The Baltic Orthodox Brotherhood and its Role in the Organization of the Pyukhtitsa Women’s Commune

This article, which is primarily based on new archival materials from the depositories of Tartu, St. Petersburg, Tallinn and Riga, is devoted to the previously little studied issue of the role of the Baltic Orthodox Brotherhood of Christ the Saviour and the Protection of the Mother of God (founded in 1882) in the organization of the Pyukhtitsa Women’s Commune of the Dormition (a monastery, since 1893). This monastery in eastern Estonia later became one of the most well-known in the Russian Orthodox Church. The specific activities of the Baltic Brotherhood, which was led by representatives of the capital’s elites, are considered in this article. The Brotherhood mainly built and equipped churches, monasteries and social institutions. Particular attention is paid to the activities of the Governor of Estonia, S. Shakhovsky, and his wife E. Shakhovskaya, who played a decisive role in the creation of the Ievven branch of the brotherhood (1887) and the Pyukhtitsa commune (1891) and their associated shelters, hospitals and educational institutions. The article notes the similarity between the goals and objectives (primarily social) of the Baltic brotherhoods (lay organizations) and women’s communes, in that both instances are cases of communities that occupied an intermediate position between the world and the monastery. For some time after 1917, the Ievven branch of the brotherhood played a significant role in the management of up to 13 of the monastery’s different charitable institution under the chairmanship of E. Shakhovskaya, having been transformed in 1919 into the Pyukhtitsa Guardian Brotherhood on the Mount of the Mother of God (Pyukhtitsa na bogoroditskoj gore popechiteljskoe bratstvo)