From peasants to «protestants» and «psychopaths»: semiotic transformations of peasant religious movements in the orthodox discourse of the late 19th-early 20th century
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Abstract
Abstract. The purpose of this study is to examine the semiotic transformations of peasant religious movements in the
southern Russian Empire during the late 19th and early 20th centuries within the official Orthodox discourse, where these
movements were categorized as manifestations of «Protestantism» or «psychopathology.» The research focuses on the discursive
mechanisms through which the Synodal Church adapted non-systemic religious practices to the conditions of modernization,
influenced by scientistic trends and institutional shifts. It explores how Orthodox theologians, missionaries, and sectarian
scholars constructed the image of peasant sectarians by drawing on Western intellectual constructs, such as Protestantism, and
by pathologizing ecstatic religious practices through a medical lens.
The scientific novelty lies in a systematic analysis of Orthodox discursive practices, with an emphasis on the semiotic
dimensions of categorizing local religious movements, including shtundism, malyovantstvo, and pashkovism. The study establishes
a connection between the academic formation of sectarian studies and the construction of Protestantism as a generalized
model of sectarianism, alongside a correlation between the positivist ideals of the era and the tendency to interpret religious
ecstasy as psychopathology, reinforced by collaboration between the Church and psychiatric institutions.
The findings demonstrate that interpreting peasant religious movements as Protestant or pathological was part of a
broader strategy by the Synodal Church to unify the diversity of religious beliefs within the imperial society. These interpretative
models not only simplified the complex landscape of peasant faith but also provided a theoretical foundation for missionary
activities, reflecting the broader modernization processes that encompassed the social, intellectual, and religious spheres of
the time.
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