The Role of Church and State in the Resolution of Marital and Family Disputes: Historical and Legal Analysis of Mediation Procedures

Abstract

The paper examines the role of the Russian Orthodox Church in mediating marital and family disputes in pre-revolutionary Russia, emphasizing the perspective of canonists on reconciliation as the cornerstone of family stability. By exploring this transitional period in Russian history, the study reveals the Church’s influence on resolving familial conflicts prior to the advent of the Soviet regime. An analysis of archival documents from the State Archive of the Russian Federation (Fund R3431), particularly the minutes and transcripts of the 1918 Synod sessions addressing the grounds for dissolution of church marriages, highlights significant unresolved issues in church law regarding marriage and family matters during the pre-revolutionary period. With the rise of the Soviet regime, the previously strict legal framework allowed us to identify the key issues of marriage and family in the church law that were calling for a solution but received no relevant and timely response in the pre-revolutionary period. With the establishment of the Soviet regime, strict laws that viewed marriage as “one’s cross to bear” and family life as an “ordeal”, patriarchal traditions that negatively perceived the idea of marriage dissolution, were replaced in the Soviet period by freedom of both marriage and its dissolution. The author highlights that with the decline of religious foundations in traditional family structures, the role of mediation practices employed by Soviet courts in resolving marital and family disputes gained prominence. In particular, the study explores the social and ideological factors that influenced the evolution of mediation procedures within the context of family dispute resolution during the formative years of communist ideology and the establishment of the socialist family model. The introduction of previously inaccessible archival sources from the State Archive of the Russian Federation (Fund R9474) that provide a comprehensive analysis of the application of the Fundamentals of Legislation of the USSR and Union Republics on Marriage and Family has enabled the identification of distinctive characteristics of mediation practices during the Soviet period.