Estonia, Orthodox Church in

TARMO TOOM

Orthodox faith has been confessed by Estonians for a millennium. The first written sources about Orthodoxy in Estonia come from the 11th century. In 1030 Russians conquered Tartu (Jurjev) and built some churches there. Several bishops of Jurjev are mentioned in 11th- and 12th-century Russian documents. In 1210 Russian mis­sionaries were baptizing local people in southern Estonia. The derivation of some Estonian theological keywords from Russian is a telling factor. This may indicate that the Estonians’ initial knowledge of Christianity came through Byzantine- Russian missions. The Estonian word rist (“cross”), for example, comes from the Russian krest, ristima (“to baptize”) derives from krestit, raamat (“book, Bible”) from gramota, and papp (“priest”) from pop.

In the Middle Ages, long after the Northern Crusades and the arrival of Teutonic knights and Catholic priests, the larger Estonian cities belonged to the Hanseatic (Commercial) League. At that time Orthodox churches were built mostly for the use of Russian merchants from Pskov and Novgorod. In 1438 a high church official who visited Tartu wrote in his diary that there were two Orthodox churches “but very few Christians” in that city. Some thirty years later, Germans expelled the Orthodox from Tartu and killed a priest named Isidor.

In the 1550s Russia conquered the eastern part of Estonia and established the diocese of Jurjev-Viljandi. Yet, by the end of the 16th century, Orthodox faith was found mostly among those Russians who had remained in Estonia after the defeat of the Russian armies by Swedes and Poles. By the very end of the Swedish period (1710), there was only one Orthodox place of worship left standing: St. Nicholas’ Church in Tallinn.

When Estonia was subjected to Russia during the Great Northern War (1710–21), the Orthodox Church received its full privi­leges and consequently the Protestant churches of the Swedish garrisons were turned into Orthodox temples. Yet, as the German barons and the larger cities remained relatively independent, the preeminence of Lutheranism was never seriously threatened.

In the middle of the 19th century some

Estonian Lutheran peasants converted to Russian Orthodoxy after hearing a rumor that by doing so they might get some land. This phenomenon is known as usuvahetus (“the change of faith”). It led to the estab­lishment of an independent diocese of Livo­nia with a vicariate in Riga. (The first ethnically Estonian bishop, Platon, was ordained in 1918 and killed by Bolsheviks in 1919.) However, large numbers soon reconverted, primarily because the adop­tion of Orthodoxy did not bring about the expected betterment of their socioeconomic situation. In 1864 an ambassador, Vladimir Bobrinski, reported to Tsar Alexander II that Orthodoxy had remained alien to the Estonian people and that only about one tenth of the Estonian Orthodox were really true to their faith. Many allegedly converted Estonian Orthodox had continued to par­ticipate secretly in the Lutheran Eucharistic services. Russification attempts during the last decades ofthe 19th century did not have a lasting effect, except perhaps as seen in the building of the Alexander Nevsky Cathe­dral, which still stands in the midst of the gothic churches of Old Tallinn.

The collapse of tsarist Russia in 1917, the establishment of the Republic of Estonia (1918), the War of Liberation (1918–20), and the signing of the Tartu Peace Treaty (1920) created a situation in which Tikhon, the incumbent patriarch of Russia, acknowl­edged the autonomy of the Estonian Ortho­dox Church in 1920 (Resolution No. 1780), but postponed the discussion of its autocephaly. After Patriarch Tikhon’s arrest by the Soviet government, contacts between him and the autonomous Estonian Orthodox Church were severed. Consequently, the autonomous Estonian Orthodox Church, which wanted to assert its ecclesiastical inde­pendence, decided to seek a fuller and final canonical recognition from the patriarch of Constantinople. In 1923 Patriarch Meletios IV proclaimed the autonomy of the Estonian Apostolic Orthodox Church (EAOC), with three dioceses, under his patriarchal jurisdic­tion and spiritual protection (Tomos 3348). (In 1923 the same status was given to the Finnish Orthodox Church.) However, despite this, some of the Orthodox Russians in Estonia attempted to remain in continuing communion with the patriarch of Moscow (an example being the controversy over Petseri [Pechery] Monastery, 1930–2).

The first Soviet occupation of Estonia in 1940–1 brought about the abrupt reunification of the Estonian Orthodox believers with the Russian Orthodox Church. Over half of the serving priests resigned in protest over this. Soon, however, the German occupation of Estonia in 1941 allowed the EAOC briefly to reclaim its relations with the patriarch of Constantinople, with the excep­tion of the diocese of Narva, which consisted mostly of ethnic Russians. As a result, the Orthodox Church in Estonia found itself in schism. In 1944 Metropolitan Alexander of EAOC, together with 23 priests and some

8,0 faithful, was forced to go into exile.

