The activity of Agvan Dorjiev in the 1920s as reflected in the reports of the OGPU
https://doi.org/10.28995/2658-6541-2023-5-2-37-52
Abstract
The article is about the new sources pertaining to Agvan Dorjiev, the leader of the Buddhist renovationist movement in Russia. Reports, summaries and other declassified OGPU documents allow studying the important aspects of his activities in the 1920s. The paper is focused on the analysis of the documents which contain a lot of valuable information about the political stance of the Buddhist priests, the nature of the relationship between them and the ordinary believers, and the daily life of the Buddhist monasteries (dazans and huruls). The study of the declassified documents makes it possible to bring to light important data about the relations between the Soviet officials and the Buddhist Sangha, and about the clashes inside the Buddhist organizations. A network of secret agents has gathered valuable information about the conflict between the renovationists and the conservatives, about the activities of A. Dorjiev and other Buddhist leaders. Those documents contain the data referring to the disputes and other methods of antireligious agitation and propaganda. Reports on the “counter-revolutionary” statements and activities of the Buddhist clergymen and believers help revealing their attitude towards the Soviet authorities’ religion policy. Also, the documents facilitate for obtaining valuable information dealing with the real meaning of the concepts that are popular in contemporary historiography – the concepts of the “religious NEP” and the “Golden Age of Buddhism” in Soviet Russia.
About the Author
A. V. Sipeykin
Tver State University
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Alexander V. Sipeykin, Cand. of Sci. (History)
170100; bld. 33, Zhelyabov St., Tver
References
1. Amogolonova, D.D. (2017), “Buddhism and the Buryats’ political identification at the beginning of the 20th century”, Tomsk State University Journal, no. 421, pp. 197–207.
2. Baskhaev, A.N. (2007), Buddiiskaya tserkov’ Kalmykii: 1900–1943 gg. [Buddhist church of Kalmyckia. 1900–1943], Dzhangar, Elista, Russia.
3. Bakaeva, E.P. (2013), “Repressions against the priesthood. About the closure of a higher confessional school Choira in Kalmykia”, Vestnik Buryatskogo nauchnogo tsentra Sibirskogo otdeleniya Rossiiskoi akademii nauk, vol. 12, no. 4, pp. 7–14.
4. Damdinov, A.V. (1997), “Agvan Dorjiev in the Renovationist movement of the Buryat Buddhist priesthood”, in Buryatskii buddizm: istoriya i ideologiya [Buryat Buddhism. History and ideology], Izdatel’stvo Buryatskogo nauchnogo tsentra, Ulan Ude, Russia, pp. 87–91.
5. Dordjieva, G.Sh. (2014), Repressirovannoe dukhovenstvo Kalmykii [Repressed priesthood of Kalmykia], Izdatel’stvo Kalmytskogo universiteta, Elista, Russia.
6. Kail, M.V. (2012), “Investigatory records on the provincial episcopate, priesthood and believers in 1918–1920”, Otechestvennye arkhivy, no. 4, pp. 59–66.
7. Krivova, N.A. (1999), Vlast i tserkov’ v 1922–1925 gg. [Power and the church in 1922–1925], Moscow, Russia.
8. Leontieva, T.G. (2007), “Kalinin’s priesthood in the repressions of 1937–1938”, in Gosudarstvo, obshchestvo, tserkov v istorii Rossii XX veka: Materialy VI Mezhdunarodnoi nauchnoi konferentsii, Ivanovo 7–8 fevralya 2007 g. [State, society and the church in the Russian history of the 20th century. Proceedings of the 6th International conference, Ivanovo, February 7–8 2007], Ivanovo, Russia, pp. 77–84.
9. Leontieva, T.G. (2009), “Priests, churchmen and sects in the bolshevik’s perestroika (restructuring) in the Kalinin region in 1937–1938”, in Yunge, M., Bonvech, B. and Binner, R. (comp.), Stalinizm v sovetskoi provintsii, 1937–1938 gg.: Massovaya operatsiya na osnove prikaza № 00447 [Stalinism in the Soviet province, 1937–1938. Massive operation in accordance to order no. 00447], Rossiiskaya politicheskaya entsiklopediya, ROSSPEN; Germanskii istoricheskii institut v Moskve, Moscow, Russia, pp. 216 – 243.
10. Nikonov, V.V. (2022), “Antireligious activities in the Moscow region in the early Soviet period”, Bulletin of Moscow Region State University. Series: History and Political Sciences, no. 1, pp. 62–71.
11. Nuikina, E.Yu. (2016), “Investigatory records of priesthood as a historical source about the Russian Orthodox Church”, Herald of an Archivist, no. 4, pp. 58–73.
12. Sevostyanov, G.N. (2001), “Preface”, in «Sovershenno sekretno», Lubyanka – Stalinu o polozhenii v strane, 1922–1934 gg. [Top secret. Lubyanka to Stalin about the situation in the country. 1922–1934], vol. 1, part 1, Izdatelskii tsentr Instituta rossiiskoi istorii RAN, Moscow, Russia, pp. 16–18.
13. Senyutkina, O.N. (2020), “GPU–OGPU Eastern Department and the experience of studying it in the works by V.S. Khristoforov”, in The New Historical Bulletin, vol. 66, no. 4. pp. 151–163.
14. Senyutkina, O.N. and Khristoforov, V.S. (2021), “Declassified GPU–OGPU documents of the 1920s as a historical source”, Herald of an Archivist, no. 2, pp. 405–417.
15. Sinitsyn, F.L. (2013), “Krasnaya burya”: Sovetskoe gosudarstvo i buddizm v 1917–946 gg. [Red tempest. The Soviet state and Buddhism in 1917–1946], Izdanie A.A. Terent’eva, Saint Petersburg, Russia.
16. Sinitsyn, F.L. (2013), “Soviet state and Buddhists (1917–1946)”, Rossiiskaya istoriya, no. 1, pp. 62–76.
17. Terens, M. (2001), “The OGPU surveys and the Soviet historians”, in «Sovershenno sekretno», Lubyanka – Stalinu o polozhenii v strane, 1922–1934 gg. [Top secret. Lubyanka to Stalin about the situation in the country. 1922–1934], vol. 1, part 1, Izdatelskii tsentr Instituta rossiiskoi istorii RAN, Moscow, Russia, pp. 21–26.
18. Uspenskii, V.L. (2021), “On the failed mission to Tibet by Agvan Dorjiev in Tibet in 1928”, Mongolica, vol. 24, no. 2, pp. 52–57.
19. Tsyrempilov, N.V. (2012), “Buddhist Vanguard. Transformations of the Buryat Buddhist Sangha in Russia (18th – the beginning of the 20th c.)”, The New Historical Bulletin, vol. 33, no. 3, pp. 26–36.
20. Tsyrempilov, N. (2019), “Sangha in the period of decline. Reactions of Russian Buddhists towards the Russian Revolution and the Civil War”, in Gosudarstvo. Religiya. Tserkov [State. Religion. Church], vol. 37, no. 1/2, pp. 347–370.
21. Shkarovskii, M.V. (2010), Russkaya Pravoslavnaya Tserkov v XX veke [Russian Orthodox Church in the 20th century], Moscow, Russia.
Review
For citations:
Sipeykin A.V. The activity of Agvan Dorjiev in the 1920s as reflected in the reports of the OGPU. History and Archives. 2023;5(2):37-52. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.28995/2658-6541-2023-5-2-37-52
Views:
441
Email this article 