Serving the Church and the Fatherland: the activities of St. Kirill (Smirnov) during World War I (based on materials of the “Tambov Diocesan Gazette”

The article presents a historical essay on the activities of Archbishop Kirill (Smirnov) at the Tambov diocese in the context of the outbreak of the First World War. The relevance of the topic is due to the growing scientific interest in the legacy of the new martyrs and confessors of the Russian Church, as well as the demand at the present stage of Russian history for the experience of church-social interaction in wartime. The archpastoral and social service of St. Kirill during his stay in the Tambov diocese is a striking example of true patriotic service. The material for the study was the publication in the “Tambov Diocesan Gazette” of the “Reviews of His Eminence Kirill, Archbishop of Tambov and Shatsk, of the Churches and Monasteries of the Diocese” based on the results of his archpastoral trips to parishes in 1914-1915, as well as the sermons of the bishop published in the same journal. The work uses scientific methods: content analysis, historical-chronological, and ideographic. As a result of the study, a complete picture of the archpastoral service of St. Kirill (Smirnov) in the Tambov land was formed, the main areas of his patriotic activity were identified, including material and spiritual support for the front, raising national self-awareness by uniting society around traditional spiritual and moral values. The historical facts presented in the article allow us to project the experience of organizing church-public interaction in the modern activities of the Russian Orthodox Church.