«The First Easter Away from Home»: Religious Practices and Temporal Perceptions of Combatants on the Russian Front during World War I

The article is devoted to the impact of religious practices on the perception of time by combatants on the Russian Front during World War I. Drawing on ego-documents, the author examines how traditional religious rituals and holidays served as a means to endure the monotony of trench warfare and provided temporal landmarks in an altered daily reality. The study emphasizes the importance of religious holidays as factors that disrupted the routine of war and were linked to the of soldiers’ past peacetime experiences. Additionally, the author explores the phenomenon of «charm prayers», which refl ected an aspiration to control the future and overcome a sense of uncertainty. The fi ndings demonstrate that religious practices performed not only spiritual but also psychological functions, alleviating the emotional state of combatants and structuring their perception of time.