Dr. Bournoutian Gives Second Lecture on The Armenian Church Under Russian Rule
Dr. Bournoutian and some of his students at lecture
May 2009 • Vol. 30, No. 4 (106)
On Tuesday, March 24 at
7:30 PM, Dr. George Bournoutian gave the second of his three part lecture
series on “The Armenian Church Under
Foreign Rule: Persia,
Russia, and South Asia
1600-1800,” to a full audience in the Alice Peters Auditorium at Fresno State.
In this lecture,
Dr. Bournoutian covered the topic “The Armenian Church under
Russian Rule: 1600-1800.” He spoke on how the Armenian community in Russia had
to fight for their right to practice
their faith in their own church and the significant impact the Armenian Church
had on Armenians
in Russia.
He cited numerous sources, such as letters and official documents, which he
himself had translated from Russian into English.
Dr. Bournoutian is
currently Kazan Visiting Professor of Armenian Studies for the Spring 2009
semester at Fresno
State. He is senior
Professor
of East European and Middle Eastern Studies at Iona
College in New York and the author of seventeen books.
Dr. Bournoutian gave a
stirring
presentation on the history of the Armenian Church under Russian rule
during the period of the Romanov Dynasty from approximately 1600-1800. Audience members learned that the Armenians
living in Russia
at this time had to overcome Russian opposition to Armenians practicing
their
faith and to building Armenian churches. Dr. Bournoutian noted that Armenians
had settled in Russia since
the time of Ivan the
Terrible in the tenth century, so by the seventeenth
century, Russia
had a substantial Armenian population, yet the Armenians were denied
the
opportunity to pray in Russian churches.
This changed in 1667 after
Armenian merchants presented a diamond throne to the Russian
Tsar, who then
granted the Armenian community access to pray in Russian churches. Thirty years
later, the Russian ruler Peter the Great
permitted the Armenians to build a
wooden church in Astrakhan.
However, this church remained the only Armenian Church for the entire
Armenian
community in Russia
until 1762.
Under the rule of Catherine
the Great, 1762-1796, Armenians enjoyed a period of prosperity
and Armenian
churches were built in Moscow, St.
Petersburg, and a second one in Astrakhan. Russia even forbade Catholic
missionaries
from converting Armenians.
Towards the end of his
lecture, Dr. Bournoutian focused his attention on the Statutes (Polozheniye)
of 1836. The Statutes defined the
relationship between the Russian Government and the Armenian Church and are
important because they remained
in force until 1917. Dr. Bournoutian mentioned
that historians view these Statutes as either having a positive or negative
impact on
the Armenian Church. He noted
that some historians view these Statutes as either being “restrictions placed
on the Armenian Church
by Russia”
or as “the official document that gave the Armenian Church its autonomy.”
Fresno State students showed their appreciation
for Dr.
Bournoutian’s lecture. “It is fascinating to learn about the Armenian culture
and its impact in European society in its development,”
commented Jonathan
Munoz, a senior History major at Fresno
State. Ani Simonyan, a
junior History major at Fresno
State, felt that “Dr.
Bournoutian
presented a history of 300 years in an informative way in our
understanding of the Armenian Church under Russian rule.”
Dr. Bournoutian
concluded
his three part lecture series on Tuesday, April 21.