The spread of Orthodoxy in Siberia. Religion and church in Siberia
Alakaeva A.I. (Salekhard)
Although the first Russian people appeared on the territory of the Ob North in the 11th century, it was only in the 16th century. settlers made up a significant part of the population living there. Moscow service people founded settlements, forts, and towns in the Berezovsky region, which played an important role as strongholds for further advancement to the North. Then they began the construction of religious buildings. The first Orthodox church in the Ob North was the Resurrection Church, founded in Berezovo in 1593. A little later, the Obdorsk fort was founded on the Polue River, where a temple was also built.
The first Orthodox churches served the spiritual needs of Russian settlers, as the surrounding population practiced their ancient religious traditions. But we can still assume that it was from this time that the gradual acquaintance of the Samoyeds (Nenets) with Christianity began. At first, very few of them accepted this religion, which was incomprehensible to them. But this did not bother the first Orthodox priests, who hoped to increase their flock by baptizing “foreigners.” Moreover, according to Boris Godunov’s decree of 1600, it was “ordered to build churches for newly baptized foreigners.”
In the first half of the 17th century, cases of baptism of local residents were rare, and were usually associated with the arrival of “Ostyak princes” in Moscow to meet the tsar and confirm the right to rule over their fellow tribesmen.
In 1620, an independent diocese was established in Siberia - Tobolsk. The first diocesan bishop was Archbishop Cyprian. Setting off for a new assignment, he received from Patriarch Philaret not only the signs of spiritual governance - a rod and a silver cross, but also the commandment "to take care of the purity of the morals of the conquerors and Russian newcomers and to convert wild idolaters and Mohammedans to Christ."
In the initial period of Christianization in the upper reaches of the Ob, as a rule, Orthodox priests appeared here on visits, and the baptism of foreigners was carried out according to their will. Attention was also drawn to this in the decree of Princess Sophia of 1685, which instructed: “If any foreigners want to be baptized into the Orthodox Christian faith by their own will, order them to be accepted and baptized, but involuntarily do not order any foreigners to be baptized.”
The description of the Tobolsk province states that “during the entire 17th century there were isolated cases when the Ostyak princes, who traveled to Moscow, converted to Orthodoxy with their families and upon their return built churches, but there were no indications of the conversion of the common people.”
This religious policy of the government towards the indigenous population of North-Western Siberia was maintained until the end of the 90s of the 17th century, until Peter I ascended the royal throne.
At the end of the 17th century, Peter I issued a decree according to which the baptism of aborigines was “allowed” exclusively by the state Orthodox Church. Missionary work was entrusted to the Tobolsk diocese. In 1700, Peter I raised the question of appointing to this department a hierarch “not only of a good and good life, but also a scientist, so that he, being a metropolitan in Tobolsk, could, with God’s help, gradually, in China and in Siberia, in the blindness of idolatry to bring stubborn people to the knowledge of the true God.”
From many candidates, the monk of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra Philofey Leshchinsky was selected. In 1702 he was ordained and ordained Metropolitan of Siberia. Twice he was destined to occupy this department: in 1702–1709. and in 1715–1720. Obeying the emperor, Metropolitan Philotheus devoted himself to missionary work with special zeal.
At the end of 1706, the first Peter the Great's decree on the mass baptism of the North Ob peoples appeared. The decree ordered Philotheus to go through the yurts, burn pagan idols, build churches and chapels in the places of idols, and baptize the inhabitants “from young to old.” However, this first missionary experience did not have any noticeable success. The number of converts was small. Moreover, the Nenets, Khanty and Mansi refused to accept the new faith, and in some places Orthodox missionaries were expelled by force.
The Siberian Governor, Prince M.P., also paid attention to the spread of the ideas of Christianity throughout Western Siberia and the baptism of Siberian foreigners. Gagarin. He financially and organizationally supported the Metropolitan's missionary trips. Providing him with the necessary number of people, including armed guards.
With the help of the authorities, Metropolitan Philotheus in 1712 undertook a missionary journey along the rivers on the banks of which “foreigners” lived. This time the expedition included “a ship of oarsmen, interpreters who knew the Ostyak language and dialects, about 10 Cossacks to guard the mission, 2000 rubles, a sufficient number of things of various kinds for gifts to the newly baptized, and previously sent out instructions to local authorities to assist the mission in achieving the holy goals".
In June, the Metropolitan's ship left Tobolsk down the Irtysh and, entering the Ob, began to stop in almost all places where there were Ostyak dwellings. The first thing the missionaries did was destroy objects of idolatry. From Tobolsk to Berezovo, idols were crushed, idols burned and their utensils were destroyed. This was done in fulfillment of the Sovereign's decree, according to which Philotheus was ordered to “go to the whole Vogul and Ostyak land and to the Tatars, to the Tungus and to the Yakuts, and to the volosts, where you will find their idols and idols and the wicked “their purgatory”, and then... burn , and them, the Vogulichs and Ostyaks..., with God’s help and with their labors, bring them into the Christian faith, and show them this verbally and tell them this decree of ours.”
Throughout his time as head of the Tobolsk diocese, Philotheus regularly made missionary trips to territories inhabited by foreigners, trying to attract them to the new religion - Orthodoxy. In his addresses and sermons, he exhorted his listeners, proved the strength and power of the Christian God, and the weakness of the pagan God. One of the recordings of his sermon now stored in the archives said: “The true God-spirit is not visible, and your god is nothing more than a tree. The True God is the Creator of everything, and your god was made by your hands. The true God provides for everything and is charitable to those who have it, but your god only ruins you with demands for sacrifice, not only of salmon and other fish, but also of horses, which are expensive in your place and in your condition.”
Everywhere on the territory of the tribes baptized by Philotheus, churches, monasteries, church schools were established, and Orthodox priests settled. The work of Orthodox preaching was not always carried out peacefully. Sometimes the Nenets spoke out in defense of their gods and attacked missionaries.
By 1720, a significant part of the population of Northwestern Siberia had been baptized. In a letter of gratitude to Metropolitan Philotheus, Peter I thanked him for the successful baptism of “the Vogulitsky, Ostyak and Kyshtym clans, numbering more than 40 thousand or more.” With his death in 1727, missionary activity in Siberia weakened for many years. One of the greatest experts on the history of Siberian spiritual missions, N. Abramov, wrote that “he found no imitators among the Siberian clergy, and likewise, Peter’s successors were not nearly as attentive to the spread of Christianity in Siberia.”
But still, in subsequent decades there were cases of baptism of the local population. In an effort to increase the number of people converting to Orthodoxy, in 1751, in confirmation of previous decrees, economic privileges for this category were confirmed. In particular, they were exempt from paying yasak for 3 years, and each newly baptized Ostyak or Ostyak woman was given free clothes and linen from the treasury.
The construction of churches also continued. In 1745, under Metropolitan Anthony II (Narozhnitsky) of Tobolsk and Siberia, the Church of Peter and Paul was founded in Obdorsk, consecrated in 1751. The clergy of this church was tasked with converting the Obdorsk population to Christianity and “confirming in the faith those who had already accepted Orthodoxy.” There was no special missionary position within the church.
In 1789, missionary activity in the Obdorsk region was completely stopped. According to the author of the “History of the Obdorsk Mission,” Hieromonk Irinarch, this happened “as a result of some unrest between foreigners in the eastern part of Russia on the occasion of the incitement of rumors among them that they wanted to be baptized by force, the actions of the preachers were stopped by a decree of the Governing Senate. From 1789 to 1825 no measures were taken to maintain and develop missionary work.”
A new period in the history of Christian missionary work in the Obdorsk region begins in the 20s of the 19th century: in 1822, the “Charter on the Management of Foreigners” was adopted, which no longer allowed the use of violence during the baptism of the peoples of the North; in 1826, the Holy Synod issued a decree “On the conversion of foreigners to Christianity,” which provided for missionary work on a systematic basis. Both of these acts were implemented in the Tobolsk Metropolis through the efforts of the ruling bishop, parish clergy and missionaries.
In particular, Archbishop Evgeniy (Kazantsev), appointed in 1829 to the Tobolsk See, put a lot of effort into implementing the decree of the Synod. First of all, he took a trip to Obdorsk. Here he was extremely disappointed with the state of missionary work. It turned out that many of the Ostyaks, although they had previously accepted Christianity and called themselves Orthodox, in fact “not only have no idea about the beginnings of the Christian religion, but do not even know the name of Jesus Christ and are in idolatry.”
In 1832, Archbishop Athanasius was appointed to the See of Tobolsk, who also paid special attention to missionary work in the north of his metropolis. By his order, Hieromonk Macarius (Bogolepov), who had previously arrived from the Kaluga province, was sent to Obdorsk.
Macarius's mission lasted only 8 months, from July 1832 to March 1833. During this time, he converted only 17 people to Orthodoxy. According to Macarius, missionary work in Obdorsk was possible only during the January fair and yasak collection, when representatives of various tribes gathered. “Afterwards,” wrote Macarius, it is very inconvenient to find them.
While in Obdorsk, Macarius encountered opposition from the local prince, who “does not advise anyone to be baptized: through this it will be a considerable difficulty to bring them to the Christian faith.” Macarius and his assistants encountered special obstacles when trying to convert the Nenets who came here from Yamal and from its neighboring regions to Orthodoxy. In his report, Macarius suggested, based on conversations with them, that many, “having learned from unbaptized Ostyaks that there was a mission in Obdorsk, and from rumors spread among them that, having been a mission in the Arkhangelsk province, the local Samoyeds were baptized forcibly, believed that in Obdorsk they they would forcibly baptize, they didn’t even want to come to Obdorsk for tribute.” In addition, from the point of view of Macarius, a big problem is that “their language is very insufficient to explain the truths of the Christian religion, which is why the baptized Ostyaks have almost no idea about it.” For these reasons, as well as due to “weak health” at his own request, Macarius was dismissed from his post as a missionary. Soon his assistants also returned to Tobolsk.
This was the end of the short history of the missionary work of Hieromonk Macarius, and with it the activities of the Mission itself. However, its legal abolition followed only in 1836. The Synod in its resolution noted that in Obdorsk, due to the lack of enough ways and hopes, not to establish a mission for the time being (not to appoint a special missionary there), but to appoint there a priest who, with his life, with his conversion, would attract foreigners to himself and, by baptizing at least a few of them, he would prepare the ground for the future enlightenment of this tribe.”
The already mentioned Irinarch considered the main reason for the failure of Macarius’ mission to be the fact that his actions were unsystematic in nature, and the methods used in this case turned out to be unsuitable for the North. Occasional meetings with the aborigines could have virtually no influence on them; ignorance of the language, local customs and traditions also turned the local population away from the missionary. “Missionaries,” wrote Irinarchus, “entering into a spiritual struggle with paganism, had to enter into a struggle with polar nature. Naturally, having gone to do charity with only a staff in their hands, the missionaries admitted that they were powerless fighters.”
