Russian Orthodox Missions to the East

Abstract

"Once they had seized power in Russia the Bolsheviks realised that they could retain it only if all existing state institutions were utterly destroyed. The urban masses could be controlled by force, hunger and terror. But what of the peasantry, who were the majority of the population and supported the monarchy? The multilingual population of the empire lived in patriarchal, communal societies that were bonded by Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Jewish (in small settlements in western provinces), pagan (shamanic) and even Zoroastrian beliefs. Pitirim Sorokin, one of the most eminent sociologists of this century and as a Komi a northerner by birth."