III. Утверждение веры и благочестия

The situation of Orthodoxy in the Kholm-Warsaw diocese The number of Orthodox Christians in the Kholm-Warsaw diocese by the end of 1897 reached 440,402 souls of both sexes. The indicated number of Orthodox Christians in relation to their religious and moral state can be divided into the following three categories: a) Old Orthodox, b) former Greek Uniates reunited from the union, who do not deviate from Orthodoxy, and c) the so-called. stubborn b. Greek Uniates. The condition of the Old Orthodox, as before, was quite satisfactory. They often visit the churches of God and diligently take care of maintaining their external and internal splendor. Many of the ancient Orthodox churches, precisely thanks to their zeal, have rich utensils and sacristy items, and the church buildings themselves are kept in excellent order with funds collected by parishioners. On holidays, a rare parishioner living near a church will not go to church services. The duty of confession and St. The sacraments are not performed only by those who are prevented from doing so either by official duties or distance from the church. The overall religious and moral state of the second category of Orthodox Christians, namely the reunited former Greek Uniates who do not deviate from Orthodoxy, also seems comforting. These latter are devoted to the Orthodox Church, religiously attend divine services, fulfill all spiritual requirements and donate according to their means to the needs of their parish churches. Among the many gratifying aspects in the life of this part of the population of the Kholm-Warsaw diocese, reunited from the union, especially noteworthy is the custom of traveling on famous holidays to the city of Kholm, to the Lesninsky, Virovsky and Teolinsky monasteries and even to the Pochaev Lavra, to worship local shrines and fulfill the duty of confession and St. Participles. Visiting ancient Orthodox churches and monasteries, former Greek Uniates little by little assimilate Orthodox customs and more and more merge with the Orthodox Church. As for those who persist b. Greek-Uniates, their condition is extremely sad. They don’t go to confession, they don’t baptize children, they don’t solemnize marriages, and they bury the dead without permission. Having forgotten all the duties imposed on a Christian by religion, they have completely hardened their souls. Even blood kinship has lost its power and meaning for them: father and son often cohabit with their closest female relatives. Children were born from illegitimate unbaptized parents who also remain unbaptized. Those who persist in treating Orthodoxy with bitterness, avoid meetings and conversations with the Orthodox clergy. Orthodox priests are not allowed to visit the dead at all. In response to their convictions to baptize their children, many stubbornly respond: “We’d rather drown them than baptize them in the Orthodox Church,” so strong is their hatred of Orthodoxy. Those who are more inclined towards Orthodoxy among themselves are persecuted by those who persist at every step, even forcing them to move to other areas. Among this group of stubborn people, the propaganda of Catholic priests and their secret performance of religious services and confession do not stop. According to the statistical information provided by the dean for 1897, there were 377,733 souls of the population of the Lublin, Sedletsk and partly Suwalki provinces reunited from the union. the number of those who completely persist in alienation from the Orthodox Church b. The Greek Uniates extended to 83,000 souls. gender (compared to 1896, more by 6Ü00 souls). In addition, in 1897 there were wavers, i.e. such b. Uniates, who are in a wait-and-see position, not completely deviating from Orthodoxy and at the same time not considering themselves Orthodox, until 9214 days (versus 1896 more by 1348 days). By January 1, 1898, there were 26,177 unbaptized children (more than 6,000 more than in 1896). There were 9,699 illegal cohabitations (versus 1896, 769 more couples). Of all the 276 reunited parishes listed in the diocese in 1897, only 35 of them had absolutely no stubborn or hesitant parishes. In all others, they were considered tens and hundreds. The state of Orthodoxy in the Sedlec and Suwalki provinces is especially sad. In the first for 152,915 souls b. By the end of 1897, there were 63,470 Greek-Uniates who were completely stubborn and, in addition, up to 8,000 wavering. There were 22,803 unbaptized children and 8,496 illegal cohabitations. In the second of the 14,670 souls of the reunited population, there were 9,774 souls who persisted; unbaptized children 2,022 and illegal cohabitations 806. The statistical data for the Lublin Province seem more favorable. Of the 210,148 reunited population, there were only 9,341 stubborn and 1,330 wavering; unbaptized children 2,262 and illegal cohabitations 397. The year 1897 was unfavorable for the cause of Orthodoxy in the Kholm-Warsaw diocese. On the occasion of the general census and the change of the chief commander of the region, the people were worried by a wide variety of rumors. The ignorant, illiterate people were assured of the speedy restoration of Poland, of the expulsion of Russians and Orthodox Christians from the region, of allowing the former Greek Uniates complete freedom of religion, etc. Outrageous proclamations appeared abroad, which through secret means became known to the people. Those who persisted believed all this and rushed to register as Catholics. There were riots in places. The priests acted boldly, clearly performed demands on the stubborn and visited their homes. Landowners and other persons helped the priests in propaganda. In many villages and hamlets of Sedletsk province. secret societies called "Kulko" diligently and successfully prevented children from attending school. In Konstantinovsky district, a peasant village. Khlopkova F. Kornilyuk, who organized the Rozhanets society under the leadership of the priests, also campaigned against schools. Before the start of Catholic Advent, Kornilyuk gathered members of this society and told them that those mothers who would send their children to church school would be expelled from the society. And, indeed, many of the peasants stopped sending their children to this school. On October 9, 1897, at the Sokolovsky elementary school, two girls returned books on the Law of God to the priest and declared that their mothers were not telling them to study with an Orthodox priest. A week later, the third girl did the same. At a Sunday vocational school in the same city, students shouted as a whole class: “We don’t want to listen to the priest, let’s go to church,” and indeed everyone left the school. On November 24, all Orthodox children piled books on the teacher's table and declared that their parents had forbidden them to teach the Law of God. The change in pre-class prayer in educational institutions that followed in 1897 awakened disrespect for Orthodoxy in students: students began to look at Orthodox prayer as a meaningless, inevitable formality. Under pressure from agitation and threats from those who persisted, many of those devoted to Orthodoxy b. Greek Uniates registered as Catholics and stopped going to Orthodox churches. All the concerns and efforts of the local diocesan authorities and the Orthodox clergy were aimed at strengthening Orthodoxy and raising the religious and moral state in the population of the Kholm-Warsaw diocese, reunited from the union. The clergy of the Kholm-Warsaw diocese showed particularly intense activity in protecting the integrity of the flock entrusted to it, as well as developing and strengthening it in Orthodoxy. For these purposes, it first of all cared about the frequent and most magnificent performance of divine services in churches. In addition to regular church services, in many places the reading of akathists is established after all-night vigils or vespers. To enhance the solemnity of the service, singing choirs were organized. In addition, in several parishes attempts have been made quite successfully to introduce communal singing of worshipers. In many cities of the diocese, the custom of performing prayers on the night of January 1st was recently introduced, and this custom was met everywhere