44 Orientalism and Empiremarriage to Maria Aleksandrovna.^37 A friend of Bariatinskii in
StPetersburg who gained an audience with the imperial couple at
Tsarskoe Selo was impressed by their support for missionary work
in the Caucasus, in particular the support of the tsar’s wife: “she has
such warm sympathy for the success of Christianity in the
Caucasus!” he reported to Bariatinskii.^38 The tsar and Tsarina Maria
hoped that all of Russian society would respond to this challenge to
propagate Orthodoxy in the borderlands. The Holy Synod allowed
for the formation of special circles (kruzhki) in Russian churches far
from the Caucasus, which would contribute funds required for the
work of the society. It awarded a special cross decorated with the
name of St Nino, Georgia’s fourth-century evangelist, to supporters
of the missionary project. The tsar was initially skeptical of offering
the cross in exchange for money, but quickly changed his mind when
confronted with the need for resources to fulfill the society’s ambi-
tious plans.^39 The cross varied in complexity and grandeur accord-
ing to the size of the donation, which might range from 20 to 1,000
rubles.^40 The society was made official by a charter of 2 June 1860,
with the tsarina serving as its special patron. From the point of view
of Metropolitan Filaret and Tsarina Maria, the Russian state as the
bearer of Orthodoxy had a special relationship to the former lands of
the Eastern Roman Empire. The imperial family and other high
church officials continued to imagine missionary work in terms of
the grandiose project of imperial restoration suggested by Catherine
the Great.
faith, the past, and the example
of georgia
The impact of these ideas about cultural authenticity and fidelity to
the past, Orthodoxy, and the problem posed by Islam significantly
shaped the imperial conception of the mountaineers. North
Caucasus mountain communities in this rendition were perpetually
confused, cut off from their true heritage. Nikolai Raevskii, for ex-
ample, observed of his adversaries in 1839 , “Calling themselves
Muslim, the inhabitants of the Black Sea shore are unfamiliar with
any kind of faith.”^41 The military historian Nikolai Dubrovin la-
mented of the Ossetians, “All the rules and church regulations are
mixed up and confused.”^42 Christians held pagan rituals for wed-
dings and funerals, Muslims ate pork and drank wine, and pagans
performed many Christian practices. The Svan presented a similar
problem for Dubrovin. “One can say that all the Svan are baptized,
but this is far from saying that they are all Christians,” he wrote.^43