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The church is reclaiming monasteries and other property. Monks hope this will lead to a spiritual renewal in Primorye.

On a typical day, the White House is bustling with the administrative business of the krai. Bureaucrats in brown suits and plastic shoes hunker down in their offices, secretaries in nylons and heels click down the hall, dandruffy reporters dash from interview to press conference.

So four Russian Orthodox monks sweeping through the halls last week couldn’t help drawing stares. Bearded, dressed in cassocks, topped by black and purple miters, they looked like ghosts from an ancient and more spiritual Russia. It was no wonder the officials who met with them were so intent on appearing cooperative.

The monks from Shmakovsky Monastery — and the rest of the Orthodox church in Primorye — are intent on reclaiming church land seized both in the 1920s, after the Bolsheviks took power in the Far East, and during a later crackdown in the 1950s.

In addition to Shmakovsky, an old cloister in a resort town, there are two other sites, said Vice Gov. Valentin Kuzov.

“We plan to give it all back,” he said. “It’s difficult to say how much property is involved, but there are three main sites.”

But the monks say they filed a claim to the property four years ago, and still there has been no result. “As of now, nothing has been given back,” said Father Feofan, a prior at the monastery. Thus a krai committee has formed to deal with the matter.

Two presidential decrees launched the turnover of property to the church — first in 1991, and later in 1996, said Kuzov, the vice governor. President Yeltsin asked local administrations to help the church recover its property. Now the krai administration is working with the Pacific Fleet to return a dilapidated officers’ club on Russky Island (last year the Fleet also returned a Lutheran church on Svetlanskaya where it had been housing its historical museum).

Before the Revolution, there were 1,000 monasteries in Russia, Feofan said. Founded in 1885, Shmakovsky Monastery was a bustling place. In addition to the ancient duties of praying for the world, the monks had a medieval array of responsibilities: tending their bees in 400 hives, making shoes, producing icons to sell to pilgrims, printing books and pamphlets.

“It was very big,” said Feofan. “The scale of it was astounding.”

When the government seized Shmakovsky, it turned the property into a farm for a military unit.

Nelly Miz, a historian with the Society for Amursky Krai Studies, said there were once three cloistered communities in Primorye. In addition to Shmakovsky, there was a convent in Ussurisk, founded 1900, and a women’s community in Vladivostok near the naval cemetery.

“Monasteries played an enormous role in the history of Primorye,” Miz said.

‘We are going to make a fairy tale out of it. This is no joke. We are not short-termers. We are going to leave our bones there.’

The restoration of Shmakovsky would mark the first step toward rebuilding that influence. The monks have moved into the ground floor of an old apartment building, but other people still live in the upper floor. The krai plans to find housing for these residents.

“It is a very serious problem about moving these families out,” Feofan told the krai committee, “because downstairs we pray and upstairs they drink and have wild parties.”

The Shmakovsky monks have big plans for the site. They wish to restore some of its original influence. The hope, Feofan said, is that the Orthodox church will grow and “totalitarian sects” (non-Christian religions that attempt to control their believers) will lose their influence over people.

The monks even plan to have up-to-date, European-style rooms instead of the trashy, run-down buildings now on the monastery grounds.

“We are going to make a fairy tale out of it,” said Feofan. “This is no joke. We are not short-termers. We are going to leave our bones there.”