However, one of these “powerless fighters,” Luka Vologda, a graduate of the Tobolsk Theological Seminary, assistant to Hieromonk Macarius, following the resolution of the Synod, successfully worked in the field of missionary work for two years. But in 1839, after receiving news of unrest among the “Samoyeds,” Archbishop Athanasius tightened the rules of baptism. He ordered persons wishing to be numbered in the Orthodox Church to appear in Tobolsk or Berezov. This, of course, extremely complicated the possibility of growing the number of “new Orthodox” and made it almost impossible.
Thus, the first two and a half centuries of the history of missionary activity in the Obdorsky region brought little comfort for Orthodoxy. The number of baptized “foreigners” was small. Orthodoxy did not establish itself in the areas where the aborigines lived.
With the cessation of the missionary activity of Hieromonk Macarius (Bogolepov), head of the Obdorsk mission (1831) and the end of Luka Vologda’s stay in Obdorsk, preaching duties in the Obdorsk region were performed by the mission founded in 1836 at the Kondinsky monastery. However, the long distances to Obdorsk and further north, plus the lack of missionaries, made its actions ineffective.
In 1847, an audit of the Ministry of State Property in Siberia took place, including on religious issues. The results of the audit were presented to the Synod. They turned out to be very disappointing. It turned out that:
o the number of churches in Siberia does not correspond to the territory and number of inhabitants;
o the clergy’s level of education and actions do not correspond to their rank and purpose;
o Shamanism is widespread among Siberian “foreigners”.
The Synod ordered Archbishop Georgy (Yashchurinsky) of Tobolsk to eliminate the comments of the Minister of State Property about the state of the Orthodox churches and clergy, as well as about “followers of shamanism.”
In 1848, the Tobolsk Spiritual Consistory at its meeting considered the issue of creating a special Obdorsk missionary church to spread and preach Christianity to the “pagan Samoyeds.” It was supposed to establish a camp church with it for preaching in the places of Nenets nomads, which would allow “to get to know the foreigners better and gain confidence in them.” The missionary was obliged to study local languages, the home communal life of foreigners, their crafts, beliefs, habits and necessary living conditions. It is noteworthy that missionaries were not recommended to marry for at least five years, given the harsh conditions of the region and constant relocation. In order to avoid accusations of bribery of clergy, it was prescribed that demands be made free of charge.
However, the Synod reacted very coldly to the proposals of the Tobolsk Metropolis. He did not allow the establishment of new missions, citing unrest among the Samoyeds in 1839 and 1841, which were supposed to be due to the actions of the clergy.
A preparatory step towards the creation of the Obdorsk mission itself was the appointment to the post of priest of the Peter and Paul Church of Obdorsk, young Peter Popov, who had just graduated from the seminary, who was destined to play a big role in the history of Orthodoxy in the region. The huge advantage was that, being a native of the North, Popov was accustomed to local conditions and familiar with the language of the indigenous population. His first step was to establish a school at the church, where several native boys were educated.
Soon G.N. was appointed to the post of Tobolsk governor. Gasfort. Already during his first inspection trip to Obdorsk and the surrounding territories, he came to the conclusion that it was necessary to strengthen the cause of “Christian civic education.” In his opinion, the revival of Orthodoxy, its establishment among the aborigines should have contributed to “the destruction of the isolation and isolation of foreigners, which is harmful to the development of the region.” In addition, the participation of missionaries in spreading literacy among the population could have, as the governor believed, “a significant impact on the success of raising them (the Khanty and Nenets) from this pitiful situation in which, due to their underdevelopment, they found themselves in a clash with the relatively developed Russians colonists."
Thus, secular and church authorities were unanimous in their opinion about establishing a special Mission in the Ob region to work among the Nenets and other indigenous peoples. Having secured the support of the governor, Tobolsk Archbishop Evlampy (Pyatnitsky) sent to the Synod a proposal to open a mission in Obdorsk at the local church. A corresponding decree followed in 1853. According to the decree, the task was “to convert the unconverted Zaobdor Ostyaks and Samoyeds living along the shores of the Arctic Ocean to the Christian faith. /Why - A.A./ it is necessary to send adapted missionaries to these nomads, who know the different idioms of the Ostyak and Samoyed languages, who would live and migrate with the people and, having light movable thrones, would perform simplified church rites, would try in general to become more useful to foreigners."
Here for the first time the idea of building camp churches appears, which was the only way out when preaching among nomadic and semi-nomadic populations.
In pursuance of the Synodal decree, the Tobolsk spiritual consistory issued its own, in which, first of all, it drew attention to the fact that “unbaptized Ostyaks and Samoyeds exist only in the parish of the Peter and Paul Church, located downstream of the Ob, the very last one to the Arctic Sea, and those living here are unbaptized foreigners do not have permanent residence.” Based on this, the position of missionary of the Obdorsk Church was established, whose duties included constant travel to the “plagues of foreigners” and their conversion to the Christian faith. At the same time, the parish priest was also assigned certain missionary responsibilities. Thus, it was expected that the priest and the missionary would alternately go on mission trips. And at the same time, someone will always live in Obdorsk near the church and will perform the necessary missionary actions, especially during the period of mass arrival of “foreigners” to the village to hand over tribute.
The first to take the position of Obdorsky missionary in 1855 was Dmitry Popov, who had already established himself as a thoughtful shepherd and missionary. According to the definition of the Ministry of Finance, he was entitled to a special salary - 200 rubles per year, which was equal to the salary of a senior priest.
At the same time, 2,300 rubles were allocated for the construction of a camp church, which was built by a local master in the same year. In the “History of the Obdorsk Mission” it is described as follows: “This church is a tent made of revendut with a revendut roof of the same kind, on iron arches, conveniently located in the places where it is supposed to serve in it; all with an altar 15 arshins long, 6 arshins wide (approximately 11 meters by 4.5 meters). It contains an iconostasis made of light folding bars, icons both in it and in the altar, painted on canvas, all on stretchers, together with iconostasis bars, surrounded by green; all picturesque icons 14"".
From previous experience of communicating with foreigners, it was known that pictorial images have a special exciting effect on them. Therefore, in the camp church there were many icons: “The Last Supper”, “The Savior Seated on the Throne”, “Archangels Michael and Gabriel”, “The Four Evangelists”, “The Holy Trinity”, “The Savior and the Mother of God”, “Apostles Peter and Andrew First-Called." The missionary had at his disposal many colorful pictures on Old Testament and New Testament themes.
But it quickly became clear that moving and erecting a camp church at each site was extremely labor-intensive. I had to abandon the idea of transporting it with the help of deer. From now on, the camp church was delivered to the camps only in the summer, by water, by boat.
For winter trips, the Mission acquired 100 reindeer, sledges and tents in 1857. The herd size grew rapidly, reaching 466 head in 1870. Subsequently, the deer were used to obtain funds for the maintenance of the church school and poor students.
In 1864, Archbishop Feognost received a proposal from the Office of the Tobolsk Province about the advisability of establishing the position of a special priest at the Obdorsk mission, who was supposed to live permanently among the Samoyeds and conduct missionary work at the camp. In his response to the Department, Popov indicated that since trips to the Samoyeds are “very difficult,” the only opportunity for communication arises only when they visit Obdorsk in the winter months to hand over tribute. But this is clearly not enough for successful Christian preaching, and for this reason it is preferable to have a permanent “missionary camp” in the camp.
In 1865, a decree of the Synod finally followed, ordering the establishment of “a special mission in the lower nomadic Samoyeds for the introduction of Christianity and the development in them of the desire for education and settlement.”
In the same year, P. Popov made a special trip to the areas where the new mission was supposed to be located and chose two points near Cape Khamanel (Yamal) and at the confluence of the Pura and Taza rivers into the Gulf of Ob. There were also several houses here for the missionary to settle and to house a small church. Two years later, a decree of the Synod followed on the establishment of two camps under the Obdorsk mission - Obdorsky and Tazovsky; Hieromonk Irinarch, who arrived from the Solovetsky Monastery, became the abbot of the latter.
In accordance with the decree of the Synod, the Obdorsk camp operated along the left bank of the Ob Bay, including the territory of the “Stone Samoyeds,” while the Tazovsky camp operated along the right bank up to the borders of the Yenisei province, in the territories of settlement of the Khanty and Nenets.
Thus, as a result of all the adopted synodal decrees and decisions of the diocesan authorities, the Mission was structured as follows: two missionaries had to be constantly traveling, and the third was in Obdorsk, where he performed the functions of a parish priest and at the same time a missionary for the aborigines who came there.
On trips to nomadic places, missionaries, on the one hand, served the religious needs of already baptized Samoyeds and Khanty, and on the other, carried the gospel message to those who professed pagan beliefs. The territory for which the Mission was responsible was so vast that the trips turned into months-long difficult journeys on reindeer and boats following the nomadic local population. There are four main directions along which missionary travels took place: on the right side of the Ob to the Gydan Peninsula; to the northwest to Baydaratskaya Bay, to the north to the Yamal Peninsula, and to the south upstream the Ob. The most frequent trips were along the first of these routes, as this made it possible to use the waterway. In winter, the Khanty and Nenets came to Obdorsk to collect yasak and attend the fair. At that time, missionary work was mainly concentrated here.
Circumstances were such that Hieromonk Irinarch, who arrived in Obdorsk in September 1867, did not end up in the Tazovsky camp and left the village in 1869. Simultaneously with the arrival of Irinarch, the entire composition of the Obdorsk mission changed. Instead of Dm. Popov A. Tveretin arrived. P. Popov in 1868 replaced by N. Gerasimov - a Nenets from the Yugon-Pelik clan, a graduate of the Tobolsk Seminary, where he ended up under the patronage of P. Popov after graduating from his school in Obdorsk. In 1870, A. Tveretin was replaced by N. Platonov. In 1869, Abbot Averky became the rector of the Obdorsk mission. He was a member of the Kondinsky mission in the 1850s. He volunteered to become a missionary of the Tazovsky camp, but the consistory decided differently - Averky was appointed rector, and Gerasimov, as a native of local residents, became a missionary Tazovsky camp, where he spent five years.
We can judge how the missionary tours of the subordinate territory were carried out using the example of the summer travel route of A. Tveritin, rector of the Obdorsk mission, a graduate of the Tobolsk Theological Seminary, which he completed in 1868. It lasted from June 11 to August 17, and more than one and a half thousand miles were covered. The expedition included, in addition to Tveritin himself, his assistant - the clerk, the “leader” (guide) and five workers who operated the large boat and helped in the installation of the camp church. Tveritin walked along the right bank of the Ob Bay to the Tazovsky camp, stopping, if the weather permitted, in one or another nomad camp for up to three days. A camp church was set up, conversations were held with residents about their religion and possible adoption of Christianity. In his report, Tveritin left many colorful descriptions of the details of the trip. Here are “clouds of mosquitoes and an even more terrible midge”, and conversations with the Nenets and Khanty, revealing the specifics of their understanding of the Christian religion, and “a strong nasty side or head wind”, because of which they sometimes could not move for several days . During the trip, it was established that in many nomads there had never been either missionaries or “civil authorities”. As a rule, a missionary stopped at the same ancestral camp twice - when he went down the Ob and on the way back along the same route. This time, having reached the town of He on the way back, the expedition crossed to the Yamal coast, to Cape Khamanel, and from there went back to Obdorsk, but along the left bank of the Ob. This route subsequently became typical for Tveritin's successors in the Mission.
