Abstract: The subject of the study is the records of the expense books of the Patriarchal State Order, which provide information about the financial assistance provided by the Moscow patriarchs to non-beggarly categories of the population: servants of the Patriarchal orders, participants in memorial services for secular and spiritual persons, prisoners of war who had previously been released from captivity, prisoners of prisons of all orders. The purpose of the study is to determine what the significance of patriarchal alms was for representatives of these categories. The author examines in detail the mechanism of giving alms in relation to each of them. Special attention is paid to the source aspect: petitions of potential recipients of alms were an important element of the clerical system of the Patriarchal State Order. They were part of the primary documentation that has not reached our days and can be partially reconstructed based on the texts of the expense books. The research is based on the methodological tools of auxiliary historical disciplines: first of all, Russian paleography, which opens up opportunities for analyzing the handwriting of officials who issued patriarchal alms and its recipients, as well as historical metrology and historical chronology. The analysis carried out allows us to form a detailed picture of the recipients of patriarchal alms who are not beggars. It should be noted that insufficient attention is paid to non-poor categories of the population in the modern historiography of Russian church charity. The results of the study indicate that such recipients could be those who are not necessarily poor in general, but currently in need of financial assistance, for example, servants of the Patriarchal Court who have fallen into difficult life situations. The same remark applies to former prisoners and "prison inmates and prisoners". Payments for participants of memorial services for secular and ecclesiastical persons – primarily for monarchs and patriarchs – were substantially closer to salaries and were carried out for performing certain functions at these ceremonies, however, in the text of the source they were also referred to as alms. It is concluded that the patriarchal alms was intended not only for the urban poor, but for those in need in the broadest sense of the word, which indicates its great importance for the Moscow society of the second half of the XVII century, makes it not a formality and exclusively part of the ceremonial, but a really important action from a socio-economic point of view of the Moscow patriarchs.

Keywords: expense books, polonyaniks, patriarchal alms, alms, Patriarchal charity, Patriarchal House, Patriarchal orders, Patriarchal Government Order, The Russian Church, account books

Abstract: This article is devoted to a review analysis of the theory of polis religion in relation to ancient Greek culture. The article examines both arguments supporting this concept and critical opinions questioning it. The subject of the study is the concept of polis religion, the object is historio-graphical literature dealing with the comprehension and formation of ideas about the concept. In the first section you can find a review of the arguments in favor of polis religion, the work of leading experts in the field of ancient history and the history of religion involved in the analysis. The key theses that substantiate the existence and importance of the polis religion for the life of the city-states of Ancient Greece (polis) are highlighted. The role of religion in the political life of the Greek policy is discussed, as well as its influence of religious institutions on social structures. In the second section, the focus shifts to criticism of the concept of polis religion. The works of historians who question the universality and unambiguity of this theory are presented. Critics point to the diversity of religious practices and beliefs in different policies, the presence of individual cults and personal religious beliefs that do not always meet policy standards. The final section summarizes the results of the study. In this part of the article, the author seeks to offer a balanced view of polis religion, recognizing both the importance of this concept and the limitations of its use. A consensus point of view is formulated, which takes into account both supporters and critics of this concept. The scientific consensus on the theory at the moment can be formulated as follows: the concept of polis religion can be preserved only in its weak formulation.

Keywords: historiography, history of religion, antiquity, Ancient Greece, Greek culture, religion, Greek religion, polis, polis religion, social network

Abstract: The study subject is recreation of the former Church of the Presentation of the Lord at the Feldjegersky Corps as departmental church of the Russian Federation Feldegersky Service. The study objects are the works of the researchers studying the Church history, archives and periodicals covering the Church history and the Russian Federation legal acts. The study is relevant because of increasing activities of organizations and individuals aimed at eliminating or changing traditional Russian spiritual and moral values. The issue discussed in this article is a proposed measure for the Russian Federation to counter emerging threats. The article uses the following methods: historical and legal analysis and synthesis, systemic-structural, functional and formallogic approaches. The subject itself presents scientific novelty, as it has not been previously explored by other researchers. The article for the first time accumulates the works of Church history researchers and provides new sources, containing new information about the Church history. The article concludes that it is possible to recreate this Church as a departmental temple of Feldegersky Service and that this meets the interests of the Russian Federation, the Russian Orthodox Church and the Russian Federation State Feldegersky Service, which in this regard would benefit from the interaction, that will enable the latter to expand the program of patriotic, historical and ethical education of its employees. This in its turn will increase the level of historical knowledge, patriotism and compliance with ethical standards and rules as well as standards of official conduct among its employees. The Russian Orthodox Church will be able to legally carry out its missionary activities in the State Feldegersky Service of Russia. For Feldegersky Service employees, the Church will become a place to unite them, transmit traditional spiritual and cultural values, historical traditions, and support them additionally in their official tasks.

Keywords: Revival of traditions, Departmental temple, church history, Russian Orthodox Church, SFS of Russia, Feldjegersky Corps, Re-creation of the church, Church of the Presentation of the Lord, Spirituality and culture, Traditional Russian values

Abstract: The transformation of the practices of state-confessional interaction during the Great Patriotic War is considered on an analysis of the office documentation of the Council for the Affairs of the Russian Orthodox Church under the Council of People’s Commissars of the USSR. The research methodology is based on the concept of social constructionism or the theory of constructing social reality, as well as new local history, which allows to study the factors and mechanisms of adaptation of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) to the new geopolitical situation and the tasks of socio-political integration on the scale of a specific region – the Penza region. The content and regional specifics of the activities of the Commissioner for the Affairs of the Russian Orthodox Church are revealed. The key areas of activity are: consideration of petitions of believers to open churches and participation of the priesthood in mobilization activities of the authorities. Despite many years of atheistic policies, persecution and repression of the clergy, the population of the Penza region demonstrated the strength of the religious foundation of regional identity. This was more significant compared with ideological constructs imposed from the outside. During the Great Patriotic War, relations between believers and authorities were built in the direction from the suppression of religious life to the very effective inclusion of parish communities in solving national problems. Appeals from believers to open churches became increasingly widespread and persistent. Under the influence of growing religiosity and divinely sanctioned changes in the legal status of the Russian Orthodox Church, local authorities adopted new rules of the game. Governance practices are also gradually changing, and a constructive dialogue is being built in the triad: the commissioner as a representative of the state – the diocesan administration – the parish communities.

Keywords: mobilization activities, church-patriotic activities, opening of churches, regional identity, religious revival, clergy, believers, Russian Orthodox Church, Penza region, Great Patriotic War

Abstract: The article examines the initial stage of the formation of schools of Chinese Buddhism in the era of Nanbeichao (Northern and Southern kingdoms). Buddhism of the era of the Southern and Northern Kingdoms (386–589) is a little-studied period in the history of Buddhism in China in domestic science. At the same time, this period represents a very important stage in the development of Buddhism in China, characterized by the completion of the adaptation of Buddhism to the political, social, cultural and mental traditions of this country and the formation of Chinese religious and philosophical principles of Buddhism, which began during the reign of the Eastern Jin Dynasty (317–420) and which continued during the period of the division of China into Southern and Northern kingdoms. The division of China began with the capture of the nomadic tribes of the Tobians of the northern part of the Eastern Jin (317–420). By this time, the rule of the Eastern Jin Dynasty was characterized by political chaos, internal strife, economic decline, famine and devastation. The research is based on translations of sources from Chinese, as well as on the works of Russian scientists. As a result of the study, it can be concluded that it was the period of the Northern and Southern Kingdoms that became a kind of prerequisite for the formation of Chinese schools of Buddhism, the appearance of which marked the final formation of Buddhism in China, known as "Chinese Buddhism". Translations of texts into Chinese became the basis for the formation of schools of Buddhism. The translation activity of Buddhist missionaries of the era of the Southern and Northern Kingdoms, despite the political, economic and social difficulties caused by internecine strife, the invasion of nomadic tribes, devastation and famine, steadily continued. The tradition of translation activities of the Eastern Jin was continued in the Southern and Northern kingdoms. During Southern and Northern Kingdom epoch was made a significant contribution to the development of Buddhism in China, preparing the textual ground for the formation of schools of Chinese Buddhism, which began in the subsequent Sui era (581–618) and ended in the Tang era (618–907).

Keywords: historical chronicles, Buddhist texts, formation, preconditions, Northern kingdoms, schools, Nanbeichao, translation tradition, Buddhism, China

Abstract: The subject of the research in the article is the problem of transformational modification of various aspects of the life of the Old Believers of Buryatia in the 1920s and 1950s. The object of the study is the Old Believer population of the Buryat-Mongolian ASSR (since 1958 – the Buryat ASSR). Based on the purpose of a comparative analysis of the transformations of the Old Believers' lifestyle in the 1920s and 1950s, this article examines such aspects of the topic as: characterization of examples of both negative and positive processes for preserving identity (atheistic campaign, introduction of communist ideology, cultural modernization) in designated time periods, as well as the attitude of generations of the 1920s and 1950s to these processes, which allows us to show the evolution of various social practices. The historical-genetic method used to consider a social group at different time intervals is necessary to demonstrate changes in the lifestyle of Old Believers in the 1920s and 1950s. The comparative historical method was needed when comparing the contribution of the Soviet government and internal movements among the Old Believers in the process of the decline of religious identity. Atheistic propaganda, as well as the communist ideology introduced among the Old Believers, were the main channels for the group's incorporation into the unified Soviet society that had been under construction since the 1920s. By the 1950s, based on the stable potential of the cultural identity of the Old Believers (even with the decline of the religious one), these tools gradually adapted in the form of a set of formal instructions and recommendations, which in turn led to the transformation of the way of life of the Old Believers in the context of mutual adaptation to reality (socially approved behavior). The novelty of the study lies in the fact that personal memories of Old Believers of the 1920s and 1950s (from the village of Nadezhino, Tarbagatai district of Buryatia) are introduced into scientific circulation, allowing to compare the real attitude of people to the processes taking place with the official market position of the designated period.

