Phenomenon of Monasticism in the Religious World of Russia in the Second Half of the XIX and Early XX Centuries

Many phenomena of Russian religious culture are studied quite actively by the entire spectrum of social and humanitarian knowledge. However, there are still some of them that have yet to be solved. One of them can rightfully be called the problems of studying the phenomenon of “monasticism”. Monkhood, women who took a vow of celibacy and lived in the villages of pre-revolutionary Russia, as a special phenomenon in religious life, still do not find significant reflection in religious literature. The article provides an overview of information about monkhood that performed special religious and educational functions mainly in pre-revolutionary Russia, when the phenomenon was widespread, and in Soviet times, when religious phenomena acquired special functions in an atheistic state, adapting to the circumstances and needs of the religious world. The authors conclude that monasticism marked the beginning of the formation of such a social institution in Russia as the women's ministry of the church. Today, this phenomenon continues to evolve at at the modern civilizational level, where the status of women in the ecclesiastical realm acquires new meaning and becomes one of the crucial pathways for the spiritual revival of Russia.