Monasteries of the Tambov Diocese -monuments to the miraculous salvation of the Tsar’s family on October 17, 1888: “Places of worship” as “Places of memory”

The object of the study is the regional practice of preserving the historical memory of significant events in the life of the imperial family in Russia in the late 19th - early 20th centuries. The subject of the study was Orthodox monasteries, considered as memorial sites.

The article, using the historical and genetic method, presents the origin of the Orzhevsky Alexander Nevsky Monastery and the Trekh-Loshchinsky Panteleimon Monastery of the Tambov diocese as monuments to the salvation of Emperor Alexander III and his family in a train accident on October 17, 1888. It is noted that this event was understood at the state and church levels as a miracle that happened by the grace of God over the ruling Russian emperor and his family, which predetermined the need to preserve information about it in the historical memory of the population of the Russian Empire. The comparative historical method helped to identify the historical continuity in the process of creating a monastery and a skete on the site of revered Orthodox shrines.

The study established that the Tambov diocese was the only one in the Central Black Earth Region where a monastery and a skete were founded in memory of the miraculous salvation of the imperial family. Moreover, when priest V. A. Golubev created the Alexander Nevsky Monastery, he used the experience of establishing the Tavolzhansky Convent in the Voronezh Governorate. Their inclusion in the list of memorial sites was the result of the personal initiative of the organizers. Memorial status was assigned to the Alexander Nevsky Monastery and the Panteleimon Skete, which were located in places associated with a long-established tradition of venerating the Orthodox shrines located there.

crash of the tsar’s train on October 17, 1888, memory studies, monastery, Tambov diocese, Orzhevsky Alexander Nevsky Monastery, Panteleimon Skete of the Kazan Monastery - Tambov Bishop’s House