Keeping the faith

"In Keeping the Faith, Jennifer Jean Wynot presents a history of the trials and evolution of Russian Orthodox monasteries and convents and the important roles they have played in Russian culture, in both the spiritual and political realms, from the abortive reforms of 1905 to the Stalinist purges of the 1930s. She shows how, throughout the Soviet period, Orthodox monks and nuns continued to provide spiritual strength to the people, in spite of severe persecution, and despite the ambivalent relationship the Russian state has had toward the Russian church since the reign of Ivan the Terrible." "Using previously unavailable Russian archival sources as well as written memoirs and interviews with surviving monks and nuns, Wynot analyzes the monasteries' adaptation to the Bolshevik regime. She challenges standard Western assumptions that communism effectively killed the Orthodox Church in Russia. She shows that, in fact, the role of monks and nuns in Orthodox monasteries and convents is crucial, and that they are largely responsible for the continuation of Orthodoxy in Russia following the Bolshevik revolution." "Keeping the Faith offers new information and a new perspective that will be of interest not only to students of Russian history and communism but also to scholars interested in church-state relations."--BOOK JACKET.