“Mansurov project” of the Russian Palestine (based on materials from a trip in 1857 to Holy Places)

Abstract

We consider the activity of B.P. Mansurov in organizing Russian pilgrimage to the Holy Land. We describe the preparation, course and results of B.P. Mansurov’s trip to the Orthodox East (1857) that largely predetermined the nature of the Russian presence in Palestine. In the framework of this trip, we consider the reasons for creating the joint-stock company “Russian Company of Shipping and Trading”. We reveal that created as an attempt to preserve the presence of Russia on the Black Sea coast, the company set the task to facilitate the movement of Russian pilgrims to Palestine and Athos. By this step, the Russian government intended to increase Russia’s humanitarian influence in the region. We pay attention to B.P. Mansurov’s service instructions in trip to the East, the significance of his work for the publication of the “Guide to the Orthodox Worshiper to Holy Places”, and also Mansurov’s own views on the problem of Russian Orthodox pilgrimage in Palestine. We show that B.P. Mansurov’s program envisaged an increase in the intensity of the steamship communication with Palestine, the acquisition of land and construction of pilgrimage shelters, the erection of temples for the Russian worship. The development issues of Orthodox pilgrimage should be managed through the Russian consulates operating in the Middle East, including in Jerusalem itself. Consideration of results of the journey in 1857 allowed to draw conclusions about the significant role of B.P. Mansurov in the history of the Russian presence in the Holy Land.