47 The Society for the Restoration of Orthodoxycentrality of the Christian heritage to Georgia’s past and present iden-
tity, and they chronicled an early history of proselytizing from the time
of St Nino in the fourth century that extended to the Georgian frontier
and mountain peoples such as the Tushin, Pshav, and Khevsur.^59 The
special cross awarded by the Holy Synod to Restoration Society sup-
porters throughout the empire, as previously mentioned, was deco-
rated with the name of St Nino. Even more enthusiastic Georgian
commentators claimed that not just Paul but Peter himself had evan-
gelized in the region and communicated the teachings of Jesus to the
mountain peoples.^60 And from a place like mountainous Tushetia, em-
phasized society missionaries, the “mountain Muslim tribes” nearby
could be reached next.^61 Important Georgian church officials such as
the Georgian exarch, Archbishop Evsevi, also presented familiar argu-
ments about the relationship of education and literacy to the ability to
adhere to the doctrines and rituals of the Christian faith.^62 The
Christianizing project was closely related to the general civilizing
effort to ameliorate and transform the most savage aspects of alpine
culture. “In order to accept Christianity, one must be capable of self-
control,” Evsevi advised.^63 Georgia was at the locus of all these
positive elements in the region, and the imperial project of Christian
restoration nicely coincided with emerging Georgian concerns about
the preservation and cultivation of Georgian identity.
language and the
“il’minskii method”
Where historic Christianity beyond the Georgian frontier faltered,
missionaries suggested that this was because the common people
proved unable to master the true essence of Christianity and instead
merely practised its ritual form. Slavophiles contrasted the true spiri-
tuality of the Russian peasant, or the “deep secret of his soul,” as
Khomiakov claimed about Hellenistic Easterners, to the “external”
character of the faith of the Latin Christian.^64 Latin Christians re-
peated prayers they did not understand and watched in isolation as
their priests conducted ceremonies for themselves. In contrast to the
communal experience of Orthodoxy, argued Ivan Aksakov, Latin
priests “sometimes even performed liturgy alone, by themselves and
for themselves, even in a whisper.”^65 Instead, missionaries visualized
a heartfelt Christianity practised in common by the common people.
In the Middle Volga, Nikolai Il’minskii even discouraged missionar-
ies from persecuting various forms of paganism. Il’minskii was the
well-known missionary, scholar, and linguist who advocated school-
ing for baptized non-Russians in the Kazan region in the native