pivotal moment emerged with the missionary principles of the orientalist N. I. Ilminsky in Kazan, advocating for the translation of texts into the vernacular. Ilminsky proposed using solely the Cyrillic alphabet and resorting to borrowings from Church Slavonic when necessary. Slavicism within Christian terminology has been researched in liturgical texts in Abkhazian, Altaic, Buryat, Chuvash, Yakut, Karelian, Komi, Mari, Tatar, and Udmurt. The article also discusses the translation into Komi, highlighting the rivalries among translators in that context.