of dictatorship as putting an end to “bourgeois-democratic parliamentarism” and replacing it with a system expanding democratic rights and liberties to the exploited classes.
In sum, for Lenin, “only he is a Marxist who extends his acknowledgement of the class struggle to an acknowledgement of the Dictatorship of the Proletariat.” Moreover, “the dictatorship of the proletariat is a stubborn struggle-bloody and bloodless, violent and peaceful, military and economic, educational and administrative-against the forces and traditions of the old society” (Collected Works, XXV, p. 190).
In Foundations of Leninism (1924), Stalin identified three dimensions of the dictatorship of the proletariat: 1) as the instrument of the proletarian revolution; 2) as the rule of the proletariat over the bourgeoisie; and 3) as Soviet power, which represented its state form. In practice, Lenin, and especially Stalin, invoked the concept to rationalize the Communist Party monopoly on power in Russia, arguing that it alone represented the proletariat. See also: COMMUNISM; LENIN, VLADIMIR ILICH; MARXISM; STALIN, JOSEF VISSARIONOVICH
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Balibar, Etienne. (1977). On the Dictatorship of the Proletariat. London: NLB. Draper, Hal. (1987). Dictatorship of the Proletariat from Marx to Lenin. New York: Harper Review Press. Ehrenberg, John. (1992). The Dictatorship of the Proletariat: Marxism’s Theory of Socialist Democracy. New York: Routledge.
In early Greek sources (eleventh and twelfth centuries), the term signified a province, either secular or ecclesiastical. In Rus’, and later in Russia, the term was used only in the ecclesiastical sense to mean the area under the jurisdiction of a prelate.
Church organization evolved along with the spread of Christianity. The metropolitan of Kiev headed the Church in Rus’. Bishops and dioceses soon were instituted in other principalities. Fifteen dioceses were created in the pre-Mongol period. Compared with their small, compact Greek models centered on cities, these dioceses were vast in extent with vague boundaries and thinly populated, like the Rus’ land itself.
The Mongol invasions changed the course of political and ecclesiastical development. The political center shifted north, ultimately finding a home in Moscow. Kiev and principalities to the southwest were lost, although claims to them were never relinquished. Church organization adapted to these changes. In the initial onslaught, several dioceses were devastated and many remained vacant for long periods. Later new dioceses were created, including the diocese of Sarai established at the Golden Horde. By 1488 when the growing division in the church organization solidified with one metropolitan in Moscow and another in Kiev, there were eighteen dioceses. Nine dioceses (not including the metropolitan’s see) were subordinated to Moscow; nine dioceses looked to the metropolitan seated in Kiev.
The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries witnessed the elevation of the metropolitan of Moscow to patriarch (1589), periods of reform directed at strengthening church organization and raising the spiritual level of parishioners, and the subordination of the see of Kiev with its suffragens to the Moscow patriarch (1686). Ecclesiastical structure responded to these profound changes. By 1700 the number of dioceses had increased to twenty-one (excluding the Patriarchal see) as the Church struggled to create an effective organization able to meet the spiritual needs of the people and suppress dissident voices that had emerged. Thirteen of these dioceses were headed by metropolitans, seven by archbishops, and one by a bishop.
In 1721 the patriarchate was abolished and replaced by the Holy Synod. Despite this momentous change in ecclesiastical organization, the long-term trend of increasing the number of dioceses continued. In 1800 there were thirty-six dioceses; by 1917 the number had grown to sixty-eight. More and smaller dioceses responded to increased and changing responsibilities, particularly in the areas of education, charity, and missionary activity, but
DIONISY
also in the area of social control and surveillance as servants of the state.