Keywords: social transformations, cultural modernization, atheistic propaganda, Soviet ideology, religious identity, ancient orthodoxy, Old Believers, National history, technical innovations, personal memories

Abstract: The subject of the study is information about the servants of the Muslim cult of the Tobolsk province in the late 90s of the XIX century - the 20s of the XX century, contained in various archival sources: Muslim metric books in the Old Tatar language, the First general census of the Russian Empire in 1897, documents (charter, protocols of the founders, lists of members and inventory of property Mohammedan religious communities, an agreement on the use of a Mohammedan liturgical building, minutes of general meetings, lists of parishioners, etc.) of Mohammedan religious communities for the 20s (Ishtama yurts, Komarov yurts, Medyan yurts, Mirim Yurts, Sabanak yurts, Sauskansky yurts, Suklem yurts, Escalba yurts). The purpose of the research is to study the composition of the Islamic clergy by introducing little-studied sources into scientific circulation. When studying the composition of the servants of the Muslim cult of the Tobolsk province in the late 1890s - 1920s, such scientific methods as historiographical analysis, comparative historical method, and source analysis were used. The novelty of the research is seen in the involvement of poorly studied sources in Russian and Tatar languages and in the systematization of disparate materials about Muslim clerics according to the chronological principle. An analysis of archival documents on the servants of the Muslim cult of the Tobolsk province in the late 1890s - 1920s showed that priests previously approved in the spiritual rank continued to serve in the Mohammedan religious communities organized in the early 1920s. Moreover, in the early years of Soviet power (up to 1925), new persons were appointed to various positions – imam, imam-khatib, mugallim, mullah, muezzin. It has been established that in the Soviet period, continuity in the service of a religious cult by blood relationship continues to be traced. Some ministers of the cult did not cease to indicate their ethnic origin, namely Bukhara. The author has revealed variability in the spelling of personal names of priests, which is associated with the formation of linguistic norms concerning the spelling of anthroponyms of the Tatar population: fused, separate, semi-alphabetic (hyphenated).

Keywords: mugallim, Imam-khatib, Imam, Bukharians, Siberian Tatars, Mohammedan religious communities, Tobolsk province, the servants of the Muslim cult, The Islamic clergy, muezzin

Abstract: The object of the study is early Christian apologetics as a socio-cultural phenomenon. In modern science, the issue related to the audience of early Christian apologies is actively discussed. A number of apologies of the second century, as is known, are addressed directly to the rulers of the Roman Empire themselves. But is such an addressee genuine? Or is there a masterfully executed literary stylization in front of us? The subject of our research is the apology of Aristide. Aristide, according to ancient church historians, was the first apologist of Christianity who submitted his work to the Emperor Hadrian. However, the Syriac translation of the apology indicates the Emperor Antoninus Pius as the addressee. Thus, we are faced with two questions: 1) which of the two emperors was the addressee in the original apology; 2) is the imperial addressee real or is he a literary fiction?   In the course of the study, the author came to the following conclusions. Firstly, we have no reason to prefer the Syriac version of the apology to all the data of the church-historical tradition. This data is confirmed by the Armenian translation of the apology. It should also be pointed out that the Syrian addressee contains a number of errors and resembles, rather, a later interpolation. Secondly, the content of the apology convinces that it is designed for an educated pagan, and not for a Christian. And there is every reason to believe that the Emperor Hadrian really acted as such an addressee. At the same time, it should be noted that the apology does not represent an official petition addressed to the emperor, we have before us a literary work written in the protreptic genre.

Keywords: Protrepticus, Aristides, Aplogetics, Antoninus Pius, Hadrian, Roman Empire, Early Christianity, Church, Jenre, Audience

Abstract: The article is devoted to the relations between the worshippers movement led by Bishop of the Serbian Orthodox Church Nikolai Velimirovich and the nationalist organization "Zbor" of the Yugoslav politician Dimitri Letich. The central problem of the article is the influence of these organizations on each other based on differences and similarities in understanding the connection between Orthodoxy and Serbian nationalism. The article provides an analysis of the reasons for mutually beneficial cooperation between these social movements in the period of the 20 – 30s of the twentieth century. It is worth emphasizing that the consequence of the interaction between them was the deterioration of the situation of the Serbian Orthodox Church under the new communist government, which was expressed in increased repression and reputational damage inflicted on the clergy and religious organizations in general as a result of their participation in the events of World War II.

Keywords: People's Liberation War of Yugoslavia, The Government of National Salvation of Milan Nedic, Serbian Volunteer Corps, Zbor organization, the worshippers movement, Dimitri Letich, Bishop Nikolai Velimirovich, Serbian Orthodox Church, Kingdom of Yugoslavia, Orthodox People's Christian Union

Abstract: The Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in China for two centuries served as an outpost of Orthodoxy and a foreign policy landmark of the Russian state in China, our task is to analyze the report of the bailiff of the XII Russian Spiritual Mission N.I. Lyubimov. For 30 years of work in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs N.I. Lyubimov collected in his collection a weighty layer of official documents, personal and business correspondence, memories that he took when leaving Russia. After his death, the documents were found and today they are stored in the Russian State Historical Archive in St. Petersburg. On the basis of a detailed reference to historical documents, the features of the relationship between Russia and China in the second half of the 19th century are analyzed. A huge role in this was played by the personality of N.I. Lyubimov, who was directly involved in compiling reports on important events and actors in Chinese politics, I analyze the possibility of using them in matters of diplomacy, it is also noteworthy that the bailiff gives valuable advice on saving state funds abroad. The authors come to the conclusion that the Russian Spiritual Mission in China, in general, and its representatives, in particular, were a link between the two countries, a source of reliable information about the internal political life of the Qing Empire, about its language, traditions, history, culture and way of life. Representatives of this mission for a long time acted as an unofficial diplomatic representation of Russia in China

Keywords: officials, bailiff, Asian Department, missionaries, archive, Russian-Chinese relations, Russian Orthodox Church, China, Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Beijing, Nikolay Ivanovich Lyubimov

Abstract: The subject of the research in the article is the problem of transformation of the way of life of the Old Believers of Buryatia before and in the 1920s and their reactions to the increasingly increasing intrusion into the life of the structures of Soviet power. The object of the study is the Old Believer population of the Verkhneudinsky district of the Trans-Baikal region (since 1923 - the Buryat-Mongolian ASSR). The article considers such aspects of the topic as: comprehension of the decline of the spiritual life of the Old Believers, noted by researchers until the 1920s (the tendency of the transition of religion into a heterogeneous complex of household rituals, the increasing rejection of prohibitive practices) and the study of the degree of real influence of the Soviet government on the objectively changing worldview of the Old Believers since the beginning of the XX century. The comparative-historical method necessary for comparing the sides of various phenomena and highlighting the common and special was necessary when analyzing the unequal attitude to the Soviet government on the part of the Old Believers of different settlements. The historical-genetic method used to study changes in the phenomenon over time was used in the analysis of the transformation of the Old Believer identity in the XIX – early XX centuries. The main conclusions of the study are as follows. For the Old Believers of Buryatia, the 1920s were a time of crisis of their religious identity caused by the gradual transformation of its meanings, their adaptation to the reality in which it was difficult to maintain their foundations from generation to generation in an unchanged state. The Soviet government and its concept of atheization and the "cultural revolution" in the countryside became only an additional factor for the identity crisis. The novelty of the research lies in the fact that information from archives and newspapers are introduced into scientific circulation, allowing to show the indirect nature of the actions of the Soviet government in relation to the decline of the traditional way of life of the Old Believers.

Keywords: atheization of the population, communist propaganda, Soviet authority, transformation, religious identity, ancient orthodoxy, old believers, National history, party workers, legitimacy of power

Abstract: The subject of the study is the study of the history of Arseniev-Komelsky parish in 1920-1930. The object of the study is the situation of the rural parish of the Russian Orthodox Church in the first decades of the existence of the Soviet state. Special attention is paid to the specifics of the creation of the parish, the manifestation of the main directions of the state's policy towards religion and the church on the example of the history of the parish, the reasons and the process of its closure. The choice of the subject of the study is largely connected with an attempt to reveal the subsequent fate of the Arseniev Komel Monastery of the Gryazovets district of the Vologda province, which was closed in 1920. The source base of the research consists of legal acts of the Soviet state, archival documents (the State Archive of the Vologda Region, the Vologda Regional Archive of Modern Political History, the Archive of the Federal Security Service of Russia for the Vologda Region, the Vologda Diocesan Ancient Repository) materials of the periodical press. The novelty of the research lies in the study of a parish not mentioned in the literature; in the introduction of new historical sources (archival materials) and historical facts into scientific circulation. The main results of the authors' research are: the conclusion about the connection between the opening of the Arseniev-Komelsky parish and the closure of the Arseniev Komelsky monastery; the identification of the peculiarities of the anti-church and anti-religious policy of the state in 1920-1930 in relation to the rural parish (its tightening in the conditions of collectivization and dispossession), the combination of state policy and the interests of local authorities among the reasons for the closure of the parish. The article outlines for the first time the fate of the priest and some of the inhabitants of the closed monastery. It is shown that, despite the anti-church policy of the state, the religious consciousness of the peasantry (at least part of it) preserved.

Keywords: parish life, dispossession, anti-religious policy, clergy, monasticism, The Russian Orthodox Church, Soviet period, Arseniev Komelsky Monastery, Arseniev-Komel Church, closing of the church

Abstract: For Muslims, the early history of Islam is an important part of the religious meta-narrative. A special place in this story is occupied by the life and reign of Umar ibn al-Khattab, who is revered in Sunni historiography as the second righteous Caliph. The article analyzes the place of Umar ibn al-Khattab in the collective memory of Muslims in Russia. The work is based on the analysis of such sources as Russian-language theological literature, the 2012 TV series "Umar ibn-al Khattab", mentions in Russian-language media, statistics of Internet search queries based on the Google Trends tool, as well as the results of a survey of Muslims of Bashkortostan dedicated to cultural memory. The article is based on the hermeneutical method, quantitative analysis, and questioning of believers. For Islam, the biographies of companions are an important part of hagiography. The biographies of the companions are sinless, the actions are justified, the Muslims of the first centuries appear to be an ideal society. The results demonstrate that Umar ibn al-Khattab is the most interesting "place of memory" for believers among the companions of the Prophet Muhammad. The figure and narratives of Umar's rule are a space for the self–identification of Muslim believers for the whole world and Russia in particular, and his image is the basis for instrumentalization in the public life of the Muslim community. This is especially true of such aspects as power, law and relations with other faiths.

