“Rob what was robbed”: Seizure of church valuables and public moods in Western Siberia (1921–1922)

Public mood has always played a significant role and continues to influence public policy in a number of countries to this day. In addition, the state power has leverage on the mood of the society to incline it to a certain way of action to achieve its goals. One of the most significant measures of the Soviet authorities in the post-revolutionary years in breaking the old foundations was the policy of seizure of church property. With their authority firmly established and peasant uprisings posing a significant threat, the Bolsheviks leveraged the widespread famine of 1921–1922 to further their objectives, notably the elimination of ideological opponents such as the Russian Orthodox Church. Patriarch Tikhon called on the clergy to give to the state church valuables that had no liturgical use. In reality, the Bolsheviks seized all valuables from the churches, and the issue of seizure became a stumbling block not only between the authorities and the church, but also among the clergy and society. The policy of the authorities concerning the appropriation of church assets is examined in this article, with Western Siberia providing a specific example. The article further investigates the responses of the peasantry, workers, and clergy, including two Siberian bishops, Irinarkh (Sineokov-Andreevsky) and Nikolay (Pokrovsky). The author concludes that the authorities’ policy towards the Church was purposefully destructive, and that there was a certain polarization of the entire society, including the clergy itself, in relation to the seizure of church valuables.