with great sympathy, even by the intelligent public, and churches during these prayers are filled with people of all classes who want to celebrate the beginning of the new year, first of all, with prayer to God. Everywhere in the diocese, serious attention is paid to preaching, since it is one of the most powerful means of influencing the religious mood of parishioners. In addition to the liturgical sermon, in many churches, as well as in private homes, extra-liturgical interviews were conducted with great success by priests with the assistance of deacons, psalm-readers and school teachers. The Kholm Theological Seminary also worked a lot in this field. The school year on Sundays, which began in the 189 3/4 school year, continued in its building. (2 pages missing from original) In the same year, a parochial school was built in the village of Strupnka in memory of the late Emperor Alexander III in Bose, giving it the name “Alexandrovskaya”. The Brotherhood provided benefits of up to 500 rubles to other church schools. Following the example of previous years and in the reporting years, the Brotherhood published, for distribution among the people, at the cheapest price, in the amount of 13,000 copies, a People's Calendar, containing information necessary for the common people and various religious and moral articles, presented in a simple language understandable to the people. Finally, the Brotherhood supplied some poor churches with utensils and liturgical books. The main task of the Warsaw Holy Trinity Brotherhood is to protect Orthodox Russian orphans from the Latin-Polish influence, who come from mixed marriages between Orthodox Christians and non-Orthodox Christians and live with non-Orthodox families, outside of any communication with the Orthodox Church and the Russian people. In addition, the Brotherhood was engaged in the publication and distribution of books, crosses, icons and other sacred objects and provided moral and material support to persons who accepted the Orthodox faith. Orthodox orphans were placed by the Brotherhood as fellows in monasteries: Yablochinsky, Lesninsky, Wirovsky and Teolinsky, in various Warsaw orphanages and in Russian Orthodox families, if this was possible. Several orphans were raised. in different educational institutions as scholarship holders. There were 34 Fellows of the Brotherhood in 1897, for whose maintenance 1,974 rubles were spent. 70 k. In addition to ordinary fraternal scholarships, the Council at its meeting on October 29, 1897 to decide to establish two scholarships regarding the visit of Your Imperial Majesty and the Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, on the 20th day of August 1897, to the Warsaw Cathedral, one in the name of Your Imperial Majesty for an orphan boy from a mixed marriage at the Warsaw Theological School, and the other in the name of Her Majesty the Empress Alexandra Feodorovna for the same orphan girls at the Kholm Mariinsky Women's School. Not limiting itself to concerns about the care and education of Orthodox orphans, the Warsaw Holy Trinity Brotherhood, during the reporting years, published very important books at its own expense: excerpts from Volume II of Friese’s “History of the Polish Church” and a book entitled “Archbishop Adolbert-Wojciech, in which, on the basis of historical sources, the incorrectness of the recognition by the Roman Church of Archbishop Wojciech as an apostle is proved of all Slavic peoples, that the first teachers of these peoples were Sts. Cyril and Methodius and that the original Christian confession in Poland was Eastern. The Zamosc St. Nicholas Brotherhood, under the patronage of His Imperial Highness Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich, pursues the same goals as the Kholm Brotherhood, but only in the reunited parishes of one Zamosc district. Lublin province. Beneficial consequences for the cause of strengthening Orthodoxy among the b. The Greek-Uniates of the Kholm-Warsaw diocese were also accompanied by the activities of monasteries. Their influence is especially beneficial for that part b. Greek-Uniates, which stubbornly avoids communion with the Orthodox Church in prayer and sacraments. Less stubborn Uniates, moving away from the Church for fear of persecution from their fanatical fellow villagers, secretly perform services in nunneries, baptize children in them and sometimes solemnize marriages. Their children, studying in monastery schools and living in monastic shelters, transfer the Orthodox Russian skills they acquired in the monasteries to their families and little by little weaken the fanaticism and hostility of adults to Orthodoxy. The sisters’ active, selfless love for their neighbors, their constant readiness to give spiritual advice to those in need, their reading in peasant houses and the distribution of various kinds of religious books - destroy in the former Uniates the wrong views on the Orthodox Church, its rites and sacraments. In view of this, it is highly desirable to maintain and develop monasteries, even if this requires significant financial resources. Among the monasteries of the diocese, the following women's monasteries showed themselves to be especially fruitful in the reporting years: Lesninsky, in the Sedletsk province, with a branch in the village of Virov, the same province, and Teolinsky, in the Suwalki province. The Lesninsky monastery established and maintains, at its own expense, with support from the School Council under the Holy Synod, three schools: one in the monastery itself and two in the villages of Bordzilovka and Vulka. The latter, being in an area populated by those who are stubborn, has the special goal of teaching children who are persistent in the Orthodox-Russian direction. At the monastery there is an almshouse for the care of elderly women, a hospital and an emergency room for dispensing medicines free of charge. The dedication of the sisters, spending their days and nights at the bedsides of the sick, encouraging and comforting them with the reading of books of religious content, earned them great respect from Catholics and persisters. The Virovsky monastery contained three schools: a parish school in the monastery itself and two literacy schools in the villages of Virov and Molozhevo. At the school in the monastery, at its full expense, there is a shelter for 80 children. The surrounding peasants, even those who persist, send their children to the monastery school with joy and trust. Unbaptized children of stubborn parents often, after spending some time in school, are baptized with the consent of the parents. Schools in Virov and Molozhevo, entirely populated by stubborn people, also bring great benefit and their beneficial influence is obvious: children, having studied Slavic prayers, even came to worship in the monastery church and their parents did not interfere with them. In the orphanage school of the Teolin Convent, in 1897 there were 40 girls, of whom 33 received full support from the monastery, and 7 were visitors. Most of the students are the children of stubborn peasants, which is why girls were sometimes brought to school unbaptized, and the sacrament of baptism was performed on them during their stay in the monastery. In the Teolinsky monastery there is also a hospital for visitors, which in 1897 accommodated up to 4,000 patients. By the end of 1897, there were 17 temperance societies in the Kholm-Warsaw diocese, exclusively in the Lublin and Siedlce provinces. Opened at the initiative of the rectors of parish churches, these societies contribute to the elevation of the morality of the population. In 1896, 5 churches were completed and consecrated in this diocese, and 6 in 1897. In addition, during the reporting period, work continued on the construction of a new building for the Warsaw Cathedral. In 1897, the main walls of the cathedral were raised to a height of 11 1/2 fathoms, the walls of the side porches were raised to the roofs, the masonry of the internal pylons reached to the heels of the girth arches, the installation of the granite plinth was completed, with the exception of parts at the portals, and work began on the construction of the bell tower. In conclusion of the review of all aspects of Kholm-Warsaw diocesan life, justice requires saying that in such difficult