STEPANOV, Gurij (Aleksej Ivanovič St.). Čeboksary 3.10.1880 — Gorkij (Nižni Novgorod) 1.11.1937. Russian Ecclesiastic, Mongolian and Tibetan Scholar. Archimandrit, then Archbishop of Russian Orthodox Church. After Kazan Seminary studied 1902-06 at Kazan Spiritual Academy (cand. theol.). Intending to become missionary he concentrated on Mongolian language and Buddhism. In 1909 mag.theol. Docent of Kalmuk at Kazan Spiritual Academy, soon (1910) eo. Professor. Archimandrit 1912. In 1917-18 member of Orthodox Synod. Then in monastery in Moscow, in fall 1919 briefly arrested. Bishop 1920, soon again arrested, in prison until 1922. Archbishop (arhiepiskop) of Irkutsk 1924, but after new arrest again in Moscow. Again arrested, in 1926-30 in Jakutsk. Then in Kostroma, Suzdal and Moscow, new arrest 1932. Released in 1934 living in Nižegorodskaja, new arrest in September 1937. Accused of being counterrevolutionary fascist and executed. Rehabilitation 1957.
Publications: Donskie Kalmyki i istorija ich christianskogo prošveščenija. Trudy Kazanskogo missionerskogo sezda 1911.
– “Der Lamaismus und seine Bestrebungen zur Hebung seines intellektuellen und moralischen Niveaus”, Archiv für Religionswissenschaft 17, 1914, 113-124; “Der Buddhismus in Mahayana”, Anthropos 16, 1921, 343-349 & 17, 1922, 801-818 & 18-19, 1923-24, 267-277 (both translated by W. A. Unkrig).
– Works on mission and Christianity among Kalmuks, etc.
Sources: D. Schorkowitz, review of Unkrig–Findeisen Correspondence ed. by Walravens in http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showpdf.php?id=20154; life data with several photos in http://martyrs.pstbi.ru/bin/nkws.exe/docum/eng/eng/newmr?HYZ9EJxGHoxITYZCF2JMTdG6Xbu1dS0gc8oU871ju8KhteKW66qceeufc8YUYS8Zfu0hfe8ctmZyV8Kfc5tjNL*iAHJyDHtyPqJk9X2pTdGiseuXs81Ye8VyALuIfi8ic8jgcOugTdGisetyPqJk9H2rMGteQ4RyV8Kfc5tjNL*iAHQ*; Russian Vikipedija with photo; not in Miliband 1995.
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