"Golgotha Christianity" and Archimandrite Mikhail (Pavel Vasilyevich Semenov, 1874–1915): An Invented Phenomenon of "Christian Modernism" in Early Twentieth-Century Russia

This article examines the phenomenon of "Golgotha Christianity", focusing on its formulation, "invention", and limited historical existence in the early twentieth century. The movement is analysed through the work of Archimandrite and later Bishop Mikhail (Pavel Semenov, 1874–1915), a notable figure in the religious- modernist landscape of the late Russian Empire. Advocating freedom of creativity and a certain extraritual and extrajurisdictional stance, Semenov, while serving as an Old Believer bishop, together with like-minded contemporaries such as Jonah Brikhnichev and Valentin Sventsitsky, sought to attract those dissatisfied with the Synodal Church by promoting a "new teaching" that claimed to return to the principles of early Christianity. Several meetings took place, remembered by contemporaries and later commentators as the "Golgotha Christians" movement. The authors argue that "Golgotha Christianity" existed primarily as a theoretical construct and never developed into a stable organisation or a sustained practice. In contrast to other neo-Christian movements of the period, such as the "Free" or "Social" Christians, the origins of which contemporaries often ascribed to Semenov, "Golgotha Christianity" generated more discursive resonance than practical results. This case sheds light on the specific features and limits of "Christian modernism" in late imperial Russia.