Russian Orthodoxy after Tsarism

IRL, the Russian Orthodox Church was granted its autocephaly in the year 1589, and has retained it ever after. IRL, the Russian Revolution also caused the Russian Orthodox Church an enormous amount of drama, especially because (with some notable exceptions) it came out strongly and vocally in support of tsarism and the Whites, which caused three notable spinoffs (and a bunch of minor ones, most notably various individual Russian Uniatists.)

Andalusada has a Russian Orthodox Church, of course, and it also has a revolution (at the ass-end of the Russo-Japanese War, financed in no small part by Japanese agents); and given that the Russian Orthodox Church of Andalusada is just as much an organ of state as it was IRL, it stands to reason that there's going to be an enormous amount of drama too. But the similarities pretty much end there, because history started going haywire in the early- to mid-1650s [when?], after Evgeny the Great promulgated his calendar and took the Russian Orthodox Church out of communion with the rest of what was now "Greek" or "Levantine" Orthodoxy.

That rift means that when the Russian Orthodox Church collapses - as indeed it does - it's going to fragment in more, and more interesting, ways than the Russian Orthodox Church could dream of doing IRL. This post is meant to introduce and outline those ways.

Tsarism and the fall of the Orthodox Church

By 1900, the Russian Empire had individual eparchies that were larger than entire Orthodox churches. Hell, by 1900 the ROC had started Orthodox churches - most notably Korea's. Being anathematized by the Levantine churches was unfortunate, sure, but it was so long ago, and there were so many dozens of millions of believers that the others were as irrelevant as the Nestorians in India. They'd shattered and supplanted the Georgian Orthodox Church [orly?]. They were the state church of one of the greatest empires the world had ever seen.

Then came the revolution.

Understandably, given how sketchy and underpopulated the Russian Revolution is at present, this is going to be stubby. What I can say for certain, however, is that the following key events happen:

• The Patriarch of Russia [who?] came out categorically against the revolutionists.
• Just as unsurprisingly, the Vechists got him in some way screwed over. [how?]
• The screwing of the Patriarch rather doomed what Great Russia immediately declared "the Tsarist Orthodox Church," which fell apart over the course of the Civil War.

It bears mentioning that Great Russia, unlike the USSR, isn't antireligious: their political theory has been filtered through some very romantic lenses, and they're quite conscious about the fact that a church is a useful organ of social control. Their problem is that figuring out what church (or churches) to declare "official" is an enormous headache with political consequences - at the very least, the exiled Tsarist clergy have already issued ukases declaring that no "Church of Russia" would ever be a legitimate successor of theirs (or for that matter Orthodox, the Pentarchy be damned.)

The biggest problem the Russian Orthodox Church faced was that, ultimately, it was an Orthodox Church of England: what held it together was less its theology than its ties to a state and power that no longer existed. Without that backing, it fractured.

"Eugenian Orthodoxy"

Probably the largest camp of the Orthodox churches are the ones that follow the Russian Rite and the Eugenian calendar unchanged, and only exist as independent bodies for political reasons. Most of these can be neutrally classed as "Eugenian Orthodoxy."

Currently, the dominant Eugenian Orthodox camp supports Vechism, the ideology of the Great Russian government.

Its opposing tendency is, unsurprisingly, Tsarism, and actually predates the Vechist churches slightly. (The Vechist clergy were quick to denounce their opponents, and usually their superiors, as "Tsarist" instead of "Russian.") Now that the Civil Wars are over, some of them are going to own that name rather proudly, but for official purposes they identify themselves as "True Russian Orthodox" (since they've officially declared that they won't recognize any non-Tsarist state church as legitimate.)

• The True Russian Orthodox Patriarchate, which claims succession from the last legitimate Patriarch of All the Russias.
• The True Russian Orthodox Church in Exile, a ROCOR-style bloc that calls bullshit on the Tsarist Patriarch pretender and doesn't recognize his ordinations as valid. Instead of squabbling over succession claims, the Church in Exile is organized as a synod of exarchates.
• Several independent hierarchies that ordained enough bishops to appoint their own patriarchate, none of which necessarily recognize each other as legitimate.

In addition, most of the Tsarist armies had their own attached clergies, supporting one faction over another. [details?] The remnants of these hierarchies are going bespopovtsy very quickly.

Not all Eugenian Orthodox are politicized along these exact lines. There are some notable exceptions:

• The Metropolitan of Zaprolivia [who?] has officially gone on record saying that he (and Zaprolivia) will follow the liturgy and calendar, with no changes, until such time as an official, recognized and sanctioned Russian Orthodox Church exists to conform to. Clergy taking that stance are generally called Loyalists, but it's a distinctly minority position; the Tsarists anathematize them, and the Vechists regard them as politically suspect (which in fact they are.)
• The Korean Orthodox Church is starting to seriously consider declaring itself autocephalous. As a historically autonomous church, its metropolitan was appointed for it by the Russian Orthodox Church; at present, it's unclear if anybody exists who could appoint a legitimate successor.

And, of course, there's a diaspora of scattered believers who who have lapsed out of the Eugenian Orthodox fold altogether. The least interesting of these are the Orthodox who've simply dropped out of Russian Orthodoxy; there's a surprising number of them. (Several of them, for instance, have already gravitated to a little town called Orsa; their long-term impact remains to be seen...)

Old Calendarism and "Reconcilers"

Historically, Old Calendarism was an anti-Tsarist thing; in Great Russia, it still is, establishing itself as a specific means of protesting various national absorptions into the Russian communion.

• The Metropolitanate of Kiev, historically irrelevant since Evgeny I, now making some claims to be the legitimate Levantine Orthodox Church;
• Various small tsarist factions trying to negotiate their autonomy vis-a-vis Kiev;
• The Georgian Orthodox Church, which has started to aggressively reassert itself now that its official replacement is defunct.

More recently, though, it's had an interesting development: Reconcilers. Certain Tsarist factions are embracing Old Calendarism, hoping to establish a Levantine Orthodox church that would be acknowledged by the Greek Patriarch.

For his part, the Greek Patriarch has given them no such thing. He realizes full well that doing so would illegitimate the Vechists and, more importantly, put him squarely in the Tsarist camp, and he's not willing to risk his seat by pissing Lady Russia off. Reconcilers get politely redirected to the Metropolitanate of Kiev, which has anathematized every tsar since Evgeny I and supports a number of causes that the Tsarists, as of now, aren't willing to support at all.

Russo-Catholicism

As per IRL, there were the odd individuals (and, sometimes, parishes) that turned to Uniatism as a survival strategy, having no resources of their own. Most of these don't particularly matter. What does matter is that at least two Tsarist pretenders [who?] do.

• One of these is rather cynical about it, and was apparently considering converting to Russian Orthodoxy. That one's dead.
• The other, more worryingly, was recognized by the Papal State - with the implication that the Papal State, and by extension the entire Roman Catholic Church, officially supports him. The current Pope [who?] has backed down on this, but hasn't actually disavowed anything. This is still a problem, because that second pretender is, as of 1930, alive and well, and mercilessly hunted across the world.

This connection is why the Sodality is currently outlawed in Great Russia, and ruthlessly supressed.

Russo-Hungarians 

I know the least about these, because I know the least about the Church of Hungary - but the Church of Hungary has followed a via media, claiming to be at once Orthodox, Catholic and *Protestant. There has to be some Russian Orthodox in Hungarian communion...

This is a stub. It will be expanded upon.