In the 1870s, the Mission, in the opinion of the diocesan authorities, fell into a completely disorganized state. The main sign of this was the constant changes in mission members - many stayed in Obdorsk for no more than six months. Only Averky served as rector for twelve years, but due to his advanced age he could no longer make missionary trips. On his initiative, in 1880 a prayer house was opened in the “Shurmikarsky yurts”. In 1882, he proposed establishing a missionary camp on the Shuga River in the “Nare area”, where in the winter months, as he wrote, “the largest concentration of foreigners is observed.” But the church authorities in Tobolsk did not make a positive decision.
The missionaries expressed dissatisfaction with the small salary; they considered its increase in 1865 to 500 rubles to be clearly insufficient. It was also extremely difficult to fulfill the instructions of the clergy of the camp church, according to which it was necessary to spend at least six months traveling, which was often impossible for a person unaccustomed to the Far North. One of the missionaries, who arrived from European Russia and soon asked to return, wrote in his resignation letter: “not knowing the ford, he plunged into the water.”
The first and last missionary of the Tazov camp was Nikolai Gerasimov. He served here for five years, enduring hardships and overcoming difficulties. As it turned out, the hut donated to the Mission by the tradesman Mineev was “a half-dugout, extremely harmful to health, besides which there is nowhere to live.” In addition, on the way to the missionary’s camp there were considerable dangers, since “for thousands of miles there are no villages. In winter, frosts reach forty degrees, which is accompanied by hurricane winds, so you can’t even go out to chop wood.” If we add to this that Gerasimov had a family, and one of his trips lasted from September to December, then it is not surprising that, in the end, he submitted his resignation. After him, no one else lived there, and the camp was completely abandoned.
From 1882 to 1891, the rector of the mission was V. Chizhitsky. Members of the mission: G. Beringov (until 1886) and V. Chegaskin (Khant). In 1891, S. Milavsky became rector of the mission, but less than a year later he was fired for his skepticism about the prospect of “converting foreigners to Christianity.”
From the beginning of the 1890s until the beginning of the 20th century, I. Egorov, deacon, translator and teacher of the missionary school (Khant), actively worked in the Mission.
In 1898, Hieromonk Irinarch became the rector of the Mission. Under him, the idea of opening a missionary camp in the village of He, directly opposite Cape Hamanel, was realized. From that time on, one of the missionaries was constantly there, traveling along the shores of the Ob Bay and to Yamal. According to the “Reference Book of the Tobolsk Diocese” for 1913, the rector of the Mission at that time was Abbot Innocent, the members were Hieromonk Nikon and Priest A. Kryzhanovsky. The last known member of the Obdorsk mission was the priest Fr. A. Shikhalev, who worked in 1919.
It should be noted that at the turn of the XIX-XX centuries. Numerous scientific expeditions rushed to the Obdorsky North. Often they included representatives of the Mission, who received the opportunity for missionary “reconnaissance” and getting to know the local population. Increased attention to preaching in Yamal was due to the fact that Yamal remained the last large region in the Tobolsk diocese, where “foreigners” made up the overwhelming majority of the population.
In 1908, an expedition of the Imperial Russian Geographical Society under the leadership of B. Zhitkov visited the Yamal Peninsula. One of the members of this expedition was the priest Martinian Martemyanov. He was assigned to the expedition to get acquainted with the life of the Nenets at their summer camps. Martemyanov turned out to be useful to the expedition as a second translator and assistant in all works. After the trip, he reported that missionary work was not being carried out directly in Yamal, and that he himself was not involved in preaching there.
Unfortunately, we do not have complete and accurate information about the cessation of activities in the Ob North of various church organizations and institutions. For example, according to the Act with a list of church funds stored in the district archive (Salekhard), it is known that in the territory of the Autonomous Okrug the following ceased their activities:
Khan's camp - in 1918
Obdorsk Missionary Church - in 1916
Obdorsk parochial school - in 1916
Obdorsk missionary shelter - in 1902
Berezovsky parochial school - in 1910
At the same time, according to the scattered archival documents that have survived, we can say that even in the early 20s, the missionary camp in the village of He was operating and, therefore, church life was carried out. There are known instructions from the Han Rural Revolutionary Committee of the local church with permission to hold religious processions, baptisms and funerals. Soon the Khan's camp, as well as, apparently, the entire Mission, were forced to stop their work.
Speaking about the results of the activities of the Obdorsk spiritual mission, it should be admitted that it failed to attract any significant number of representatives of the indigenous population of the Far North to Orthodoxy. For 25 years, from 1872 to 1897, according to official data, 2,734 people were baptized. On average, 100 to 200 people were baptized per year; the most successful year was 1888 (295 people), and the most unsuccessful was 1882, when only 16 people were baptized.
And yet Christianity influenced the religious ideas and traditional rituals of the aborigines. In the process of penetration of Orthodoxy over several centuries into the spiritual life of the aborigines, a kind of religious syncretism, or dual faith, developed. The missionaries themselves most often used this expression when they spoke about the state of Orthodoxy in the Obdorsky region, believing that the advantage in this pair was not Orthodoxy, but traditional beliefs. But certain provisions, one way or another connected with Christianity, still took hold in the local cultural environment. Firstly, the great authority that the figure of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker had in the eyes of the indigenous population of the region is obvious. There are several reasons for this: here is the influence of popular Russian Orthodoxy, which revered this saint; and the actions of the Church itself, which built numerous St. Nicholas churches in the North; and the peculiar “earthliness” of this saint. Elements of Christianity were also entrenched in the external cult paraphernalia, in the internal, spiritual world of the indigenous population of Yamal. Many Aboriginal groups developed rites of baptism, weddings and funerals. Although, in general, the family rituals of the Aborigines still retained their traditional features.
When considering issues of missionary activity of pre-revolutionary Russian Orthodoxy, special attention should be paid to the legal basis of the state’s religious policy. First of all, we note that the legislation affirmed the principle of religious tolerance under the firm dominance of the Orthodox confession. The Basic Laws of the Russian Empire proclaimed: “The primary and dominant faith in the Empire is the Christian Orthodox of the Catholic Eastern Confession. But all subjects who do not belong to the Established Church, as well as foreigners who are in the Russian service or temporarily staying in Russia, enjoy everywhere the free practice of their faith and worship according to its rites; This freedom of faith is assigned not only to Christians of foreign confessions, but also to Jews, Mohammedans and pagans.”
But only the Orthodox Church had the right, within the state, to convince those who do not profess Orthodoxy to accept this faith. The law said about the Orthodox faith: “This faith is supported by the grace of the Lord, teaching, meekness and most of all good examples.” Based on this, the dominant church could not afford “neither coercive means” when converting to Orthodoxy, nor persecution of those who did not want to become its members, “acting in the manner of the Apostolic preaching.” But the transition from one non-Christian religion to another was prohibited by law. According to the “Charter on the Management of Foreigners” adopted in 1822, nomadic non-religious people enjoyed freedom of religion and worship, and the Orthodox clergy, converting the natives to Orthodoxy, had to act meekly, without coercion, with their convictions alone.
Of course, the practice of missionary activity and the conversion of “foreigners” to Christianity was sometimes strikingly different from what the laws prescribed. Sometimes diocesan bodies sought to involve government bodies in their missionary work and rely on coercive power. Thus, Archbishop Georgy of Tobolsk in 1849 demanded from the Governor General of Western Siberia P.D. Gorchakov to stop the activities of shamans in some places in the Berezovsky district. It is curious that the governor rejected the claims of the church leadership, pointing out that “according to Art. 98 of the Charter on the Prevention and Suppression of Crimes, Siberian foreigners who do not profess the Christian faith have the freedom to worship according to their rites and customs, and they are allowed, at a distance from churches, to have decent places for prayer.” The Governor General also believed that the civil authorities “do not have the right to take measures to prohibit them from following the faith of their ancestors, especially since inducing them to accept the Christian faith through measures of meekness, without the slightest coercion, belongs ... to Spiritual power.”
At the end of the 19th century. the rules of conversion from paganism to Orthodoxy changed towards more strict adherence to the voluntary adoption of Orthodoxy. When baptizing adult aborigines, in the presence of two competent witnesses, it was necessary to take a signature from them about their sincere desire to accept the Christian faith. A sample of such a subscription was also installed:
“I, the undersigned tamga of the Ostyak of the Obdorsk volost of Panakoche to the family of Sointer, the elder of Syammi, gave this signature that I sincerely wish to join the Greek-Russian Orthodox-Eastern Church and promise to always remain faithful to it invariably.
Ostyak Panakche Sointer (tamga is attached here)
Present at this were:
Samoyed Obdorsk volost foreman Venda
Grigory Martemianov
Ostyak Vasily Yadon
In baptism Panacce is named Simeon (15 years old)
Baptism was performed by:
Hieromonk Vasily
psalmist Martemian Martemyanov.
1901, January 24 days."
The marriage rights of the newly baptized were also regulated. In 1834, a law was passed according to which a spouse who converted to Orthodoxy could, if desired, dissolve the marriage if the other spouse remained in a different faith. If the spouses wish to continue the marriage, it will be considered legal, but the children born to them must be baptized and raised in the spirit of Orthodoxy.
In the process of Christianization, the government created a number of benefits and rewards for the newly baptized. According to the law of 1826, aborigines who were baptized were exempt from paying yasak for three years. As for awards, the rules developed for the clergy of the Obdorsk camp church of St. Apostles Andrew the First-Called and Peter Petroverkhovny and approved by the Synod on July 14, 1856, provided for the issuance of a cross and a shirt for every baptized “foreigner.” The issuance was initially carried out at the expense of the Obdorsk Church. Subsequently, the amount spent was reimbursed from the diocesan treasury.
The criminal legislation of the Russian Empire also introduced benefits for persons who accept the Christian faith. According to the law, when committing certain offenses: “small theft, quarrels, fights, and the like,” upon accepting the Christian faith, “non-believers” were exempted from punishment. But if the accused committed more serious crimes, then the decisions made on their punishments were submitted to the Senate. In 1862, criminal legislation provided for a mitigation of punishment for any crime or misdemeanor if “a non-Christian religionist during the investigation or trial converts to Orthodoxy or another Christian faith that is tolerant and recognized as legal in the Empire.”
For the “foreign” population of Siberia, Russian legislation made a number of exceptions and prescribed compliance with “certain special rules.” The clergy were forbidden to subject the aborigines to any punishment if they “out of ignorance omit church services and rituals or, for local reasons, do not observe certain church regulations, such as, for example, due to a lack of fasting food or due to foolishness, do not observe fasts, etc. ."
At the request of the Bishop of Tobolsk Abraham, the Synod in 1889. issued a decree allowing missionaries to marry Aboriginal people on Lent of Peter the Great. At this time, missionaries traveled around the nomadic aborigines with a camp church. In 1900 The Synod issued decree No. 2636, which allowed members of the Obdorsk mission to marry newly converted aborigines coming to the village. Obdorskoe during the Nativity Fast.
