Features of the Estonian orthodox self-consciousness in the early 20th century (on the 100th anniversary of the martyrdom of the martyr Platon (Kulbush), bishop of revel)

The holy new martyr Platon, Bishop of Revel, is one of the very few Estonian national saints. His name is still a kind of banner of the national Estonian Orthodox aspirations. However, his life and his posthumous memory cannot and could not give a firm foundation for the schism that has been tormenting in Estonian Orthodoxy since 1992, and for the autokephalist tendencies that flourished in Estonia in the third decade of 20th century. The article attempts to trace as well the tendencies in Estonian religious self-consciousness, which manifested themselves in the early twentieth century, and became its distinguishing feature, as well to indicate the meaning and role of the martyr Platon (before that - archpriest Pavel Kulbush, as he was called before the adoption of monasticism and episcopal dignity) in becoming or curbing these tendencies. It is concluded that the religious factor in the development of the Estonian identity was subordinated to the national one. Until the end of 1917, this process had a deterrent, and then a catalyzing factor - the policy of the Russian leadership, as well as social processes in Russia, since the beginning of 1918 the problem has become multivector character...