conditions in which Orthodoxy finds itself in the region, it is impossible to expect quick success in pacifying the stubborn population and in its complete merging with the Orthodox Church. The general national census of 1897 added a lot of difficulties in this regard; however, the Orthodox Church remains confident that sooner or later the entire Russian population of this region will unite in the spirit of primordial Orthodoxy in the bowels of the Orthodox Church. The position of Orthodoxy in the Western dioceses Despite many unfavorable conditions, the Orthodox faith in the Western dioceses is noticeably growing and strengthening. Ardent champions of Polish aspirations - priests, in view of the successes of Orthodoxy in the region, which they continue to consider theirs, have recently begun with particular energy to arouse and support in the local population a mood hostile to Russia and the Orthodox Church. At every opportunity, they extol the Roman Catholic faith and point out its imaginary superiority over Orthodoxy, confusing the dark people with the most absurd rumors. Thus, thanks to the priests, a rumor spread in the Lithuanian diocese that churches converted from churches, such as, for example, the Orthodox Church in Lida and the Casimir Church in Vilna, that is, the cathedral, would be taken away from the Orthodox, and the Orthodox, as former Uniates, would be returned to Latinism. Visiting their parishioners more and more often, the priests convince them to shun the Orthodox and not enter into any relations with them, as with schismatics doomed to eternal destruction. In the interests of Latin-Polish propaganda. Priests take advantage of the solemn celebration of divine services on church holidays. The “dismissals” they perform at the same time, with their solemnity, attract a lot of pilgrims to the churches, both Roman Catholics and Orthodox. Priests skillfully take advantage of such a gathering of pilgrims and often manage to increase their flock with new members at such times, tearing them away from the Orthodox Church. After the orders allowing priests to repair churches, which they took advantage of too widely, and also after allowing Catholic students to read pre-class prayers not in Russian, but in Latin, the priests especially raised their heads. His Eminence of Lithuania notes several cases of their fanatical hostility towards the Orthodox. Thus, one priest, having learned about the joining of a Catholic to Orthodoxy, ordered to call for him as if for a dead person; another time, the same priest did not allow his parishioner, who had returned from military service with a beard and came to him for confession, to enter the church, but ordered the organist to shave off his beard. The priests constitute a corporation united by a single spirit of hatred and malice against Orthodoxy and the Russian people. Where they have established themselves and taken possession of the people's conscience, they infect the people with the most ignorant fanaticism, which is not inherent in the nature of the people's soul. On the contrary, where the influence of priests is weak or powerless, even Roman Catholics who live far from churches are not alienated from the Orthodox Church; Along with the Orthodox, they visit Orthodox churches, especially on church holidays, treat Orthodox pastors with respect, receive blessings from them, invite them to their place to bless fields, buildings, etc., donate materials and money for church needs, willingly send children to schools and allow them to take part in church reading and singing. According to local bishops, the bazaars represent the greatest evil for the religious and moral life of the people, fundamentally delaying the success of Orthodoxy in the Western dioceses. They not only violate the sanctity of the holidays, but the Orthodox people are systematically weaned from visiting the churches of God and become accustomed to drunkenness and other vices. Meanwhile, all attempts to move the bazaars from holidays to other days of the week meet with all kinds of opposition from the Jews. However, His Eminence of Lithuania notes one case of such a transfer in 1886, precisely in the Grodno province, and His Eminence Mogilevsky states that in the Mogilev province it is planned to cancel Sunday bazaars everywhere. In areas bordering Austria, according to the testimony of His Grace Podolsky, in addition to bazaars, parishioners are distracted from the church on holidays by smuggling. A significant part of the border parishioners (in pursuit of easy money) these days cross the border secretly, and their wives and household members carry the prepared smuggled goods to the market. In addition, having taken a closer look abroad at the depravity of morals, smugglers are people of shaky morals, do not observe fasts, do not attend churches, and with their behavior bring visible discord into parish life. According to the observation of the Lithuanian Eminence, the factory industry that has widely developed in the Western provinces is no less morally demoralizing in nature. Work on beet plantations, sugar factories and other factory establishments, where workers of both sexes gather from different places and remain there in close contact with each other, without any outside supervision, introduces a lot of moral corruption into the life of the Orthodox people. According to the review of the Eminences of Lithuania and Volyn, the introduction of a wine monopoly in many places had a favorable effect on people's life, reducing drunkenness by almost half. The Jewish trade in intoxicating drinks, with all its temptations and deceptions, also weakened - both on credit and for the exchange of agricultural goods and products. The main means for preserving and establishing Orthodoxy in the Western region are: a) the establishment of churches and the opening of new parishes, especially in those areas in which the population is scattered and distant from Orthodox churches, or is located near churches and priests, b) solemn services, c) extra-liturgical interviews and d) parochial schools. The dioceses of Polotsk and Mogilev currently need churches more than other dioceses, in which many churches require either urgent major repairs, or replacement with new ones, if impossible, due to extreme dilapidation (some churches are so dilapidated that they threaten to fall), further repairs. In the Polotsk diocese there are also many churches, extremely crowded for the population of the parishes, which has increased 3-4 times since their construction. In the city of Dvinsk, for example, for a huge population of more than 70,000 souls, although most of them are Jews and non-believers, there is only one parish city cathedral, which is not extensive, not counting the temporary regimental churches. The same deficiency is noticed in the city of Drissa and in the provincial town. Surazh, where the church can barely accommodate 300 people, with over 5,000 parishioners. To eliminate this deficiency, 17 new churches were built in the Polotsk diocese in 1896 and 1897: 10 stone and 7 wooden. In addition, in 1896, the major renovation of the Vitebsk Cathedral was completed, for which the treasury allocated 16,400 rubles. In the Mogilev diocese, at the same time, 3 stone churches and 6 wooden churches were built and the construction of 6 stone and 6 wooden churches began. While taking care of the establishment of new churches and parishes, the diocesan authorities of the western dioceses at the same time made every effort to ensure that divine services were conducted properly, that the reading in churches everywhere was carried out clearly and slowly, that the singing was harmonious and, if possible, performed with the participation of children's choirs from students in local schools. The Reverends noted that solemn and decorous services have a strong effect on the Western Russian population. On the days of solemn church holidays, the holy monasteries are filled with tens of thousands of pilgrims, and Western Russian Orthodox monasteries attract even non-believers, especially Catholics, with their shrines. Outside liturgical interviews bring undoubted benefits in religious and moral terms, distracting the common people from festive revelry and other vices, and helping to clarify and establish