Abstract: The object of this research is the metric books of the Synagogue of the city of Mariinsk and Mariinsky district of Tomsk Governorate, which represent a natural sampling and contain cumulative data that reflect demographic processes in Jewish community of the late XIX – early XX century. The subject of this research is the external and internal criticism with delineation of information gaps and determination of limits in exploitation of the data for genealogical and demographic reconstructions. Focus is made on the internal criticism of the source, correlating the extent and quality of filling in the metric books with a particular Jewish scholar of Rabbi, their level of education and command of the Russian language. The author concludes that the metric books of Mariinsk Synagogue of Tomsk Governorate also have distortions and information gaps inherent to all historical sources. In the context of genealogical reconstruction, a researcher will inevitably face the incompleteness of data due to the partial absence of separate pages that contain the data alongside the peculiarities of filling in the metric books. In assessing the demographic processes, the marriage and death data, due to the high level of representativity will provide the appropriate results, while the birth data will not be able to do the same, due to the low representativity of data that survived.

Abstract: The subject of this research is the entirety of the religious communities and groups operating in the USSR throughout the entire period of this government's existence. The research object is the "territorial groups", seen as the basis of the Protestant associations in the Kemerovo region in the period of the 1920s - 1960s. In order to identify the reasons for the lasting existence of Protestant religious associations in the context of the repressive policies of the government, the author proposes an analysis of the associations' internal structures, identifying the "territorial groups" that form the basis of these communities. In addition to general scientific methods, the author applied the historical-comparative method, elements of system analysis and the statistical method of correlation analysis. In the concluding paragraphs, the author notes the complex structure of the religious associations, which included "territorial groups", that formed on the streets or districts where the believers lived. As a result of this research, it was possible to uncover the ethnic specifics of the believers' settlement systems. For the Russian groups, it was common to have a dispersed settlement, while for the German groups it was hearthstone-centered. The complex internal structure of legal and illegal religious associations predetermined their considerable stability under the external pressure from security officials and civil authorities during a period of tightening domestic religious policies.