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DSc in Philology, Principal Research Fellow, Department of Ethnolinguistics and Folklore, Institute of Slavic Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences
This article is devoted to the analysis of documents reflecting events that took place in 1923 in the Roslavl district of Smolensk province. In several villages there, “miracles” of icon “renewal” (the spontaneous clarification of darkened images on icons) were said to have occurred, which caused a wave of interest and of popular religious sentiment. This attracted the attention of the state and Communist Party structures, which took measures to combat the surge in religious sentiment. These measures were recorded in secret reports that contain information about the exposure of religious “miracles,” about the renewed icons, about the attitude of peasants to the phenomenon of renewal, and about the geographical scope of this cultural phenomenon. The anti-religious campaign related to the events of 1923 in Roslavl district also received coverage in the Soviet press. These documents chronicle a series of icon renewals that took place in the Smolensk-Bryansk border area in the summer of 1923 and formulate several narratives concerning these events. The article is based on documents from the State Archive of Modern History of the Smolensk Region and the State Archive of the Smolensk Region.
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