Keywords: muslim hagiography, history of islam, history of religion, Muslims of Bashkortostan, Muslims of Russia, cultural memory of Muslims, early islam, companions of Muhammad, history of the caliphate, Umar ibn al-Khattab

Abstract: The paper considers the problem of the use of allusions to the text of the Book of the Prophet Isaiah by Moscow scribes of the time of Ivan III in the fight against heretics and apostates in the second half of the XV–early XVI century. The study was conducted using comparative and cultural-anthropological methods, which allows us to find out the spiritual state of Russian society during this period, as well as the attitude of the population to key historical processes. The article raised the question of the essence of the concepts of heresy and apostasy at the specified time. Special attention is paid to the political reasons for the actualization of these concepts and the development of the official ideology of the Grand Duchy of Moscow. First of all, it allowed us to draw a conclusion about the importance of the semantic aspect of punishment for religious crimes in the conditions of increasing expectations of the end of the world in 1492. The development of the idea of apostasy as a religious and political crime in the official Moscow ideology of that time was also shown. A special role in the development of this idea was played by the confrontation between Moscow and Novgorod in 1470-1471 . The possible influence of the Book of Isaiah on the semantics of the punishment of representatives of the heresy of "Jews" is noted not only as heretics, but also as apostates. The influence of the Book of Isaiah can be traced in the writings of Joseph Volotsky, one of the initiators of the brutal executions of heretics.

Keywords: the Jews, eschatology, Joseph Volotsky, Ivan III, Novgorod, apostates, heretics, symbolism of punishment, the prophecy, the book of Isaiah

Abstract: This article examines the norms of canon law, which regulated the actions of the Catholic missionaries in Crimea since the emergence of first missions in the XIII century until the creation of eparchies in the early XIV century. Comprehension of the legal framework of Catholic missions is necessary for further research of social history of the region. The bulls Cum hora undecimal alongside Vos igitur and Gratias agimus, establish preferential legal regime on private matters that differs from the Western European canon law. Each question raised in the pontifical document is compared with the canonical norms of Western Europe and isolated cases on the territory of Crimea. Although papal bulls have always been used by the researchers of medieval Crimea, the legal content of these documents was usually outside the focus of attention. The author analyzes the content of the papal bulls through the prism of canon law of the Catholic Church, theological and legal discussions of the XIII – XIV centuries. Legal regime in the missionary territory was established in form of privileges and right to dispensation. The papal bull Cum hora undecima of 1245, repeatedly has been reissued repeatedly without significant amendments, is of particular importance for the researchers . In the questions of dispensation, consecration of churches and sacred objects, and granting of indulgences, the missionaries received the authority equal to the bishops and legates of the apostolic see. The converted to Catholicism local residents assumed a derogation in terms of closely related marriages, while clerics of the Eastern churches retained their rank and the right to stay married.

Keywords: franciscans, privileges, The Golden Horde, papal bulls, Medieval Crimea, dominicans, catholic missionaries, Canon Law, church union, indulgences

Abstract: The subject of this article is a historical and political study of the key vectors of the state-confessional policy of the USSR in the countries of "people's democracy", which received their practical embodiment within the framework of prevailing legal practices. Special attention is paid to the study of the intervention of Soviet diplomacy in state-confessional relations on the territory of socialist Yugoslavia. After the end of World War II, one of the largest religious organizations of the Yugoslav state, the Serbian Orthodox Church, faced numerous historical challenges. The course of the historical process pushed this religious organization into opposition to the political elite of Yugoslavia. Numerous external "players" sought to take advantage of this situation, including the Soviet Union, whose relations with Yugoslavia significantly worsened during the period under study. The main method used in the preparation of the article was comparative historical. The novelty of the research lies in the study of the relationship of political and ideological discourses of state-confessional relations of the mid-twentieth century with modern practices of state confessional policy of the Russian Federation. The study of the genesis and practical implementation of the main vectors of "confessional diplomacy" of the Soviet Union is primarily connected with the practical implementation of Marxist political and legal ideas, in the field of "political compromise" with the "capitalist world". The key conclusion of the article: in the international "confessional diplomacy" of the Soviet Union, the Russian Orthodox Church has historically served as its instrument and an expression of the interests of the ruling political regime in the USSR, which influenced both the international position of the ROC and its internal state.

Keywords: geopolitics, politics, power, religion, church, world, conflict, factor, diplomacy, history

Abstract: This article examines the hierarchical systems established in Buddhist communities of Central Asia.  Hierarchies are viewed in the spiritual context: by level of taking of vows, educational attainment, level of practical implementation of knowledge, rank in the institution of “Reincarnated Lamas”; as well as hierarchies important in administrative context, such as levels of responsibility, governance of monasteries, rank within the structure of state administration, and interaction with government institutions. It is noted that genetically all of them ascend to Teacher – student hierarchy. This work explores the evolution of these hierarchies under the changing historical conditions, as well their complex interrelations. It is demonstrated that hierarchical system evolved depending on such factors, as the development of monastic education, increased role in the communities of “Reincarnated Lamas”, shift in the role of monasteries within state administration along with the role of government in regulation of the religious institutions. It is determined that hierarchies partially intersected, but also diverged due to the possibility of relatively autonomous practice of Sutra and Tantra, which formed different types of communities –  sangha and ganachakra respectively. In Russia, Buddhist communities were integrated into the system of state-religious relations, which required centralization of religious community resulting in the fact that the administrative church structures took the central stage. Liberalization of state control of the religious activity in post-Soviet Russia led to the emergence of multiple secular Buddhist associations that practiced Mahayanist and tantric methods structured as ganachakra. The central place was held by the structure of religious hierarchy along with “Teacher – student” relations. The conclusion is made that such structural differentiation of Buddhist communities is the results of the natural course of self-determination of various traditions in the conditions of freedom of religion.

Keywords: social dynamics, Mahayana, Russian Buddhism, Tibetan Buddhism, Sangha, social structure, history of Buddhism, religious practice, hierarchy, Buddhist communities

Abstract: The author examines the history of emergence of the controversial translation of “Eternal God” in the Slavic liturgical ceremony of the acceptance of Muslims into Orthodoxy; as well as reviews canonical texts and refers to the relevant scientific data to describe the known facts on the sources of the origin of this concept. Special attention is given to the problem of interpretation of the Islamic doctrine by John of Damascus, Theodore Abū Qurrah, Niketas Choniates, Bartholomew of Edessa, who had a remarkable impact upon the Byzantine perception of Islam. Leaning on the history of interpretation of the fundamental Quranic concept al-samad, the author provides a cross-section of the Orthodox – Muslim relations that have evolved over several centuries. The article demonstrates that the interpretation of the corresponding Quranic passage in the Christian polemical texts took the path of distortion and loose interpretation of the Islamic doctrine. The authentic Islamic description of al-samad along with the research dedicated to etymology of this word and its ancient pre-Islamic meaning are presented. The question is raised on the existence of various Slavic revisions of liturgical ceremony of acceptance of Muslims into Orthodoxy, since the initial centuries of the Christian mission on the Slavic lands until the amended versions of text emerged in the Russian Empire in the late XIX – early XX centuries, which expelled this term from circulation as improper.

Keywords: Orthodox-Muslim relations, liturgical texts, Slavic rites, forged god, Greek translations of the Qur'an, Islam, orthodoxy, creed, Koran, research

Abstract: The research subject of this study is the fate of a priest in Russia: Fr. Dmitry Vvedensky, who began his ministry before the Revolution, lived through Soviet camps, was convicted three times, managed to survive the difficult conditions of camp life and continued to serve after the death of Stalin.The research object of this study is the Vvedensky dynasty of priests.The author considers D. Vvedensky's life in the context of the priestly environment in which he found himself. At the microhistory level, the author describes the fate of one of the representatives of the Russian Orthodox clergy during a civilizational breakdown. The study was prepared on the basis of two kinds of sources: firstly, archival materials from the state archives (the State Archive of the Russian Federation and the Central State Historical Archive of Moscow) and private collections (the Vvedensky family archive, which was donated to the Church and History Museum of the Men's Stavropegalny Danilov Monastery of the Russian Orthodox Church ); secondly, interviews with the descendants of the Vvedensky family: the granddaughter of Fr. Dmitry - Lyubov', the grandson of Fr. Dmitry's brother - Rostislav, the niece of Fr. Dmitry's wife - I. K. Miloslavina, the granddaughter of the second priest serving in the same "Life-Giving Spring" Church with Fr. Dmitry, - E. P. Thebes.The scientific novelty of this research is its introduction into scientific circulation of new archival materials concerning the life of Russian priests, including from new archives, in particular, the Vvedensky archive stored in the Danilov Monastery.The study of priestly fates on the example of the Vvedensky family has made it possible for the author to identify the main trends in the life of the priesthood at the turn of the Russian-imperial and Soviet periods in the history of Russia.

Keywords: Soviet power, family, Vvedenskie, religion, archive, Tsaritsyno, Russia, Orthodoxy, revolution, clergy

Abstract: The article's research subject is the sources from corporate meetings of the clergy in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century: conventions of monks, clergy and laity, as well as the Local Council of 1917–1918. The author considers how the monastic reform was planned and what role Optina Pustyn' played in this process. The author analyses the participation of this monastery's monks in corporate meetings, identifies in what context Optina Pustyn' was mentioned at these meetings, and clarifies how the monastery's traditions and experience were used in the church's monastic reform. Optina Pustyn' is considered as one of the main spiritual centers of Russia at the beginning of the 20th century. In accordance with the “center-periphery” model, Optina and its traditions influenced the development of the Church at the regional and then at the central level. Based on the article's material, the author demonstrates that at the beginning of the 20th century, Optina Pustyn', administratively remaining in deep province, in the spiritual sense had reached the national level. This was manifested not only in mass pilgrimages, but also in the fact that Optina was openly recognized by the Holy Synod and the monastic community as an exemplary, well-maintained monastery. Optina monks were invited to various corporate meetings of the clergy - up to the Local Council of 1917-1918, and Optina traditions were sought in chartering the monastic reform. Thus, the author argues that when reforming monasteries, the church administration tried to rely on the informal category of spiritual experience.

Keywords: core–periphery structure, monastic congresses, Church Council of 1917-1918, monastic reform, Russian Orthodox Church, Optina Pustyn’, starchestvo, outstanding monasteries, cenobitic monasticism, monastic magazine

Abstract: The first "Great Awakening" took hold of all British colonies in North America in the 1730s-1750s and developed contemporaneously with the Enlightenment movement, which had a significant impact on all aspects of life in the colonies, influencing religion, politics and ideology. The inhabitants of the colonies, professing different religious views, for the first time experienced a general spiritual upsurge. The colonies had never seen anything like the Great Awakening in scale and degree of influence on society. This was the first movement in American history that was truly intercolonial in nature, contributing to the formation of a single religious and partially ideological space in British America. The beginning of the Great Awakening in British America was instigated by both the colonial traditions of religious renewal (the so-called "revivals") and new ideas coming from Europe, hence this religious movement cannot be understood without considering its European roots nor not taking into account its transatlantic nature. The development of pietism in Holland and Germany and the unfolding of Methodism on the British Isles greatly influenced Protestant theology on both sides of the Atlantic. This article explores the differences in understanding the nature of the Great Awakening by its two leaders - J. Edwards and J. Whitefield.

