Missionary Practices of the Russian Orthodox Church in the eastern Outskirts of the Russian Empire in the second half of the XIX – early XX centuries (based on the materials of the Orthodox missions of the Tobolsk Diocese)

Balin Maksim Anatol'evich ORCID: 0000-0002-4835-8701 Bishop of Magnitogorsk and Verkhneuralsky 644020, Russia, Omsk region, Omsk, ul. Irtyshskaya Embankment, 45 balinmmg@mail.ru

Introduction According to the fair remark of modern researchers, Western Siberia, actively involved in the second half of the XIX – early XX centuries in the process of imperial development, was positioned in the views of the authorities and the conservative segment of socio-political discourse as a region of Russian domination, in which the roles of subjects of colonization should have been distributed initially and taking into account the accumulated colonization experience.

At the same time, the territories of the Trans–Urals were included in the ideology of "internal imperialism", and at the junction of the XIX-XX centuries were considered as a space of intensive communication between Church and state ^{[21, p.14]}.

The missionary activity of the Russian Orthodox Church in the eastern outskirts of the empire has an extensive historiography, and the practice of missionary work in Western Siberia has repeatedly been at the center of the research interest of historians ^{[4, 7, 17, 18]}. At the same time, problems related to the identification of the content of the missions' activities in the situational context of the "population policy" of the Russian Empire on the outskirts, the definition of specific conditions for solving a foreign issue in the provinces that have acquired the status of "internal" territories of the country, the establishment of circumstances and channels for broadcasting church enlightenment in relation to the indigenous peoples of the Trans-Urals often turned out to be out of the field of view of scientists. Russian Russian Orthodox Church as a subject of internal colonization in the second half of the XIX – early XX centuries. The purpose of the article is to identify and characterize the missionary practices of the Russian Orthodox Church in the territorial borders of the Tobolsk province as part of the vast West Siberian region, with pronounced features. ethnic and confessional mosaic of the population.

At the same time, the missionary community of the Tobolsk diocese is considered as an actor of the colonization process, which, taking into account institutional specifics, performed functions related to the administrative-territorial, socio-economic and cultural consolidation of Russian settlement in the peripheral part of the province.

Methodologically, the solution of the goal set in the article is achievable provided that a socio-cultural approach is applied, assuming in this situation the isolation of institutional and non-institutional aspects of the social life of Orthodox missionaries ^[13], as well as the practices of the "New Local History", in the research "optics" of which the region and local communities are located, whose identity is formed at the micro level ^[14]. Russian Russian Orthodox Church's representative conclusions are provided by the involvement of a wide range of sources, including office materials (reports of missionary societies), normative legal acts (laws of the Russian Empire and the charter of the Russian Orthodox Church), statistical data (Gubernian data on the 1897 census, statistical reference books), periodical press materials (official publications of the Russian Orthodox Church), ego-documents of missionaries (notes, letters).

The appeal to diverse sources created prerequisites for the construction of the socio-cultural context of the activities of the Orthodox missions of the Tobolsk diocese, as well as the definition of the colonization component in the work of the missionary community during the period under study.

The main part 

The imperative for the beginning of the formation of the missionary movement in Russia was the church schism and the adoption of the law of April 7, 1685, aimed at countering the influence of the Old Believers, as well as a letter addressed to Metropolitan Paul of Tobolsk and Siberia (Konyuskevich), which contained a warning about caution when converting representatives of various faiths to Orthodoxy. This indirect evidence allows us to speak about the first practical steps of missionary work based on the principles of voluntary entry of the peoples of the Russian Empire into Orthodox Christianity at the end of the XVII century ^[18].

By the second half of the nineteenth century, quite difficult conditions for the implementation of missionary activity had developed, which was conditioned by the legislative approval of the priority of the Orthodox faith in the Russian Empire: "The predominant and dominant faith in the Empire is the Christian Orthodox Catholic Eastern confession" ^[8], on the one hand, and the principle proclaimed earlier in the laws of 1719, 1721 and 1763 religious tolerance, which stated that "all subjects of the Russian State who do not belong to the ruling Church, natural and accepted into citizenship, as well as foreigners who are in the Russian service or temporarily staying in Russia, enjoy everywhere the free exercise of their faith and worship according to its rites" ^[8].