Thus, the Russian Orthodox Church, continuing the policy of Christianization of North-Western Siberia, including the aborigines of the Yamal Peninsula, increasingly gave it a state character. The main legal forms, on the one hand, became the principles of religious tolerance, on the other - the strengthening of administrative and religious measures to involve “foreigners” in the Orthodox faith.
Bibliography
To prepare this work, materials from the site http://www.rusoir.ru/ were used
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Abstract completed by: st.gr. 720171 Chkunina D.A.
Tula State University
Tula, 2008
Introduction
My goal was to study the history of Christianization of the indigenous peoples of Siberia. If we talk about wide circles of society, then opinions on this issue here, as a rule, are based on stereotypes. For example, Ermak is remembered first, but the missionary activity of the Orthodox Church here is little known and, as has been the custom since the construction of communism, it was characterized primarily as part of the colonial and Russification policy of the tsarist autocracy. This approach is more flawed than incomplete, not only not reflecting all aspects of the process of Christianization and its influence on the life of the aborigines of this region, but also presenting the educational and preaching activities of the Orthodox Church in a deliberately distorted, vulgarized form.
As is now known, initially the penetration of Christian ideas into the territory of Siberia could have occurred in two directions: the southern, when one of the routes of the Great Silk Road in the 6th-7th centuries began to pass through the territories of Southern Kazakhstan and Semirechye, and the northern, from the moment the Novgorod pioneers opened the route to the Trans-Ural Yugra (as can be judged by the message in the Ipatiev Chronicle in 1096). Thus, the beginning of this process should be dated 5-10 centuries earlier than was commonly believed until recently. In addition, the Christianization of the population of Siberia did not begin suddenly, but was a long, long-term process.
Another direction, the northern one, developed with the advance of Russian traders to the northeast of Asia, since this region was rich in goods that were valued not only in Rus', but also in Europe (furs, walrus tusk, fossil mammoth tusks). The route of Russian explorers passed from the river. Vychegda on the river Pechora, then up the Shchugor River, beyond the Urals into the basin of the S. Sosva River. Another, “midnight” route led from Pechora to Usa, then to the Urals to the Sob River basin. Russian travelers used these routes from the 11th to the 17th centuries.
Contacts with the Trans-Ural Ugra were of a varied nature: military, political, trade and exchange, tributary. There is evidence that priests sometimes entered this territory. Thus, according to the chronicle, a certain priest Ivanka Legen also took part in the campaign of the Novgorodians for tribute in 1104, who could well have carried out preaching activities in these lands.
During excavations of the Saigatinsky burial ground VI near Surgut, an equal-ended bronze cross dating from the 10th-11th centuries was discovered in the burial. Similar crosses, including those depicting crucifixions, were widespread in Rus' and adjacent territories.
In the process of Christianization of Siberia, several main stages can be distinguished. The first stage is the least studied due to the scarcity of historical material relating to that distant era. Most likely, at this stage the process of Christianization was of a regional nature, when only some of the areas of Siberia were affected, primarily those bordering Russia. In general, it can be characterized as extended over time, slow and ineffective, since the connections between the regions in question and Russia were still weak. The beginning of the second stage of Christianization can be dated to the founding of new parishes, which in a short time covered a significant part of the territory of Siberia. The third stage can be distinguished as the period when priests and psalm-readers, natives of the local population, appeared here, and theological texts began to be printed in the local dialect.
1. Spread and introduction of Christianity
The process of spreading and introducing Orthodox Christianity into the people of Siberia and the North was one of the most important aspects of the colonial policy of the autocracy. Politicians gave priority to the Christianization of the population of this region as a means of assimilation by pagans not only of Orthodox ideas, but also of the ideas of Russian statehood. To achieve this goal, various methods and means were used. Immediately after the founding of administrative institutions in Siberia, spiritual centers were created; missionaries were active purveyors of Orthodox teaching.
Russian settlers also contributed greatly to the spread of Christianity. The peasants who settled in the habitats of the indigenous peoples of Siberia, the North and the Far East were carriers of the Russian folk culture of that time, of which Orthodoxy was an integral part.
Speaking in more detail about the stages of Christianization of this region, we can state the following.
The first stage of the penetration of Orthodoxy into Siberia ended with the campaign of Ermak’s squad and the subsequent construction of the first Siberian cities and forts. Since the 1580s. Orthodox churches were built in Russian cities that emerged one after another in Siberia: Tyumen, Tobolsk, Pelym, Surgut, Tara, Narym, etc.
The second stage in the spread of Christianity to the east of the Urals was the creation in 1620 - 1621. in Tobolsk, the first Siberian diocese, and immediately in the rank of archbishopric and the appointment of the first archbishop to it - Cyprian (Starorusenin). This was preceded by the opening of Orthodox churches and monasteries in the newly founded Siberian cities.
One of the tools to counter the corruption of officials in the colonized lands of Eastern Russia was the church organization. The leadership of the Siberian church was ordered to provide general protection from oppression by local authorities of the entire indigenous population, regardless of what faith they professed and whether they intended to be baptized.
The opening of the Tobolsk diocese (and later, in 1727, the Irkutsk diocese), the creation of new churches and monasteries while moving east gave a significant impetus to the development of Orthodox literature, books, painting, architecture, and theater on local soil. The Russian population, who migrated to Siberia, first mainly from the European North of the country, and then from other regions, carried with them the centuries-old traditions of folk Orthodoxy, icons, and books.
At the same time, a significant number of icons and books for Siberian churches and monasteries were purchased and delivered by spiritual and secular authorities. Already the first Siberian bishops brought with them quite large libraries, many icons, and also quickly established book publishing and the production of local icons in Siberia.
An invaluable contribution to the spread of Christianity in Siberia in the 17th and first half of the 18th centuries was made by the archbishops of Siberia and Tobolsk - Cyprian, Macarius, Nektarios, Gerasim, Simeon, and metropolitans Cornelius, Paul, Dimitri, John, Philotheus. Many of them were canonized as saints of the Siberian land.
In the 17th century, the political influence of Russia, and therefore of Orthodoxy, in a short historical period spread from the Urals to the shores of the Pacific Ocean. The economic development of the vast lands of Siberia proceeded simultaneously with spiritual influence, the introduction of the indigenous peoples of Siberia and the Far East to the developed Russian culture and the Orthodox faith.
The third stage of the spiritual development of Siberia as an Orthodox land should be considered the formation of the institution of its own, Siberian saints. In 1642, the relics of the first Siberian saint, Vasily of Mangazeya, were discovered. In the same year (1642), Blessed Simeon of Verkhoturye, recognized as righteous during his lifetime, died.
The Christian Church played a huge role in the formation of Siberia as part of the Russian state. Already in the 18th century, active missionary activity began both in the northern, eastern and southern outskirts of Siberia, which led to the final spread and consolidation of Orthodoxy in the region.
The Christianization of Siberia was also of an educational nature. Schools were organized everywhere here to train missionary assistants, church ministers, and translators. For example, in the camps of the Altai mission in 1891 there were 36 schools, 1153 boys and girls from local peoples studied in them. In the same year, 50 people graduated from the catechetical school (which trained religious teachers of Christians) at the Altai mission. Of these, 12 Altaians, 12 Shors, 7 Sagais, 6 Chernevyi (Tatars), 4 Kirghiz, 3 Teleuts, 2 Ostyaks, 1 Chuets and 3 Russians, “familiar with foreign languages.” There were also theological seminaries - for example, in the city of Yakutsk, a theological seminary was founded in the early 80s. XIX century Mostly natives studied there.
2. Language problems of Christianization
The natural process that accompanied the settlement of Siberia by the Russians, the adaptation of the latter as part of the Russian Empire, was Russification. In the recent past, they tried to see in this fact the aggressiveness of the policy of the Russian autocracy, so V.D. Bonch-Bruevich argued that “Russian tsarism has long declared that the basis of its policy is determined by three words: autocracy, Orthodoxy, nationality. Bringing all foreigners and all people of other faiths to the denominators of “Russian nationality” and “Orthodoxy” is the task that the keepers of the covenants of the Russian autocracy are steadily striving to achieve.” However, there is no serious reason to claim that there was a large-scale forced conversion of the peoples of Siberia to Christianity, just as there is such an absurdity that all local peoples were forced to learn Russian.
At the same time, the new government could not help but bring with it a new order, this is obvious to any historian. Thus, even under Peter I, all services and order of veneration were rearranged so that the inhabitants of the empire firmly knew that in heaven there is “one god, and on earth there is and will be one king.” These provisions remained relevant at different stages of the Christianization of the peoples of Siberia, the North and the Far East. Teaching in schools, preaching Christianity, and worship were conducted in Russian. And at the same time, attempts were made to introduce teaching and even worship in some languages of the peoples of Siberia, but due to the extreme difficulty of translating the concepts and meanings of Christian doctrine into the languages of the Siberian peoples, these undertakings did not have serious success. In addition, translations required deep and comprehensive knowledge of languages and special training of translators. However, none of the Siberian preachers was sufficiently prepared to cope satisfactorily with such complex tasks.
In 1812, the Russian Biblical Society was founded, with its main goal being the spread of Christianity. This society, headed by Prince A.N. Golitsyn, Chief Prosecutor of the Holy Synod, acted under the patronage of Alexander I and was engaged in the translation of Church Slavonic books into the languages of the peoples of Russia, including some Siberian and northern ones.
In addition to the central department of the Bible Society in St. Petersburg, there were its branches throughout the empire, including in the provincial centers of Siberia. In addition to the local clergy, they included representatives of civil authorities headed by governors. This seemed to emphasize the unity of some of the tasks facing the administrative and spiritual authorities. Moreover, one of the goals of such close cooperation was to prevent attempts to abuse representatives of administrative power in the areas of competence of the Church.
Branches were created in Tobolsk and Irkutsk, where, on the initiative of local departments, the Bible was translated into the languages of the peoples of Siberia and the North. Thus, the Tobolsk department translated some parts of the New Testament into the Khanty and Mansi languages, as well as “into the Siberian dialect of the Tatar language.” In Turukhansk, a translation of the Gospel of Matthew was prepared for the Taz Selkups; a translation of the Gospel was also made for the Pelym Mansi; translations were carried out into Evenki and Nenets languages. In the Arkhangelsk North, Archimandrite Veniamin translated prayers and the Bible. In 1805, in St. Petersburg, two zaisans under the leadership of Ya.I. Schmidt's Gospel was translated into the Buryat language. The Irkutsk branch made an attempt to translate “the Lord’s Prayer, the Creed and the Ten Commandments of God” into the Chukchi language.
There were also incidents. In 1820, preacher L. Trifonov, not knowing the Chukchi language, hired Chuvan Mordovsky and translator Kobelev to work. In 1821, 100 copies of the “translated” prayers were already printed in the Irkutsk provincial printing house “with the permission of the government Synod.” However, the translation was so unsuccessful that it was impossible to understand not only the meaning, but even individual words. The translators only blindly followed the Russian text, trying to translate word for word. This publication apparently had no success in Christianizing the Chukchi. Perhaps, F. Matyushkin, who observed the use of translations in practice, gave a completely fair assessment of this work. “The Bible Society,” he wrote, “translated the Ten Commandments, the Lord’s Prayer, a symbol of faith and, if I’m not mistaken, part of the Gospel into the Chukchi language; printed in Russian letters and sent here, but this work cannot bring more benefit. The crude Chukchi language lacks words to express new abstract concepts, and Russian letters cannot convey many sounds.”