Keywords: Protestant theology, pietism, Great Awakening, мethodism, аmerican religion, colonial America, History of USA, History, Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield

Abstract: The article's research subject is the life of the Orthodox community around the Life-Giving Spring Church in Tsaritsyno at the end of the 19th - early 20th centuries. The research object is the dachniki (summer residents) who became members of this Orthodox community.The Central State Archive of Moscow has preserved the metric books of this church. Based on this type of source, the author has compiled a list of the dachniki in Tsaritsyno who became parishioners of the Life-Giving Spring Church. The dachniki becoming part of the Tsaritsyno community was identified by the author through the evidence that they turned to the church's priests to perform various religious celebrations: baptisms, weddings and funeral services. Obviously, these celebrations are not indicative of the active participation of a specific dachnik in the life of the church, but in the author's opinion, this can still be indirectly used to analyze the relationship between country life and church life in Tsaritsyno. The author applied the historical method to analyze the archival materials collected at the Central Historical Archive of Moscow and the structural method to create a comprehensive picture of Russian life in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.The choice of this topic for scientific research is based on the fact that in the 1990-2010s the process of an Orthodox revival had begun, which also turned out to be partially tied to the modern dacha movement. On the example of a number of monasteries near Moscow, one can trace the growth of Orthodox communities in the opened monasteries thanks to the dachniki living nearby. Due to this, the historical experience of this interaction can contribute to a comprehensive understanding of the processes taking place in modern Russia.

Keywords: social structure, Moscow region, summer residents, archive, Tsaritsyno, writer, Orthodoxy, laweys, Orthodox community, artists

Abstract: The article's subject is one of the most controversial issues in the historiography concerning the activities of the Holy See during the Second World War. The author focuses attention on the issue of the Catholic Church's activity on the territory of the Independent State of Croatia during the early years of its existence, as well as on the question of the Roman pontiff Pius XII's knowledge of the religious situation on the territory of this new state. The aim of this study is to present a picture of the complex religious relationships on the territory of the Independent State of Croatia in 1941-1942, as well as to study the degree of the Holy See's awareness of the situation. The author applies the historical and comparative methods, also the historicism method is used to consider the conditions surrounding the events under study, and the critical analysis method is used for its potential to give an objective assessment of the problem under consideration. As a result of the conducted study, the author concludes that the Holy See did not officially recognize or support the Croatian government. At the same time, it was aware of the urgent religious issues that had come up in the new state, but did not actively intervene in resolving the conflict.

Keywords: Giuseppe Ramiro Marcone, diplomacy, Second World War, catholic church, Pius XII, Holy See, Vatican, Aloysius Stepinac, national issue, Independent State of Croatia

Abstract: The subject of this article is the problem of the relationship between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Jerusalem Patriarchate in 1948-1953 in the context of Soviet-Israeli relations. The specified chronological framework was not chosen by chance, since it was during these years that significant events took place in the development of bilateral relations: the formation of the State of Israel, the establishment of diplomatic relations, the drafting of the statute on Jerusalem, and the severance of diplomatic relations. The ROC was involved in the Soviet Middle East policy, the purpose of which was to strengthen ties between the Moscow Patriarchate and the Eastern Patriarchates. The methodological basis of the research is the principle of historicism, which assumes taking into account the specific historical conditions and events in which the development of the process of interest to us took place. The scientific novelty consists in the fact that the previously unexplored process of the relationship between the Moscow Patriarchate and the Jerusalem Orthodox Church during this period has been studied. The source base of the research is unpublished documents of the Foundation of the Council for Religious Affairs under the Council of Ministers of the USSR of the State Archive of the Russian Federation. Based on the analysis of archival materials introduced into scientific circulation for the first time, it is concluded that, on the one hand, contacts between the ROC and the Jerusalem Patriarchate were maintained through the Soviet diplomatic mission in the State of Israel. Therefore, the state of bilateral relations influenced the relationship between the Churches. On the other hand, after the rupture of diplomatic relations in February 1953, the situation of the RDM in Jerusalem worsened, but contacts between the Moscow and Jerusalem Patriarchies were not interrupted. Representatives of the Jerusalem Church had the right to freely cross the border, as a result, they could visit the Mission despite the state of Soviet-Israeli relations.

Keywords: Jerusalem, Patriarch Alexy I, Soviet-Israeli relations, The State of Israel, ROCOR, RDM in Jerusalem, The Patriarchate of Jerusalem, The Russian Orthodox Church, Holy places, Transjordan

Abstract: The research subject of this article is the lifestyle transformation of the Old Believers in Buryatia at the beginning of the 20th century. The research object of this study is the Old Believer population in the Verkhneudinsky uyezd in the Transbaikal region (from 1923 - the Buryat Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic). The authors consider such aspects of this topic as the trends that have changed the life of the uyezd's Old Believers; the attitude of different generations of Old Believers towards their way of living, the external influence on its isolated position (in the field of education, health care and religious morality), and the new attributes that came with the Soviet government (technological progress, emergence of youth organizations).The authors applied the historical-comparative method, which compared the aspects of various phenomena and revealed their general and particular features, upon examining the attitude of the Old Believers towards the activities of the tsarist and Soviet authorities. The historical-genetic method is necessary for examining the phenomenon under study in time in order to reveal the dynamics of the changes in the lifestyle of the Old Believers during the generational evolution. The results of the conducted study are the following. The decline of the traditional way of life among the Old Believers in Buryatia was a growing phenomenon, intensifying  from one generation to another. If for the Old Believers in the 18th - 19th centuries life in a community isolated from the external works was desirable and necessary to maintain their faith, then at the beginning of the 20th century this lifestyle became increasingly unacceptable, especially for the younger generations. The novelty of the authors' study is the introduction into scientific circulation of archival material that reveal the factors that caused significant changes in the perception of the world: the decrease in the role of the Old Believer religion in the life of young people, the acute need for education, the spread of a different way of life, and the struggle of the Soviet government with “remnants of the past” .

Keywords: Metric books, Healthcare, Education, Technical progress, Youth unions, Soviet authority, Traditional society, Old Believers, National history, Volost councils

Abstract: The article's topic is the question of the appointment of representatives of the Moscow Patriarchate to the Antioch and Jerusalem Patriarchates in 1946 - 1948. The participation of the Moscow Patriarchate in Soviet Middle Eastern politics sought to strengthen ties between the Moscow Patriarchate and the Eastern Patriarchates. According to the staff of the USSR diplomatic mission to the State of Israel, the Jerusalem Orthodox Church was considered no less important, and in some respects more significant than the Constantinopolitan one. The article's main focus is concentrated on the spectrum of actions on the part of the Moscow Patriarchate in the process of intensifying international church contacts and restoring its prestige in the Middle East. During the course of this study, the author based the topic's research on the principle of historicism, which involves taking into account the concrete historical conditions in the development of the process of interest. Since the source base of this study is founded on a collection of archival documents from the funds of the Council for Religious Affairs under the Council of Ministers of the USSR State Archives of the Russian Federation (GA RF), the author used source and archive methods, in particular, the method of critical analysis that allows to determine the influence of circumstances on the document's creation and the degree to which the position of the author is affected. Based on the analysis of archival materials introduced into scientific circulation for the first time, the author concludes that the issue of appointing representatives of the Moscow Patriarchate to the Jerusalem and Antioch Patriarchates was a key issue in the process of renewing relations between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Eastern Patriarchates in 1946 – 1948. In 1946, a representative was appointed from the Russian Orthodox Church (MP) to the Patriarchate of Antioch (Beirut), and two years later, to the Jerusalem Orthodox Church (in the territory of the State of Israel).

Keywords: The State of Israel, The Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia, The Russian Orthodox Church, The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem, The Russian Orthodox Ecclesiastical Mission in Jerusalem, Transjordan, Jerusalem, The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East, Lebanon, Beirut

Abstract: The research subject of this article is the issue of the lack of a sufficiently clear differentiation and clarity in the definition of the phenomenon known in Russian history as church renovationism of the early 20th century. The lack of clarity in the concept of “renovationism” in the history of the Russian Orthodox Church leads some scholars to unjustifiably mix historical phenomena that differ chronologically and in content (church reformism in 1905-1907 and renovationism in 1920-1925), others - to philosophical speculation on the subject of renovationism yesterday and today, and others yet to affirmations that the negative portrait of the renovationism in the 1920s made it impossible to renew the church life of its contemporary century. By analyzing the possibilities of the narrative and using the analytical method, the author establishes the reasons for the lack of a clear differentiation between church reformism in 1905–1907 and the renovationism of the 1920s, first by proposing to introduce differentiation into the church reform movement, which thus allows us to solve the problem of definitions and differentiation of movements for church renewal in the first third of the 20th century. The issue of definitions and differentiations was identified over 16 years ago and remains relevant today. It arises every time scholars address the topic of church renewal. The solution to the issue of the differentiation of movements makes it possible to determine the definition of whether to call church reformers "renovationists," as they indeed were often called in the press of the period of 1905-1908, or forever assign them the status of reformers, i.e. not to apply to church reformers of 1905–1907 the term "Renovationists," but to use it in relation to the leaders and members of the Renovationist Church.

