The Castrates, the Specter of Pugachev, and Religious Policy under Nicholas I.

The article examines the tsarist government’s investigations into the skoptsy, a self-castrating religious sect, during L. A. Perovskii’s tenure as Minister of the Interior (1841–52) under Nicholas I, highlighting their perceived political threat due to their belief that their founder, Kondratii Selivanov, was the true tsar Peter III and a potential new Pugachev—a reference to the 18th-century pretender who led a major uprising. Scholars Vladimir Dal´ and Nikolai Nadezhdin, commissioned to study the skoptsy, emphasized their rejection of Nicholas I’s legitimacy and linked them with other dissident groups, particularly radical Old Believers who viewed the tsar as the Antichrist, thereby amplifying fears of a broad anti-monarchical coalition. The article critiques this conflation, noting that the skoptsy’s claim to a living tsar aligns with traditions of royal imposture (samozvanstvo), while the Antichrist motif derives from eschatological beliefs, and that the government’s exaggerated threat assessment contributed to harsher repression under Perovskii’s successor. Additionally, the article discusses how leaked government reports influenced revolutionary émigrés’ hopes for alliances with religious dissenters, though such hopes were ultimately unrealized, and it explores the concept of “popular monarchism” as a complex phenomenon affecting both dissenters and revolutionaries in 19th-century Russia.