St Andrew's Anglican Church Moscow

History of St Andrew's

Eighteenth century Moscow was considered an unsuitable place for women and children. In 1706 there were only 8 women in the congregation, 6 of whom were probably female servants. Records show that all the children born to British women before 1720 died in infancy. The majority of merchants living at that time in Moscow were considered to be "debauched and low in their pleasures." They were young men, far from home and family; they lived in groups sharing servants and expenses, drinking was their main pastime, and this led to fights, often with loss of life.

Moscow remained a very small community until the nineteenth century; most foreigners lived in the capital, St. Petersburg, where a church was opened in 1754, and its chaplain took over the responsibility for serving Moscow. This was a period of expansion for Anglo-Russian trade; a port chaplaincy was opened in Kronstadt in 1771, and by the nineteenth century the chaplain in Archangel had two centres.

The earliest English churches in Russia were all made of wood, they were lit by candles (early chaplains' expenses show a special candle allowance!) and the Russia company has records of frequent fires.

Moscow was the last independent chaplaincy to be established by the Russia Company, and it served a very different community from the other chaplaincies: it did not depend on the diplomatic corps or those who surrounded the court, nor was it intended to serve the spiritual needs of seamen; instead it was made up of professional families involved in trade and manufacturing. Moscow had become an industrial centre, and the resident British community began to expand sufficiently for a committee from St. Petersburg to recommend that a full-time chaplain should be appointed there, so that "the community should enjoy the benefit of a church."

The first chaplain appointed by the Russia Company was the Rev. Charles Barlton, in 1825, who had been acting as locum in Kronstadt, and the Tsar (Alexander I) gave permission for a church to be established in Moscow "with the same privileges" as those in other cities in Russia. The British Chapel was built in 1828 on the site where St. Andrew's stands today. The establishment of a church was considered to have a stabilising effect on a foreign community, providing a focus for social life, and an incentive to families to settle nearby, as a primary school and library were set up on the premises by the chaplain.

The Russia Company records show the gradual development of the premises to serve the needs of the growing community. Stables, a coach house and a hearse house were built in the grounds. Next time you walk to the church remember that £200 was paid by the church committee to the city authorities to build the first pavement outside the church!

Successive chaplains became involved in charitable work in the wider community, particularly in providing medical and educational services. In 1831 The English Chapel established a Foundling Hospital (Orphanage), and about 1850, the chaplain in St. Petersburg who also served Moscow, set up a school here for boys and girls.

The British Chapel became too small for the growing community in Moscow, and in 1882 it was decided to build our present church of St. Andrew on the same site. The Bishop of London consecrated it in 1885, and its official designation was altered to "The British Church of St. Andrew, Moscow."

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