Keywords: reform or reformation, methods of historical research, Church reformation, historical phenomenon renewal, religious question, Renovationism as a concept, the problem of differentiations, Russian Church, Konstantin Aggeev, reasonable reformers

Abstract: The author analyzes archival documents that have only been made accessible to researchers in the last years. The research subject of this study is the policy of the Soviet state in relation to the Muslims of the country in 1944-1965. The object of this research is the work of the bodies of state power and government of the USSR to restrain the development of Islamic education in Russia in 1945–1965. The aim of this work is to identify insufficiently-studied features of the policy of the Soviet state with regards to Islamic education in the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. The study uses the retrospective method. Reliance on this method has made it possible to demonstrate the causal-consequence ties and patterns of development in the state-Muslim relations in 1944–1965 in the USSR by successively deepening into the past, which has made it possible to identify the causes of significant facts in the examined relations that were previously unknown to scholars. The retrospective method allows the analysis of the logic behind the activities of the USSR leadership in containing the development of Islamic education in Russia and to shows its attempts to eliminate Islam from the lives of its citizens. The scientific novelty of this study lies in the fact that a significant part of the analyzed documents regarding the problem of Islamic education has been declassified in recent years and has now become available to the general scientific community. The analysis of these materials shows that the Central Spiritual Administration of Muslims, which in 1948 was renamed the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of the European part of the USSR and Siberia, showed special perseverance of the two spiritual administrations operating in Russia. The article describes the author’s position to disrupt the attempts of the Russian muftis to create an Islamic education system in the RSFSR on a legal basis in 1945–1965.

Keywords: history of Islam, mufti, Uzbekistan, Tatarstan, Bashkiria, Islamic education, madrasas, Mir-Arab, Barakhan, Koran

Abstract: In the 19th century, Russia gradually developed a spiritual crisis, which was especially vividly felt in the second half of the 19th century. However, in the author's opinion, although this trend can be easily recognized, it should be noted that not all churches, neither all monasteries in their life and work and in their spiritual sphere experienced a similar crisis. Many Orthodox institutions in Russia, on the contrary, experienced growth throughout the 19th century and some even flourished.The research object of this study is the “Life-Giving Spring” church situated near Moscow, which is part of the unfinished Catherine Palace in Tsaritsyno. The research subject of this study is microhistory on the example of describing Orthodox life during the 19th century in one church near Moscow. The author used archival materials drawn from the Central Historical Archive of Moscow, as well as from the family archive of the descendants of Kazantsev, one of the priests of the examined church. The archive materials for the first time in historiography introduced into scientific circulation are analyzed through the method of historical reconstruction and are presented in chronological order - during the 19th century. Up to today, the history of this church was only once the research object in the scientific community: the article written by the staff members of the Museum "Tsaritsyno" A. A. Baranova and A. A. Galashevich was published over 25 years ago. The study of the formative origins of one of the most important churches in Moscow and the Moscow region (primarily due to its territorial position, namely, being part of the Catherine Palace complex) is a significant and valuable source for understanding the current process of the Orthodox Renaissance.

Keywords: the church, Russia, archive, ХIХ century, Tsaritsyno, Voznesenckaya Davidova pustin', Orthodoxy, Moscow region, revolution, clergy

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.

Keywords: Mennonites, Lutherans, Seventh-day Adventists, Christians of Evangelical faith, Evangelical Christians-Baptists, Protestants, Religious association, Territorial groups, Religious, State religious policy

Abstract: The main sources for studying the history of the revival of the Vinaya school of Chinese Buddhism at the end of the Ming dynasty - beginning of the Qing dynasty, to date remain genealogies and monastic chronicles. This article presents the possibility of expanding the topic's source base through works of religious and ethical nature. Using the example of “the Initial Approach to Bodhisattva Vows in the Sutra Network of the Brahma” by Yijie Shuyu, the author demonstrates how such works can contain additional historical and biographical information. The author reveals specific historical reasons, methods and aims of using the religious commentary genre to transmit this information. In the article, the author undertook a comparative analysis of the biographies of the Vinaya School monks, which are part of the work under study, with their biographies in earlier and later sources. The study shows that Yijie Shuyu innovatively reworked the material available to him through sources within the framework of the concept of the lineage of reincarnated patriarchs, which was created to enhance the prestige of the Vinai school. The author comes to the conclusion that Yijie Shuyu used the available to him commentary genre on questions concerning Vinaya to raise the prestige of the lineage to which he himself belonged.

Keywords: Yijie Shuyu, Qianhua, sources, Qing, Ming, religion, Vinaya, Buddhism, China, Bodhisattva vows

Abstract: The presented article proposes to consider the particularities behind the development of the men's Orthodox monastery Voznesenskaya Davidova Pustyn in the second half of the 19th century.The research object of this study is the men's Orthodox monastery Voznesenskaya Davidova Pustyn, while the research subject is the various areas of the monastery's life (activities of priors, material support, economy, building construction, etc.).The study is based on the archival material extracted from a number of Russian state archives: the Russian State Historical Archive, the Central State Archive of Moscow and the Russian State Archive of Ancient Acts, as well as one private archive: the monastic archive of the Voznesenskaya Davidova Pustyn. By applying the research method of historical reconstruction, the author analyzes the archival material, which is introduced into scientific circulation for the first time, that makes it possible to identify key aspects in the life of the monastery during the period under study. This monastery and its history during the second half of the 19th century have only once been the central object of research in a scholarly work, namely, in 1915 when the monastery turned 400 years old. The article puts forward the conclusion that in the second half of the 19th century, specifically, from 1854 to 1893, the monastery changed three superiors: father Varlaam, father Iosif and father Yoanikiy, who not only did not weaken the monastery (it continued to remain a self-governing monastery), but on the contrary, they managed to create such a spiritual and financial foundation that enabled the next abbot, archimandrite Valentin, to raise the status of the monastery in 1915 - in honor of the 400th anniversary of the monastery - by raising the rank of Voznesenskaya Davidova Pustyn to that of a second-class monastery.

Keywords: status, archive, economy, monks, Voznesenskaja Davidova Pustin’, monastery, Orthodoxy, Moscow region, architecture, abbot of the monastery

Abstract: The subject of this research is the transformation of the traditional way of life of the Old Believers population in Buryatia at the beginning of the 20th century on the example of its younger generation. The article's research object is the youth Old Believers in Buryatia. The authors consider such aspects of this topic as: the objective state of the social climate in the “family” village at the beginning of the 20th century; cultural, political and ideological transformations of the Soviet government, directed primarily towards young people; and the reaction to them from different generations of Old Believers. The authors applied the historical-genetic method, which involves the study of changes of phenomena over time, as it was necessary to characterize the lifestyle of "family" young people in the pre-revolutionary period and in the 1920s. The historical-comparative method, which provides a comparison of the sides of various phenomena and which reveals their general and specific features, was also used, in particular, to compare the education of young people in the rural communities and the Soviet government. The authors come to the conclusion that the involvement of the Soviet government as allies of the “family” youth became one of the main goals in the matter of assimilating this closed religious group of the population into the actively building single Soviet society. And as for the youth itself, these years were a period of opportunities to change their lives, to increase their literacy, to independently choose their occupation, and to move to urban spaces. The novelty of this research lies in that for the first time in historiography new archival materials are introduced into the scientific circulation that contain stories of previous "family" villages about the pre-revolutionary lifestyle of young people. This allows to present a clearer picture of the dramatic changes that occurred in the future of this social group of the Old Believers in Buryatia.

Keywords: closed community, youth, Soviet authority, traditional society, Old Believers, settlements, National history, communist ideology, religion, lifestyle

Abstract: The subject of this article is the history of a church in the Moscow region: the Church of the Icon of the Theotokos of the "Life-giving Spring" in Tsaritsyno in the first half of the 20th century. The article's chronological framework starts from the pre-revolutionary period to the Soviet period in the history of this church. The object of this research is the activity of the church's priest, father Aleksey Fiveysky, the foundations of the financial and economic existence of the church near Moscow on the eve of the events of 1917, as well as the description of the church flock, the reasons for its increase on the eve of the revolution and the increase in the number of request to the church. The article was prepared on the basis of two types of sources: archival materials (from the Central State Archive of Moscow and the family archive kept by the descendants of Fiveysky, as well as the archive of the Leninsky district of the Moscow region (Vidnoye), and oral history materials (an interview with a descendant of father Aleksey - the grandson of his brother, Nikolay Fiveysky, who became a priest in the village of Klobukovo of the Bogorodsky uyezd - Yuri Dmitrievich Fiveysky and his wife Elena Pavlovna.) Archival materials and information obtained during the author's oral surveys were analyzed by the method of historical reconstruction and presented in the article in the form of a historical description. Up to today, the history of this church, which is located on the territory of the famous Catherine Palace in Tsaritsyno, has had no scientific works devoted to the historical period chosen in this article. The study of the church's history prior to and after the October Revolution is of great scientific and practical interest since it shows the spiritual state of Russian society, which committed or supported the Bolshevik uprising.

Keywords: Soviet power, archives, finance, revolution, Fiveisky, orthodoxy, Tsaritsyno, Russia, church, repression

Abstract: The research subject of this article is the conceptual categories that highlight the missionary work of the Protestants who lived in the Soviet Union between 1944 and 1965. At the heart of the source base for this study lie the documents stored in the collections of the Council for the Affairs of Religious Cults under the Council of Ministers of the USSR, primarily from the collection of the commissioner for Moscow and the Moscow Region. Particular attention is paid to the linguistic features of these documents, many of which combine terminology from different cultural areas. The research was carried out within the framework of the methodological approach to the history of concepts, which involves examining both the terminology used and the context of their application. Relevant terms are analyzed not only as components of the professional language but also as tools for carrying out political activities. The novelty of this study lies in the fact that for the first time in scientific research the history of the missionary work of Protestants during the Soviet period is examined within the framework of the methodology of the history of concepts. The author shows how the use of such categories as "agitation", "recruitment", "evangelism", "teaching", "missionary work" and "mission" influenced the perception of the work under examination by the target audience of the research documents.

Keywords: Soviet Union, USSR, evangelism, missionary work, Pentecostals, Baptists, Adventists, Protestantism, religious policy, history of concepts

Abstract: The subject of this article is the role of agitation trains and steamboats that cruised in Soviet Russia during the years of the Russian Civil War. The author examines in detail the anti-religious aspect of the propaganda activities of the agitation trains: anti-religious teaching and educational work, in which the Bolsheviks successfully used slogans, anti-religious documentary films, publicist and fictional literature, special anti-religious journals, artistic paintings, poster art, and caricatures. The article uses archival materials, as well as collections of documents. The discussed agitational and propaganda work, which also included anti-religious education, very soon bore necessary fruits: the total support of the majority of the population for the new government which allowed the Bolsheviks to cement and to continue the already begun fight against religion. In order to achieve his aim, the author uses comparative, narrative and historical-genetic methods of research. The relevance of this study is determined by the absence in historiography of works devoted to this topic. Agitation trains and steamboats were widely used by the Soviet authorities in 1919-1921 and were the shock force of Bolshevik propaganda. The agitation activity of trains and steamships was directed towards the political context of the time: the struggle of the Bolsheviks against the White Army, the recruitment of workers and peasants to the front of the Soviet government, and the propaganda of its ideas among the population.