The Bolshevik Revolution destroyed the organization of the Russian Church, making prisoners, fugitives, exiles, and martyrs of its prelates. The catastrophes that characterized the beginning of World War II prompted Stalin to initiate a partial rapprochement with the Church. This permitted a revival of its organization, but under debilitating constraints. In the 1990s, following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Russian Orthodox Church entered a new period institutionally. Constraints were lifted, the dioceses revived and liberated. By 2003 there were 128 functioning dioceses. See also: RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH
Cracraft, James. (1971). The Church Reform of Peter the Great. London and Basingstoke, UK: Macmillan and Co. Ltd. Fennell, John. (1995). A History of the Russian Church to 1448. London and New York: Longman. Muller, Alexander V., trans. and ed. (1972). The Spiritual Regulation of Peter the Great. Seattle: University of Washington Press. Popielovsky, Dmitry. (1984). The Russian Church under the Soviet Regime 1917-1982. Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press. Russian Orthodox Church. «http://www.russian-orthodox-church.org.ru/en.htm»
CATHY J. POTTER
(c. 1440-1508), renowned Russian painter.
Dionisy was the first Russian layman known to have been a religious painter and to have run a large, professional workshop. He was associated with the Moscow School and is considered the most outstanding icon painter of the later fifteenth century in Russia. His biographer, Joseph of Volotsk (1440-1515), called him “the best and most creative artist of all Russian lands.” Certainly this can be considered true for his time period.
Dionisy’s first recorded works were frescoes in the Church of St. Parfuntiev in the Borovsky Monastery, completed around 1470 when he was an assistant to the painter Mitrophanes. In 1481 the Archbishop Vassian of Rostov, a close friend of the Great Prince of Moscow Ivan III, asked Dionisy to paint icons for the iconostasis of the Cathedral of the Dormition, Russia’s main shrine in the Moscow Kremlin. This cathedral had just been finished by Aristotle Fioravanti, a well-known architect and engineer from Bologna, Italy. In this task Dionisy was assisted by three coworkers: Pope Timothy, Yarete, and Kon. Some fragmentary frescoes in this cathedral are also attributed to Dion-isy, painted prior to the icon commission. The Theotokos by Dionisy. © RUSSIAN STATE MUSEUM, ST. PETERSBURG, RUSSIA/LEONID BOGDANOV/SUPERSTOCK
In 1484 Paisi the Elder and Dionisy, with his sons Fyodor and Vladimir, painted icons for the Monastery of Volokolamsk. It is generally agreed that the greatest achievement of Dionisy is the group of frescoes in the Church of the Nativity of the Virgin at St. Ferapont Monastery on the White Lake. He signed and dated this work 1500-1502. He was assisted again by his two sons. The entire fresco program centers on the glorification of the
DISENFRANCHIZED PERSONS
Virgin Mary. However, the usual Pantocrator (Christ enthroned, “Ruler of All”) appears in the dome, but without the severity of earlier representations. In the apse the enthroned Virgin and Child are represented above the Liturgy of the Church Fathers. The nave walls have frescoes illustrating scenes from the Akathist Hymn praising the Virgin. Some unusual scenes of the life and miracles of Christ also appear (Parables of the Prodigal Son, Widow’s Mite, and so forth). Dionisy apparently invented some compositions instead of copying traditional representations.
Stylistically he was very much indebted to the venerated Andrei Rublev who died in 1430. Characteristic of Dionisy’s style is the “de-materialized bouyancy” (Hamilton) of his figures, which appear to be extremely attenuated. In addition, his figures have a certain transparency and delicacy that are distinctive to his approach.
Icon panels attributed to Dionisy include a large icon of St. Peter, the Moscow Metropolitan, St. Alexius, another Moscow Metropolitan, St. Cyril of Byelo-Ozersk, a Crucifixion icon, a Hodegetria icon, and an icon glorifying the Virgin Mary entitled “All Creation Rejoices in Thee.” The Crucifixion icon especially characterizes his style. Christ’s rhythmical, languid body with tiny head (proportions 1:12) dominates the composition while his followers, on a smaller scale, levitate below. A curious addition- perhaps from western influence-are the depictions of the floating personified Church and Synagogue, each accompanied by an angel.
The influence of Dionisy is clearly evident in subsequent sixteenth-century Russian icons and frescoes as well
