People’s pilgrimage in the views of activists of the Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society (late 19th – early 20th century)

By the end of the 19th century, the Russian conservative circles made efforts for the autocracy to acquire a truly popular nature. The purity of faith, naivety, and simplicity of the Russian peasant were proclaimed the basis of the existing socio-political system. The strengthening of these characteristics of the national consciousness was to be facilitated by public organizations created by conservatively minded figures, including the Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society (IOPS), founded in 1882. One of the IOPS main lines of work was to facilitate visits by large groups of common people to the Holy Land. According to the leaders of the Palestine Society, the best spiritual qualities of the Russian people were revealed during the pilgrimage – religiosity, humility, and a tendency to self-sacrifice. The very participation in the organization of the pilgrimage, as conservatives believed, allowed the members of educated society to get closer to the people, to touch the moral values that were preserved in their environment. The activities of the IOPS contributed to the consolidation of the religious ties between Russia and the Holy Land, and became an important page in the social and spiritual life of the late 19th – early 20th centuries.