Christianizing Crimea – Shaping Sacred Space in the Russian Empire and Beyond

Christianizing CrimeaShaping Sacred Space in the Russian Empire and Beyond\nAuthor(s): Mara Kozelsky\nFormat: Hardback\nPublisher: Cornell University Press, United States\nImprint: Northern Illinois University Press\nISBN-13: 9780875804125, 978-0875804125\nSynopsis\nIn nineteenth-century Russia, religious culture permeated politics at the highest levels, and Orthodox Christian groupsincluding refugees from the Russo-Ottoman wars as well as the church itselfinfluenced Russian domestic and foreign policy. Likewise, Russian policy with the Ottoman Empire inspired the creation of a holy place in ethnically and religiously diverse Crimea. Looking to the monastic state of Mount Athos in Greece, Orthodox Church authorities in the mid-1800s attempted to create a monastic community in Crimea, which they called \""Russian Athos.\"" The Crimean War catalyzed the Russian Christianization that had begun decades earlier and decimated Crimea's Muslim population. Wartime propaganda portrayed Crimea as.