in their consciousness the truths of faith and morality. Extra-liturgical interviews are especially carefully organized and conducted in the Kyiv diocese and specifically in the city of Kyiv itself. Here, a special union of local pastors-preachers, formed in 1893, under the name “Religious Educational Society,” continued its useful activities. The activities of this society, which attracted into its midst the best intellectual forces in the person of professors of the local academy and seminary teachers and, by the end of the reporting period, numbered up to 253 members, were expressed, on the one hand, in conducting readings and conversations, on the other hand, in the publication and free distribution to the people of leaflets and brochures with religious and moral content (in 1897, up to 50 titles of such brochures were published, in the amount of 150,000 copies). The Right Reverend of Polotsk, in his report on the diocese entrusted to him, notes with regret that parishioners are greatly distracted from extra-liturgical interviews on Sundays and holidays, in addition to bazaars, by the custom of volost boards to appoint village gatherings on these days on public affairs of the volost. Church and parish schools serve as the most important means for the establishment of Orthodoxy and the Russian people in the Western Territory. Together with the church, they educate children religiously and influence their parents. These hotbeds of religious and moral education instill the principles of Orthodox-Russian life even in many children of other faiths, and imperceptibly introduce the young heterodox and schismatic generation into the structure of Orthodox-Russian life. The people are sympathetic to parochial schools and assist the clergy in opening them. The schools of the Kiev diocese have a particularly beneficial influence on the population, where many of their pastoral leaders, according to the statement of His Grace, the Metropolitan of Kiev, enjoy fame and sincere respect from both students and their parents. Church brotherhoods also serve the cause of Orthodoxy in the Western Region a lot. The brotherhoods, following the example of previous years, directed their activities towards finding funds for the construction of new churches and for maintaining and decorating existing ones, for opening and establishing schools, for providing benefits to teachers and students in schools and to everyone in general in need. Some of the brotherhoods also engaged in educational activities through the publication and distribution of books and brochures with religious and moral content among the people. Thus, in the reporting years, the Vilna Holy Spiritual Brotherhood published brochures: a) “District Patriarchal Message and Synodal Message on the District Message of Pope Leo XIII”, b) “On the reprehensibility for Orthodox Christians to join the brotherhood “Heart of Jesus””, c) “Modern attempts by the lord to unite churches and the response to them”, d) “A word of Orthodox truth about the latest techniques Latin propaganda”, e) “The crowning of Russian sovereigns”, f) “The truth about Josaphat Kuntsevich” and g) “St. Venerable Martyr Athanasius of Brest." – The following brotherhoods have declared themselves to be the most prominent and active in their activities: Vilna Holy Spirit, Ostrog St. Cyril and Methodius, Vitebsk St. Vladimir, which has 9 branches, and Lutsk (in Volyn) Krestovozdvizhenskoe. In the Diocese of Riga, which embraces the entire Baltic region, there are up to 250,522 Orthodox people of both sexes, of which only a small part is Russian, the majority are Latvians and Estonians, there are also Livonians (in the Courland province) and Swedes (on the island of Worms). Orthodox Christians diligently attend services and perform St. sacraments, honor holidays, observe fasts and truly Orthodox Russian customs: they serve prayers on various occasions, light candles in front of icons, remember their dead, and fervently perform the sign of the cross. Unfortunately, there are circumstances and conditions that hinder, to a certain extent, the development of religious zeal and piety among the people. These include: 1) the dispersion of the Orthodox population over a vast area and the remoteness of parishioners’ residence from the church, 2) the landlessness and poverty of the majority of Orthodox Christians in material terms, dependent on local landowners and tenants, 3) the surrounding heterodox environment: not only villages, but even families often consist of people of different faiths - Orthodox and Lutherans. Lutheran pastors behave proudly towards the Orthodox, especially priests, and look at them as their enemies, instilling the same view in their parishioners. Quite financially secure, enjoying the powerful support of the local nobility and having close ties and relationships with each other, pastors in many places enjoy a predominant influence on the population. In the reporting years, as a result of reports from local priests and on the basis of the highest order of June 21, 1894, the Riga diocesan authorities informed the Livonia governor about the illegal actions of 33 pastors in accepting for confirmation, and for performing marriage and other services of people considered Orthodox or born from mixed marriages. Subject to the influence of the Lutheran environment, the Orthodox of the Riga diocese require special care on the part of the Orthodox clergy, in order to protect them from influences of other faiths and to educate them religiously in the spirit of the Orthodox faith. Due to the fact that Estonians and Latvians attach very important importance to the sermon, which for Lutherans constitutes a necessary accessory to divine services, Orthodox priests on all Sundays and holidays, at almost every service, deliver teachings, either their own, or borrowing them from printed collections. In many churches, in addition, extra-liturgical religious readings and interviews were held, held on Sundays and holidays, at different times, between Matins and Mass, after the Liturgy and after Vespers, depending on local conditions and circumstances. In some places, the interviews were accompanied by the general singing of prayers and the distribution of books and leaflets of spiritual content to the listeners. In other places they were combined with the service of solemn vespers or with the reading of akathists. Both deacons and psalmists who had completed the seminary course took part in the readings and interviews. A significant contribution to the religious and moral education of the people is the so-called catechesis of young men and women. This last type of preaching is borrowed from the Lutherans and, being widespread in almost all the parishes of the diocese, is of great benefit. Convened for two or three weeks in parish schools at churches, young men and women are systematically taught here by their spiritual fathers the truths of the Orthodox faith, and divine services, church rites and pious customs are explained to them, morning and evening prayers are performed, and sometimes church services; Here they learn common church singing, and finally, on the last Sunday after catechesis, they are awarded confession and St. Participles. Particular attention of the diocesan authorities was paid to the introduction of harmonious choral singing in churches. The people love church singing and take part in it. For this reason, the clergy are encouraged to form singing choirs from students in local parochial schools, and teachers and psalm-readers are obliged to engage in church singing with special zeal. In January 1896, a society of lovers of Orthodox church singing was opened in the city of Gapsala. The activities of the society were expressed in the organization of a church choir consisting of active members of the society and students in the parish school. By January 1, 1898, all members of the society consisted of 39. In view of the already experienced very important importance of parish schools in the religious and moral education of the younger generation, both the diocesan authorities and the clergy were concerned about increasing the number of these schools and about their best possible organization. By the end of 1897, there were 483 parish schools in the Riga diocese, namely: in the