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24.12.2010

ARMENIAN CATHOLIC COMMUNITY IN RUSSIA

   

Arestakes Simavoryan

A.Simavoryan – Senior Expert of the Center of the Armenian Studies at “Noravank” Foundation

Records of the Catholic Armenians in Russia refer to the 18th century. Today on the territory of Russia Armenians are represented by three main confessions – Catholics, Protestants (Evangelicals) and adherents of the Armenian Apostolic Church. But in some regions there are Orthodox Armenians and in recent years there are also Lutheran Armenians. Generally, the contacts of the Catholic Armenians with that country can be divided into there stages, and each of them with its positive and negative sides greatly influenced Armeniancy in this immense country. Those stages are tsarist Russia, Soviet and post-Soviet period.

Historical reference

In the Russian Empire Catholicism has been spread since 1684 when Pope Innocent XI stated about the initiation of missionary activity in Russia. Generally, dissemination of Catholicism in Russia coincided with the regnal years of Peter I when in consequence of his policy European innovations penetrated into state and cultural life. Political and state figures converted to Catholicism and this process continued under Alexander I. Gradually Catholics had been spread in Moscow, Kiev and Smolensk. After the first partition of Poland in 1772 the number of Catholics reached dozens of thousand; they represented different nations and among them there were also Catholic Armenians.

Comparatively large groups of the Catholic Armenians appeared in Russia during the 1768-1774 Russian-Turkish war, after the conquest of the Crimea and third partition of Poland (1775). All the preconditions for the conversion of the Armenians to Catholicism were present; rich Armenian merchants who seriously competed with Catholic merchants from Genoa had been converting to Catholicism.

Back in the 19th century there are records of the Catholic Armenians in a number of cities of the Russian Empire – Astrakhan, Odessa, some districts of the Crimea. Later on (in 1720-1760) Catholic Armenians from Astrakhan, Turkey and Persia migrated to the cities of Kizlar and Mozdok where the first Catholic Armenian community and Armenian Catholic Church which has been functioning till our days, were established. Besides the aforementioned cities Catholic Armenian communities were established in Grozny, Vladikavkaz, Patigorsk, Temirkhan, Shura, Ekaterinodar, Novorossiysk and in the 20th century – in Voronezh, Pemza, Rostov and etc.

There were Catholic Armenians in Bessarabia (today’s Moldova) which also was a part of the Russian Empire. It is interesting that they did not speak Armenian, but they spoke Polish and they were bearers of Polish culture. The cities of Chisinau and Beltz became the centers of the Armenian communal life. The tsar authorities by special manifest established diocese with the centre in Yassa.

After the integration with Russia the Catholic Armenians from Georgia living in Akhltsikha who came there in 1830s from Karin and established in Akhlkalaki region, Tbilisi and etc., also appeared to be a part of the Russian Empire. In pre-Soviet period as a result of inter-confessional intolerance many Catholic Armenians took the road of Georgification. According to the contemporaries the adherents of the Roman Catholic Church lived in Tiflis and they were called “reverse Armenians”; they confronted their compatriots and all the attempts of the Italian Capuchins to reconcile them were in vein.

In 1909 Apostolic administration, which included in 1917 47 priests, 45 churches and chapels with 66518 adherents, was created for the Catholic Armenians. Thus, we can say that over the period of the Russian Empire the Catholic Armenians appeared as a result of conquest and integration with other countries, and some city communities were formed in a consequence of migration within the territory of the Empire and from outside.

After the October revolution and establishment of the Soviet system the persecutions were initiated over the whole territory of the USSR. The first strike of the atheist Soviet authorities came to the Catholics despite their national identity. Armenian who constituted a small part of the Catholic community in Russia, together with the representatives of clergy were either exiled or shot and this continued till 1944. Such a special stance in regard to the Catholics had political motivation and it was considered as a necessary “means” to neutralize all the ties with the foreign countries. It is remarkable that those “measures” were mainly taken in the border areas of the USSR – Samtskhe-Djavakhq populated by Armenians, Batumi, in Lvov among Catholic Armenians, Poles and Germans. E.g. Samtskhe-Djavakhq was considered “border area”1. As a result, Catholic clergy as unreliable element which had ties with the foreign countries, met obstacles while visiting villages because they needed special passes to get there.

In Tbilisi most of the Armenian clergymen who made serious steps to reclaim assimilated Armenians were annihilated. Under such conditions the process of conversion of the Armenians which had been going forward at a steady gait came to a halt and in the atmosphere of fear this became an impulse for the assimilation of the Catholic Armenians who cannot recover from that blow till now.

