Anton Vladimirovich Kartashev

Anton Vladimirovich Kartashev (Russian: Антон Владимирович Карташёв) was a Russian journalist, professor of Church History, the last Ober-Procurator of the Apostolic Governing Synod, and Minister of Religion in the last months of the Russian Provisional Government.

Anton Kartashev was born on July 11, 1875 in Kishtma in the Ural Mountains, to a family of miners. He attended Perm Seminary and the St. Petersburg Theological Academy from which he earned theological degrees respectively in 1894 and 1899. In 1905, he was appointed professor of Church History at the St. Petersburg Academy. He also taught the St. Petersburg Higher Women's Course from 1906-1918 and edited the journal "Vestnik Zhizni".

With the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II on March 3, 1917, a new Provisional Government was formed on March 7 with Vladimir N. Lvov selected as the Ober-procurator for the Apostolic Governing Synod. On March 25, Kartashev was named assistant to Ober-procurator Lvov. In July, changes were made in the Cabinet of Ministers of the Provisional Government as a result of the deteriorating political situation that include the departure of Lvov. With Lvov’s departure Kartashev was named Ober-procurator, an office he held from July 25 to August 5, 1917 when the office was abolished and the office of Minister of Religion established with Kartashev the first to hold that post. He refused the position of Ober-procurator in the new ministry. However, he continued as minister until the Bolsheviks took control of the government.

In January 1919, Kartashev fled Russia, living first in Finland before taking up residence in Paris. In Paris, he took part in the establishment the St. Sergius Orthodox Theological Institute in 1925. He remained a professor at the institute until his death. In 1959, he wrote a collection of essays on the history of the Russian church as well as another book on the ecumenical councils, which was published in 1965. He died September 10, 1960 and is buried in the Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois Russian Cemetery in Paris.

Reference

Succession box: Anton Vladimirovich Kartashev
Preceded by: Vladimir Nikolayevich Lvov	Ober-Procurator 1917-1917	Succeeded by: —

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Sources

• W:Anton Kartashev
• History of Russian Christianity 1894 to 1990