Russian Orthodox Bell Ringing - History

History

After the conversion of Russia to Christianity in the 10th century, bells came gradually into use everywhere. Originally, a flat piece of wood or metal called a semantron would be beaten rhythmically with a mallot to summon the faithful to services. This was especially true in monasteries, some of which still to this day use both semantrons and bells.

While the semantron was inherited from Greece, the use of church bells was imported into Russia from Western Europe. The Russian word for bell is kolokol, which comes from the German word glocke, derived from the Latin clocca, which in turn appears to come from the Irish clog. The word for bell in Church Slavonic is kampan, which is derived from Latin campana. During the fifteenth century the semantron began to be gradually replaced by bells. At that time, several foundries for bell making were established in Russia. Russian church bells are commonly cast using a mixture of bronze and tin, often with silver added to the bell metal, to produce their unique sonority and resonance. Russian bells also tend to differ from Western bells in the proportion of their height to width, and the method of varying the thickness of the walls of the bell. The clapper ("tongue") of the bell also follows a different design that that used in the West.

The art of bellfounding reached its pinnacle in the 18th century, with the production of unimaginably huge bells. The largest bell in the world, the Tsar Bell (218 tons) was cast in 1733 for the Ivan the Great Bell Tower in Moscow. Unfortunately, the Tsar Bell was damaged in a fire in 1737 before it could be successfully hung, and stands today at the base of the tower. The largest working bell in the world is the Dormition Bell (144,000 lb) which hangs in the same Ivan the Great Bell Tower.

After the Bolshevik Revolution, the Soviet Union severely persecuted Christianity. Numerous bells were destroyed and during certain periods the production of church bells all but stopped. After the fall of the Iron Curtain the production of bells resumed, and has experienced a surge of activity as many of the churches that were destroyed are being rebuilt.