State policy to involve the Russian Orthodox Church into joint partnership in 1990s - first decade of 2000s (by the example of the Chuvash Republic)

Introduction. The turn of the 1980s - 1990s in the history of our country is characterized by the liberalization of the social system, which changed, in particular, the relations between the state and the Orthodox Church. One of the crucial issues in this area is the consideration of state policy to involve the Russian Orthodox Church into joint partnership. It allows determining the place and role of the Orthodox confession in the life of post-Soviet Russia. The article analyzes the features of the historical development of the economic policy of regional authorities aimed at involving the local diocese into joint social partnership in 1990s - first decade of the 2000s. The purpose of the research is to reveal a comprehensive chronological framework of the historical aspects of economic policy carried out in relation to its involvement into social partnership. Materials and methods. To achieve this goal, both unpublished archival documents and published sources were used. The main source for the article were the materials from the funds of the state historical archive of the Chuvash Republic and the state archive of modern history of the Chuvash Republic (documents of official records management of public authorities and religious organizations), which are first introduced into scientific use. The study is based on the principle of historicism, comparative-historical and descriptive methods, which revealed the content of the research. Results. According to the results of the study of economic policy of the Chuvash authorities to involve local Orthodox community into joint partnership in 1990s - first decade of the 2000s, the authors give a comprehensive description of the considered historical processes. In particular, two stages concerning the beginning of sate and church social partnership in the Chuvash Republic are proposed and described. The first phase is characterized by preconditioning (acknowledgement of the Russian Orthodox Church's leadership in spiritual revival of the local population, economic support of the church revival, etc.) and the origin and growth of the social partnership model of state and church relations (the period of 1990s). The second stage (first decade of 2000s) is the time of approval and implementation of the social partnership relations model between the Chuvash authorities and Chuvash diocese. The main characteristic of the period are the agreements between the diocese and healthcare institutions, educational institutions, justice institution regarding the issues of spiritual and patriotic education, opposition to totalitarian sects, etc. Discussion and conclusion. In general, the priority in social partnership in the Chuvash republic in the period of 1990s - first decade of 2000s was given (comparing to, for example, pre-Christian beliefs) to the Orthodoxy, which was determined mainly by its historic significance, its special role in the cultural life of the region. At the same time at the beginning of first decade of 2000s there are events (Chuvash diocese took part in the opening of the monument of the “Covering Mother”, the Russian Orthodox Church took part in discussions regarding the ban of pre-Christian beliefs publications), which proved the fact of considering the Russian Orthodox Church by the authorities not only from the position of social, but also from the point of political partnership.