Livonia province 368 (of which 224 are auxiliary), in the Courland province 46 (of which 15 are auxiliary) and in the Estonian province 69 (of which 38 are auxiliary). Among the schools shown in all three provinces, 22 were for women. In the listed schools there were 17,434 children of both sexes (11,230 boys and 6,204 girls), including 12,916 Orthodox, 57 co-religionists, 136 Old Believers, 231 Catholics, 4,038 Lutherans, 2 Baptists and 54 Jews. In addition to the usual teaching subjects, some schools in the diocese introduced training in handicrafts, bookbinding, carpentry, turning, etc. All parish schools have libraries consisting mainly of textbooks and books of religious, moral and historical content. At the Gapsala and Verro parish schools, in addition, on Sundays and holidays during school hours, folk readings with light paintings were held, the subject of which was: gospel history and some outstanding events from Russian history, closely related to the spiritual and religious life of the Russian people. The organization of these readings, which attract, in addition to students, a lot of outsiders and even people of other faiths, bringing undoubted benefit to students, arouses general keen interest on the part of adults and has a beneficial effect on them. Taking into account the constant increase in the Russian Orthodox population, the distance from parish churches and the difficulty of communication routes, the Riga diocesan authorities are concerned about increasing the number of churches and opening new parishes. Churches were built partly with government funds, partly with private donations: in the parishes of Mäemyz, Malun and Krenholm. In addition, the construction of churches began: in the city of Friedrichstadt, Courland province, and in the parishes: Tennasilmsky, Frauenburgsky, Logozsky, Kolbergsky, Valka and Palzmarsky. By January 1, 1898, there were 236 churches in the Riga diocese and, in addition, 5 prayer houses and 31 chapels. In 1896–97 9 new parishes were opened, namely: Valksky, Kulmecky, Lezisky, Saikovsky, Kastnsky, Laiksarsky, Kaykasky, Joachimstamsky and Smiltene. Great support for the establishment and spread of Orthodoxy in the Baltic region is provided by the Committee for Translating Books into Latvian and Estonian, church brotherhoods, monasteries and parish trustees. The Latvian branch of the Committee completed the correction of the previous translation of the “Book of Prayer Songs”, while again translating some rites omitted from the previous edition; in addition, it continued to review translations of the Lenten Triodion and Archbishop Anatoly's book, Faith, Hope and Love. The Estonian Branch continued to review and correct the translation of the same book: “Faith, Hope and Love” and again translated into Estonian the service to the holy martyr Isidore and the 72 martyrs of Yuryev who suffered with him. The work of translating liturgical and other books into foreign languages ​​was also undertaken by some individuals from the clergy. Thus, Archpriest of the Goldingen Church Gobin translated into Latvian the akathist to the Most Holy Theotokos and the canon of repentance to the Lord Jesus Christ. The psalmist of the Loudon parish, Stradina, translated some of the church hymns into Latvian in verse. For Estonians, a similar collection was published in 1896 by the priest of the Revel Vladimir Church, Andrei Ramul, which collection was greeted with great sympathy by the Estonian population. In addition, the following publications by private individuals in Estonian were published: 1) “My Life in Christ”, by Archpriest John Sergiev, translation of the psalmist Kikaen, 2) “On the Orthodox Church”, a brochure by priest Andrei Ramul, 3) five Sunday sheets containing an interpretation of the Sunday readings of the priest Revel Tizik and 4) P. Mihkelson’s Calendar for Orthodox Estonians on 1898 By the end of 1897 there were ten brotherhoods in the Riga diocese: 1) Baltic Brotherhood of Christ the Savior and the Protection of the Mother of God, 2) Riga Peter and Paul, 3) Vendensky Transfiguration, 4) Takkerort Dormition, 5) Ezelsky St. Nicholas, 6) Libavsky Nikolaevsky, 7) Tukkomo-Talsensky, 8) Kaltsenadsky St. John the Theologian, 9) Marienburg Holy Trinity and 10) Jurgensburg St. Nicholas. In addition, there are 10 branches of the Baltic Brotherhood. The brotherhoods took care of: a) the maintenance and splendor of churches, supplying them with utensils, liturgical and other supplies, b) the organization and maintenance of public schools, the acquisition of educational books and other school supplies, the establishment of shelters at schools for the placement and care of orphans and children of poor parents, c) meeting the needs of those newly joined to Orthodoxy and d) the translation of useful books of religious and moral content into Latvian and Estonian languages and about the publication and distribution of these translations. In the Diocese of Riga there are the following monasteries: Alekseevsky for men, in Riga, established in 1896, and for women: Illuksta of the Nativity of the Virgin in the borough of Illuksta, Courland province. and Pyukhtitsky Uspensky in the Wesenberg district, Estland province. all of these monasteries provide great support for Orthodoxy in the Baltic region. In this regard, the Pukhtitsky Monastery attracts attention. This young monastery, opened in 1892, thanks to the shrine located in it - the icon of the Dormition of the Mother of God, continues to attract many worshipers. Serving as a spiritual beacon for the local population, at the same time it provides them with considerable assistance in material terms through charitable institutions maintained at its own expense, such as: 1) a hospital for women and children, 2) an outpatient hospital, which provided medical benefits to 98 patients in 1897 alone, 3) the Community of Sisters of Mercy, which is under the patronage of the Russian Red Cross Society, 4) an almshouse for the elderly and poor people for an indefinite number of places and 5) a shelter for an indefinite number of Orthodox girls. – In addition, the Pukhtitsky Monastery contains a two-year school for 85 people, without distinction of gender or religion, with a dormitory for boys and girls and premises for teachers. In 1897, up to 62 children studied there. Church-parish trustees exist in 178 churches of the Riga diocese. The trustees, located at the city churches, and having more or less significant funds at their disposal, provided, to the extent of their resources, assistance to poor families, orphans, the sick, the elderly and school-age children who did not have the means to pay school fees, and took care of the maintenance of their churches; Rural trustees were mostly concerned with collecting donations for church needs and maintaining parish cemeteries in order. The position of Orthodoxy in the Georgian Exarchate The Georgian Exarchate consists of 4 dioceses: Georgian, Imeretian, Gurian-Mingrelian and Sukhumi. By the end of the reporting period, there were 1497 Orthodox parishes in the Exarchate. There were 2390 churches. In 1897, by the way, the construction of the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Baku was completed, for the construction of which 300,000 rubles were allocated from the treasury. There is no shortage of churches in the Georgian Exarchate, and especially in the Georgian Diocese; rather, there is even an excess in them, which is explained by the fact that in most parishes of the said diocese, in addition to the regular churches, there are several attached ones. An exception in this regard is the Sukhumi diocese, where, due to the scattered population, which increases annually with immigrants from the internal provinces of Russia, a shortage of churches begins to be felt. Most of the churches of the Georgian Exarchate are small in size, do not differ in the elegance of their architecture or interior decoration, and are generally poor. This poverty of parish churches, according to the Right Reverend Exarch of Georgia, is due to various reasons, mainly the poverty of the parishioners themselves, the lack of a good habit of charity for the construction of churches of God and complete neglect of spiritual interests. The Orthodox population of the four dioceses of the Georgian