The historical and statistical review of foreign missions in Siberia, published on the pages of the regional diocesan press, provides information illustrating the objective difficulties of the functioning of missions in given ideological circumstances. In particular, regarding the Obdorsky mission, established in 1832, it was said that the first Obdorsky missionaries, having met a strong obstacle in their actions not only from pagans, but even baptized foreigners, in the very next 1833 refused missionary service, as a result of which the Holy Synod decided: "In Obdorsk, not having in mind enough ways and hopes, not to establish missions until the time..." ^{[6, p.5]}. Only 20 years later, in 1854, missionary work was restored here.

In general, in the borders of Western Siberia and the Steppe Region in the second half of the XIX – early XX centuries, 9 foreign missions were actively functioning, 2 of which operated in Western Siberia (Obdorskaya, Altai) and 1 – in the Steppe Region (Kirghiz). In addition to these, some of the missions established in Western Siberia in the nineteenth century were abolished in the second half of the century: the Kondinsky mission, opened in 1844 at the Kondinsky Monastery, ceased to function in 1892; the Surgut mission existed from 1867 to 1897 and was liquidated due to the absence of pagans in the region.

It should be noted that the Russian Orthodox Church in its missionary activity relied on a fairly rich historical experience of communication with indigenous peoples who were in paganism, in contact with which military and fishing teams came, creating conditions for the organization of administrative and territorial management of incorporated lands. According to A. Etkind's definition, the Moscow centralized state, and later the Russian Empire, in its subarctic colony created a political pyramid of four levels: a distant sovereign, European industrialists, local trappers and, finally, fur-bearing animals ^{[7, p.162]}. Despite the natural reduction in the possibilities of fur trade, at the turn of the XIX – XX centuries, the income from this type of activity was quite high and accounted for about 13% of the natural resources market of the Russian Empire. It is also important that by the second half of the nineteenth century, the entire territory of the fur trade within the borders of the eastern suburbs, despite the sharp reduction in profitability and narrowing of the field of commercial benefits, remained under the rule of Russia and required organizational measures, including in the religious sphere.

No less significant was the general atmospheric background of the colonization process, which was formed under the influence of the discourse about civilized and uncivilized peoples, developed in the European socio-political thought of the 1840s-1850s. Definition of F.Engels described the Slavic population of Europe as "miserable, dying nations doomed to destruction, who did not give a single proof of their ability to get out of the state of feudalism based on enslavement" ^{[22, p.357]}, to a certain extent stirred up nationalist sentiments in Russian society, which in the political coordinate system acquired the scale of ethnocentrism, and in the culturalRussian Russian nationalism in the spirit of M.N. Katkov ^{[5, pp.152-156]} and I.A. Sikorsky ^[16] resulted in the assertion of extreme theories of Russian nationalism in the spirit of M.N. Katkov ^{[5, pp.152-156]} and I.A. Sikorsky ^[16], who put the Russian question and the tasks of enhanced Russification on the outskirts of the empire at the forefront. The presence of this trend was noted in the early 1870s by Siberian oblasts. N.M. Yadrintsev, informing G.N. Potanin by letter about the preparation of essays on Siberian foreigners, describes the current situation as follows: "a Russian person "trades" a foreigner, and the consequences of this policy are views of the East as a conquered country" ^{[12, p.22]}.

Russian Russian society's firm conviction of the existence of its "own East", which needed a cultural correction, was actualized in connection with the current political and socio-economic processes, acquiring the outline of a state affair, in the implementation of which the Russian Orthodox Church had to play a significant role. The events on the western outskirts associated with the unrest of the Polish gentry, the precedents of separatism in Siberia (the case of Siberian separatists), the liberation of peasants and the beginning of liberal reforms in Russia, sharply raised the question of the algorithms of imperial incorporation of Western Siberia and the Steppe Region and the missionary activities of the Russian Orthodox Church in this very amorphous program was given a special place.

