The School of
Historical Studies

Dr Zoe Knox

Lecturer in Modern Russian History

Contact Details:

• Email: z.knox@le.ac.uk
• Tel: +44 (0)116 252 2711
• Office Location: Attenborough 508
• I am on study leave for Semester 1 2009/10

Research Summary || Current Research Projects || Recent Publications || Teaching & Admin

Research Summary

My research to date has concentrated upon the history of religion in twentieth century Russia and the Soviet Union. I have focused on the Russian Orthodox Church and the state but have ranged more widely to include research into church-state relations, religious dissent and religious persecution and discrimination in the Soviet Union. My principal area of research is the links between church, state and civil society in twentieth-century Russia. My first book (Russian Society and the Orthodox Church, Routledge, 2005) examined religious dissidents in the USSR and non-conformist clergy in post-Soviet Russia and argued that the Church is not a monolithic entity, as western analysts frequently portray it, but rather that Orthodoxy has had myriad influences in modern Russia. I have an active interest in the history of religious minority groups in Soviet Russia, particularly in the post-war period.

I am the Convenor (with Miriam Dobson, University of Sheffield) of a Study Group of the British Association of Slavonic and East European Studies (BASEES) on Religion and Spirituality in Russia and Eastern Europe (RSREE). The rationale behind RSREE is to create and sustain a network of academics, scholars and pedagogs whose research and teaching interests relate to religion and spirituality in the region of BASEES’s remit.

Current Research Projects

I have recently begun research on the continuities in church-state relations from the Soviet to the post-Soviet eras. This extends my doctoral research by examining the experiences of non-Orthodox religions and confessions in the Soviet Union. In my initial research, there appears to be striking continuities that connect the religious realms of these two eras. The treatment of illegal Protestant churches is of particular interest to this study, as are the regime's attempts to suppress religious institutions that refused to cooperate with the state. An essay based on this research has recently been published in the edited collection Religion, Morality, and Community in Post- Soviet Societies (see below for further details).

My current project is entitled ‘Watchtower Theology and Soviet Ideology: Jehovah’s Witnesses in the USSR, 1939-1991’ and is funded by The Nuffield Foundation’s Social Science Small Grants Scheme. I will examine the clash between the theology of the Jehovah’s Witnesses and the ideology of Soviet communism for the first time. The Witnesses were not only denied the right to legally exist as a religious organisation in the USSR, but were persecuted particularly harshly by the regime, which decried the faith as the exemplar of a dangerous religious cult. This research will shed light on the perceived threat to communism posed by evangelical communities.

Recent Publications

Books

1. Russian Society and the Orthodox Church: Religion in Russia after Communism (Routledge, 2005; paperback 2009)

Articles and chapters

1. 'Writing Witness History: The Historiography of the Jehovah's Witnesses and the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania', Journal of Religious History (forthcoming, March 2011)

2. 'Religious Freedom in Russia' in Mark D. Steinberg and Catherine Wanner (eds), Religion, Morality, and Community in Post- Soviet Societies (Woodrow Wilson Center Press and Indiana University Press, 2008), pp. 281-314

3. ‘Church, State and Society in Eastern Europe’ in I. Marga, G.G. Sander & D. Sandu (eds), Religion zwischen Kirche, Staat und Gesellschaft (Verlag Dr. Kovac, 2007), pp. 77-101

4. (with Pete Lentini and Brad Williams), ‘Parties of Power and Russian Politics: A Victory of the State over Civil Society?’, Problems of Post-Communism 53: 1 (January-February 2006), pp. 3-14

5. ‘Russian Orthodoxy, Russian Nationalism and Patriarch Aleksii II’, Nationalities Papers 33: 4 (December 2005), pp. 533-545

6. ‘ Postsoviet Challenges to the Moscow Patriarchate, 1991-2001’, Religion, State and Society 32: 2 (June 2004), pp. 87-113

7. ‘ The Symphonic Ideal: The Moscow Patriarchate’s Post-Soviet Leadership’, Europe-Asia Studies 55: 4 (June 2003), pp. 575-596

8. 'Russia's Religion Law and Threats to Freedom of Conscience', Russian and Euro-Asian Bulletin 9, no. 6 (2000), pp. 1-15

Working Papers

1. ‘Civil Society, Russian Orthodoxy and Democracy: Theoretical Framework/Conceptual Clarification’ in Christopher Marsh (ed.), Burden or Blessing: Russian Orthodoxy and the Construction of Civil Society and Democracy (Institute on Culture, Religion and World Affairs, Boston University, 2004), pp. 9-16

2. ‘Russian Orthodoxy and Religious Pluralism: Post-Soviet Challenges’, CERC Working Papers Series (Contemporary Europe Research Centre, The University of Melbourne, 2003)

Reference Work Entries

1. ‘Orthodox Churches’ entry in Andrew Brown-May and Shurlee Swain (eds), The Encyclopedia of Melbourne (Cambridge University Press, 2005), p. 525

2. ‘ Recent History’ section of Bulgaria, Georgia, and Ukraine entries in SBS World Guide ( Hardie Grant Books, 2004), pp. 113; 274; 759

3. ‘Episcopate’ and ‘Pamyat’ entries in James R. Millar (ed.), Encyclopedia of Russian History (Macmillan Reference U.S.A., 2004), vol. 2, 463-464; vol.3, p. 1133

Other

1. 'The Reconstruction of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior', East-West Church and Ministry Report 15, no. 1 (2007), pp. 17-18
   
   
2. Book reviews in the journals Slavic Review, Europe-Asia Studies, Nationalities Papers, Australian Slavonic & East European Studies and Slavonic & East European Review.
   
   
   

Teaching, Supervision and Administration

Teaching

• HS1000 Making History group topic: Peasant Life in Late Imperial Russia (not offered in 2009/10)
• HS1100 People & Places topic: Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov, 1921-1989 (not offered 2009/10)
• HS2216 Rise & Fall of the Soviet Union (taught by Dr M. Lynch in 2009/10)
• HS2332 Behind the Iron Curtain: Eastern Europe, 1945-1989
• HS3652 Eastern Europe under Communism (not offered 2009/10)
• HS3658 The Russian Revolution
• HS3735 & HS3736 Special Subject: The Russian Revolution (not offered in 2009/10)
• HS7024 Religion in Modern Russia: Church, State and People

My areas of supervision for third year undergraduate dissertations include the history of late imperial Russia (1881-February 1917), the history of the Soviet Union, and religion under communist regimes.

Administration

• Director of Undergraduate Studies (Semester 2)
• Member of School Research Comittee (Semester 2)
• Member of the School Undergraduate Staff/Student Committee (Semester 2)
• Brown Bag Seminar Organiser (Semester 2)

Supervision

Please click here to see my area of expertise for PhD/MPhil supervision.