THE ORTHODOX CLERGY IN REPRESENTATIVE INSTITUTIONS OF THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE: EXPERIENCE IN STRUGGLE FOR NATIONAL SOBRIETY
The article analyses participation of the Orthodox clergy in the process of adopting legislative measures for sobriety in the Russian Empire at the beginning of the XX century. The activity and views of the “white” clergy and episcopate’s representatives are examined by the material of shorthand reports of the State Duma and the State Council sessions, contemporaries’ memories, periodical press and publicistic writings of the 1900-1910s. The author concludes that the Russian Orthodox clergy played a key role in struggle for national sobriety, both through parochial sobriety societies and representative institutions of the Russian Empire.