The Construction of Russian Orthodoxy in Chukotka

Ministering to the People and Marking the Territory in an Arctic Border Zone

Bibliographic Data

ID3786330
AuthorsVirginie Vaté (0000-0003-3067-2943, corresponding author)
Year2024
Volume206
Pages47-76
Publication date2024-01-01
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueArchives de sciences sociales des religions (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0335-5985 • E-ISSN: 1777-5825
PublisherOpenEdition (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.4000/12arn
OpenAlexW4403273847
LanguageEN
References cited19

Over the last two decades, the Russian Orthodox Church has commissioned the construction of churches and other religious monuments throughout Russia, marking the land as Orthodox. Chukotka, a region located at the extreme northeast of the country, is no exception to this general rule. Still, the extent of the construction and of other activities sponsored by the Orthodox Church in Chukotka is remarkable for a number of reasons, including the specificities of the colonial history of the region, its remoteness, sparse population, and fierce climatic conditions, and its proximity to the United States. Based on fieldwork in 2018 and on long-term experience in Chukotka since 1993, this article documents the socio-historical, ethnographic, and geopolitical aspects of the presence of the Russian Orthodox Church in the region, focusing on the specific challenges encountered there by agents of the church. In Chukotka, the Russian Orthodox Church pursues goals that are simultaneously missionary and political. However, given the combination of difficulties that limit the church's impact locally, its commitment to establishing its presence in Chukotka is best understood in terms of the strategic importance of the region

Archaeology · Arctic · Geography · Orthodoxy · Political science · The arctic · Arctic and Russian Policy Studies · Indigenous Studies and Ecology · Geology · Oceanography

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