Exarchate in 1897 consisted of 1,315,180 souls, including 702,267 males and 612,913 females, of different nationalities, differing in their everyday life and mental-religious make-up. The low degree of culture of the various nationalities within the exarchate imposes extreme difficulties on the spread of true Christian enlightenment and good church customs among them. The Ossetian religion continues to be a mixture of Christian worldviews and pagan ones. From Christianity they learned only rituals, but the essence of religion had not yet penetrated into their lives. Ossetians have little knowledge of the truths of the Orthodox faith, do not know prayers and commandments, and examples of virtuous and pious life are rare among them. The rudeness and savagery of the morals of the Ossetians can hardly be softened; there is no noticeable decrease in fights, robberies, robberies and thefts among them; blood revenge, incest, or marriage to the widows of close relatives have not yet lost their meaning and power among them. The Ingiloys, distributed in five parishes of the Zagatala district, can be divided into two categories in religious and moral terms: those living near their parish churches and those living far from them. The former, thanks to the proximity of churches and the influence of pastoral influence, are distinguished by the firmness of their religious convictions, devotion to the Church, obedience to its institutions and other Christian qualities. The latter, living far from the church and outside the influence of their spiritual shepherds, have the most vague concepts about Christianity, and too rarely fulfill the Christian duty of confession and St. The sacraments and, in general, in their lives are not much different from the Muslims around them. Among the good qualities that characterize the moral side of the entire Ingiloy flock in general are: veneration and respect for elders and the clergy, sobriety, abstinence from foul language, mutual assistance in emergency situations, etc. Of the anti-moral and anti-religious phenomena inspired by Islam, the following attract attention: the abduction of women, the sale of brides, or the custom of giving dowry for the bride, betrothal of minors, marriage in close degrees of kinship, frivolous attitude to the oath, theft, etc. In the matter of religious and moral improvement and education of the Ingiloys, parochial schools opened by the Council are of great benefit Societies for the restoration of Orthodox Christianity in the Caucasus in 1890. These schools, despite the fact that they were opened recently, have already gained confidence in themselves and, even under current conditions, bring more meaningful and firm Christian beliefs into the lives of Ingiloys and contribute to the elevation of the religious and moral level of the people. The Pshavs, Khevsurs, Tushins, Kistins and other small nationalities of the Caucasian tribe, like the mountaineers, are distinguished by extreme rudeness of morals; such vices as theft, drunkenness, perjury, blood revenge, kidnapping of women, etc., are considered by them a sign of youth and courage, and various kinds of superstitions and prejudices, such as: veneration of the remnants of the pagan cult of temples, self-proclaimed priests of the “Hewisbers”, swearing with a cat, the removal of a woman during childbirth and for a certain period in a special dugout far from the village etc. prejudices remain in force. All these peoples still remain half-Christian, half-pagan; they all recognize their shrines, make bloody sacrifices in them and completely submit to the authority of the Hewisbers, who strain all their efforts to keep the people in stagnation, in the form of their own material benefits. Much more time, labor and patience will be required to eliminate these sad phenomena in the fight against various kinds of obstacles, often presented by the harshest nature. In religious and moral terms, the Greeks are superior to other nationalities that make up the Orthodox flock of the Georgian Exarchate. They go to church, fast, even several times a year, and receive all the sacraments. But priests, as leaders of moral life, do not have authority with them. The Imeretians, as before, firmly adhere to their native faith; there are no noticeable cases of falling away from Orthodoxy into heresy and schism. The Abkhazians and Mingrelians are not distinguished by piety, they almost never visit the churches of God, do not observe fasts, avoid the sacraments of confession, St. Communion, baptism and marriage. Theft and bloody revenge are still customary. The success of the missionary activities of the clergy among the Mohammedan-Abkhazians is greatly hampered by their influence by the propagandists of Mohammedanism - false mullahs living in almost all Abkhaz parishes. All measures taken to eliminate these shortcomings in the religious and moral life of the Georgian flock cannot, due to local conditions, be accompanied by rapid and significant success. The clergy of the Georgian Exarchate, on whose activities everywhere the rise in the religious and moral state of the flock mainly depends, is still poorly prepared for spiritual and educational activities and the degree of their influence on parishioners is insignificant. The main reasons for this state of the clergy are the insufficiency of their own education and material insecurity. Among the priests there are many people who did not receive any school education and prepared for pastoral service either in monasteries or in the parishes themselves, often going through a long path for this at the lower levels of spiritual service. Receiving for the most part an insignificant amount from the treasury (priests 100–120 rubles), for the rest of their provision the Georgian clergy depends on their parishioners, from whom they must use products according to the norm determined by the so-called staff regulations of 1818–1819. But the parishioners, under various pretexts, sometimes real, sometimes fictitious, turned out to be ineffective in delivering the required content to the clergy, which further aggravates the relationship between the clergy and parishioners. The clergy of the Imereti diocese are especially poorly provided for. Some clergy would be positively in a hopeless situation if they did not have at least a small hereditary estate, consisting of arable land and yard space. The result of the low income of the clergy is that the majority of them look at their parish as a transitional stage of service, and at the first opportunity they try to leave it and move to a parish that is more sufficient. Georgia, famous in ancient times for its shrines and the wealth of its monasteries, became completely impoverished over the course of time, from frequent ruins, in monasteries and monasticism. Only recently, through the zeal of Russian Orthodox people and the concerns of the diocesan authorities, monastic institutions were founded in the Georgian Exarchate, actively contributing to the elevation of the religious spirit in the population, and to the increase in learning and spiritual enlightenment, and to the establishment of model farms and the development of the natural resources of the Caucasian nature. Such, by the way, are the monastery of New Athos in the Sukhumi diocese, and the convent recently established in Kakheti on the ancient tomb of St. Nina. The situation of Orthodoxy in Finland There were 26 Orthodox parishes in the Finnish diocese, and the Orthodox population numbered 49,824 souls: and this number of 6,861 Orthodox Christians lived outside Finland, and therefore the actual number of the Orthodox flock in Finland extended to 42,963. In Orthodox parishes, the Orthodox firmly adhere to their faith, strictly observe fasts, diligently attend church services, fulfill the Christian duty of confession and holy communion, and, just as in other dioceses, express love for the Church and concern for the beautification of parish churches. There are many Russians living in western Finland who, due to unfavorable conditions, have become completely destitute. These Russians are an unreliable element for Orthodoxy. Most of them are completely alien to the Church and even seem to be ashamed of their belonging to Orthodoxy. This should especially be said about the