There were no further attempts to translate prayers and the Bible into the languages of the peoples of the North in the first quarter of the 19th century. were not undertaken, and in 1826 the Russian Bible Society was closed and its works were destroyed. The reason for the closure was, in particular, translations of the Bible and prayers into “non-Christian languages”, which the highest authorities saw as a violation of faith (due to the distortion of some dogmas of the faith due to poor translation).
Despite this, the government attached great importance to the spread of Orthodoxy among the natives, considering this as a phenomenon designed to lead to the Russification of converts not only in language, but also in their way of life. However, it is inappropriate to talk about expansion here, although some abuses did occur (more on this below). The “Charter on Foreigners” of 1822 established the principle of religious tolerance. This matter was not without the influence of the leaders of the Russian Bible Society: the drafter of the charter, M.M. Speransky was an active figure in this society.
Despite the liquidation of the Russian Bible Society, in some localities missionaries continued to prepare translations of the Gospel and prayers, as well as compiling primers for teaching children to read and write in their native language. The Synod did not interfere with such activity of missionaries, especially in the 40s. XIX century, when more or less successful experiments were carried out in creating a primer, and then translations of liturgical books into the Aleutian language by missionary I.E. Veniaminova. At the same time, the Synod carefully checked the results of the missionaries’ work, and all their projects, grammars and dictionaries were compiled under the control of the Academy of Sciences.
Founded in 1875, a special translation commission in Kazan (not without the influence and support of I.E. Veniaminov, then the Moscow Metropolitan) considered its main task to be the spread of “Orthodox-Russian enlightenment” using the native languages of those converted. It should be noted here that not all official representatives of Orthodoxy shared the views of Veniaminov and his followers (in particular, N.I. Ilminsky).
3. The problem of baptism and conversion to Orthodoxy
In 1868, at the direction of Moscow Metropolitan Innokenty (I.E. Veniaminov), His Grace Veniamin was appointed Bishop of Kamchatka, Kuril and Aleut. This minister of the Church was distinguished by reactionary views, however, in the field of national policy, they were quite consistent with the course of the government of Alexander P. Veniamin was a devout Russifier, confident that “the Orthodox mission in relation to foreigners is the mission of Russification.” Therefore, he believed that “one who wishes can be baptized even before the shamanic views are destroyed in him; but it is necessary to destroy the dummies of a baptized person, because he compares them to icons; he must also be forbidden to go to shamans, just as Russians are forbidden to go to sorcerers.” Thus, he supported drastic measures to introduce “Siberian foreigners” to Orthodoxy.
Further, this spiritual mentor of the Siberian flock argued that education for the local population was not necessary. “In my opinion,” he said, “universal education is useful only for the baptized, a Christian with convictions, and without this it only gives rise to nihilism.” All this ran counter to the judgments of Metropolitan Innocent on this issue. Veniamin openly condemned the activities of I.E. Veniaminova in Kamchatka, where “the inclusion of new children of the church is not difficult.” Such. Veniaminov “considered it necessary to prohibit inviting pagans to be baptized, and to baptize only those who themselves would seek baptism.” This opinion, which was based on the primordial position of toleration of Orthodox Christianity, was reinforced by the confidence in the irrationality of forced Christianization, which could not give the desired results. “In the past, the conversion of foreigners to Christianity... was purely external... The activities of missionaries of modern times have a completely different character (over the last 30-40 years). Here, concern is placed in the foreground for the conscious assimilation of Christian teachings by foreigners and especially for the Christian upbringing of newly baptized children. Therefore, the establishment of foreign schools is one of the primary tasks of missionaries... The current missionaries tried to learn the language of foreigners and in it they expound the gospel truths and perform divine services... Missions set up... hospitals, almshouses, etc.”
Here it seems appropriate to mention one of the main obstacles to the spread of Orthodoxy - in the person of the senders of the cult of shamanism widespread here - shamans. Servants of the Church fought against paganism in different ways, sometimes especially zealous clergymen (for example, the aforementioned Benjamin) subjected shamans to persecution and persecution, took away their tambourines and burned them, destroyed various shamanic attributes (shamanic attire, tesas - materialized spirits). It would not be amiss to note here that usually the loss of a tambourine caused severe stress in the shaman, accompanied by fainting, serious illness, and sometimes death.
As we can see, the methods of spreading Christianity in Siberia varied: from attempts at coercion to strengthening the stable principle of the voluntariness of baptism.
4. Education and medicine as a means of Christianization
Literacy schools “in the foreign population... take on the entire task of Christian education, for the foreign school cannot even give children Christian skills, but, on the contrary, raises them in everyday and partly even religious skills and concepts of pagans and other faiths. Therefore, the foreign literacy school should be given the greatest opportunity for religious and educational influence on its students, allowing them in these schools, at first, to study in their native dialect.” According to the Yakut bishop Meletius, “the preacher of the Gospel must study pagan religions... must speak in their concepts... They [the pagans] will see in him not an alien person... but a person close to them, and his teaching applied to to their concepts, will seem familiar to them. The preacher must also use the concepts of those to whom he wants to proclaim the word of truth.” Missionary schools were created everywhere, with the primary task of introducing Christian truths into the minds of children; sermons and teachings of the clergy addressed to adults were subordinated to the same task. In addition, “the white and black clergy of the Orthodox Church,” wrote V.D. Bonch-Bruevich, “is trying to penetrate wherever and wherever possible, into the very depths of people’s life - as a teacher, paramedic, preacher, assistant and mourner in sorrows and illnesses.”
In addition to official figures of the Orthodox Church, there were also private missionary organizations. One of the largest, most widely known organizations with significant funds was the Orthodox Missionary Society, founded in 1869 in Moscow. Its members included clergy, secular people, members of the royal family, grand dukes, etc. This emphasized the importance attached to missionary activity at that time. There was not a single aspect of the life of the aborigines of Siberia and the North that the ministers of Christianity did not try to delve into. “Grand Inquisitor”, as the Chief Prosecutor of the Holy Synod K.P. was called. Pobedonostsev, at the end of the 19th century. intensively introduced the basics of medical knowledge among clergy. The missionaries were supplied with first aid kits so that, while providing medical care to the natives, they could plunge even deeper into the life of the people. Educational, preaching, missionary activities of the Orthodox Church by the end of the 19th century. reached a wide scale: in 1899 the Church published 86 newspapers and magazines.
5. The influence of Christianity on the religious consciousness of the peoples of Siberia
The process of Christianization of the peoples of Siberia continued for several centuries. The missionaries’ activities did not pass without a trace, changing the very foundations of the religious consciousness of the indigenous inhabitants of the north and south of Siberia. The natives accepted a number of provisions of Orthodoxy, which merged with their traditional religious ideas, layered on them, creating a bizarre picture of religious syncretism. Due to certain historical conditions, Christianity was most fully accepted by those peoples who, in addition to the official dogma, directly experienced the influence of Russian settlers. The peasants brought with them to the Siberian land new means and methods of agricultural technology, crafts, and at the same time the Orthodox faith. Borrowing the culture of agriculture, the aborigines of Siberia moved to settled life, adopted the peasant way of life, everyday traditions, and Christianity - at its everyday (folk) level. Mixed marriages also contributed to this. The labor experience of Russian farmers with all its religious attributes was gradually assimilated by the peoples of Siberia. Thus, that part of the indigenous population of Siberia and the North that lived side by side with Russian settlers became more familiar with Orthodoxy. These are the southern groups of Mansi, Khanty, Kets, Transbaikal Evenks, southern groups of Yakuts, Western Buryats, Altaians, Khakassians, some groups of peoples of the Amur, etc. To a lesser extent, Christianity was accepted by those peoples who did not come into direct contact with the Russians and were not directly influenced for their economic activities, everyday life, and culture. Such peoples include a significant part of the nomadic Nenets, Nganasans, northern groups of Evens, Evenks, Chukchi, Koryaks and some others. The results of the missionaries' activities were less noticeable and tangible here. However, here, too, the population assimilated some Christian dogmas and ideas, and primarily those that, in their mythological form, were accessible to the perception of the aborigines.
Some peoples of Siberia, the North and the Far East, after the inclusion of their territories of residence in a multinational state, largely lost their ethnic identity, having lost the foundations of traditional religious consciousness. Such nationalities include the Itelmens, Aleuts, sedentary Chuvans and a number of others.
Consequently, the influence of Christianity on the religious consciousness of the peoples of Siberia, the North and the Far East was uneven. Hence the well-known diversity in religious ideas even among representatives of the same nationality, for example, the northern and southern groups of Mansi, Khanty, Nenets, Evenks and Evens.
Conclusion
In this work, a superficial characterization of the issue under study was carried out. This is due both to the insufficient research of this issue by specialists and to the specifics of the form of scientific work within which this issue was covered.
In conclusion, in my opinion, the most special, specific features of the process of Christianization of Siberia should be indicated.
First of all, it should be noted that the process of Christianization took place against the background of a mixture of different cultures, i.e. with the interpenetration of Russian and local cultures. For example, there is a great similarity in the life of the resettled Cossacks and the aborigines, in particular the Yakuts. Cossacks and Yakuts trusted and helped each other. The Yakuts helped them in hunting and fishing. When the Cossacks had to leave for a long period of time on business, they handed over their cattle to their neighbors, the Yakuts, for safekeeping. Many local residents who converted to Christianity themselves became service people, they developed common interests with Russian settlers, and a similar way of life was formed.
Another feature of the process under consideration was the mixed marriages of newcomers with native women, both baptized and those who remained in paganism. These marriages sometimes became widespread. It should be borne in mind that the Church viewed this practice with great disapproval. In the first half of the 17th century. spiritual authorities expressed concern that Russian people “mix with Tatar wives... and others live with Tatar women who are not baptized as they are with their wives and have children.” And although the Church believed that such marriages undermined the position of Orthodoxy, they still to some extent contributed to strengthening the position of Christianity.
One of the features of the Christianization of Siberia was the fact that Orthodox holidays here began to “mix” with the holidays of the indigenous peoples of Siberia. In addition, while preserving shamanic beliefs and accepting a new creed, syncretism in the form of dual faith occurred widely.
It can be summarized that the process of Christianization of Siberia was long-term, heterogeneous in terms of timing and degree of intensity of the influence of religious ideas on the natives in different regions, and therefore had a different impact on the peoples inhabiting Siberia. At the same time, it is necessary to note the enormous importance that this phenomenon had for the education of local peoples, for their introduction to the ideas of world culture, improvement of life, improvement of health and inclusion in the number of followers of the largest world religion.
The process of Christianization of the peoples of Siberia not only facilitated the inclusion and adaptation of this region within Russia, but was also a natural, inevitable process that accompanied the interaction of two different cultures.
