DON ORTHODOX CHURCHES AND PARISHES BEFORE AND AFTER THE REVOLUTION OF 1917: FROM THE ROLE OF SOCIO-CULTURAL CENTERS TO LIQUIDATION (BASED ON THE MATERIALS OF THE stanitsa OF GNILOVSKAYA)
The article attempts to compare the two polar epochs from the point of view of the existence of the smallest church-administrative unit - a parish (in particular, on the materials of the stanitsa of Gnilovskaya, now in the city of Rostov-on-Don). In the pre-revolutionary period, starting from the second half of the XIX century, social activity in the parishes of the Russian Orthodox Church became more and more diverse. After the Bolsheviks came to power, the Orthodox Church did not fit into the system under construction and became a subject to destruction (hence, in particular, the closure of churches). At the same time, the Bolshevik leaders needed its property, accumulated material resources. The main milestones in the history of the Russian Orthodox Church of the 1920s and 1930s are considered: the seizure of church valuables and the closure of churches. The history of the Don Churches and parishes during this difficult period remains an extremely insufficiently studied area within the framework of regional Сhurch history. This article makes some contribution to the development of historiography.