| While female monasteries represented centers of piety and charity as well as powerful economic institutions in medieval Russia, the eighteenth century saw widespread changes in convent life. The eighteenth-century state restricted entry to convents and, after diverting monastic revenues for state needs, secularized church property in 1764. That decree closed the majority of monasteries, deprived the remaining ones of their wealth, reduced the number of monastics, and forced them to rely on meager budgets. Over the course of the nineteenth century, however, monasteries---but especially convents---recovered; convents tripled their numbers, recorded significant financial growth, and expanded their social mission.;This dissertation examines these developments through the lens of the Convent of the Intercession in Suzdal. It draws mainly on archival sources, primarily those in the local archives, but also taps a number of neglected printed sources. Framed with data for the empire at large, this microhistory explores changes in social profile in the eighteenth century, and finds not only a reduction but also a democratization of nuns by the late eighteenth century. This democratization intensified in the nineteenth century partly because women in privileged classes had new opportunities and more secular attitudes, and partly because the Convent offered an attractive, available alternative for peasant women.;The Convent, moreover, improved its financial condition and hence could support a growing contingent of nuns and novices. It derived this increased revenue from donations from a wide cross-section of the population. This enhanced financial base allowed the Convent, and others like it, to expand charitable services and rebut criticism of excessive wealth. But 1917 changed all that: the new Bolshevik regime targeted religion, but especially monasticism, and closed the Convent and expelled the sisters in 1923. Only the passing of the Soviet regime in 1991 allowed the Church to reclaim the Convent and begin rebuilding a female monastic community. |
