Abstract: The article investigates the mentoring experience of the famous populist and expert of Russian people’s religious life Aleksandr Stepanovich Prugavin on the example of an analysis of his correspondence with Elizaveta Vladimirovna Molostvova. The authors present and examine the letters discovered by them in the private collection of A. S. Prugavin in the Russian State Archive of Literature and Art (RSALA). The letters reflect A. S. Prugavin’s aim to learn and use the characteristic for Old Ritualists phenomenon of mentorship as a new ideal relationship between a mentor and his student. Particular attention is paid to the scrutiny of the letters’ texts and the interrelations between A. S. Prugavin and E. V. Molostvova are clarified. The authors come to the conclusion that A. S. Prugavin, who during the course of his whole life undertook numerous attempts at understanding the multiformity of religious movements in the Russian Empire, assumed that the one effective idea that could be adopted by the Russian intelligensia from the Old Ritualist is the practice of mentorship. The correspondence between A. S. Prugavin and the young researcher of sectarianism E. V. Molostvova allows to reconstruct his own similar experience.

Abstract: This article examines the views of the populist and publicist A. S. Prugavin on Old Ritualism and sectarianism and their role in being part of the traditional society of the Russian Empire in the last third of the 19th century. The author discovered seven schemes of A. S. Prugavin in his private paper collection at the Russian State Archive of Literature and Arts (RSALA), which are presented and analysed in this article. The schemes reflect the effort of A. S. Prugavin to understand, systematise, and classify the different religious groups within the Empire. Particular attention is devoted to a detailed analysis of these schemes and to the explanation of the research approach of the named populist. A. S. Prugavin in his research of the Russian people’s religiosity used an integrated approach, considering the question both from the point of view of history and from the point of view of religion. The author comes to the conclusion that A. S. Prugavin repeatedly attempted to understand the diversity of the religious movements in Russia. Based on their “harmfulness”, as declared by the official authorities and the church, the populist nonetheless came to the conclusion that neither the Old Ritualists nor the followers of various sects should be considered alien or dangerous elements in the composition of Russian society.