Rev.: P. Herrlinger. Holy Sobriety in Modern Russia: A Faith Healer and His Followers. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2023. 360 p.

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Abstract

This article provides a review of a recent book by the American historian Page Herrlinger about Ivan (Ioann) Churikov and his teetotaller movement. Herrlinger provides a 'collective biography' of Churikov and his followers from the 1890s to the modern day. The main focus of her analysis is the life of Churikov, his interactions with the Russian Orthodox Church and the Soviet authorities, and the fates of his followers in the Soviet Union during the Stalin, Khrushchev, and Brezhnev epochs. This review concludes that Herrlinger's efforts to provide a collective biography are, on the whole, successful, taking into account the extant academic literature, a wide range of archival sources, and the different historical contexts in which Churikov and his followers operated. As such, Herrlinger's book is recommended to a specialist readership.

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About the authors

James M. White

Ural Federal University named after the First President of Russia B. N. Yeltsin

Author for correspondence.
Email: otech_ist@mail.ru

PhD, Senior research fellow; Laboratory of Editorial Archaeography

Russian Federation, Yekaterinburg

References

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