Articles

Dear friends,

In this section of our web-gallery we are going to publish those materials that could be interesting and helpful for anyone interested in icon art and history. The majority of articles you see here is written by our experts themselves.

Happy reading!


  1. Orthodox Christian icon in Estonia: the factor of General’s Yudenich north-western army."
  2. Russian Orthodox Icon in Estonia. Historical reasons of arrival.
  3. Therefore, there are several factors, for emergence of Russian Orthodox Icons in Estonia.

Russian Orthodox Icon in Estonia. Historical reasons of arrival.

Because of historical reasons and unique geographical position between Russia and the West, there were a large number of Russian Orthodox people in Estonia, which established numerous settlements. For instance, in the capital of Estonia Tallinn, in 1806, about 35% of the capital real estate belonged to Russians. Emigrants from Russia were the members of the Tallinn’s Trade Guild. From the 1710, Estonia has become a part of Russian Empire, with all succeeding consequences.

Does it worth to mention that any believer (there was about 99.9% of Orthodox people in Russia up until 1917), had a habit of taking Holy Icons to a new place of living!?

Missionary operations of Russian Orthodox Church were taking place in Estonian religious environment. And it is absolutely correct to say that this type of activity is completely inseparable from Icons - one of the dogmas of Orthodox Christian faith.

A document of 19th century is an interesting case in point. An Orthodox priest who serves at a church in Estonia writes a letter, - a request, to Moscow, to his superior (the higher clergyman). He asks to send him, to the city of Tallinn, some icons "so they would be bright and nice", because, according to his understanding, the beautiful icons are needed to amaze with their magnificence", for successful conversion of local inhabitants into Orthodox Christians. In 1917, Estonia became an independent capitalist state, bordering with Russia and Europe. A massive wave of immigrants from Russia went through Estonia. Some of those people settled here; others continued their way to France and other countries of Europe.

A large number of icons remained in Estonia after this turbulent period. Here, icons were saved from the red militant atheism, while red activists in Russia were destroying hundreds of thousands of Icons, chopping them for firewood and burning in street campfires.

Therefore, there are several factors, for emergence of Russian Orthodox Icons in Estonia.

  1. Natural, permanent migration of Russian-Orthodox people from 1590 to 1900s.
  2. 1677. A huge flow of so-called "Old Believers", who did not agree with innovations in liturgy, and some changes in church texts. Old Believers were persecuted, and a fraction of them has found their sanctuary in Estonia. These people were very diligent, and founded their settlements and successful farms.
  3. 1917 Revolution.
  4. Missionary activities of Russian Orthodox Church in Estonia.
  5. Needs of Estonian-Orthodox people.

It needs to be mentioned that Estonia, in contrast to Russia, was barely touched by the World War II, which did a horrifying losses to the culture of Russia, not mentioning about the devastation done by the October Socialist Revolution.

In many respects, the icons were well-preserved, due to the Estonian national feature of tolerance and accurateness. Local people always tolerantly treated other cultures and religions. Moreover, we frequently come across Estonians non-Orthodox, who carefully kept icons, once got into their home.

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