Correspondence of Archimandrite Antonin (Kapustin) with the Synod on Church Affairs in the Orthodox East in the Second Half of the 19th Century

The article deals with the activities of the famous representative of the Russian Orthodox Church of the second half of the 19th century, one of the main actors of church diplomacy in the Middle East, Archimandrite Antonin (Kapustin; 1817–1894). Reports to the Synod, correspondence with the chief prosecutors are devoted to church-political problems in the places of service of Archimandrite Antonin (in Athens, Constantinople, Jerusalem), the reformation of the Constantinople and Greek Churches, the peculiarities of worship, church-canonical and church-diplomatic problems. In Jerusalem, Archimandrite Antonin, as the head of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission, did not always enjoy the support of the Synod. This concerned both the very right of the REM to exist in Jerusalem, and the land acquisitions of Fr. Antonin. The article shows how, thanks to the efforts of Archimandrite Antonin the position of state institutions (the Synod and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs) changed with the acquisition of land, the construction of pilgrimage farmsteads and temples, which led to the emergence of a unique phenomenon — Russian Palestine.