Political Struggle in the Spiritual Sphere According to Documents from the Collection of Archimandrite Photius (Spassky; 1792–1838)

The political struggle in which Archimandrite Photius (Spassky) took part was described by him in his autobiography. This work was composed in 1831–1833. Four volumes of documents belonging to Fr. Photius were found in RGIA. They became the basis for writing an autobiography. These are materials from 1824– 1832. The collection includes personal documents of Archimandrite Photius, messages and letters from Metropolitan Seraphim (Glagolevsky), A. A. Arakcheev, A. S. Shishkov, Metropolitan Philaret (Drozdov), anonymous notes and articles. Many of these documents were passed on to Emperor Alexander I and influenced changes in domestic politics. The first volume contains materials related to the accusation and rehabilitation of Bishop Innocent (Smirnov) of Penza and Saratov, the struggle of the Russian Orthodox opposition against the Bible Society, and the writings of Archbishop Philoret (Drozdov). The second volume includes documents related to the fight against “harmful” books and the “Gossner Case”. The third volume includes materials directed against sects. The fourth volume was directly related to the activities of Archimandrite Photius in 1825–1832. Realizing the importance of the political events in which he was involved, Father Photius began to collect documents and copy them. So far, two complete sets and two separate volumes of the collection have been discovered. Archimandrite Photius brought his autobiography to 1825. Another autobiography book for 1826–1832 was prepared. Father Photius worked on it in the last years of his life, but did not manage to finish it. The four-volume collection of documents once again confirms the high reliability and scholarly importance of the autobiography of Archimandrite Photius.