Crisis of Religious Toleration in Imperial Russia - Marsden, Thomas (British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow, British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow, School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London)

Details an unprecedented attempt by the government of Russia's Tsar Nicholas I (1825-1855) to eradicate what was seen as one of the greatest threats to its political security: the religious dissent of the Old Believers. The history of this religious persecution throws new light on the religious and political identity of the autocratic regime.