In 1937 Armenian Catholic church in Krasnodar was closed. In 1940 Armenian Catholic center in Lvov appeared under the control of the Soviet Army. Almost half of the Catholic Armenians – 2500 people – were arrested and exiled to Siberia and their priest, father Dionysius Kaetanivich was arrested and died in exile in 1954. Most of the property of the Armenian Catholic churches in Lvov, Ivano-Frankovsk, Tismenitsa, Lisetsi Snyatina. Berejani, Gorodechki, Kout was nationalized. The final “liquidation” of the Catholic Armenian church and the church members in Lvov was carried out by the direct order of N. Khrushchev.

After those events Catholic Armenians lived as citizens of the Soviet Union and it was just impossible to speak about their communal or spiritual life.

Revival of Catholicism in Russia and on the whole post-Soviet space coincided with the years of Perestroika. Soviet authorities gave permission but this process was under the control of the KGB. After the collapse of the USSR the spiritual borders of Vatican gradually broadened.

The Catholic Armenians from the former USSR republics, who mainly lived in Armenia, Georgia and Russia, were included in a newly created Eastern European Diocese (with the centre in Gyumri).

Current period

Today the number of the Catholic Armenians in the Russian Federation does not exceed 59 thousand people. This group of Armeniancy consists of two main strata – old timers and immigrants.

It is impossible to draw a border between old timers and immigrants because very often they represent mixed population centered in the cities. Though the main nucleus of the Catholics in Russia consists of Poles, Germans and Ukrainians but in a number of cities in confessional aspect Armenians outnumber them.

The Catholic Armenians mostly live in the south of Russia, in Krasnodar Krai and old timers here are the Armenians who migrated from Western Armenia in 1894-1920 and together with the Armenians who came from Samtskhe-Javakhq (since 1960 till present) they form 70% of all the Catholics in Kuban.

The Catholic Armenians who migrated from Ardvin live in Rostov-on-Don, Taganrog, Krasnodar, Sochi, Anapa; in Kalininski area generations of the Armenians from Bayazet live. However, it should also be mentioned that in those cities the Catholic Armenians who migrated from Georgia also live; they mainly compactly live in Kurganinsk, Abinsk, Gelenjik. The rest of the Catholic Armenians came and settled here from the northern parts of Armenia – Ashotsk, Tashir and other cities and villages. Despite the considerable number of the Catholic Armenians most of the communities has no churches. Correspondingly they have to visit Latin churches where sermons are delivered by Pole or other foreign priest. The only consoling fact is that for the Armenians who visit Latin churches Armenian clergymen hold ceremonies in accordance with the canons of the Armenian Church. In Krasnodar this is made by the Armenian clergyman Sergei Babajanyan who manages to unite Armenians at the nationwide events. The only Saint Simeon Kostel in Sochi which had to serve to the several Polish families is visited by a small number of the Catholic Armenians

Mutual perception, religious tolerance and Catholic Armenians. Despite the fact the inter-confessional cooperation between Roman Catholic Church and Russian Orthodox Church is on a rather high level, nevertheless the attitude towards Catholics, undoubtedly, is not very well-disposed. It seems that the negative stereotypes of Catholicism formed in the Soviet period still preserve. The diversity of the religious field in Russia sometimes is considered as a threat to the national security. For obvious reasons this mostly refers to the Muslims but Catholic-Orthodox contradictions can be found within the context of both the religious-confessional collisions and civilizational collisions.

In this context the Catholic Armenians have no problems, because they are perceived as Armenians, i.e. here the ethnic factor is important and because few knows that Armenians can also be Catholics there are no controversies on confessional grounds (besides judicial issues). On the other hand the Catholic Armenians separately cannot represent power (in any plane), they have rather good relations with the Armenians from other confessions and they are integrated into the Russian society. Such relations have been formed in the atmosphere of tolerance long ago.

In the RF the Armenian Catholic communities live far from each other and today this fact does not attach integral appearance to the whole community, like it is done in the US and Middle East, where due to the connection between city communities they constitute an integral whole from the point of view of the efficiency. As for Russia – on the territory from Irkutsk to St. Petersburg – the Catholic Armenians lived and live sparsely, so, in any town where Armenians of different confessions live they form one community – Armenian. That is why in the places where the Catholic Armenians are concentrated they are rather perceived as a religious minority community than in places where their number does not exceed one hundred people.

In the inter-confessional plane there are no sharp contradictions between Armenians; there are no problems which would provide fertile ground for the passions flared up. It is remarkable that the Catholic Armenians in Georgia and Russia never make counter steps in regard to each other; high level of national consciousness has never brought to the split of the communities. This is manifested both in everyday life (marriages, joint education. summer camps and etc.) and during nationwide events.

