Introduction to Resources on Religion
Eastern Orthodox
Church•Other
Religions
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Though much has
been written about religion in Russia, researching the subject can be
difficult. Bibliographies on religion seem to have only become common
in the second half of the 19th century, and naturally religion
dropped off as a topic of research after the 1917 revolution. There
is more available from the Soviet era than one might expect, however.
The publishing division of the Moscow Patriarchate was active, and after
1998 religious publishing houses sprung up rapidly. Butina and Tarasov
observe, however, that many of the publications from the 1990s were
reprints of 19th century volumes. This group of works comprises
many of the citations in this section.
A good place to begin,
as for many topics, would be encyclopedias. A number of encyclopedias exist on
Eastern Orthodoxy as well as several on Judaism and on other religious groups
in Russia. These are not only good sources for clarifying concepts and giving
introductions to various topics, but may include bibliographical references and
can therefore be used as a jumping-off point for research. See the section on
the appropriate topic for encyclopedias on that subject.
Two
very large bibliographies are cited below. These
are Novaia literatura po sotsial'nym i gumanitarnym naukam: religiovedenie,
and Rubakin's Sredi Knig. Both of those were very useful in providing citations
for this bibliography, and they also contain many works not cited here. Since
what follows is a list of reference works with significant scope, many titles
were left out due to their not being reference or their narrow scope. Many of
these works could still be useful for people interested in a specific topic.
Many
church periodicals have been published since the
19th century, however, there is no index specific to religious publications.
To find titles of pre-revolutionary religious periodicals, two sources will be
essential. One is Lisovskii's Russkaia periodicheskaia pechat', 1703-1900 gg.
(UIUC Call Number: Russian Reference A.057 L69r 1993) and the other is Bibliografiia
periodicheskikh izdanii Rossii, 1901-1916 (UIUC Call Number: Russian Reference
016.057 L54b).
Lisovskii's bibliography is organized
chronologically, with an index at the end. The relevant index here is called "Sistematicheskii
spisok russkikh periodicheskikh izdanii." It is organized by city--Petersburg,
Moscow, and provinces-- with subject categories within the section for each city.
Within each section, part G1 is dedicated to religion and philosophy and lists
periodicals by their entry number.
Bibliografiia
periodicheskikh izdanii Rossiicalls itself a continuation of Lisovskii's work.
It covers the years 1901-1916. Its index is more straightforward, listing subjects
in alphabetical order. Journal titles are not listed, only their entry numbers.
The index has more than 200 citations for journals on religion.
The current official church periodical is Zhurnal Moskovskoi Patriarkhii,
which has been in publication since 1943. An English version has been published
since 1971. It is also online at http://212.188.13.168/izdat/,
starting in 1996. This journal is indexed by the Academy of Sciences and in Religion
Index One. The Academy of Sciences indexes other current religious journals as
well.
Scholars interested in historical topics relating
to religion should also see the history
section of this course. For specific religious figures, the biography
section will also be useful. For iconography, many of the works in the art
section are relevant.
Cited below are six general
works that focus on or include religion in Russia.
GENERAL
WORKS
Novaia
literatura po sotsial'nym i gumanitarnym naukam: religiovedenie
Rossiiskaia akademiia nauk, Institut nauchnoi informatsii po obshchestvennym naukam.
Moskva: RAN INION, 1993-
UIUC Call Number: Russian Reference Q.016.2118 N856111
This
is a quarterly bibliography of all books and articles published in Russia on religion,
ranging from Orthodoxy to Daoism. Bibliographies are listed as a separate topic.
The Russian Academy of Sciences online database contains the citations published
in this print work. Researchers should choose between the print and online versions
depending on the kind of query. For example, someone looking for a recent particular
title and who doesn't know what year it is from would probably want to use the
online database, while someone browsing by subject would probably find it easier
to use the print version. Writing on religion from a historical or ethnographic
perspective might be in the section called Istoriia, arkheologiia, etnologiia
(UIUC Call Number: Main Stacks Q.016.905 No11; two most recent years in Russian
Reference under the same call number).
Sredi
Knig
N.A. Rubakin. Moskva: Knigoizdatel'stvo
"NAUKA", 1913. 3 v.
UIUC Call Number: Russian Reference 020
R894s 1911
Rubakin describes his work as
a "survey of Russian literary wealth." He provides numerous bibliographies,
divided into lists by subject, and prefaced by essays by the author. Since the
bibliography is not annotated, the best way to use this rich work is to read the
sections of the author's essays pertaining to one's area of interest. In these
essays, Rubakin describes certain books and comments on which ones he deems essential.
He includes entry numbers, so readers can then turn to the appropriate entry for
a full citation. The section on "Religiozno-tserkovnyi stroi" in volume
2 covers a range of religions, including Eastern religion, history of the Orthodox
Church, and philosophy of religion.
The modern encyclopedia of religions in Russia and the
Soviet Union./ The modern encyclopedia of religions in Russia and Eurasia.
Paul D. Steeves, editor. Gulf Breeze, Fl: Academic International Press, 1988-
UIUC Call Number: Russian Reference 291.0947 M72 v.1-7
This extensive English encyclopedia is in the process of being written. Volume
7, thus far the last volume, initiates the title change noted above. The last
entry so far is Eastern Siberia. There will eventually be 30 volumes. Entries
are on people, geographical places, and organizations. Each article concludes
with a bibliography in paragraph form. One small difficulty could be that transliteration
is not standard, and names of organizations are in translation.
Religioznye
ob"edineniia Rossiiskoi Federatsii: Spravochnik.
S.I. Ivanenko, et al. Moskva: Izdatel'stvo "Respublika," 1996. 431p.
UIUC Call Number: Russian Reference 291.177 R2796
This guide has information collected from a wide range of religious organizations.
The section on each religion tells what the religion is, its history, theology,
and how many organized groups exist in Russia. Addresses are included for some
organizations. Articles vary in length, since authors are different and some religions
are more widespread than others. The table of contents is very detailed, compensating
for a lack of index.
Religii
narodov sovremennoi Rossii: Slovar.
L.A. Andreevna,
et al. Moskva: Respublika, 1999. 624p.
UIUC Call Number: Russian Reference
200.947 R2795
This encyclopedia of 350 entries covers
the last decade with admirable broadness and depth. Entries for peoples tell how
many of them live in Russia and the religion they commonly practice. Specific
religions mentioned can be as obscure as magic, scientology, and daoism. More
widespread religions have several entries; for example there are entries on Eastern
Orthodox culture, music, national identity, education, ethics, missionaries, and
monasticism. Readers should beware that cross-referencing is not complete, e.g.,
the entry for Judaism doesn't link to Jewish holidays. Articles range from 1 column
to several pages. Tables at the back show statistics of population following several
major religions, and maps show the distribution of major religions in Europe and
Central Asia. There is an index of all entries. Here
is the entry on mosques.
Ateisticheskii
slovar'.
Mikhail Petrovich Novikov. Moskva:
Izdatel'stvo politicheskoi literatury, 1984. 511 pp.
UIUC Call Number:
Main Stacks 211.8039171 At25 1984
This Soviet work was
intended for propagandistic instruction. A very clear introduction explains the
work's organization and how to use it. Entries are very short but seem fairly
factual and cover a wide variety of religions (such as Zoroastrianism and Manicheanism).
Eastern Orthodox Church•Other
Religions
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