The Reflection of the Russian-Turkish War of 1877−1878 on the Pages of “Irkutskie Eparkhial'nye Vedomosti” Newspaper; [Отражение Русско-турецкой войны 1877–1878 гг. на страницах «Иркутских епархиальных ведомостей»]

The article is devoted to the analysis of the “Irkutskie Eparkhial'nye Vedomosti” newspaper as a source covering the events of the Russian-Turkish War of 1877−1878 from an Orthodox-spiritual point of view. The main source was the issues of the newspaper from the 15th to the 52nd for 1877 and from the 1st to the 7th for 1878, that is, those issues that corresponded to the chronological framework of the war. The memoirs of participants and contemporaries of this war were used as additional sources. The historiographical method (or content analysis) was used as the main research method; the historical-system, historical-comparative method and the method of synthetic analysis were also used. Russian Russian-Turkish War of 1877−1878, which had the widest voluntary and charitable response in Russian society, was not only the mouthpiece of the church-Orthodox life of Irkutsk province, but also covered the events of the Russo-Turkish War of 1877−1878, which was very relevant for Russia. The issues of the newspaper published the decrees of the emperor, the definitions of the Holy Synod (which contained reports on charitable assistance to the wounded and the families of the fallen soldiers), as well as speeches (“words”) of Irkutsk clergy who called for patriotism, volunteer and charitable activities. Thus, the conclusion is made about the unconditional support of the Russian-Turkish war by the Irkutsk diocese. At the same time, most of the issues did not cover military topics, preferring to publish data on regional Orthodox-church events of a small scale, which, in our opinion, is due to the remoteness from the theater of military operations and, consequently, the lack of corresponding hardships of military life, which were borne by residents of the western regions of the Russian Empire. Copyright © 2022 by Cherkas Global University.