Alexander Bulatovich

Alexander Ksaverievich Bulatovich ( _ru. Александр Ксавериевич Булатович) tonsured Father Antony (отец Антоний) (26 September 1870 - 5 December 1919) was a Russian military officer, explorer of Africa, writer, hieromonk and the leader of imiaslavie movement in Eastern Orthodox Christianity.

Alexander was born to a family of Oryol nobility. He studied in Alexandrovsky Lyceum, then served in the Hussar Leib Guard regiment.

In 1897 he was a member of the Russian mission of the Red Cross in Ethiopia, where he became a confidant of Negus Menelek II of Ethiopia. In 1897 - 1899 he became a military aide of Menelek II in his war with Italy and the southern tribes. Bulatovich was the first European who crossed Ethiopia and created a scientific description of the Kaffa province (conquered by Menelek II with Bulatovich's help). He was the first European who discovered the mouth of the Omo River. Among the places named by Bulatovich is the Nicholas II Mountain range. He had to ask permission from the Emperor himself to name the range in his honour.

After Bulatovich returned to Russia he received a Silver Medal from the Russian Geographical Society for his work in Ethiopia and the military rank of a poruchik (later rotmistr) of the Leib Guard Hussars. He served in Saint Petersburg. In 1903 after his talks with Saint John of Kronstadt he resigned from the Army and became a monk (later hiero-schema-monk) of the Russian St. Panteleimon Monastery on Mount Athos in Greece. He also visited Ethiopia again trying to establish a Russian Orthodox Monastery there. He was tonsured as Father Antony and became known as Hieromonk Antony Bulatovich.

In 1907 after reading the book "On Caucasus Mountains" by the schema-monk Ilarion, he became one of the leaders of the imiaslavie movement within the Russian Orthodox Church. When the movement was proclaimed a heresy and disbanded by a Russian military force he was one of the leaders of the unsuccessful defence of the St. Panteleimon Monastery in 1913. He was caught and forcefully transferred to Russia on the prison ship "Kherson". After the Synod hearings he was defrocked and exiled to his mother's estate in the village Lebedinka, Kharkov gubernia (now Sumy Oblast, Ukraine).

He continued his fight for the recognition of "imiaslavie", published many theological books proving its dogmas, obtained an audience with the Tsar and eventually managed to secure some sort of rehabilitation for himself and his imiaslavtsy comrades. They were allowed to return to their positions in the Church without repentance "since there is nothing to repent about". On August 28 1914 Antony Bulatovich received permission to join the Russian Army as an Army priest. During World War I Father Antony not only served as a priest but on "many occasions led soldiers to attack" and was awarded the Cross of St. George.

After returning from the war he took part in the discussion about the "imiaslavie". In October 1918 the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church canceled the decision allowing imyaslavtsy to participate in church services. The decision was signed by Patriarch Tikhon of Moscow. In January 1919 Anthony Bulatovich stopped any relations with the Holy Synod and Tikhon and returned to his family estate in Lebedinka, where he started a small skete and lived the life of a hermit. On the night from 5 to 6 December 1919 he was murdered. There are conflicting accounts if the killers were Red Army soldiers or some unaffiliated robbers.

Bulatovich in Russian literature

Antony Bulatovich was most probably the original for the grotesque Schema-Hussar Alexei Bulanovich from the novel The Twelve Chairs by Ilf and Petrov. He is also the hero of Valentin Pikul's story "The Hussar on a Camel". In addition he is the hero of the novel "The Name of Hero" by Richard Seltzer (published by Houghton Mifflin in 1981).

References

*ru icon [http://memory.pvost.org/pages/ds_bulatovich.html Article in the "Bibliographical Dictionary of Victims of Political Repressions"]
*ru icon [http://www.ortho-rus.ru/cgi-bin/ps_file.cgi?3_4917 Article on the site of Russian orthodox Church]
*ru icon [http://www.krotov.info/spravki/persons/20person/1870bulatovich.htm Article on Krotov's library]
*ru icon [http://www.geografia.ru/emp1.html Article on site geographia.ru]
* [http://www.georgefox.edu/academics/undergrad/departments/soc-swk/ree/2003/hamburg03too_old.shtml THE ORIGINS OF ‘HERESY’ ON MOUNT ATHOS: ILARION’S NA GORAKH KAVKAZA (1907)]
* A. K. Bulatovich "Ethiopia Through Russian Eyes: Country in Transition, 1896-1898", translated by Richard Seltzer, 2000, ISBN 1-56902-117-1, [http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1569021171 review]
* [http://www.samizdat.com/armies.html With the Armies of Menelik II, emperor of Ethiopia ] at www.samizdat.comA.K. Bulatovich "With the Armies of Menelik II" translated by Richard Seltzer
* [http://www.samizdat.com/entotto.html Ethiopia -- Entotto to the River Baro ] at www.samizdat.com A.K. Bulatovich "From Entotto to the River Baro" translated by Richard Seltzer
* [http://www.samizdat.com/heroorb2.html Transcripts of conversations with Princess Mary Orbelinai ] at www.samizdat.com Transcripts of tape-recorded conversations with Princess Mary Orbeliani, sister of Alexander Bulatovich, June 3- 4, 1973
* [http://www.samizdat.com/herorec.html Timeline for Alexander Bulatovich from 1870 until he became a monk in 1907, with excerpts from his military record]