Keywords: religion, Russian Orthodox Church, anti-religious education, Soviet authorities, Civil War, Bolsheviks, agitation steamboat, agitation train, propaganda, agitation

Abstract: The subject of historical analysis in this article is the topic of the hierarchy of Old Russian ministers of pagan cults, which is a virtually unstudied topic by Russian scholars. Based on archaeological sources, ancient Russian chronicles and texts of Ibn Fadlan, the author sequentially analyzes the features of the hierarchy of pagan cult ministers of small clan temples, hillforts-sanctuaries, and urban sacral centers. The author dedicates particular attention to the question of the place and role of Old Russian princes and close to them representatives of the military elite in the religious life of the ancient Russian state. The study highlights the characteristic features of the pagan cult in ancient Russian cities, in particular, the unique system of priestly hierarchy in which the dominant position was occupied by local prince-rulers and their closest circle of local military elite. Upon writing this article, the author used the historical-comparative, problem-thematic and historical-analytical methods of scientific research. In this study, for the first time in Russian historical science, a comprehensive analysis of the hierarchical system of Eastern Slavic ministers of pagan cults is presented. The conducted historical analysis allowed the author to come to the conclusion that in the pre-Christian era the Eastern Slavic pagan cult ministers had a complex hierarchical system. All the Eastern Slavic sanctuaries from small temples located on the outskirts of rural settlements to large hillforts-sanctuaries were served by hierarchically organized professional priests. The pagan cult ministers were united in priestly clans led by the high priests of the most revered shrines in Ancient Rus.

Keywords: The prince's squad, Princes, Priestly clan, The Priestly Hierarchy, Magi, Cult, Sanctuary, Sacral center, The temple, Sacrifice

Abstract: The subject of this study is the contribution of V. V. Rozanov to the formulation of the doctrine of the "new religious consciousness," which started the movement for the modernization of the Orthodox Russian Church. 120 years ago, the writer became interested in the history of Christianity and put forward a hypothesis concerning the religiousness of gender. Perhaps the only person who supported this hypothesis was the priest of the Russian Church Alexander Ustinsky. In 1901, the works of V. V. Rozanov, included among other topics, were brought to the meetings of religious and philosophical assemblies in St. Petersburg (1901-1903), while the doctrine of the "new religious consciousness" was proposed to the Russian Church as an alternative to historical Christianity. In this study the author applied the method of historicism, which assumes a sequential description of events and their analysis on the basis of their chronology and internal logic, as well as in connection with the general historical process, in this case - with the post-reform history of Russia, on the eve of socio-historical modernization. The author also applied the retrospective-associative method, which allowed to identify the preconditions of the studied phenomenon. The author adheres to the principles of academicism and scientific objectivity. The novelty of this research consists in its introduction into scientific circulation of V. V. Rozanov's archival correspondence from 1898 - 1899, which shows that one of the theoreticians of the religious movement for church modernization in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century, V. V. Rozanov owes his fame as an expert on the history of Christianity and as a religious thinker (candidate of theology) to a great extent to the Archpriest Alexander Ustinsky. The author comes to the conclusion that by the beginning of the 20th century, both activists created the conditions for translating into the public consciousness the idea of the need to introduce into practice church divorce, remarriages for the clergy and to overcome the ascetic tradition.

Keywords: religion of Rozanov, Church modernization, new religious consciousness, priest Alexander Ustinsky, Russian Orthodox Church, gender issue, religious movement, marriage in Christianity, Vasily Rozanov, living Church

Abstract: The subject of this research is the unique veneration of certain icon images by Old Believers in the Ural region at the end of the 18th century.Orthodox priests, who were sent on an «expedition» in 1780, surveyed several villages of the Chelyabinsk Ecclesiastical District. Their task was to expose "indecent icons" and to record them in a special "Register". At the time, the term «indecent icons» stood for not only icons "unskillfully painted", but also for icons "painted with schismatic folly". This is why the priests focused particular attention on the icons they found in the homes of Old Believers.This article is based on the principles of historicism and objectivity, while the methodological base of the research is grounded on the historical-genetic method, the content of which I. D. Kovalchenko identified as "a consistent disclosure of the properties, functions, and changes of the studied reality in the process of its historical movement, which makes it possible to approach the reproduction of the real history of the object".On the basis of the above-mentioned "Register", the author of the present article has composed a table showing the frequency of certain icon narratives. In a total of 123 homes in 11 villages, 258 painted icons were discovered. Among these particular icon narratives clearly predominated: «the Resurrection of Christ and Descent into Hell» (78 images, 30.2%), the Theotokos «Joy of All Mourners» (39 images, 15.1%), and St Nicholas the Miracle-Worker (16 images, 6.2%). The author comes to the conclusion that the only explanation of the popularity of these icons is in terms of their "multifunctionality". The uneducated populace venerated a particular icon not only as an object of worship but also as an intercessor from various evils and an aide in various conflicts in life. Using both ethnographical material and new data, the author demonstrates how icon images were interpreted in popular consciousness and what hopes the population of the Ural region placed on them in the 18th century.

Keywords: cult of saints, popular interpretation, multifuctionality of icons, Ural, Chelyabinsk District, Resurrection of Christ, Theotokos, St Nicholas, Old Believers, indecent icons

Abstract: The research subject of this article is one of the most important factors of the Swedish emigration to America in the second half of the 19th century: religion. The research object under study is the Swedish emigrants who left their homeland specifically for religious motives. The author examines in detail such aspects of the topic as pietistic movements and religious contradictions in Swedish society that indicate a certain kind of split within the Church of Sweden, which was closely tied to the social life of the country. Particular attention is focused on the role of religious "pioneers" and their contribution to the overall course of the Swedish emigration. The methodological basis of this work is the chronological and problematic approaches, as well as the method of new historical demography which has made it was possible to link social processes with demographic ones. The author comes to the conclusion that religious motives in the Swedish emigration came to nothing only after the reforms adopted by the state in the 1870s. The freedom granted to citizens from then on erased the existing disagreements within the Swedish society. The novelty of this study lies in that the author highlights religion out of all the reasons for emigration among the Swedish population.

Keywords: janssonists, läsare, revivalism, Swedish religion movements, Swedish migration causes, USA emigration, migration, Sweden, Augustana Synod, Swedish Church

Abstract: The subject of this article is the public and parliamentary discussions concerning the issue of the withdrawal of bishops belonging to the Church of England from among the ranks of legislators. The object of this study is the course of these discussions, their connection with the overall political context, and the arguments of the supporters of the idea of excluding prelates from parliament. The discussion was most often conducted within the framework of the general debate on church reform which had been developing since the 1780s and which became particularly relevant in the 1830s when the position of the Church was undermined by three acts of the "constitutional revolution". The aim of this work is to investigate how the idea of excluding bishops from the House of Lords appeared in English journalism, press and parliamentary debates of 1830-1840, to examine the arguments of its supporters, and to reveal its connection with the political life of the period. The methodological basis of this work are the principles of historicism and scientific objectivity, and other specific scientific methods: the historical-genetic and the historical-typological approaches. The goal itself set before the author determines the scientific novelty of the article. Some sources are utilized for the first time in Russian historiography. The author comes to the conclusions that: the idea of excluding bishops from the House of Lords was closely connected to the idea of reducing the influence of the executive power on the parliament; it was defended by appealing to both religious and political arguments, as well as through historical arguments and appeals to public opinion; it was used as an instrument of political pressure on prelates during the "constitutional revolution"; it was not supported by the government and did not have strong support among the legislators of that time.

Keywords: economical reform, parliamentary reform, Lords Spiritual, House of Lords, British Parliament, the episcopacy, Church of England, church reform, the constitutional revolution, anticlericalism

Abstract: This article examines a unique document: a singing manuscript by to the famous Old Believer of the Fedoseevsky (Bespopovsty) movement, the typographer and educator Luka Arefyevich Grebnev (1867 - 1932). The author comes to the conclusion that the surviving draft is a draft edition of liturgical chants. The author examines in detail how Grebnev edited liturgical texts and melodies, what was his intention, and why Luka Arefievich addressed at all the issue of liturgical singing. The author also considers Grebnev's role as the organizer of the church choir at the chapel in the village of Staraya Tushka in the Malmyzhsky uyezd of the Vyatka governorate. A vast array of various sources was used for this research: singing books, documents of epistolary nature and diaries, materials from Old Believer cathedrals, the investigation file on the deprivation of the Grebnev family of electoral rights, and others. The decoding of the musical notes on the hooks of the manuscript by L. A. Grebnev was made using several singing alphabets (preference was given to the data from the Alphabet uncovered by archaeographers in Vyatka). Based on the decoding, the author conducted a musicological analysis of the edits of the liturgical chants proposed in the manuscript. The other sources allowed to restore the historical and biographical context of the manuscript. The article addresses the practically unstudied side of Luka Arefyevich Grebnev's activity in reforming liturgical singing. The author comes to the conclusion that his edits were aimed first of all at correcting the text of the hymns - the abolition of archaisms. A similar idea was actively discussed at councils of Old Believers at the turn of the 19th - 20th centuries. Grebnev's merit lies in that he intended to submit for discussion at the forthcoming All-Russian Fedoseyevsky council his finalized edition of liturgical chants. This is why the document itself is a unique source in the history of Orthodox church music. The analysis of the manuscript has made it possible to conclude that Grebnev acted within the framework of traditional for Old Russian church and singing art methods, sparing compared to the original chants. At the same time, the correction of liturgical chants in itself meant a cardinal revolution in the church life of the Old Believers.