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To prepare this work, materials from the site were used
Monasteries were important strongholds for the spread of Orthodoxy in the new trans-Ural possessions of Russia. The oldest of them - Tobolsk Znamensky - from the very beginning served as a public almshouse: the wounded, sick and old were often tonsured there service people . Monasteries were founded jointly by the state and local communities (for example, Verkhoturye Nikolaevsky). The tradition of desert living, which enjoyed recognition in all layers of Russian society, also led to the emergence of new monasteries: this is how the Dalmatovsky Assumption Monastery . The entire 17th century The Tobolsk See actively stimulated monastic construction and economic development of both monasteries and the bishop's house.
The bishop's house was in the 17th century. an important center of Siberian spiritual literature, church painting, architecture, and sacred music. The beginning of the Siberian theater is also connected with the Church: already in the inventory of the property of the bishop's house in 1625, theatrical props for productions on biblical themes are mentioned.
The bishops controlled the clergy of the diocese through the heads of spiritual districts, into which all of Orthodox Siberia was divided. At the end of the 17th century. documents called them “priest elders”; these were trusted priests, abbots. But the most important link in all church life remained parishes. The Siberian parish church was an important center not only of church life, but also of all public life. The “secular box” was traditionally kept there - the archive of the community, including the most important state acts. According to a long-standing custom, a written complaint could also be placed there, which the churchwarden and parish clergy accepted and kept until the trial.
Instructions to Siberian bishops call the Christianization of local peoples their most important task. The orders determined the strategy and tactics of the Siberian mission for almost a century. They list in detail what and how to attract non-believers to baptism, while strictly observing the principle of voluntariness. Siberian bishops even received the right to shelter “until the sovereign’s decree” from punishment “Tatars” accused of criminal offenses (“great treason”), and not only those who came for baptism, but also those who had not yet expressed such a desire. The protection of the newly baptized was a private manifestation of the special civic duties of Siberian bishops. The ancient tradition of the Orthodox Church, inherited from Byzantium - the right to stand up for the offended, to protect from violence - was actually embodied at that time in the activities of the Church, including the Siberian one.
From the middle of the 17th century. The fate of Orthodoxy in Russia, including Siberia, is complicated by the problem of the reform of Patriarch Nikon and the church schism. The exile of Archpriest Avvakum to Tobolsk and Dauria in 1653-64 led to the appearance of his numerous zealous supporters in Siberia. Old Belief was fought extremely harshly back then. The Old Believers, excommunicated from the Church at the councils of 1665-66, were subjected to arrest, torture, execution, and their monasteries were raided by military teams. In the fight against religious dissent, the state apparatus of violence was widely used, which led to mass escapes of Old Believers to the outskirts, the emergence of large centers of both priestlessism and clericalism in the Urals and Siberia (see. Bespopovtsy in Siberia; Popovtsy in Siberia ). In response to repressions, “burning fires” started burning in Siberian forests in 1679 ( ), in which thousands of people died.
In the second half of the 17th century. The royal authorities, taught by the experience of opposing Patriarch Nikon’s attempt to place the Priesthood above the Kingdom, began to be increasingly suspicious of the interference of the Tobolsk bishops in the affairs of secular government. At the end of the century, this led to an acute conflict around the issue of church court. This traditional institution of church authority has remained almost unchanged since its inception in the 10th century. The Church had the right to judge the entire population on “spiritual” matters (blasphemy, insult to clergy, apostasy, witchcraft, debauchery); Church officials controlled acts of civil status and inheritance cases. In addition, all “church people” were subject to church court in a very wide range of criminal and civil cases. In Siberia, before the formation of the diocese, the governors were accustomed to administering matters within the competence of the spiritual court themselves, and Cyprian led a decisive struggle against this from the first days of his stay in Tobolsk. The efforts of him and subsequent bishops turned out to be effective, and soon Siberia ceased to be an exception to the all-Russian rules in this matter.
By the 1690s. The extreme corruption of the Siberian “tenmen” (secular service people of the Church who carried out investigations into cases of the church court) became obvious. They often arrested and tortured innocent but wealthy people, extorting bribes. The complaints of the townspeople's communities were energetically supported by the tsar's relative, governor A.F. Naryshkin. The resistance of Bishop Ignatius (Rimsky-Korsakov), who even dared to excommunicate Naryshkin from the Church, was broken by Moscow, and contrary to ancient law, church officials were subjected to a secular court, punishing the extortionists and returning the loot. At the same time, the governor did not submit his clerk to the church court. This case turned out to be a harbinger of new relations between Church and State.
From the end of the 17th century. The position of the Church, including the Siberian Church, is changing dramatically. The monarchy, based on zemstvo principles in governance, is being replaced by absolutism with the dominance of the bureaucracy and a rationalistic attitude towards the Church and religion. Trying to organize the service of the Orthodox Church to society according to Western models, Peter I set the goal of sharply reducing the costs of its support and reducing its political and economic independence.
The Tsar destroyed the institution of the patriarchate, and the management of the Church was transferred to a semi-secular department - the Spiritual College (Synod) headed by the Chief Prosecutor, the sovereign's confidant. Subjecting to repression the opponents of these innovations, Peter I sought support within the Church itself and found it among the students of the Kyiv Theological Academy, who had no connections in the Russian church environment and, moreover, had a school education of Western European orientation. After the removal of Ignatius (Rimsky-Korsakov) from Siberia, all Siberian metropolitans until the end of the 1760s. were appointed from this environment.
In 1702, Metropolitan St. took over the administration of the Siberian diocese. Filofey(Leshchinsky; 1702-11, 1715-21), sent there by the king with an extensive program of activities. The pace of Christianization of local peoples seemed insufficient to Peter I; he rejected the established tradition of baptizing aborigines solely at their own request. From now on, Christianization becomes widespread. Under Philotheus, idols and other attributes of paganism burned, and sometimes it even came to shootings, although the confrontation was neither long nor bloody. The Metropolitan himself led missionary expeditions and managed to baptize, it is believed, about 40 thousand. Khanty, Mansi, Selkup Northwestern Siberia (although this figure is clearly overestimated, based on the total number of aborigines there). Metropolitan Philotheus established missionary camps for the baptism of Tatars and Kyrgyz.
In 1706, largely in connection with missionary tasks, the diocese was established Irkutsk Vicariate , transformed in 1727 into an independent diocese. It was headed by a student of the Kyiv Theological Academy, St. Innocent(Kulchitsky; 1727-31), elevated to the episcopate in 1721 as the supposed head of the then failed Orthodox mission in Beijing. In 1731 Irkutsk diocese and vast territories in the north and east are attributed - With counties, and the diocese became the most extensive in the empire. In 1733 Kamchatka became part of it, and in 1796 - Russian America.
Churches were built for the newly baptized in Siberia at state expense (which was no longer done for the Russian population in the 18th century). Parishes were organized around the churches according to the Russian model. However, Orthodoxy was adopted by the converts quite superficially, combining with previous pagan beliefs. By the middle of the 18th century. secular authorities are gradually ceasing to support violent methods of Christianization. The conflict surrounding the forced baptism of the Tatars led to the transfer from Siberia of the metropolitan Sylvester(Glovatsky; 1749-55). Other methods, known before, came to the fore. Metropolitan Philotheus began training future clergy in a special school for Aboriginal boys. In the second half of the 18th century. in Northwestern Siberia, knowledge of local languages by the clergy of newly baptized parishes was considered mandatory. In the same century, translations of sacred texts into Aboriginal languages began, and this direction developed rapidly. Siberian missionary work gave a significant impetus to the development of domestic linguistics.
The policy of the state and the Church in relation to the Old Believers underwent changes during the 18th century. several turns. Still continuing to consider the Old Believers “fierce enemies, constantly thinking evil of both the state and the sovereign,” the government of Peter I, by decrees of 1716, pragmatically provided for the possibility of their legal existence, subject to their paying a double capitation salary and refusing to pass on their faith by inheritance. The Church had to conduct missionary work among such “notified schismatics” and monitor their strict compliance with restrictive prohibitions. The authorities’ desire to use the decrees of 1716 to gradually eradicate the old faith, and the refusal of the overwhelming majority of the Ural-Siberian “schismatics” to enroll in the double capitation salary led to mass protest movements during each of the first 4 revisions. And even when in 1782 the government of Catherine II abolished the double salary, in the Tobolsk diocese they tried to interpret this measure in the exact opposite sense, as the abolition of any legal basis for the existence of the old faith, and this caused new mass unrest. But by that time the Empress’s manifesto of September 22, 1762 on religious tolerance was already in effect and playing its positive role, and gradually mass self-immolation Old Believers in Siberia began to decline. Under Catherine II, the first negotiations between the authorities and the leaders of the Irgiz Center of Old Belief began to seek a compromise. They ended in 1801 with the introduction unity of faith , within which the Old Believers could have their own priests, who served according to pre-Nikon books, but were subordinate to the diocesan bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church.
By the beginning of the 18th century. in the Siberian metropolis there were, according to some sources, 160 churches, according to others - 200; There were not enough of them for the needs of the Orthodox population over a vast territory. In the Irkutsk diocese, which was separated in 1727, there were 46 churches, according to the 1738 statement in the Tobolsk diocese in 25 spiritual orders - 374 churches. Monasteries at the beginning of the 18th century. in Siberia there were 39, but the attitude of rationalist governments towards them in this century did not contribute to the flourishing of the monastic tradition. The policy of reducing state support for the Church led to the fact that since the end of the previous century, many Siberian churches were transferred to self-sufficiency, and the number of monasteries was reduced by 15 over the century.
The monasteries tried to avoid a reduction in their income and increased rent from the peasants. Hence the growing pressure on farmers, who, moreover, during Peter’s reforms fell into serfdom from the monasteries. All this strained the relations of the latter with their labor force, and from the late 1720s. The unrest of the peasants of the Siberian church estates became almost continuous. They gained particular momentum in the 1760s; This time dates back, in particular, to the “Dubinism” - a long struggle between the peasants of the Dalmatovsky monastery and its authorities, which turned into armed clashes. The end to the antagonism was marked by the final transfer of monastic peasants to the category of “economic” in 1764, after the secularization of the lands of monasteries and bishops’ houses.
This step led to tense relations between the imperial authorities and a number of church hierarchs, including Siberian ones. Among the most active opponents of the reform of Catherine II (which crushed the economic base of the last institution of society capable of somehow resisting the autocracy) was St. , who previously briefly ruled the Tobolsk diocese (1741-42). The Empress ordered to call the Metropolitan “Andrei the Vral” and to imprison him for life. The last Metropolitan of Tobolsk from the Ukrainians, St. Paul (Konyuskevich; 1758-68) not only spoke sharply negatively about the secularization of church lands and the Synod obedient to the empress, but also constantly conflicted with governor and other secular authorities, demanding the adoption of devastating measures to combat the Old Believers. In 1768, he was removed from Siberia, like his predecessor Sylvester (Glovatsky), who also insisted on the most radical methods of eradicating the Old Believers. In 1768, the status of the Tobolsk diocese was demoted to a bishopric and St. Varlaam(Petrova; 1768-1802, from 1792 - archbishop), Russian by origin, who did not enter into any conflicts with government authorities.
