43 The Society for the Restoration of OrthodoxyIn 1815 the commission began work again, this time with greater re-
sources and as part of the Georgian-Imeretian Synodical Office.
Though its primary focus remained the Ossetians, its mission was ex-
panded to the Caucasus mountaineers in general and by the 1830s also
included the construction of schools. The Ossetian commission left a
legacy upon which the society could build, including the construction
of thirty-three churches and fourteen schools, six of which were in
Ossetia. One of these was an ecclesiastical institute with six teachers in
Vladikavkaz, where students were taught Ossetian grammar and
sometimes went on to study at the Tiflis Spiritual Seminary.^28 The com-
mission also issued prayer books, catechisms, and short histories of the
church in Ossetian.^29 The Moscow Committee of the Bible Society con-
tributed to this work by translating and printing an edition of the
Gospels in Ossetian in 1824.^30 At the conclusion of the war in the east
Caucasus, supporters of missionary work judged these efforts insuffi-
cient and noted that many of the churches restored by the commission
had already fallen into disrepair by mid-century.^31 The missionaries of
the commission, reported Evsevi, the (Georgian) archbishop of Kartli,
to the Holy Synod, were poorly educated and trained, and understand-
ably reluctant to serve in mountain Ossetia because of the harsh condi-
tions, low pay, and possible danger.^32
The conclusion of the war allowed the regime to pursue the “moral
subjugation of the Caucasus,” as an early supporter of missionary
work put it.^33 Viceroy Aleksander Bariatinskii stressed that the
Russians would now change the tactics of battle, engaging the moun-
taineers, “not with the sword in one hand and a firearm in the other,
but with the weapon of Christianity, with the word of evangelical
love and mercy.”^34 Charity and humanity, he claimed to Metropolitan
Isidor, would replace fanaticism and barbarism on the shores of the
Black Sea.^35 Like many officials in the Ministry of War, Bariatinskii
stressed the relationship of the spread of Orthodoxy to the security of
the Russian state. He explained to the Caucasus Committee in 18 57
that the religious beliefs of the Ossetians, Abkhaz, Khevsur, and Svan
remained beyond the influence of Russian rule and culture, “as if the
Caucasus did not belong to a Christian state.” Bariatinskii reminded
the committee that Russian inattention to the problem had resulted in
the spread of Sufi orders into Ossetia and left the Georgian Military
Road as dangerous as the hills of Dagestan.^36
The tsar, ruler of Orthodox Russia, was particularly supportive of
the project of the “restoration” of Orthodoxy to the North Caucasus.
Bariatinskii and Alexander ii had been friends from youth, and as a
young colonel from a prominent aristocratic family, the viceroy had
had the honour of presenting to Nicholas i the news of Alexander’s