A vivid confirmation of the actualization of the missionary issue was the fact of the establishment of the Orthodox Missionary Society in Russia in 1865, the charter of which emphasized the inseparable connection of the organization with the state through the patronage of Her Imperial Majesty the Empress and the supervisory functions of the Holy Synod ^{[20, p.432]}. The main task of the society was formulated as "assistance to Orthodox missions in the conversion of non-Christians living within the Russian Empire to the Orthodox faith, and the confirmation of converts both in the truths of the holy faith and the rules of Christian life ^{[20, p.433]}. At the same time, it was particularly noted that the society initially turns to missions within eastern Russia, and as its means develop, it may extend to missions in other parts of the empire ^{[20, p.433]}.

The missions' activities in Western Siberia, in particular in the Tobolsk province, were carried out taking into account the distribution of the population by provincial territories and its ethnicity, acquiring a practice-oriented format in areas of maximum concentration of groups that did not belong to the Russian people and the Christian Orthodox faith. According to P.P. Semenov-Tyan-Shan, in Western Siberia, the main mass of the population, more than nine times the number of all other elements taken together, are Russian people, and the rest falls on the ancient aborigines of the country – Finnish and Turkic tribes ^{[15, p.220]}. According to statistics from the beginning of the twentieth century, the Christian population of Western Siberia reached 95% of the total number of inhabitants of the region ^{[15, p.223]}.

At the same time, the algorithms of missionary work, even within the West Siberian space, depended on a complex of factors, among which the natural and geographical conditions of the area, the distribution of the population by districts and the traditions of economic specialization of the population took the leading positions.

In the Tobolsk province, the largest area was occupied by the Berezovsky District – 49.5% of the area of the province (10 districts), the territory of which was a vast flat tundra with a harsh climate, excluding agricultural pursuits and mainly by the indigenous population. The northern part of Turin and Tobolsk, as well as the entire Surgut district, were also unsuitable for the life and activity of the agricultural population ^{[11, p.V]}.

The main groups of the indigenous population of the Tobolsk province – Ostyaks (Khanty), Voguls (Mansi), Samoyeds (Nenets), leading a traditional way of life and adhering to pagan beliefs, were concentrated within the borders of the Berezovsky district (Ostyaks here accounted for 51.8% of all residents), in the northern part of the Surgut district (71.6%) and the northern part Tobolsk province (12.4%) ^{[11, p. XXXXV]}. At the same time, it should be borne in mind that, unlike the Ostyaks, the Voguls and Samoyeds were significantly less distributed over the territories of the West Siberian districts, compactly inhabiting, respectively, the Turin, Tobolsk districts and the northern tundra part of the Berezovsky District ^{[11, p. XXXXV]}.

Thus, the activities of the Tobolsk Diocesan Committee, established as part of the Orthodox Missionary Society in 1872, were largely focused on educational work among the indigenous population groups of the province. One of the committee's reports explicitly stated that "mainly the pastors of the holy church, to the extent of their material means, revealed a sincere desire to serve a great purpose, namely, to enlighten the pagans living within the Tobolsk diocese with the light of the Gospel teaching and to confirm the converts from them in the faith and the rules of Christian piety" ^{[9, p.126]}.

The following were among the priority practices in the activity of missions: finding funds to meet the needs of missionaries, missionary institutions and schools; promoting the expansion of the territorial limits of the missions and the conversion of pagans to Orthodox Christianity; organizing and conducting educational Christian work among the baptized foreign population ^{[9, p.127]}.

The algorithm of practical work of the missionaries of the Tobolsk diocese was closely related to the seasons and the cycle of economic activity of autochthons – Samoyeds, Ostyaks, Voguls. Thus, representatives of the Obdorsk mission, which included a rector, an assistant rector, 2-3 priests, 2 deacons and 3-4 psalmists ^[10], began active educational work in January, when the bulk of the foreign population of the Tobolsk North flocked to Obdorsk for the contribution of yasak, the sale of hides and the purchase of household items. It was at this stage that acts of baptism were performed, scrupulously recorded in annual reports, divine services were performed, the program of which included an explanation of the content of the Orthodox faith and the rules of Christian life.