intelligent layer of the Orthodox flock living here. The reason for such a sad phenomenon lies primarily in the lack of religious education in the rules of Orthodoxy, the consequence of which is a complete misunderstanding of the spirit of the Orthodox faith. A significant influence is also exerted here by the negative attitude towards everything Orthodox, which is so strong in the local Lutheran Swedish society and which cannot but affect the few Orthodox Russians living among this society. In eastern Finland, a lack of devotion to the Orthodox Church and its institutions is noticeable among the parishioners of the Iloman, Joensus and Taibal parishes. The majority of the parishioners of these parishes are Orthodox Christians only in name, but in life and spirit they differ very little from Lutherans. They do not observe fasts at all, they only keep holidays that coincide with Lutheran ones (the laws in force in Finland prohibit trade only on Lutheran holidays, as a result of which Orthodox traders, who make up a significant percentage of the entire Orthodox population, are forced to engage in trade on holidays for fear of competition), and they are reluctant to visit the church of God. In their home life they live completely Lutheran-style: they have almost no holy icons in their houses, and just as they themselves do not perform morning or evening prayers, they do not force their children to pray. Lutheran influence, in addition to the usual everyday relations between Orthodox Christians and Lutherans, penetrates into the Orthodox environment through mixed marriages, of which more than half occur annually, as well as education received in Lutheran schools (when there were no Orthodox yet). The same Lutheran influence should also be attributed to the existence among the parishioners of the named parishes, although not in significant numbers, of sectarians, namely Hikhulites and those belonging to the so-called Salvation Army. To combat these unfavorable phenomena in the life of the Orthodox flock of the Finnish diocese, the following were called and gradually developed their activities: a) the brotherhood of St. Sergius and Herman and b) schools. a) The activities of the brotherhood of St. Sergius and Herman in the reporting years consisted of publishing, which arose in 1896 on the initiative of Priest Okulov and Archpriest Kazansky, a monthly illustrated leaflet of religious and moral content for the Orthodox Finnish population called “Aamun Koitto,” as well as brochures of doctrinal and religious-moral content and distributing them among Orthodox Finns. In addition to its publications, the brotherhood had in its warehouse publications of the Holy Synod in Finnish. The brotherhood warehouse is located in the mountains. Serdobol, where it also set up a warehouse for icons and breast crosses. b) In all parishes of the Finnish diocese in the 189 6/7 academic year there were 59 parish or children's schools subordinate to the diocesan authorities, of which 19 were permanent and 40 mobile. 1,707 boys and 1,531 girls studied in these schools. (In the same year, children of Orthodox Finns studied in public schools of other departments - 868 boys and 680 girls). In addition to permanent and mobile parish schools, in 5 rural parishes of Finland there were 30 more Sunday repetition schools, in which students in a mobile school, upon transfer to another area, under the guidance of a literate peasant or peasant woman, appointed by the parish priests, repeated what they had learned. Sunday revision schools are aimed at maintaining in children the knowledge acquired in the mobile school, so that upon returning after days in the village, the children can continue further learning. In addition to these schools, there is also a school for boys at the Valaam Monastery. The business of teaching in most of the schools subordinate to the diocesan authorities, as it turned out, according to the audit of these schools carried out by the head of them, a member of the ecclesiastical consistory, was carried out well. The lack of success of some schools is explained mainly by the lack of preparation for teaching activities by the teachers of these schools. In order to eliminate the shortage of teachers specially trained for public schools, since 1897 the admission of those wishing to enroll in special teacher courses in Serdobol has been increased. Until recently, one of the weaknesses of Finnish parish schools was the completely unsatisfactory way of teaching church singing. To eliminate this shortcoming, the diocesan authorities have proposed organizing singing courses for teachers in parish schools during the summer holidays. The first such courses took place over two weeks in the summer in 1897 in the city of Serdobol. In order to enhance the religious education of that part of the Orthodox Finnish population that did not have the opportunity either at home or at school to receive the necessary knowledge from the Law of God, so-called catechetical schools were established in some parishes in eastern Finland. In one of these parishes, the catechetical school was attended only by children, and in others by adults aged 20 years and older. In the Ilomansky and Korniselsky parishes, attendance at catechetical schools became mandatory for everyone who was born no earlier than 1875 in the first and 1876 in the second. The custom of organizing catechetical schools at the congress of the clergy of the Finnish diocese, with the approval of the Eminence of Finland, was decided to be made binding for all parishes in Finland, of which all clergy were informed. The widespread dissemination in the parishes of the Finnish diocese of folk schools in general and catechetical schools in particular, in which direction both the clergy and especially the diocesan authorities are working with energy, will undoubtedly have the most beneficial effect on the Orthodox flock of Finland, raising both its religious and moral level and weakening the now, unfortunately, very strong influence of Lutheranism on its life. A significant change has occurred in the structure of the diocesan administration of the Finnish diocese. At the beginning of 1896, instead of the Finnish Spiritual Board, the Finnish Spiritual Consistory was opened in Vyborg according to the staff approved by the Highest on December 25, 1895. A special feature of the organization of the newly opened consistory is the concentration in it, along with the affairs that are the subject of the consistory in other dioceses, of matters related to public education in the Orthodox parishes of Finland. The matter of enlightening pagan foreigners and Mohammedans with the light of Christianity was primarily under the care of the Orthodox Missionary Society, which was under the august patronage of the Empress Maria Feodorovna. Called to life by the great missionary of the Russian church, Metropolitan Innocent of Moscow, the society continued to develop, strengthen and, to the extent of its means, bring all possible benefit to the church. The year 1897 was the twenty-eighth year of the existence of the Orthodox Missionary Society. By the end of this year, the society consisted of 14,243 members and had 44 diocesan committees or branches and included in the balance of capital: a) untouchable - 644,263 rubles. 78 kopecks, b) spare – 185,801 rubles. 90 1/4 kopecks, c) consumables - general – 217.883 rubles, d) special – 111.446 rubles. 40 1/4 kop. and e) amounts transferred for the maintenance of missions and missionary institutions - 27,442 rubles. 28 kopecks, and in total - 1,186,837 rubles. 45 3/4 kop. The company's expenses extended: in 1896 to 384,509 rubles. 38 3/4 kop. and in 1987 to 396,961 rubles. 