At the same time, students of the Kyiv Theological Academy have done a lot for the development of education and culture in Siberia. In 1702-03, the first in Siberia and the second in Russia (after Rostov) school for training clerics was opened at the Tobolsk Bishops' House. Bishop Philotheus ordered teachers and 206 books for him from Kiev. In 1727, 57 Siberians studied at the Tobolsk School and another 14 at a similar school at the Znamensky Monastery. In 1743-48 Metropolitan Anthony(Narozhnitsky; 1742-48) turned the bishop's school into a seminary. In 1791, 285 people studied here. Theological schools were opened at some monasteries. Metropolitan Pavel (Konyuskevich) increased the number of such schools in his diocese to 15.
In Eastern Siberia, the first theological school was opened in 1725 under Irkutsk Ascension Monastery . At first she trained translators from Mongolian and Chinese for missionary and other needs; in 1728 St. Innokenty (Kulchitsky) expanded its curriculum for the training of the clergy. In 1735 bishop Innocent(Nerunovich; 1732-37) transformed this school into a Slavic-Russian-Latin one and opened it in Yakutsk another theological school. In 1780, through the efforts of Bishop Mikhail (Mitkevich; 1771-89), the Irkutsk Seminary arose. In 1837 there were 80 students studying there. According to the statement of 1828, out of 412 priests of the diocese, 104 people graduated from the seminary.
In the 18th century in Siberia, processes of class closure of the clergy took place. Persons of other classes were not allowed to join it, and at the same time the secular authorities reduced its number; the non-serving part of the clergy was transferred to the tax-paying classes during the so-called analyzes during audits. Since 1722, the Synod regulated the number of parishes and the number of clergy required for service per parish (depending on its population), seeking to close sparsely populated parishes. In 1762, church “staffs” were introduced, strictly regulating the number of clergy at each church and monks in monasteries. Due to the acute shortage of clergy in 1739, an exception was made for the Irkutsk diocese from strict class laws: it was allowed to assign people from tax-paying classes to the churches with their exemption from taxes.
After the suppression of church opposition in the 1760s. The Church is becoming even more dependent on secular authorities, and the bureaucratization of church administration is growing. The boundaries of parishes, deaneries (church districts, decanates), and dioceses are being redrawn. However, there was also a lens for this. basis: development of new territories and population density in old ones. In the XVIII-XIX centuries. Orthodoxy in Siberia spread especially intensively. Along with the development of the region from the outside, internal colonization was actively going on. New parishes arose and old ones were divided, but due to the incompleteness of the colonization process, they were much larger than usual for European Russia.
New dioceses appeared in Siberia. In 1799, the territory of the Tobolsk diocese decreased significantly: several deaneries were allocated from it into the newly created Orenburg-Ufa and Perm-Ekaterinburg dioceses. In 1834, the Tomsk diocese separated from Tobolsk, from which, in turn, in 1861 - the Yenisei diocese, and in 1895 - Omsk and Semipalatinsk. In addition, as part of the Tomsk diocese in 1879 it opened Barnaul Vicariate . In 1840, in the territories that had been part of the Irkutsk diocese since 1733, the Kamchatka and Aleutian diocese was formed, and in 1852 the churches of Yakutia were transferred to it. In 1870, the Aleutian and Alaskan Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church was formed. In the Irkutsk diocese in 1861 the Selenga vicariate was established, in 1894 it was transformed into the Transbaikal diocese with its center in Chita .
In the 19th century The church-bureaucratic vertical of power was strengthened, the number of metropolitan orders, mandatory for execution, but not always taking into account local conditions, increased every year. Thus, Archbishop Anthony of Tobolsk and Siberia (Znamensky; 1803-06) received the highest decree on the construction of only stone churches - not the first order of this kind. In many areas of Siberia, where there was no stone, but there was a lot of forest, rural communities could not cope with stone construction. From the capital, however, orders came to immediately destroy all newly erected wooden churches and punish the clergy who consecrated them. And the archbishop was forced to obey, sacrificing both churches and personnel given the acute shortage of both in Siberia.
The change in the departments of bishops, carried out by the sovereign on the proposal of the Synod, was sometimes least of all explained by the interests of the dioceses; it was caused either by the diligent fulfillment of their duty by the rulers, or by metropolitan intrigues in church and secular circles. Only once did a bishop dare to actively protest against an unfair resignation. In 1831, the Irkutsk bishop Irinarch, unexpectedly dismissed by the decree of the Synod, tried to disobey him by appealing to the secular authorities; he was taken under arrest by a gendarme lieutenant colonel and imprisoned for a long time in a monastery.
Bureaucratization produced copious and often unreliable reporting; possession of clerical wisdom became a valuable quality for the ranks of the consistory and even bishops. Skillful compilation of statements and confessional lists could hide real troubles in the activities of pastors. But there is also a known case when the elderly Tobolsk Archbishop Ambrose (1822-25) so weakened control over the consistory. clergy that for 2 years they did not open any letters, with the exception of synodal ones, that came to the consistory and the bishop (more than 2 thousand of them accumulated). Sometimes they came from St. Petersburg with inspections, there were even Senate audits, during which senators interfered in church affairs subordinate to the bishops. This happened under the active Tobolsk Archbishop Eugene (1825-31). The Bishop protested violently, the interests of the senators and the Synod diverged here, and as a result, an extraordinary inspection of the work of the entire clergy of the diocese was ordered, but Eugene himself was ordered to carry it out. He, not without benefit, undertook 3 long trips to the most remote places of the diocese and did not find any special violations.
In contrast to the synodal bureaucratization and the strict dependence of the vertical hierarchy of church authorities on the state, such an important phenomenon of Orthodox spirituality as eldership spontaneously developed (against the background of the rapidly reviving monastic tradition since the beginning of the 19th century). Its distinctive features are the revival of a lively interest in the mystical creations of the ancient Fathers of the Church, extreme asceticism, non-covetousness, compulsory personal labor, simplicity in everyday life, communication, classlessness in a feudal-class society, significant freedom from external church rituals in favor of inner deep faith, “smart prayer" and the search for individual mystical contacts with God. Famous elders were actively engaged in teaching, preaching the moral laws of Christ; this preaching had a huge influence on believers and sometimes on non-believers. Standing apart from the synodal hierarchy of power, the elders often lived in monasteries, founded hermitages and did not stand in opposition to the Church, which eventually recognized their merits and even canonized them as saints. Skete eldership was also common in the Siberian expanses. Until 1820, the monastery of St. St. Petersburg existed for 20 years near Turinsk. Zosima (Zakhar Vasilyevich Verkhovsky); this hermit served as one of the prototypes of the world-famous hero F.M. Dostoevsky Elder Zosima. In the second quarter of the 19th century. Tomsk St. enjoyed national fame. Orthodox elder Fedor Kuzmich.
The remoteness of the Siberian dioceses also had its positive features: many sharp turns in the capital’s relations between the Church and the state were faintly felt here. Mystical hobbies of Alexander I and A.N. Golitsyn, Chief Prosecutor of the Synod (from 1817 - Minister of Spiritual Affairs and Education), which sometimes went beyond the boundaries of Russian Orthodoxy, did not have any special consequences for Siberia. And the Bible Society, which Golitsyn also led, even helped the activities of Siberian missionaries in translating the texts of the Holy Scriptures, prayers, and the Catechism into the languages of the peoples of Siberia. In the Irkutsk diocese, where a branch of the society appeared in 1819, the Catechism was soon published twice Yakut language, prayers and commandments for Chukchi. In 1827 the New Testament was published in St. Petersburg in the Buryat-Mongolian language, and in 1835 a grammar of this language was published, compiled by A. Bobrovnikov, a teacher at the Irkutsk Seminary. The energetic Irkutsk ruler was a good translator of Scripture texts and liturgical books in the Buryat-Mongolian language Nile (Isakovich; 1838-56); The language was taught to him by the baptized Lama N. Dorzhiev. With the active participation of the famous Bishop of Kamchatka and Aleutian St. his closest assistants translated all the books of the New Testament (except the Apocalypse) and some Old Testament books into the Yakut language. Actively engaged in translations of biblical texts Altai spiritual mission . All these translations had (and some of them still have) considerable scientific value, being the first experiments in studying and recording the languages of the peoples of Siberia. Thus, in 1839, the translations in the Ostyak language made by the Obdorsk missionary Luka (Vologda) were highly appreciated at the Academy of Sciences by the researcher of Finno-Ugric languages, Professor Sjögren. Linguists of Soviet times, although not immediately, highly appreciated the experience of creating alphabets and grammars of Siberian languages and took advantage of many of the achievements of church translators of the 19th century.
Missionary activities of the Russian Orthodox Church in the 19th century. gradually covered all Siberian ethnic groups. After several ineffective experiments in the Tobolsk diocese at the beginning of the century, the Church was able to develop more effective methods, mainly thanks to the ascetic work of many educated and energetic missionaries (besides those mentioned above - these are St. Herman (Alaskan) , St. Innocent (Veniaminov), Iakinthos and many others). The new period of missionary work is characterized primarily by the rejection of forceful methods of conversion to Orthodoxy, the establishment of permanent missions, and the creation of “missionary parishes.” At this time, even more attention was paid to the organization of missionary schools, the translation of texts of the Holy Scriptures and Holy Tradition, liturgical books into the languages of the peoples of Siberia, the compilation of grammars and dictionaries of these languages, and ethnographic research. The success of the missionaries was facilitated by the expansion of cultural and economic ties between indigenous peoples and the Russian population. If at the beginning of the century church historians still mention cases of extreme unreliability in the conversion of many aborigines to the new faith, sometimes even for the sake of modest gifts (each new Christian received a cross, trousers and a shirt, one and a half to two rubles), then later such news became less and less. But new schools are emerging, books are being published for the newly baptized, the culture of the indigenous ethnic groups of Siberia is being studied, charitable activities and healing are intensifying (see. Orthodox missions in Siberia and missionary work ). Missionary work is closely connected with the development of spiritual education in Siberia.
The era of great reforms of the 1860s. changed church life in Siberia only to a small extent. The reform of the Russian Orthodox Church was carried out in 1862-86, created on the initiative of the Minister of Internal Affairs P.A. Valueva A special presence of the highest hierarchs of the Russian Orthodox Church and officials at the ministerial level. In the provinces, including Siberian ones, its local bodies operated under the governors. It was supposed to develop measures to improve the financial situation of the clergy, weaken their class isolation and strengthen the connection between clergy and parishioners, improve spiritual education, increase the participation of the clergy in the work of secular rural schools, etc. An attempt to significantly weaken the principle of providing the material needs of the clergy by the state, increasing the share in this matter of the citizens themselves, led to many bureaucratic misunderstandings and was met with disapproval by both clergy and parishioners. As a result, for example, in the Tomsk diocese the number of clergy receiving salaries from the treasury increased from 23% of their total number in 1870-71 to 37% in 1885-86. It was also not possible to unify the fee for correcting the needs of clergy; here, in practice, everything remained the same; this fee really depended on the relationship between parishioners and the clergy in each parish.