Among the Armenian Catholic communities the Moscow community can be distinguished by its activity. It is remarkable that this community mostly consists of the Armenians who migrated from Samtskhe-Javakhq. In particular, mainly immigrants from Norshen village (Tsakhltubo, Akhaltshikha area) undertook the issues of self-organization; they are assisted by the Armenian old timers living in Moscow who came here from Akhlkalak, Tbilisi, Baku, Turkmenistan and other CIS countries. There are fewer Catholic Armenians living in St. Petersburg. It is also remarkable that the Armenians who immigrated to Russia from the villages in Akhltsikhe set hopes upon the Catholic faith. Here we talk about intra-communal marriages and according to their assurances this is not due to the fact that they “know each other well”, but due to the belonging to the same confession and, particularly, because of the aspiration to retain their Armenian identity in the strange environment2.

Part of the Catholic Armenians who emigrated from the areas of Georgia populated by the Armenians converted to the Apostolic faith; this takes place mainly in consequence of marriages. At the same time, due to a number of factors, among the Armenians, despite their confessional belonging, a small tendency of converting into the Orthodoxy can be observed. Especially in the cities where a small number of the Armenians live, the community has not been established yet and there are no Armenian churches or those churches are far away, and they have to contract marriages (including mixed ones) or to be baptized in the Russian churches.

Despite the fact that the Catholic Armenians in Russia are a part of Easter European Diocese, they cannot be registered as a religious community. This seems to be the daunting problem which drew a wide response among the organizations dealing with religious and legal issues. Spiritual and clerical issues have legal foundations and this is connected with the judicial and legal system of the Russian Federation. There is also a deficit of the clergymen which is very characteristic of the Catholic Armenian communities.

It is also worth noting that on January 8, 2010, the head of the Armenian, Georgian and Eastern European Diocese Archbishop Nshan Karakeyan resigned. Instead of him the Mekhitarist Abbot Vahan Ohanyan was appointed as the head of the Armenian Catholic Diocese whose authority is also spread on the diocesan communities of Russia.

For the recent two years Catholic Armenian St. Gregory the Illuminator church in Moscow has been drawn into the suit. In 2009 it sued municipal authorities expressing a wish to be registered as a religious community. But the case was dismissed without reviewing. This was motivated by the appropriate bodies in the Ministry of Justice by the fact that the church did not present the document proving that the Catholic Armenians had lived in that area for 15 years3.

It is remarkable that the Catholic Armenian community had been gathering at St. Louis church since the mid 1980s and since 1991 it acts on a regular basis.

In July 2010 the lawyer of the Catholic Armenians Vladimir Rakhovski mentioned that through the instrumentality of religious organizations and the historical archive of the city of Moscow historical reference was submitted to the Ministry of Justice of the RF. According to that document the Catholic Armenian Church in Russia has been known since the 18th century and its communities were abolished in 1920s.

That is why the Ministry of Justice had no right to ignore this fact, thus, the verdict is considered void which contradicts to the Constitution of the RF. The court of Meschanski district reviewed and invalidated the verdict of the Ministry of Justice of the RF and obliged to reconsider the claim of the Armenian Catholic St. Gregory the Illuminator church and to issue a registration to the Catholic Armenian community. However, it is yet unclear what kind of continuation this issue will have.

Its resolution is first of all important from the point of view of preserving of the identity, because in case of the unsettled issue the Catholic Armenians should visit Latin churches which, in its turn, may have negative consequences as it happened before with the generation of many Catholic Armenians who lost their own churches and religious rites in Armenian.

While answering the question about the future of the Catholic Armenian Church in Russia Armenian Catholic priest Georg Noradugyan said: “Future? Only God knows it. For example in Poland, according to the historians there was a big Catholic Armenian community – about 200 thousand people – and now there is not. We do all the possible for our community in Russia not to repeat that fate”4.

On the assumption of all the aforementioned, it should be said that current high level of the Armenian-Russian relations, the potential of interstate cooperation may promote revival the rights of the community which ceased to exist in 1920s.

There is no division on the confessional grounds among the Russian Armeniancy in general. Despite the problems they face, “the standards of communal conduct” and resistance to the external challenges with joint forces are an integral part of their life.

1Мартен А., Католическая энциклопедия. Т. 1, Москва, Издательство францисканцев, 2002, с. 1491.

2Симаворян А., Овян В., Некоторые вопросы армян Джавахка, Ереван, 2009, с. 42.

3Мещанский районный суд столицы поддержал приход Армянской Католической Церкви, который добивается регистрации, http://www.sclj.ru/news/detail.php?ID=2907

4Лидия Орлова, Католицизм с кавказским акцентом, 10-06-2010, http://religion.ng.ru/people/2010-10-06/6_catolicism.html

"Globus National Security", issue 6

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