წმინდა საყდრის უნიატური პოლიტიკა და რუსეთის დიპლომატიური მისია ვატიკანში (1878-1903)

Abstract

The history of the Vatican-Russian diplomatic relations, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, is marked by many issues in both domestic and foreign policy. They could be solved only by reconsidering the basic principles by both parties. It had been the most important goal for the papacy, which lost its statehood in 1870, to resolve the “Roman Issue” and return the lost territories. The relations with Russia also played an important role in the Vatican’s foreign policy. After the Great Schism of 1054, the Roman pontiff s saw their world mission in the unifi cation of Christian churches. Eastern Europe, primarily the Russian Orthodox Church, played a key role in carrying out this mission. That was one of the main vectors of the Vatican’s foreign policy to create the Uniate church and the pontiff s of Rome tried to resolve it at diff erent times, in diff erent ways. In this article, I have tried to analyze the diplomatic relations between the Vatican and Russia in 1878-1903. The book by E. A. Adamov, “Diplomacy of the Vatican in the Age of Imperialism” helped me to do more complex research on the topic. The book covers the reports of Russian diplomats in the Vatican, including the reports of A.P. Izvolski. Academician E. Winter’s (Berlin Academy of Sciences) monographs in German and Russian languages were signifi cantly informative (Winter E. Russland und das Papsstum. Berlin. Bände, Berlin: Akademie-Verlag 1960-1961, Winter E . 1950 Russland und die slawishen Volker in der Diplomatie des Vatikans 1878- 1903. Berlin: Akademie-Verlag). In his study “Policy of Vatican in relation to the USSR in 1917-1968,” which is based on resources of archives of European countries, Edward Winter argues that anti-communism, anti-Sovietism and unifi cation of Catholic and Orthodox Churches remained the main political orientation of the Vatican in the twentieth century, which I completely agree with. In the process of working on monographs by other authors, I further strengthened my point of view. Vatican-Russian relations have always been problematic. The Russian policy towards the Greek-Catholic (Uniate) Church was based on the traditional attitude of the Orthodox Church. Due to the political situation in 1596, a signifi cant part of the Orthodox population united with the Catholics, so their return to the roots of Orthodoxy seemed to be legal. Between 1839 and 1875, the Uniate population formally converted to Orthodoxy, which made the situation worse. The Russian legislation clearly showed the priority of Orthodoxy over other confessions, and the protection of those interests was taken up to the state level. This attitude greatly complicated Vatican-Russian relations. The Russian authorities treated the Roman Catholic clergy in the same way as bureaucrats. For the above reason, the papacy tried to show support for the traditional Catholic population, even if it could make bad eff ects on foreign policy interests. But neither diplomatic relations turned out to be common; there were several reasons for this. Russia was still trying to limit the interference of the Roman Curia in Russian domestic policy from the time of the Empress of Russia, Catherine II. At the same time, Russia feared that Poland would have a strong infl uence on the Roman Catholic clergy. Because of this, the Holy See has refused to fully restore both diplomatic and concordant relations, even though negotiations on both issues had been conducted several times. The Russian aristocracy feared revolution and supported the Vatican’s idea of establishing a “Russian Catholic Church”. It should also be noted that before the end of the First World War, the Roman Church had normal relations with Tsarism. Pope Leo XIII (1878-1903) played a major role in beginning a new era in the history of the Roman Church. Leo XIII was involved in a complicated political game for almost 25 years in order to revive the “Divine Union”, the ideological leader of which would be the Pope. Russia should have played an important role in this union; The Pope considered the Romanovs a reliable supporter in the struggle against the revolution in Europe and therefore sought to establish friendly relations with them. The pope off ered the Russian emperor to restore diplomatic relations, which had been ended in 1867, as well as support the Catholic Church in Poland and the Balkans. And most importantly, the Pope who was a good diplomat always remembered the main goal - the creation of the Uniate Church. Leo XIII hoped that by the unifi cation of the Orthodox and Catholic Churches, he would also bring Protestants back into the roots of Catholicism. For this purpose, the Pope held active negotiations with three Russian monarchs: Alexander II, Alexander III, and Nicholas II. In March 1884, Leo XIII sent a letter to the Polish bishops urging them to cooperate with the Russian, German, and Austro-Hungarian authorities. The Pope was urging Russian Catholics to obey the local government. Authorities of St. Petersburg liked the pope’s encyclical and diplomacy. After many years of negotiations, a Russian diplomatic mission was restored in the Holy See in 1894, which lasted for 23 years, until 1917 (until 1990, Russia no longer had offi cial diplomatic relations with the Vatican). P.A. Izwolski was appointed Minister-Resident in the Vatican. In exchange for the restoration of offi cial diplomatic relations almost thirty years later, the pope hoped to obtain the king’s consent to the opening of a nunciature in St. Petersburg, but the death of Alexander III became the hindering factor to the pope’s plans. Benedict XV, the successor of Leo XIII, tried to sort out relations with Tsarism, but his diplomatic activities did not bring signifi cant results. Thus, Leo XIII, despite active diplomacy, was unable to unite the Slavic world and Catholicism, nor did he make Russia an equal ally of the Holy See, or open a nunciature in St. Petersburg. The issue of creating the Uniate Church is still actively discussed in the frames of the foreign policy of the Vatican.