903
edits
Changes
dab
==Background==
Russification was an official policy of the Russian Empire aimed at the integration of minorities into Russian culture. The political policy eventually became mirrored in church life as the central church administration in Moscow began to exercise control over formerly more autonomous churches whose traditions were not Russian, such as the Churches of [[Church of Georgia|Georgia]] and [[Church of Estonia(Moscow Patriarchate)|Estonia]].
In the Russian [[diaspora]], the Russification tendency also came into play as former [[Uniate]]s of Carpatho-Russian origin (whose customs had come from [[Constantinople]] whose [[diocese]] they were before the Unia in the 16th century) were accepted into Russian Orthodoxy, particularly in the [[OCA|Russian Metropolia]] in North America. Unable at times to determine which customs had been acquired during their time in union with the [[Roman Catholic Church]] and which authentically pre-dated the Unia, churchmen often assumed that any differences with Russian practice were Latinizing influence and were abolished in favor of Russian customs.