Russian Palestine. Real Estate of Archimandrite Antonin (Kapustin)

Following a series of reforms in the mid-nineteenth century, land legislation emerged in the Ottoman Empire that allowed for the de jure formalization of foreign real estate that had previously been formed de facto. Russian Palestine, which emerged in fierce confessional competition in the mid-19th century and included the Palestinian acquisitions of Archimandrite Antonin (Kapustin, 1817–1894), head of the Russian Orthodox Ecclesiastical Mission (ROEM) in Jerusalem, depended on foreign policy conditions and the positions of Russian state institutions. The lack of strategy and systematic work in the use of the property factor in foreign policy, as well as the sentiments in the Russian power structures in the Middle East led to omissions. The article shows how Archimandrite Antonin's right decisions, made in spite of the opinion of Foreign Ministry officials, influenced the way of real estate registration, thanks to which churches, monasteries, pilgrimage metochions and land plots were largely preserved and today belong to Russia and the Russian Church.