In 1945, a year after Estonia was territori­ally annexed by the Soviet Union, the patriarch of Moscow terminated the legal activity of EAOC, yet acknowledged the Orthodox Church in Estonia as an eparchy of the Russian Orthodox Church. Congregations and priests were reaccep­ted after they officially repented of being “schismatics» In addition, the Stalinist repopulation policies caused an influx of ethnic Russians whose religious back­ground, if any, was Orthodox. The very fact that the Russian Orthodox Church was used as an extension of the occupying Soviet power alienated many Estonians from the church, despite the fact that almost three quarters of the Orthodox churches were closed in Estonia by the 1960s, and regard­less of the fact that the Russian Orthodox Church itself suffered from harassment and atheistic propaganda as much as any other.

Estonia regained its political independence in 1991. All structures and organizations quickly claimed their sovereignty. So it was that in 1996 the canonical autonomy of the EAOC was reactivated by Patriarch Bartholomew I on the basis of its continued existence in exile (Sweden). This caused much animosity and initiated a breakdown of the

communion between the Constantinopolitan and Russian Orthodox Churches. Both sides met in Zurich later in the same year and agreed to tolerate, at least temporarily, the existence of two Orthodox Churches in the same territory (54 parishes of the EAOC and 29 parishes of the patriarchate of Moscow).

Unfortunately, tensions and mutual defiance between these two Estonian Ortho­dox Churches have continued to this day. In 2008 the Russian Orthodox Church suspended its membership of the Conference of European Churches over the dispute about the non-admittance of that part of the Esto­nian Orthodox Church which had decided to remain linked to the patriarchate of Moscow. In the same year the Russian Orthodox Church terminated its ecumenical dialogue with the Anglicans because the EAOC was participating as a recognized member church in this dialogue. The Moscow patriarchate continues to make two major claims that are unacceptable to the EAOC. The first is that the EAOC was established in 1996 (thus negating the Tomos of 1923); and the second is that Estonia remains as a canonical territory of the Russian Orthodox Church – widely taken to be a negation of Estonia as a sovereign state, deserving autocephaly in due season.

As of 2007 there were approximately

18,0 members in the EAOC: 1 metropoli­tan, 27 priests, and 10 deacons. It has its own seminary and a journal, Uskja elu (Faith and Life). In 2009 it opened its first new convent in Saaremaa. The Estonian Orthodox Church under the jurisdiction of the patri­arch of Moscow has about 170,000 mem­bers, 1 metropolitan, 44 priests, and 16 deacons. It publishes a newspaper, Mir Pravoslavia (Orthodox World), in Russian. From 1961 to 1990 this church was headed by Metropolitan Alexius Ridiger, who was elected as Alexius II, the Patriarch of Mos­cow and All Russia, in 1990. Its largest mon­astery is Puhtitsa Dormition Convent with approximately 170 nuns in residence.

Old Believers also settled in Estonia, near Lake Peipus, by the end of the 17th century. In the 18th century they had their own monastery in Rapina, which was destroyed by tsarist forces. Although all the churches belonging to the Old Believers were closed down in 1840, they regained their right to exist in the Republic of Estonia in 1920. Currently, there are about 15,000 Old Believers with three priests in Estonia. The Armenian Apostolic Church, with about

2,0 members, was founded in Estonia in 1993. There is also a small communty of Ruthenians.

SEE ALSO: Constantinople, Patriarchate of; Finland, Autonomous Orthodox Church of; Russia, Patriarchal Orthodox Church of

REFERENCES AND SUGGESTED READINGS

Au, I. and Ringvee, R. (eds.) (2007) Usulised Uhen- dused Eestis. Tallinn: Allika.

Burgess, M. (2005) The Eastern Orthodox Churches: Concise Histories with Chronological Checklists of their Primates. Jefferson, NC: McFarland.

Istina (2004) “Le plaidoyer de l’Eglise orthodoxe d’Estonie pour la defense de son autonomie face au patriarcat de Moscou,” Istina 49/1: 3–105. Papathomas, G. D. and Palli, M. (eds.) (2002) The Autonomous Orthodox Church of Estonia/L’Eglise autonome orthodoxe d’Estonie. Athens: Editions Epektasis.

Patriarch Aleksius II (1999) Pravoslavie v Estonii.

Moscow: Pravoslavnaja entsiklopedija.

Sotsov, A. (2004) Eesti oigeusu piiskopkond Stalini ajal aastail 1945–1953. Tartu: Tartu Ulikooli Kirjastus.

Sotsov, A. (2008) Eesti (Oigeusu piiskopkond noukogude religioonipoliitika mojuvaljas 1954–1964. Tartu: Tartu Ulikooli Kirjastus. Voobus, A. (1969) Studies in the

History of the Estonian People, vol. 1. Stockholm: ETSE.

Webster, A. F. C. (1996) “Split Decision: The Orthodox Clash over Estonia,” Christian Century 113/19: 614–23.