In March, part of the missionaries, led by a priest, were sent up the Ob River to visit foreign yurts and introduce local residents to Christianity. Then, at the beginning of July, taking with them a field church and all the necessary supplies, a group of missionaries headed down the river to preach the word of God, making conversations with the foreign population along the way during stops about the futility of idolatry, God's providence, God's judgment, religious morality.

From mid-July, expeditions were organized to "reserved" places for the proposed foundation of a missionary camp, where baptism and legalization of marriages of indigenous peoples were also carried out ^[10].

The activities of the Surgut mission were distributed between pagan Samoyeds and Ostyak foreigners who inhabited the Surgut district of the Tobolsk province. The specifics of the mission's functioning were determined by the sporadic contacts of the Orthodox priesthood with the Samoyed pagans who came to Surgut and the districts of the Surgut District in January and December of each year to sell fishing and hunting products, as well as to purchase household items. The missionaries' tasks, therefore, consisted in baptizing the uncircumcised and conducting sermons and liturgical conversations of an affirming nature with those who had already been converted to Orthodoxy. In this regard, the mission's servants tried to simplify the content of educational conversations as much as possible, using examples from the public and private life of foreigners, correlating these stories with the principles of Christianity, and the activities of volunteer assistants of missionaries from the Russian service population were also encouraged. Thus, one of the reports reports on the experience of a parishioner of the Trinity Church, uryadnik E. Kaidalov, who knew the Nenets language well, took an unbaptized Samoyed woman to his house for 30 years, and taught her Orthodox prayers and the basics of Christian life ^{[9, pp.136-137]}.

Missionary practices in relation to baptized Ostyak foreigners were hampered by the episodic format of communication with pastors. However, unlike missionary work with the Samoyeds, who were often impossible to reach, trips to the camps of the Ostyaks who lived within the Surgut district were part of the educational program of the mission. These missionary journeys were of a regular nature, interrupted only for the period of the establishment and opening of rivers, and involved a series of religious and educational conversations and the baptism of foreigners of the region ^{[9, pp.137-142]}.

An important component in the activities of the missions of the Tobolsk Diocese in relation to the indigenous population was the work on the organization of school non-native education. In the second half of the XIX – early XX centuries, literacy schools successfully functioned within the boundaries of the Tobolsk diocese: the Obdorsky Church missionary school, the Abalak foreign school and the school created for voguls. The teachers in such schools were usually priests and deacons who had graduated from teachers' seminaries, and the main subjects were the Law of God, Russian and Slavic languages, penmanship, arithmetic and church singing. In the 1880s, training in various crafts was actively introduced in foreign schools. The most successful students who advanced in the field of understanding the basics of Christianity were sent to the Tobolsk Theological School to continue their education in order to enter the service at the missions of the Tobolsk diocese ^{[9, p.144]}.

One of the activities of the Tobolsk diocese of the period under study was missionary work among the Muslim population of the province. In connection with the urgent need to send preachers to the steppe zones of Western Siberia, the Holy Synod sent requests to the General Directorate of Western Siberia to open missions in the Akmola and Semipalatinsk regions, which were part of the Tobolsk province in the first half of the nineteenth century. However, it was only in 1882 that the Synod authorized the establishment of the "Kirghiz mission" as a branch of the Altai ecclesiastical Mission, and the opening of the Tobolsk anti-Muslim mission, located directly in Tobolsk and focused in its educational program on activities among supporters of Islam in the Tobolsk province, took place only on February 15, 1900. Commenting on the fact of the opening of the mission, the Tobolsk diocesan missionary Priest Ephraim Yeliseyev wrote that despite the widespread spread of Orthodoxy in the non-native environment of the province, "missionary work has not ended, but it has even become difficult in the face of the aborigines–Tatars, who adopted Islam hostile to Christianity and all good, who professed shamanism to this day" ^{[3, p.2]}. According to Eliseev, the spread of Christianity in the Muslim environment is unusually hampered by the cohesion of adherents of Islam, therefore, "the appearance of a missionary among the Tatars is more dangerous than a lamb among many wolves ..." ^{[3, p.14]}.

