The Kama region during the period of renovation reforms: the choice between tradition and innovation

The article analyzes the features of the church reform in the 1920s on the example of the Kama region. The reasons and prerequisites which lead to the reforming of the church are considered. The community of believers involved in the processes of changes of the church life is under research. The attempts to reform the church affected urban population, rather than the residents of agricultural areas. The failure of the renovation reforms is explained both from external circumstances and from the specifics of the renovation's movement itself. The falling of the authority of clergy and the existence of shortcomings in the behavior of priests were reasons for the failure of the new church. The transition to a new style and the claims for changing the rules of behavior of the clergy were obstacles for making changes in the church life as well. The main factors which defined the believers' choice of the new or traditional movement in the Russian Orthodox Church were the cost of the rituals, the location of the temple and the convenience of the path to it, the authority of the priest, the openness of the community, the changes in the education system, etc. The growth of religious indifference as a consequence of the Revolution and Civil War is allocated as an important process in public consciousness. Parish councils are considered as independent self-contained structures. The failure of the renewal movement is treated as inevitable, contradict to the traditional way of religious life of the region and country. The new type of the church life led to the transformation of the Russian Orthodox Church into a part of externally atheistic society.