Faith, Nation, and Empire: Russian Orthodox Pilgrimage to the Holy Land, 1882-1914

• In Event: In the Traveler’s Eyes: German and Russian Travelers in the 19th-20th Century

Abstract

From 1882 to 1914 thousands of Russian Orthodox Christians undertook pilgrimages to the Ottoman-controlled Holy Land, seizing on newfound opportunities provided as much by railways and steamships as by significant institutional support from the Tsarist state, Orthodox Church, and the Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society (est. 1882). This paper examines how pilgrimage provided a springboard for Russians to interpret the meanings of Orthodoxy, Russian ethno-nationalism, and Russian imperialism. Each carrying significant weight in contemporaneous formulations of Russian modernity and identities, Orthodoxy, nationality, and empire were subject to changes and revisions by the ever-increasing numbers of pilgrims for who engaged them.

Author

• Luke Jeske, UNC at Chapel Hill