More noticeable are the positive changes in the field of education, and in particular those related to the problem of class isolation of the clergy. In 1863, students of theological seminaries were allowed to enter universities, and by 1875, 46% of the country's university students were former seminarians. Children of the clergy received permission to study in gymnasiums and military schools, and the right to enter seminaries was extended to all Orthodox Christians. By decree of 1869, representatives of other classes began to be admitted into the ranks of the clergy, and peasant priests appeared in Siberia, although this did not become a mass phenomenon. In the same year, children of clergy and clergy received the right to freely leave the class and choose their type of activity. The number of parochial schools and sisterhoods has increased sharply.
Throughout the territory of 10 Siberian and Far Eastern dioceses by the end of the first - beginning of the second decade of the twentieth century. there were 3,187 churches and 2,297 chapels and houses of worship. The educational and charitable role of parish churches increased. By this time, there were 1,785 colleges at Orthodox churches and church deaneries, and there were 2,373 parochial schools, in which about 100 thousand students studied.
In the 20th century The Russian Orthodox Church entered a state of crisis: atheistic sentiments were growing in society; the ability of the Church to adequately respond to the threats of the time turned out to be greatly weakened by its rigid dependence on unpredictable monarchical power; the tasks of church reform set in the 1860s were not solved. The revolution of 1905-1907, the proclamation of religious tolerance and the legal revival of many confessions of the empire, which received the opportunity for widespread propaganda, required strengthening ties between parishioners and the clergy, strengthening the role of the parish and the influence of lower clergy in solving pressing problems of the Church. Various movements arose in the Russian Orthodox Church - renovationists, traditionalists, nationalists, etc. Demands began to be called for the convening of a Local Council of the entire Church to solve long-standing problems; many considered it urgent to restore the patriarchate as a measure of eliminating the synodal mechanism of subordination to secular power. The Tsar, agreeing with the need to convene a representative council, delayed it in every possible way. The created Pre-Conciliar Conference did a lot of work, but until the February Revolution it did not lead to either the opening of the Council or reforms. And when the monarchy began to shake, the Synodal Church was unable to provide it with effective support.
All these circumstances also affected the situation in the Siberian dioceses. Diocesan congresses of clergy began to be convened, where news from the capital was discussed, different opinions were expressed about the nature of the necessary reforms, and candidates were nominated for representative bodies of power. The establishment of diocesan councils was not implemented everywhere. Famous Tomsk archpriest, historian in 1905 he became a prominent Octobrist, and in 1906 he was elected by the diocesan clergy as a member of the State Council of the Empire. Although many clergy were monarchists, the February Revolution received recognition from the Siberian clergy. The creation of a democratic republic was supported in the spring of 1917 by congresses of the clergy of the Siberian dioceses. At the same time, St. was appointed Bishop of Tobolsk and Siberia. Hermogenes (Dolganov) , previously removed by the Synod from the administration of the Saratov and Tsaritsyn diocese for his struggle with Grigory Rasputin. As in Saratov, he tried to reconcile civic passions in Tobolsk, preached a lot to soldiers and townspeople, remaining a convinced monarchist, but recognizing the new government.
The Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church, held in the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin (August 15, 1917 - August 7, 1918), restored the patriarchate and proclaimed a number of important church reforms. But many of them turned out to be impossible to implement due to the severe persecution of the new government against the Russian Orthodox Church, the destruction of churches and the execution of the clergy. In Tobolsk, Bishop Hermogenes openly sharply condemned the violence, organized a protest procession and was soon arrested and later drowned in the Ob River.
Source: Ginder I.A. Orthodoxy in Siberia: features of distribution and influence (from the beginning of the 17th century to 1943). // Geography, history and geoecology of Siberia: materials of the All-Russian scientific conference dedicated to the 75th anniversary of the formation of the Krasnoyarsk Territory. Vol. 4: in 2 vols. T. 2 / ed. number, resp. ed. V.P. Czech; Krasnoyarsk state ped. University named after V.P. Astafieva. - Krasnoyarsk, 2009. - 332 p. - pp. 190-195. The issue of the emergence and development of Orthodoxy in Siberia in pre-revolutionary publications and publications of authors of our time is given considerable attention. The concept of “historians of the Siberian Church” has emerged, to which the names of NA belong. Abramova, A.I. Sulotsky and others. According to the Remezov Chronicle, accepted by most historians, already in Ermak’s detachment there were three Orthodox priests and a certain “elder tramp” who knew well and followed all the complex rules of church services. The expansion of the influence of Orthodoxy was an integral part of the development of new lands by the Russian people. Sofronov V.Yu. There are three stages in the formation of Orthodoxy in Siberia. The first stage in the penetration of Orthodoxy into Siberia was the campaign of Ermak’s squad and the subsequent construction of the first Siberian cities. The main goal of the campaign was to cleanse the Siberian land of “abominations,” i.e., the fight against pagan resistance. To the second stage Sofronov V.Yu. relates the establishment of the Siberian diocese with the location of the episcopal see in Tobolsk and the appointment to it (September 8, 1620) of the first Archbishop Cyprian (Starorusenin). This was preceded by the opening of Orthodox churches and monasteries in the newly founded Siberian cities, with their subordination at different times to the bishops of the Kazan, Rostov or Vologda dioceses. As P.A. wrote Slovtsov: “The political dominance of Siberia by the Russians was evenly achieved in the Christian mind, through the construction of chapels, churches, monasteries and cathedral churches. The general rule of the Russians of that time: where there is a winter hut for tribute, there is a cross or, subsequently, a chapel.” Sofronov V.Yu., highlighting the third stage, gives the following quote: “In 1636, on July 25, in Tobolsk, the Most Holy Theotokos appeared to one wife with the wonderworker Nicholas, commanding her to tell the archbishop, the governors and all Christ-loving people about her holy appearance, so that the name of her holy, honorable and glorious sign, which was in Novgorod, was erected in the Tobolsk district, in the village of Abalak, another church near the Church of the Transfiguration.” It was this event that occurred fifty years after the founding of the first Siberian city (1586). ), should be considered, according to V.Yu. Sofronov, the third stage of the spiritual development of Siberia as an Orthodox land. The sign itself was perceived by believers as the patronage of the Mother of God over the newly acquired region. It was these three stages that became fundamental, during which the community of the state territory also became a cultural and religious community. The Orthodox Church grew with new Siberian dioceses and parishes, acquired new saints and educators. In 1620, the Siberian diocese was established; in 1834, the Tomsk diocese was opened (since 1879, the Biysk Vicariate existed within it - the famous spiritual mission successfully operated in Altai, which laid the solid foundations of the scientific linguistics of the Altai languages); in 1840 the Kamchatka diocese was established, divided in 1898 into Blagoveshchensk and Vladivostok; The creation of the Yenisei diocese dates back to 1861, the Yakut diocese - 1869, the Transbaikal diocese - 1894. Old Believer settlements are also growing in Siberia. By 1916, more than 13 thousand Old Believers lived on the territory of the Yenisei province, of which 80% lived in the Minusinsk and Achinsk districts. But all the positive results of the church’s activities in Siberia were almost completely destroyed during the Soviet period. Even during the period of the temporary fall of the Soviet regime in the Krasnoyarsk Territory in the summer of 1918 and in the following months, the “red terror” only intensified in relation to Orthodox pastors (this is explained by the open support of the Bishop of Krasnoyarsk and Yenisei for the Kolchak government). At the initial stage, the processes were multidirectional. At the end of 1922, the Siberian Bureau of the Central Committee of the RCP (b) developed a new program of anti-religious propaganda. According to the “scriptwriters,” the previous campaigns (the so-called “anti-priest” campaign and the campaign against religious prejudices] achieved their goal. They prepared the masses to accept new ideas. Rough anti-clerical agitation in the conditions of a general increase in the nihilistic wave, doubts about all previous traditions and values, resonated with the broad masses... During the same period, rumors about extraordinary events spread widely among the religious community: “holy springs,” “renewal of icons,” “appearance of God,” etc. In an article from the newspaper “ Soviet Siberia" (Novosibirsk) "Christ in Khakassia" (1926) wrote the following: "In Khakassia, in broad daylight, Christ appeared. When and under what circumstances, why and why, of course, no one knows. There are many different interpretations and opinions on this matter. But they claim that “he” appeared in white clothes and sunshine...” The renovation movement also influenced the events taking place in the 20s. XX century . The contradictions in the renovationist environment due to the active support of this movement by the Soviet government were so great that already in 1923 there was an outflow of many clergy from the “renovationist” church. As a result of the breakdown of the unified administrative structure of the Krasnoyarsk and Yenisei diocese, an autonomous management system of “Tikhon’s” “renovationist” parishes emerged; separatist tendencies led to the formation by 1923 of de facto two independent dioceses in the south of the region. The vital activity of the “Tikhonovsky” parishes located on the territory of the Yenisei province was restored only by March 1925, which in turn led to the loss of positions of the renovation movement [I]. However, already in the 30s. XX century the process of spiritual rebirth came to naught. By 1936, 23.5% (10,695) of the former ones remained in the USSR of functioning prayer buildings before the revolution. In 1938, not a single Orthodox monastery existed in the USSR. After the annexation of the Eastern Baltic states, Western Ukraine and Bessarabia, there were 64 of them (in 1914 there were 1025). By 1941, the Russian Orthodox Church had 3,021 operating churches, and about 3 thousand of them were located in the territories annexed in 1939-1940. From the highest clergy in the pre-war years, four people remained. The Second World War made its own adjustments to religious policy in the USSR. In conditions of a forced military-political alliance with Great Britain and the USA, I.V. Stalin faced the need to stop the anti-religious and anti-church campaigns in the USSR, which had an extremely negative impact on the public opinion of the Allied powers; Roosevelt directly conditioned the provision of assistance on the easing of repression against religion in the USSR “Already at the end of October 1941, his [F.D.] arrived in Moscow. Roosevelt] personal representative A. Harriman informed Stalin about the concern of the American public about the fate of the Russian Church, and conveyed the president’s request to improve its legal and political position in Russia.” Thus began a new stage in the history of Orthodoxy in Russia and Siberia in particular. Bibliography 1. Siberian Chronicles. St. Petersburg, 1907. P. 316. 2. Slovtsov P.A. Historical review of Siberia. Book 1.M., 1836. P. 36. 3. Butsinsky P.N. Siberian archbishops: Macarius, Nektariy, Gerasim. Kharkov, 1891. P. 45. 4. Bulgakov SV. A reference book for clergy and church officials. Part II. M., 1913. S. 1395-1418. 5. Dobronovskaya A.P. Religious life of the population of the Yenisei region at the turn of the era (1905-1929). (PhD thesis). Typescript. Krasnoyarsk 2007. P. 31. 6. Krasnoyarsk diocese. URL: 12. Russian Orthodox Church and the Communist State 1917-1941. Documents and photographic materials. M.: BBI, 1996. P. 303. 13. Shkarovsky M.V. Russian Orthodox Church under Stalin and Khrushchev. M., 2005. P. 284.
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