Reviews of Orthodox Russia in Crisis: Church and Nation in the Time of Troubles
Honorable Mention, 2012 Early Slavic Studies Association Distinguished Scholarship Award
“Gruber argues [that] any sense of a monolithic Orthodoxy shattered, and the definition of Truth was up for grabs, to be defined by the victors, or by the people. Moreover, tying the pieces of this masterful book together, Gruber shows that the pervasiveness of the underlying mythos of New Israel, established in the first chapter, lent added bite to the struggle to define and protect Orthodoxy: if the battle were lost, divine wrath might sentence Russia to the banishment and dispersal that had been the fate of the Jews. Gruber has written a riveting and original account of a fascinating time. If the publisher would issue a paperback edition, this would be an ideal book for classroom use.” — Valerie Kivelson, Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of History, University of Michigan
“In this important and highly original book the author brilliantly chronicles the business-savvy Church’s cozy relationship with increasingly unpopular (and unlikely) tsars, and he skillfully charts the monasteries’ accumulation of huge profits while Russia’s economy declined and most of the population suffered. It is here that Gruber arrives at one of his most important conclusions and offers a far more nuanced appraisal of the impact of the Time of Troubles on the Church than the simplistic traditional argument that the Church was a big winner for having heroically helped to end the Troubles.” — Chester S. L. Dunning, Professor of History, Texas A & M University
“The Time of Troubles is ingrained in the Russian national consciousness and creative imagination.... Overall, Gruber demonstrates an astonishing command of the scholarship on the subject as well as thorough familiarity with literary works, cultural monuments, and the relevant archival material. His discussion of the approaches to the study and interpretations of the Time of Troubles, beginning with the rule of Boris Godunov (1598–1605), is a veritable historiographical tour de force. It clearly attests to the author’s profound understanding of the immediate and long-range causes for the layers of crisis during this turbulent period between the rules of the two dynasties.... The research for this task must have been extraordinarily demanding. The execution of completing this project is by all accounts a resounding success, and the findings a refreshing addition to the literature on the Time of Troubles and the role of the church and its leaders. On the whole, the author approached the subject sympathetically, even though the result is a fairly critical analysis of the position maintained by the church... The church did not do enough to provide badly needed relief for families, even children in distress, and church leadership did not hesitate to act opportunistically when it came to backing claimants or pretenders to the throne. On occasion this included collaborating with invaders. In short, this is revisionist scholarship at its best, as far as the church’s activities and role during the Time of Troubles are concerned. Indisputably, this is an important contribution to our understanding of the Russian Church during the Time of Troubles. The author's research is meticulous and his conclusions judicious.” — Theofanis G. Stavrou, Professor of History, University of Minnesota
“Historians cannot but greet Isaiah Gruber’s new book warmly. It stands as the most intensive attempt in English to detail the Church’s contribution both to the calamity of the Troubles and to their eventual resolution.... Gruber offers more than an institutional history: he gives the reader a holistic account of the Russian Church’s economic, cultural and social influence. He also asks wide-ranging questions relating to the Church’s role in the civil conflict and the foreign invasions that accompanied it.... To all of these important queries, Gruber gives confident, thought-provoking responses that are well grounded in the available source material and historiographical debates.... Gruber’s book provides an excellent window on a seldom-researched subject and certainly contributes considerably to the historiography already extant on the Time of Troubles. It is also highly pertinent to the situation in contemporary Russia.... Gruber’s readable account is therefore recommended not only to historians but also to social and political scientists eager to understand how Russia’s past is playing a key role in forming its present.” — James White, Researcher, European University Institute (Florence)
"This fascinating book by Isaiah Gruber explores the role of the Orthodox Church in the unrolling of the time of troubles, showing it in a new light and as being much more important in the shaping of events during the period than many have before believed.... It shows the importance of both the institutional and ideological power of the Church in Russia at this time and, despite the antisemitic tenor of much of Russian life in this period, the importance of the Jewish lineage for official discourse. It is an important addition to our understanding of the time of troubles and, through that, to the way both societies and institutions handle crisis." — Grame Gill, Professor of Government and Public Administration, University of Sydney
“Isaiah Gruber's basic premise that the role of the Russian Orthodox Church in the Time of Troubles (Smuta) remains underresearched is entirely correct.... Gruber is at his best when studying the impact of the church's ideological pronouncements on high politics.... Gruber's observations about the church's economic policies are fascinating... monasteries thrived at the expense of ordinary folk.... The principal value of Gruber's book is that it reveals the underpinnings of early modern Russian church power... Gruber's book is an important contribution to understanding the relations between ideology and pragmatism in the Russian church elite's pursuit of power.” -- Georg Michels, Professor of History, University of California Riverside
“This book is an important contribution to the literature on seventeenth-century Russia, on the Orthodox Church, on political ideology in Muscovy, and on monastic economies.” — Russell E. Martin, Professor of History, Westminster College
“Gruber’s principal contribution to the study of the Russian Church resides... in the various thought worlds that he has recovered and reconstructed... biblical narratives about the covenant relationship between God and Israel... a new ‘language of legitimacy’ (p. 76) that entered into the political and ecclesiastical discourses of Muscovy in the late sixteenth century... such novel ideas as popular consent and the appeals of a ‘female authority figure’... The upheaval of the Time of Troubles also fragmented the Orthodox community between those who adhered to the official faith of the tsar and patriarch and popular forms of Orthodoxy that repudiated it, a fracture that was to inform the schism of the Russian Church just fifty years later. On these grounds alone, Gruber’s contention that the making of modern Russia requires an understanding of the Church’s role in the Time of Troubles is well demonstrated.” -- Patrick Lally Michelson, Assistant Professor of Religious Studies, Indiana University
“In taking seriously the notion of popular will and especially the role of Irina, he breaks new ground.... Gruber’s work contributes important insights into the issues of legitimacy during the Troubles, even if his reflections on the larger social role of the church and religion are ultimately unsatisfying.” — Paul Bushkovitch, Reuben Post Halleck Professor of History, Yale University
“This well researched and expertly crafted book provides new insights into the role that the church played in restoring the monarchy and preserving an important segment of Russian economy during a period that ultimately shaped the Russian state and the character of its people, even to the present time. A definite must-read for all serious students of Russian history, literature and culture. I’ve already included Orthodox Russia in Crisis in my syllabus for next semester in my course on Russian Drama, as required background reading for Pushkin’s Boris Godunov.” — Olya Samilenko, Associate Professor of Russian, Goucher College
“The author has mastered — and presents with admirable fairness — a bewilderingly complicated range of events and a convoluted historiography as well.” — Yechiel Bar-Chaim, Paris
“Isaiah Gruber’s Orthodox Russia in Crisis is a masterfully crafted historical account of Russia in the period of the interregnum. The history of a nation and its character is the manner in which it responds to events which challenge its very cohesion as a nation. This occurred in the period after the death of Ivan IV until the ascension of Michael Romanov. It was a turbulent time with foreign invasions, famine, internal rebellions and political intrigues. Dr. Gruber skillfully guides the reader through this whole period of confusion and upheaval and leaves him with a fundamental understanding of the role the church played in sustaining a sense of order and a functioning economy. It did this, as Dr. Gruber perceptively documents, by shifting its positions and allegiances always with the goal of maintaining a central ecclesiastic authority and its economic base.” — Victor Hrehorovich, MD
