Sources On The History Of Lutheran Churches In Russia In The Collections Of The Russian State Historical Archive In St. Petersburg

In the Russian State Historical Archive in St. Petersburg (RSHA SPb) the history of the Lutheran Church in Russia is represented in documents of many collections. Before starting on the analysis of these sources, this chapter briefly discusses the organizations that contributed to these collections, to give the reader some understanding of the character of the archive documents within these collections. The general management, supervision, and resolution of spiritual affairs of the Lutheran faith in the Russian empire before 1918 rested with the General Evangelical-Lutheran Consistory. Additionally the St. Petersburg Consistory sent annual reports on its work to the General Consistory. Besides supervising the local consistories, the General Consistory also controlled the work of the Support Fund of Evangelical-Lutheran parishes in Russia. Material pertaining to the history of Lutheran churches has been found in 69 collections of RSHA SPb. Keywords: Evangelical-Lutheran parishes; general Evangelical-Lutheran consistory; Lutheran churches; RSHA SPb; Russia