The guardian of orthodoxy: emperor Nicholas I and the Russian Orthodox Church

The role of Russian sovereigns in the life of the Russian Orthodox Church continues to be a poorly studied topic. The study of this issue can open up new aspects of the church structure of the Synodal Period. Instead of the usual opposition of secular and spiritual authorities, it becomes possible to see the real mechanisms of governing church life, in which the emperor had significant prerogatives. Using the example of Tsar Nicholas I (1825-1855), the author shows how an Orthodox autocrat combined the features of a secular and ecclesiastical leader, in accordance with the new legislative formula of the “head of the Church”. The degree of external “interference” of the emperor depended on his personal religiosity and devotion. As a result, it is possible to trace that the solution by Nicholas I of various church issues took place in a situational manner and did not express the monarch’s desire to deliberately usurp the canonical power of the Church. The article is a historical research based on unpublished archival sources.