ABSTRACT
Emperor Alexander II visited Vil'na on July 13, 1867. Among the representatives from all the estates that gathered to welcome him were peasants who had recently converted from Catholicism to Orthodoxy. The emperor stressed when speaking to them that “They would not be able to revert to their earlier faith, and I am pleased to see them as Orthodox believers” (my italics). 1 Th se words were printed and displayed at all volost'-self-governments (volostnoe pravlenie) in the Minsk province, so they would be known to anyone considering reverting to Catholicism. 2 The mass distribution of the emperor's words shows that reversion was indeed a likely problem, and that the involvement of an authority figure such as the emperor was necessary to solve it. Leaving the Orthodox Church was not an option according to the laws of the Russian Empire until the Decree of Tolerance (April 17, 1905) was proclaimed across the whole empire, including the Northwest region (NWR), where there were recent converts to Orthodoxy. The mass conversion of Catholic peasants to the Orthodox faith between 1863 and 1867 was part of the government's policy of “de-Polonozation.” 3 One of its outcomes was that between 1863 and 1867 in the so-called Lithuanian provinces, which are the focus of this chapter, there were 18,775 new Orthodox believers in Vil'na province, 466 in Kovna province, and 16,267 in Grodna province. 4