Keywords: history of Old Believers, liturgical singing of Old Believers, Old-Russian church-singing art, Luka Arefyevich Grebnev, Vyatka Old Believers, Fedoseevtsy, musical culture of Old Believers, naonnoe singing, khomoniya, Znamenny chant

Abstract: The Voznesenskaya Davidova Poustinia is one of the monasteries situated near Moscow, founded in 1515 by the monk David of the Pafnutievsky Monastery. The research subject of this article is the particularities of the monastery's development in the 18th century. The main key events were: the church reform of 1764 and the introduction of a new monastic cenobitic charter (end of the 18th century). Up to now, there have been no studies in scientific literature describing the history of the monastery Voznesenskaya Davidova Poustinia in the 18th century. To date, only one book by N. P. Vinogradov has been published (in 1915), in which a description of the history of the monastery for 400 years is given. The article was prepared on the basis of the historical method. The author, analyzing the archival materials he collected, extracted from two archives (the Russian State Archive of Ancient Documents and the Central State Archives of the City of Moscow), undertakes a historical reconstruction of the life of the monastery of the Voznesenskaya Davidova Poustinia in the 18th century. The novelty of this article lies is that, with the example of a scrupulous analysis of all aspects of the life of a monastery, one can see the key stages of monastic history in Russia in the 18th century. The study of the history of the above-named monastery presents both scientific and practical interest. Above of all, the author points out that in 2015 the monastery turned 500 years old. The monastery managed to preserve its functions for the duration of many centuries. In addition to this, the fate of the monastery during one of the most difficult historical periods is of particular interest: 1764 is the period when church reform and the secularization of church lands was carried out - an important source of life for the monasteries.

Keywords: church reform, Russian authorities, clergy, peasants, lands, Voznesenskaya Davidova Poustinia, Catherine II, monasteries, Russia, Orthodoxy

Abstract: The research subject of this article is the analysis of the establishment process of the Polish Orthodox Church and the role of Renovationism in it. Using previously unpublished archival materials, the author creates a picture of the development of church relations in Poland in the context of the concurrent historical situation. From the point of view of the Polish government, to accept Renovationism meant to allow the influence of Soviet Russia, of communist ideas, and of the "export of revolution" in religious packaging. As a consequence, Renovationism was unacceptable to Poland in both the church-canonical and political aspects. In turn, this created a general ideological platform for Polish authorities and the Orthodox episcopate. This research is based on a series of scientific methods, among them – historical, institutional, systematic, and comparative methods of scientific analysis. The novelty of this research lies in the fact that the examined scientific-historical topic reveals a new understanding of the political circumstances in the establishment of the Polish Orthodox Church, under which Renovationism could not penetrate into Poland from Russia due to the territorial and cultural detachment of Poland, the existence of ties between the Orthodox episcopate and pre-Revolutionary church traditions, the unity of Polish authorities and higher clergy in understanding the necessity of building positive relations, and as a consequence when the Polish Orthodox Church received the autocephaly it thus completely closed off all possibilities of the Renovationism movement in Polish lands. The author's particular contribution to this topic is his conclusion, based on new and previously unknown to the scientific community documental testimonies, that the Renovationism schism was not of an ideological religious nature, but rather of a practical and political nature, because without the support of the government authorities its realization could not have been possible.

Keywords: Orthodoxy, Renovationism, Polish Orthodox Church, Moscow Patriarchate, Patriarchate of Constantinople, Catholic Church, policy of revindication, Dionysius Valedinsky, national church, autocephaly

Abstract: In Russia during the first decade of the 20th century unfolded several church-reformation and liberal-reformist movements, directed at reforming the church. In these movements were involved the religious, ecclesiastical and outside of the church intelligentsia, educated workers, as well as clergymen. The problems put forward by this eclectic social movement, apart from various proposals of religious and philosophical nature and the question of "reform or reformation?", included also requests defined by the era. The participants of the movement hoped that at the church council all their proposals would receive a positive decision. But the majority of their proposals were in conflict with the Orthodox tradition. The article's author examines which questions raised by the movement as a whole were among those discussed at the church Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church in 1917–1918 and presents the resolutions made by this legislative church body. The author applied the method of systematic historical analysis, which takes into account the causal relationship between events and the objective approach to events and documents. The author also used the retrospective approach. The scientific novelty of this study is determined by the fact that in the article the liberal religious movement is for the first time presented in the context of the events from the canonical sphere – the work of the Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church in 1917–1918. The author refutes the existing opinion that the reformatory activity of the religious intelligentsia and the liberal clergy in the beginning of the 20th century was left without attention by the Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church in 1917–1918. The author analyzes the discussions between the liberals and the conservatives. The author based his study on the material of his ten-year research on the formation in pre-Revolutionary Russia of the social movement for church reform, the analysis of the church reformer K. M. Aggeev and a review of the documents ("Deeds") of the Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church in 1917–1918.

Keywords: religious intelligentsia, church reformation, church movement, historical Church, liturgical work, reform, social movement, live sermon, Church council, Local Council

Abstract: On the basis of reintroduced archival and documentary sources, the article examines the history of the adoption of Islam by the mountaineers of the Northwest Caucasus. Special attention is given to exploring the stages of the Islamization of the area associated with the external and internal political situation of the time. It is proved that the spread and strengthening of Islam in the region was due to the missionary activities of foreign (Arabic, Turkish, Persian) and ethnic (Northern Caucasian) preachers, who personified the political situation and the ideological requirements of the period. The methods used to achieve this vary from promises of material benefits to forced repressions. The methodology of this work is presented by the philosophical terms regarding the correlation of social development and policy, the historical and social situation of missionary work, the dialectics of the general and specific.The author comes to the conclusions that the existing in Caucasian studies term of the "crash" of missionary work can be considered unreasonable. During the specified period in the North-Western part of the Caucasus occurred the process of penetration and adaptation of the Islamic faith, preached by the missionaries. Despite the fact that the emissaries in the region pursued different goals, the activities of Muslim preachers had contributed to the mobilization and consolidation of the forces of the mountain peoples. As a result, by the time of the bourgeois reforms, the majority of the Circassians made their choice in favor of Islam, which in their minds began to take the main position.

Keywords: Russian Empire, Northern Caucasus, Circassian peoples, foreign emissaries, missionary organizations, Islamization of the region, political history, social and cultural life, advocates of Islam, stages of missionary work

Abstract: The article investigates the policies of local provincial organs of state power of the Russian Empire on the collection and analysis of statistical information regarding sectarianism and the Old Believers on the example of the work conducted by the Voronezh Governorate Committee on Statistics. The article reviews the history of the establishment of provincial statistics committees and the main normative legal acts that regulated their activities. It is shown that the activity of the Voronezh Governorate Committee on Statistics in the collection and study of statistical data concerning sectarianism and the Old Believers in the Voronezh governorate, and the author also considers the many statistical materials released by the Committee which allowed to determine the numerical and religious composition of the population in the Voronezh governorate during the second half of the 19th – early 20th centuries. The article examines the various statistical materials published by local Voronezh provincial authorities: the collections of official reference information about the province: «commemorative books» and «address-calendars», which were published annually by the Voronezh Governorate Committee on Statistics, and «overviews of governorates», which were an annex to the governors' annual reports. These materials, regarding the Voronezh governorate, were collected by the governorate statistics committee and annually sent to the Central Committee on Statistics of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and enable us to investigate the numerical and religious composition of the population of the governorate, according to various sects and directions of the Old Believers. This article, based on an analysis of these sources, presents extensive statistical information on sectarianism and the Old Believers in the Voronezh governorate by counties and settlements, in different years, and also shows the changes in the numerical composition of the governorate's population, according to various sects and directions of the Old Believers during the second half of the 19th – early 20th centuries.

Keywords: commemorative book, governorate committees on statistics, Voronezh governorate committee, committee on statistics, Voronezh governorate, counties, schism and schismatics, sects and Old Believers, sectarianism and sectarians, statistics and statistical information

Abstract: The article's research subject is the traditional form of the religious life in the Northern governorates in European Russia during the 18th century, which formed under the conditions of a secular policy of Catherine's reign and which is characterized by multi-confessionalism and relative religious tolerance. The research’s object is the regional particularities of the religious life there, as noted in the travel Diary of P. I. Chelishev in 1791: the spread of Old Believers' faith, the collapse in authority of the traditional Orthodox faith by fault of the local clergy, and the desolation of local monasteries. The author analyzes in detail the passages in the manuscript of P. I. Chelishev which indicated the visible causes for the spiritual decline in the Northern region to the imprudent and inconsistent policy of the government's religious tolerance that did not have clearly positive effects and to the lack of the necessary education of the Northern borderlands. Particular attention is given to the circumstance that P. I. Chelishev, despite being a person who thought in the concepts of the Renaissance period which supported the policies of Catherine II, quite critically assessed the condition of the Russian provinces’ religious life at the end of the 18th century, resulting from Catherine's transformations. His Diary is a rare case of criticism of the government's secularism, stemming not from highest members of clergy, but from the secular side of educated society. The article's main methodology is the combination of narrative (descriptive) and comparative methods. Using the manuscript text of Chelishev's Diary for 1791, containing general information on the religious life on the visited by him governorates, as well as a series of the traveler's original commentaries and conclusions concerning what he saw, the author compares them with the information from other sources (statistical, legislative and others) in an attempt to reveal the degree of representativeness of the information recorded by Chelishev and the particularities of the observer's worldview, who had a unique perspective on the political and religious processes of his time. The main conclusions of the conducted research are the following: the secular epoch of the 18th century brought into the life of the Russian province, beside religious tolerance and withdrawal of the church's property, definite traces of the decline of official Orthodoxy as testified by the degradation of many monasteries, the lowering of the church's authority, the lack of educated clergy; the spread of the Old Believers' faith in the Northern governorates was a consequence not only of the government's liberal position but also the lack of the necessary education of the public, the domination of superstitions and customs; the critical point of view of P. I. Chelished, an educated aristocrat from the close circle of Radishev, in relation to the government policy of religious tolerance, testifies the presence in Russian society at the end of 18th century of a moderate-conservative positions on the issue of the position of religion and the church in society's life. In the weakening of the church's role in the traditional mode of society's life they saw a danger to the state's very foundation, in which they were supported by the majority of the highest members of clergy.

Keywords: Old Believers, religious tolerance, monasteries, secularism, enlightenment, clergy, Orthodoxy, Russian north

Abstract: The Nikitinsky excavation located on the territory of the Plotnitskiy district of late-Medieval Novgorod, like other Novgorod excavations, has unearthed among many different archaeological finds amulets made from nonferrous metals, stone and bones. In studying the spiritual culture of the inhabitants of Novgorod during the Middle ages through archaeological data, it is important not only to identify the groups of religious objects, but also to relatively precisely date and topographically analyse the collected material. This analysis should be conducted on the example of individual estates and estate complexes that have a developed planography, stratigraphy and chronology of tiers. The systematisation, dating clarification and linking to estates and edifices have allowed to reveal the chronological patterns and specific particularities of these objects’ distribution during different periods of time. The comprehensive study of amulets found in the Nikitinsky excavation has confirmed the general tendencies of their dissemination in Novgorod. Various amulets, personal talismans and household talismans were persistently used by the Medieval inhabitants of Novgorod during the course of centuries. The continuity of this tradition attests to the awareness of objects’ use and deep ideological background.

