Космополитика харизматического православия: Стефан (Василий Карпович Подгорный) и его последователи

At the end of Russia's old regime, the transformation of society initi‑ ated by the Great Reforms of the 1860s had also transformed the Or‑ thodox Church. After the Emancipation, former serfs found new op‑ portunities as laborers, factory workers, entrepreneurs, and even priests, monks, and holy men. Vasilii Karpovich Podgornyi was one such serf who, after Emancipation, became a successful businessman. Inspired by traditional piety he used his entrepreneurial skills to cre‑ ate networks of religious communities, primarily composed of pious women. Podgornyi's remarkable success sharply split the church hi‑ erarchy. Some conservative hierarchs regarded this former serf as a suspicious figure, a pervert who took advantage of his female follow‑ ers. Because of such accusations, Podgornyi spent ten years in a mo‑ nastic prison. Other clergy, including Podgornyi's monastic jailers, became his strong advocates and ultimately succeeded in seeing him freed from prison. Podgornyi's movement, however, remained con‑ troversial and illustrates the sharp social tensions within the church before the Bolshevik Revolution.