Lora Aleksandrovna Gerd, Konstantinopol'i Peterburg: Tserkovnaia Politika Rossii Na Pravoslavnom Vostoke, 1878-1898 (Book Review‪)‬

Lora Aleksandrovna Gerd, Konstantinopol' i Peterburg: Tserkovnaia politika Rossii na pravoslavnom Vostoke, 1878-1898 [Constantinople and Petersburg: Russian Religious Policy in the Orthodox East, 1878-98]. 445 pp. Moscow: Indrik, 2006. ISBN 5857593441. Lora Gerd's multifaceted study of the interactions between Russia and the Orthodox East (Pravoslavnyi Vostok) is an impressive contribution to scholarship. Covering a wide range of topics--from the Russian presence on Mount Athos to Petersburg-patriarchate relations, from the establishment of the Bulgarian Exarchate to Old Believers' contacts in Constantinople--the book illuminates Russian political and religious policy during an epoch of international rivalry, recurring warfare, and exuberant nationalism. Although Gerd offers no overarching thesis or theoretical framework, she convincingly accounts for the success of Russian endeavors in the Orthodox East in the decades preceding World War I.