Keywords: Novgorod archaeological studies, Plotnitskiy district, Nikitinsky excavation, estates, cult objects, amulets, talismans, systematisation, chronology, topography

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.

Keywords: Old Ritualism, practice of mentorship, traditional society, religious unions, E. V. Molostvova, sectarianism, religious educational practice, mentorship in Old Ritualism, populism, A. S. Prugavin

Abstract: The article is focused on an examination of the activity of the metropolitan of Moscow and Kolomensk Macarius (Bulgakov) as a historian of Old Ritualism and a missionary. Particular attention is allocated to an analysis of the historical works of the metropolitan Macarius dedicated to Old Ritualism and his missionary activity among the schismatics and sectarians. The article studies the principal provisions of his works on the history of the Russian church that explain the causes and conditions under which appeared Old Ritualism and sectarianism, and demonstrates the main contributions of the metropolitan Macarius in the field of Old Ritualism studies. The author examines the historical-methodological concept of his studies, as well as demonstrates the significance of his works for historical science in the research of Old Ritualism and sectarianism. The article also analyzes the anti-schism, anti-sectarianism missionary activity of metropolitan Macarius as archbishop during his years of governance over the Tambov, Kharkov and Lituania dioceses. The author elaborates the statistical data and dynamic of the changes in numbers of Old Ritualists and sectarians in each of the three diocese on the basis of the statistical material from the governorates that were part of them, and presents the results of the missionary activity of the metropolitan Macarius.

Keywords: Old Ritualism, Orthodox Church, sects, sectarianism, sectarians, missionary, missionary activity, Tambov diocese, Kharkov governorate, Vilnius governorate, Kovno governorate, schism, schismatics, history of Old Ritualistt schism, Metropolitan Macarius (Bulgakov)

Abstract: The article summarises the results of the work conducted within the framework of the project RGNF no. 15-01-00026 "the Crisis of Agrarian Communities in Imperial Russian: the Famine of 1891–1892 in the Central-Chernozyomny Region" in 2015. The author focuses attention on the examination of the features of the Russian Orthodox Church's charitable activity during the period of the famine in 1891–1892 on the example of the Tula governorate, which belonged to the Agrarian centre of the Russian Empire. The article in particular highlights the investigation of the ecclesiastical institutes’ activities in the push to overcome the crisis in the Russian Empire at the end of the 19th century. The author, on the basis of published sources and unpublished archival material, analyses the activity of the Tula eparchial committee in aiding the starving population during the period of 1891–1892. The article also examines the particularities of the social and economic situation at the level of the rural parish, analyses the relationship between agrarian societies and the clergy under the condition of an emergency situation. The conducted research has allowed to come to the conclusion that the efforts of the Russian Orthodox Church objectively contributed to overcoming the crisis of the agrarian community at the end of the 19th century. The inclusion of the Russian Orthodox Church in solving the social and economic problems happened in a mode of a forced mobilisation, which gives ground for the author to talk about the exceptional mobilisation possibilities of the Empire's leading religious confession under the conditions of a crisis.

Keywords: empire, Russian Orthodox Church, clergy, peasantry, famine, charity, eparchial committee, social service, parish, peasant community

Abstract: This article examines the formation process of Neo-Hindu thought in Bengal at the end of the 19th century on the basis of the religious and philosophical material from the works of the author, publicist, and public figure Bankimchandra Chattopaddhyay. The interpretation of Hinduism in his works of 1880–1892 presents the creation of a positive image of his native religion, directed at exonerating it from the criticism of Hindu Religious reformers and Christian missionaries. In creating an image of Hinduism Bankimchandra proceeds from recognising it as a multifaceted whole (the metaphor of the tree) tied by fundamental principles. For the description of the image of Hinduism in Bankimchandra’s works the author used the method of reconstruction, which is based on the hermeneutical analysis of the texts of the corresponding period, as well as taking into account the socio-cultural context of the time. For the first time in Russian Indology the author describes the complete image of Hinduism resulting from the reflections of one of the founders of Neo-Hinduism as a direction of social thought. Bankimchandra’s version of Hinduism was the worldview justification of this religion as a comprehensive spiritual tradition rooted in deep antiquity. Having appeared as a religion of nature, Hinduism evolved from the original form of the Vedic religion to the enlightened and good religion founded on the interpretations of the Dharma in the “Bhagavad Gita”.

Keywords: dharma, stages of religious development, monotheism, polytheism, natural religion, social thought, Neo-Hinduism, ethics, image of Hinduism, Vaishnavism

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.

Keywords: interdenominational divisions, traditional society, sectarianism, Russian Orthodox Church, populism, A. S. Prugavin, Old Ritualist confessions, Old Ritualism, religious groups, Russian North

Abstract: The article presents the Bengali prophet Ramakrishna Paramahamsa (1836–1886) as a phenomenon of a religiously gifted personality, which from his faith and unique mystical experience came to found a particularly heterodox and contemporary reinterpretation of Hinduism. The phenomenon of Ramakrishna is accordingly placed in its context of the transformation of the traditional society in colonial India, and in the peripheries – Bengal, where existed for centuries an heterodox interpretation of dharma and thus concurrently formed a space of dialogue between the West and India in Calcutta. The research is based on the hermeneutical analysis method of the sayings of and conversations with Ramakrishna in a general cultural context of the intellectual pursuits during the period of the Bengal Renaissance. The article shows that the image of Hinduism as a religion by Ramakrishna, leading all followers on different paths towards the single God, reconciles orthodox and heterodox, Brahmanic and “popular” beliefs and becomes the basis for the development of neo- Hinduism as a way of thinking and a religious practice at the turn of the XXth century.

Keywords: history of neo-Hinduism, image of Hinduism, the Bengal Renaissance, traditional prophet, Vaishnavism, religious experience, heterodoxy, paths towards God, Jnana, Karma, Bhakti, religious ethics.

Abstract: the article discloses the meanings of the hypostasis of the soul of the ancient Egyptian – “Ba”, “Ka”, “Ah”, soul-name, soulshadow, and their origin. Thus, the genesis of “Ba” shows that its’ understanding goes back to the archaic understanding of the soul. The genesis of “Ka” leads to the practice of “rejecting the lips and eyes”, allowing to create an immortal ancient Egyptian counterpart of the soul. The author proposes the hypotheses about the role of the soul-name and the soul-shadow. The role of the name is clear enough: it allowed to identify a specific person, which was understood in the ancient world as the same as the creation of the world by the word; oblivion of the name was equal to murdering its owner. The article introduces the concept of a “virtual entity”, an idea of the soul-Ka is interpreted as one of the first versions of the virtual subject.

Keywords: history, cultural studies, soul, body, shadow, hypostasis, synthesis, characteristics, the double, death.

Abstract: the phenomenon of making caches with cult and memorable artifacts of Pharaohs – the founders of the Early State in the temples of subsequent periods, built on the site of ancient shrines is unique in the Ancient Egyptian history. Their localization outlines the boundaries of the Early State, its center and the periphery. Analysis of the materials suggests the cult of worshiping of the ancient Pharaohs, preserving spiritual traditions as the most important instrument for maintaining the stability of the state. Pharaoh was a key figure in the religious and ritual life of the community. A special role is played by the royal anniversary, during which the Pharaoh was tested, confirming the legitimacy of his authority. This archaic rite of passage of renewal associates the caches with the sacred objects, manifesting the cult of the Pharaoh’s, revered in rebuilt temples, and being a sacrifice to the Gods of the land where the temple was built. Sacrifice as a process of transformation is aimed at continuous development of spiritual traditions in time and space in the rites of transitions.

Keywords: history, caches, temples, tradition, religion, rituals, worship, Pharaoh, ancestors holidays.

Abstract: the paper presents the relationship between the Old Believers and the official Orthodox Church in Russia in the XVIII - the beginning of XX century. Author analyzes the process of changing of the position of Old Believers in the public relations of the country, describes the recent works on the reform of the Orthodox Church and the place of Old Believers in the spiritual and social life of Russia.

Keywords: history, Russian super-ethnos, Orthodoxy, the “Old Beleif”, the Old Believers, Bogorodsk, official Orthodox Church, the reform of Alexander II, legislative acts.

Abstract: the article presents an original interpretation of the phenomenon of the Tree of Life — The Cross Tree in the teachings of the Bogomils and Strigolniki, which the Christian Church considered heretics. The author sees the Bogomils as one of the most significant phenomena of social and cultural life, religious identity and the moral philosophy of the Middle Ages. Perception has become a powerful anthropo-creative, social and reformative force for the followers of this doctrine. In this area, the influence of Bogomils’ philosophy in medieval freethinkers from the Balkans to the Iberian Peninsula and from the Balkans to the Urals is particularly noticeable.

Keywords: history, the Middle Ages, the Church and heresy, Bogomils, Strigolniki, Cathar, The Tree of Life, the Cross Tree, Cross as a symbol, stechka.

Abstract: the article reveals that in Russia until the XVIII century the ancient terms “theft” and “robbery” designated cowardly and courageous theft, respectively. Their later appliance to the German forms of non-violent and violent theft in the Military Article of Peter I and in the laws of Catherine II led to the imposition of the old division (in names) onto the new (in meanings). Thus arose the division of theft into an “open violent”, “secret non-violent” and “open non-violent”.

Keywords: history, Peter I, Military Article, Catherine II, Order of Catherine II, theft, robbery, fraud, theft, stealage, violence.

Abstract: the article demonstrates how significant was the influence of the Russian-Swedish war 1590–1593 on the formation of church worship of Metropolitan Philip. A successful offensive in the north-west and the preparation of a confrontation with the Swedes on the White Sea formed the main political context of the initial stage of this process. No less important was the change of monarch.

Keywords: history, the Church, foreign policy, Moscow State, Metropolitan Philip, the Russian-Swedish war, canonization, monasticism, the Baltic region, the White Sea region.

Abstract: the article analyzes the key trends in contemporary intellectual culture of Islam, highlights the main vectors of its development (traditionalism, modernism, fundamentalism). A comparative analysis of concepts of modernist Muhammad Iqbal and fundamentalist Sayyid Qutb is given.

Keywords: history, islam, modernization, tradition, jadids, salafiyya, Koran, sharia, culture