Back to Results
Cover image of Russia's Lost Reformation
Cover image of Russia's Lost Reformation
Share this Title:

Russia's Lost Reformation

Peasants, Millennialism, and Radical Sects in Southern Russia and Ukraine, 1830-1917

Sergei I. Zhuk

Publication Date
Binding Type

Radical Protestant Christianity became widespread in rural parts of southern Russia and Ukraine in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Russia's Lost Reformation: Peasants, Millennialism, and Radical Sects in Southern Russia and Ukraine, 1830-1917, studies the origins and evolution of the theology and practices of these radicals and their contribution to an alternative culture in the region.

Arising from a confluence of immigrant Anabaptists from central Europe and native Russian religious dissident movements, the new sects shared characteristics with both their antecedents in Europe...

Radical Protestant Christianity became widespread in rural parts of southern Russia and Ukraine in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Russia's Lost Reformation: Peasants, Millennialism, and Radical Sects in Southern Russia and Ukraine, 1830-1917, studies the origins and evolution of the theology and practices of these radicals and their contribution to an alternative culture in the region.

Arising from a confluence of immigrant Anabaptists from central Europe and native Russian religious dissident movements, the new sects shared characteristics with both their antecedents in Europe and their contemporaries in the Shaker and Quaker movements on the American frontier. The radicals' lives showed energy and initiative reminiscent of Max Weber's famous paradigm in The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. And women participated in congregations no less than men and often led them.

The radicals criticized the existing social and political order, created their own educational system, and in some cases engaged in radical politics. Their contributions, argues Zhuk, help explain the receptiveness of peasants in this region to the revolutions of 1905 and 1917.

Reviews

Reviews

Extremely well-written work that contributes to a neglected aspect of Russian religious history. Zhuk displays a clear mastery of the material and presents the details of the reformation without losing the thread fo the narrative.

A valuable book on radical Protestantism in rural Russia and Ukraine... provocatively shows how Christian radicalism prepared the peasantry to accept and approve the revolution.

A vivid study of Protestant sectarianism in the multiethnic regions of southern Russia and Ukraine.

Stimulating study... For anyone interested in gaining a sense of the religious ferment in Ukraine where Mennonites were centered and Mennonite Brethren had their beginning.

A very valuable contribution to Russian and especially Ukrainian religious history.

See All Reviews
About

Book Details

Publication Date
Status
Available
Trim Size
6
x
9
Pages
480
ISBN
9780801879159
Illustration Description
47 b&w illus.
Table of Contents

List of Figures
Map of the Southern Provinces of the Russian Empire
Preface
Introduction. The Forgotten Pioneers of Radical Evangelicalism in Russia—Historiography, Theory, and Sources
Chapter 1

List of Figures
Map of the Southern Provinces of the Russian Empire
Preface
Introduction. The Forgotten Pioneers of Radical Evangelicalism in Russia—Historiography, Theory, and Sources
Chapter 1. Colonization, Emancipation, and Religious Radicalism
Chapter 2. The Shalaputs
Chapter 3. The Stundists
Chapter 4. Peasant Theologians and the Protestant Ethic
Chapter 5. The Stundo-Shalaputs, or the Maliovantsy
Chapter 6. Orthodox Peasants No More
Chapter 7. The Religious Radicals' Rebellion
Epilogue. From Christian Millennium to Bolshevik Utopia
Appendix A Population of Southern Russian and Ukrainian Provinces, 1861–1900, according to the Governors' Reports
Appendix B. Sects in the Southern European Provinces of the Russian Empire, according to the Census of 1897
Appendix C. The Registered Sects in the Southern European Provinces of the Russian Empire, according to the Census of 1909–10
Selected Bibliography
Index

Author Bio
Sergei I. Zhuk
Featured Contributor

Sergei I. Zhuk

Sergei I. Zhuk is a professor of history at Ball State University. He is the author of Russia’s Lost Reformation: Peasants, Millennialism, and Radical Sects in Southern Russia and Ukraine, 1830–1917. He was a Kennan Institute Research Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center in 2002–2003.
Resources

Additional Resources