Bishop Leonid (Skobeev): the experience of a “non-heroic biography”

Based on selected historiographic materials and archival sources, the article examines Bishop Leonid’s (Skobeev’s) biography (1851 - 1932). During the ground-breaking revolutionary epoch he was destined to become one of the leaders of the Renovationist movement as he, being a bishop, was invited to be a formal leader by the movement initiators in May 1922. Later he became an archbishop and metropolitan. The personal life-story of Leonid Skobeev who made a long way from the world toward monkhood and Russian Orthodox Church hierarchy is a matter of relevance and interest now that attempts are being made to undertake a historical analysis of the profound transformations which effected the Orthodox consciousness in the first third of the 20th century in connection with Russian political situation of that time period. The analysis of Leonid’s (Skobeev’s) life and church activity leads to the conclusion that to the end of his days he was an accidental leader of the Renovationist movement and, actually, a fellow-traveler as he tied up his own ambitions and plans to this movement and its prospects under the Bolsheviks. His personality and activity are devoid of heroic pathos. He belongs to those marginals in Church hierarchy who would resort to self-praise, scheming, career-mindedness and ambitions to get to the top of Church hierarchy and material benefits. The study of his biography shows that biographical studies have a considerable heuristic potential, enable to expand the common frameworks and stereotypes about the sentiments and ideology of any of the groups and strata of Orthodox society in the recent history of Orthodoxy.