Formulating the tasks of the Tobolsk anti-Muslim mission, the priest insisted that opposition to Islam is possible only if the entire clergy of the diocese and Christian parishioners participate in this matter, who, communicating with their Muslim acquaintances, will persistently invite them to Christianity ^{[3, p.18]}.

The practical activities of the mission have clearly demonstrated the validity of these warnings and wishes. The first successes of the mission were recorded more than a year after its establishment, on November 18, 1901, when 9 Muslims were converted to Orthodoxy, 3 of whom were baptized in the Tyumen Trinity Monastery, and 6 more people in the village of Velizhansky, Tyumen County ^{[2, pp.554-556]}. It is significant that in the future, the statistics of supporters of Islam converted to Orthodoxy remained consistently low. According to reports, in the first decade of the twentieth century, the total number of converts was only about 150 souls of both sexes ^[10].

According to the missionaries, the reasons for the insignificant quantitative indicators of the conversion of Muslim Tatars to Christianity in the Tobolsk province were rooted in the ability of this ethno-confessional group to consolidate and joint protest actions. According to the testimony of the head of the mission E.Eliseev, the "significant date" of the baptism of 9 Muslims of the Tyumen district turned into anti-Russian unrest of the Tatars in Tobolsk in 1902 ^{[1, p.9]}. At the same time, the activities of the missions in the context of the conversion of the Tatar population to Orthodoxy did not always meet with the support of state structures, and in particular, the police, whose representatives assisted the missionaries only as a result of the reminder of the article of the law, according to which "the provincial authorities not only protect the preachers of the word of God sent from the spiritual authorities among the gentiles from all kinds of insults, but also provides them with all kinds of assistance during the sermon" ^{[1, p.17]}.

In general, the activity of the Orthodox missions of the Tobolsk diocese was evaluated ambiguously by contemporaries and researchers. A.N. Sulotsky, commenting on the results of the functioning of the Obdorsky mission and recognizing the successes in the Christianization of nomadic foreigners, noted that the achievements of the missionaries did not meet the expectations of the spiritual authorities, partly due to the properties of pagans deprived of the constant care of pastors, partly due to the limited material resources, allocated missions. Sulotsky pointed out that it is possible to attract the peoples of the north-west of Siberia to Christianity "only by gradual rapprochement, long-term acquaintance that inspires confidence, and material assistance" ^{[19, pp.108-109]}. The words of the archpriest of the Russian Orthodox Church are also confirmed by the materials of the reports of the missionary departments of the Tobolsk diocese, which directly speak about the modest financial possibilities of missionaries who did not receive "outstanding donations" during their activity ^{[9, p.128]}.

Conclusion The above material shows that in the second half of the XIX – early XX centuries the missionary activity of the Russian Orthodox Church in Western Siberia becomes an effective instrument of internal colonization.

It was constructed within the framework of the foreign policy of the Russian Empire on the eastern outskirts, which was based on the principles of paternalism and the idea of creating conditions for the "maturation" of indigenous peoples. In the circumstances of cultural modernization of the post-reform period, with the accompanying development of religious indifferentism in the minds of the population of the center of the country, the foreigners of Western Siberia, which was especially clearly manifested in the Tobolsk province, remained in the bosom of traditionalism for the most part, which created favorable prerequisites for the successful missionary work of the Russian Orthodox Church in this environment. In the process of organizing missionary camps, making regular seasonal and off-season trips to the places of settlement of indigenous peoples, broadcasting the practices of Russian education and enlightenment to a foreign environment, there was not only the incorporation of autochthons into the Russian society, but also the gradual formation of a special socio-cultural identity of Orthodox ministers, based on a sense of belonging to the Orthodox Church to state plans for colonization of the outskirts of the empire.