---
id: holy-synod
recordStatus: draft
liveStatus: new
type: institution
title: Holy Synod
titleEn: Most Holy Governing Synod
titleRu: Святейший Правительствующий Синод
description: "The governing body of the Russian Orthodox Church, whose spiritual censorship kept A Confession out of print in Russia in 1882 and 1886."
foundedDate: ""
foundedDateOldStyle: ""
foundedDateApproximate: false
dissolvedDate: ""
dissolvedDateApproximate: false
institutionType: church
location: ""
founders: []
relatedArticles:
- leo-tolstoy
- sophia-tolstaya
relatedWorks:
-
id: confession
relationshipType: source
themes:
- censorship
- Tolstoy and the Orthodox Church
identifiers:
wikidata: ""
fieldSources: {}
---
The Holy Synod (Святейший Синод) was the governing body of the Russian Orthodox Church. In the history of [[A Confession]] (1879–82) it stands behind the spiritual (church) censorship that kept the work out of print in Russia: the censorship stopped it in 1882, and the Synod itself refused it in 1886. The work was not legally printed in Russia until 1906.
## 1882: the Russkaya Mysl printing
S. A. Yuryev accepted the work for [[Russkaya Mysl]], and it was set for the May 1882 issue. The editors added an introduction and five notes "in the spirit of church teaching" to chapters XIII–XV, but the article still had to go to the spiritual censorship, whose censor marked passages for softening.[^1] On 24 May Tolstoy wrote to [[Sophia Tolstaya]] that Yuryev had asked him to soften them, and that the censors would then "do as they see fit — that is, stop the book or let it through".[^2]
The journal's secretary, N. N. Bakhmetyev, later told how the Moscow committee of spiritual censorship, then at the Trinity Lavra, did not know how to treat the work and reported to Metropolitan Makary of Moscow. The review was given to Archpriest Sergievsky, rector of the Vifanskaya seminary, who proposed that Tolstoy add a few words at the end saying that he had once thought so but now held views closer to the Orthodox Church.[^3] In July 1882 the spiritual censorship issued a ruling that prohibited the article. The sheets were cut from the May issue under the printing inspector's watch and sent to the Main Press Administration for destruction.[^4] [[Mikhail Elpidin]] first printed it abroad in 1884.[^5]
## 1886: the Synod's refusal
Sophia Tolstaya planned to include *A Confession* in volume 12 of her edition of the collected works. The secular censorship passed the book to the spiritual censorship, which referred it to the Synod.[^6] On 5 July 1886 the Moscow committee sent her the Synod's decision: because the works expressed in places "thoughts and judgments not in agreement with the teaching of the Orthodox Church", they were not to be printed, and the proof sheets were to be kept in the synodal archive. The notice was signed by Archpriest Platon Kapustin.[^7]
## Pobedonostsev and the 1901 edict
K. P. Pobedonostsev was Ober-Procurator of the Holy Synod from 1880 to 1905.[^8] The dive's narrative, following scholarship, places him behind the 1882 suppression; the PSS commentary on *A Confession* does not name him.
The Synod's edict of 20–22 February 1901 declared Tolstoy fallen away from the Church. It names no individual works, and *A Confession* is not among them.[^9]
## Open questions
- The commentary heads the second attempt "К 1885 г." (to 1885), but the Synod's notice is dated 5 July 1886; the attempt probably began in 1885.
- Whether the 1882 ruling of the Moscow committee counts as the Synod's own act: the sources call it the spiritual censorship's ruling and name the Synod only in 1886.
- Pobedonostsev's part in 1882 rests on scholarship summarised in the dive, not on a primary source. The dive's sweep of PSS 63 flags letters that mention him (Nos. 41 and 44); they were not extracted.
- The 1901 edict was read online, not extracted into the dive's evidence.
## Dive provenance
- [1879-1882-a-confession](../works/non-fiction/personal-papers/1879-1882-a-confession/index.md) — 2026-10-02; PSS 23 commentary on the censorship of 1882 and 1886; the dive's dossier and scholarship notes for Pobedonostsev and the 1901 edict.
- Related dive, not used for facts here: [break-with-the-church](../themes/break-with-the-church/index.md).
[^1]: «пять примечаний в духе церковного учения»; «Но все это не избавило статью Толстого от представления в духовную цензуру» (PSS 23, commentary). English: ours.
[^2]: «Юрьева видел. Он просил смягчить некоторые места, отмеченные в духовной цензуре. … А там уже они будут делать, как знают, — т. е. остановят книгу или пропустят» (letter to S. A. Tolstaya, 24 May 1882, quoted in PSS 23, commentary). English: ours.
[^3]: «Из Троицкой лавры, где находился в то время московский комитет духовной цензуры, приходили сведения, из которых видно было, что там не знали, как отнестись к этому произведению Толстого, докладывали митрополиту»; «…составление доклада поручено ректору Вифанской семинарии протоиерею Сергиевскому»; «в конце ее в нескольких словах высказал, что так он думал прежде, но теперь воззрения его иные, более соответствующие духу православной церкви» (N. N. Bakhmetyev, quoted in PSS 23, commentary). English: ours.
[^4]: «Действительно, в июле состоялось постановление духовной цензуры, запрещавшее появление статьи Толстого» (PSS 23, commentary); «пришлось вырезать, под очень бдительным наблюдением инспектора типографий, который, опечатав вырезанные листы, препроводил их для уничтожения в Главное управление по делам печати» (Bakhmetyev, quoted there). English: ours.
[^5]: PSS 23, commentary.
[^6]: «Светская цензура передала книгу в духовную цензуру. Духовная цензура, не решаясь сама пропустить или запретить книгу, обратилась в Синод» (PSS 23, commentary). English: ours.
[^7]: «Святейший Синод, принимая во внимание, что в присланных Вами в Московский духовный цензурный комитет сочинениях графа Льва Николаевича Толстого под названиями … по местам излагаются мысли и суждения, несогласные с учением православной церкви, определяет: не разрешать к печати означенные сочинения и представленные Вами корректурные листы сих сочинений хранить в синодальном архиве» (notice of 5 July 1886, quoted in PSS 23, commentary). English: ours.
[^8]: Константин Петрович Победоносцев. Dates of office from the dive's dossier (entities), not from a primary source.
[^9]: From the dive's scholarship notes, which read the Russian text of the edict (Определение Святейшего Синода) online; not extracted into the dive's evidence.