87 kopecks By the end of 1897, the Altai Spiritual Mission had 13 missionary camps located in the Biyok and Kuznetsk districts of the Tomsk diocese. In addition to the indicated camps, special mention should be made of: Central, Biysk and two monasteries: Blagoveshchensky Cholyshmansky and Nikolaevsky women's monasteries near Ulala, as well as the Tikhvin community near Biysk, established for missionary purposes. The mission included 2 archpriests, 3 hieromonks, 18 priests, 6 deacons, 56 psalm-readers and teachers, and 5 novices at the house of the superior, Bishop of Biysk. The Cholyshman Monastery consisted of brethren of 10 people, including one hieromonk and two hierodeacons. In the Nicholas Convent there were: an abbess, 6 manate nuns (one foreigner) and 137 novices (14 foreigners). In the Tikhvin women's community there was: 1 abbess nun and 98 novices. The head of the mission was the Right Reverend Methodius, Bishop of Biysk, vicar of the Tomsk diocese, who has a permanent residence in the city of Biysk. In the mission area there were 16 independent churches, there were 9 attached churches and 33 chapels and houses of worship. There were 200 of all villages under the jurisdiction of the mission. The Altai mission is inhabited primarily by pagan Kalmyks of shamanic superstition. There are up to 18,949 people of both sexes. There are also Mohammedan Kirghiz, but there are few of them - about 50 yurts. The missionaries, with the word of the Gospel, addressed mainly the former. Paganism holds especially strong in the center of Altai. The reasons for this are: the unity of the local Kalmyks and their isolation from the Christian population, and for this the overwhelming influence on them of the 6 Zaisans and their assistants, who have a special interest in keeping the masses of their fellow tribesmen in the darkness of paganism, so as not to lose the charm of their power and imaginary power over them, and, finally, the harmful effect on the pagans from the Mohammedan traders penetrating into Altai, zealously spreading by pagans Mohammedanism, to the obvious detriment of Christianity and mission. Despite the unfavorable conditions in which the missionaries had to operate, their preaching was a significant success: in 1896, 308 people from paganism and 2 from Mohammedanism joined the church, and in 1897, 286 people from paganism and 1 from Mohammedanism. The entire Orthodox flock of the Altai mission by the end of 1897 consisted of 30,290 people (15,312 men and 14,978 women). The most important means of religious and moral education of the baptized foreign flock in Altai was church worship. It was carried out in all the camps of the mission unapologetically and with due reverence and with the participation of singing choirs. It is especially important that worship in churches and prayer houses of the mission is performed in the local language of foreigners and is therefore understandable to them. Another means of religious and moral education of foreigners is non-liturgical interviews, which are conducted by both missionaries and school teachers, and have considerable success. Interviews are accompanied by singing. But particularly significant assistance was provided to the growing foreign generation in the spirit of Christian faith and piety by schools, of which there were 47 by the end of 1897. 1,482 people studied in them. Teachers for these schools are mainly supplied by the Biysk Catechist School. In accordance with its material resources, the mission, following the example of previous years, continued to provide all possible assistance to the newly baptized in money or in kind, for example, bread, clothing, tea, etc. At some missionary camps there are parish trustees. Despite the small funds, these trustees had a beneficial effect on the foreign population, helping to alleviate various kinds of needs and difficulties in the everyday life of foreigners. Under the care of the sisters of the Nikolaev Convent there was a children's shelter for rootless orphans, which accepted children from all camps of the mission. There were about 20 girls in the orphanage. A similar shelter, albeit on a smaller scale, was recently opened in the camp of Chemansky. According to the estimate of the Orthodox Missionary Society, the following was allocated for the maintenance of the Altai spiritual mission: in 1896 - 31,137 rubles. 50 kopecks and in 1897 - 28,500 rubles. In addition, the mission also has capital in its cash register of 123,915 rubles. 18 kopecks, having special purposes. The Kyrgyz spiritual mission is located in the Omsk diocese, which embraces two vast regions with a population of 831,150 Kyrgyz-Mohammedans leading a nomadic lifestyle - Semipalatinsk and Akmola. In the first of these regions, by the end of 1897, there were seven missionary camps: 1) in Zarechnaya Slobodka of the city of Semipalatinsk, (the main camp of the mission), 2) Bukonsky, 3) Bolshe-Narymsky, 4) Dolonsky, 5) Shulbinsky, 6) Bayan-Aulsky and 7) Belagansky, in the last region there are three camps 1) Tatarsky, 2) Atbasarsky and 3) Aleksandrovsky. The mission's activities extended not only to the Kyrgyz foreigners, but in many cases to the Russian and Cossack populations of the Semipalatinsk and Akmola regions. Thrown by fate into various remote areas of these regions, far from the church and the pastoral influence of Orthodox priests, Russians and especially Cossacks gradually lose the good skills and traditions characteristic of Orthodox Russian people and, closely approaching in business and everyday relations with the Kyrgyz, who are surrounded on all sides, they adopt the Kyrgyz way of life, and sometimes even directly convert to Islam. The personnel of the mission was as follows: 1 archimandrite (also the head of the mission), 8 priests, 2 deacons, 9 psalm-readers, 5 interpreters and 1 paramedic, for a total of 26 people. In 1896, St. 64 people were baptized, and in 1897 46 people. The entire Orthodox flock of the Kyrgyz mission consisted of 2,853 people, including Russians - 2,503 people and foreigners - 350 people. There were 6 schools at the mission camps, in which 162 boys and 41 girls studied in 1896, and in 1897 - 145 boys and 71 girls. There were 6 churches and houses of worship under the jurisdiction of the mission. Churches are being built again: 1) in the Zarechnaya Slobodka of the city of Semipalatinsk, 2) in the Tumarasha tract, near the Bolshe-Narym camp of the mission, 3) in the village of Tatar and 4) in the village. Preobrazhensky, near the village of Bukonsky. The village of Preobrazhenskoye arose in 1896 and represents the experience of settling in one place the baptized Kyrgyz of the Bukon camp, for whom a plot of land of 1000 dessiatines was allocated. A school, a house for a missionary and a teacher are also being built at the church of this village. To accommodate the newly baptized, 20 huts have currently been built at the expense of the mission. In a similar way, it is proposed to arrange the life of the newly baptized Bolshe-Narym camp, with their installation in the Tumarashi tract on a plot of land of 1000 dessiatinas in the Altai mountain district, belonging to the cabinet of Your Imperial Majesty. The following events took place in the mission: a) for the newly baptized Dodon camp, a plot of land of 1,500 dessiatines was allocated from the lands administered by the Omsk Chamber of State Property b) On February 24, 1897, the opinion of the State Council was Supremely approved, according to which the Kyrgyz, when they accepted the Christian faith as families or separately, should leave their former settled position among their former co-religionists and settle in cities or villages between Christians may receive an allowance from the treasury during resettlement and new settlement; and 3) in 1896, the main central camp of the mission was opened in Zarechnaya Slobodka in the city of Semipalatinsk, which is a whole colony. A house was built here for the head of the mission, and in it there is a very splendid church, houses with services for members of the mission and two huts for the newly baptized. In 1896, 14,800 rubles were allocated for the maintenance of the Kyrgyz mission. and in 1897 - 18,843 rubles. Regardless of this, the Kyrgyz mission received donations amounting to about 8,000 rubles. c) Missionary activity in the Yenisei diocese In the Yenisei diocese, missionary activity is concentrated in the so-called missionary parishes, that is, those that mainly include a foreign population. In the south of the diocese, in the Achinsk and Minusinsk districts, there were eight missionary parishes. The foreigners belonging to the above-mentioned parishes, almost all, with a few exceptions, have already been converted to Christianity, but retain in many respects the same pagan morals and customs, not lagging behind shamanism. This is explained by the fact that missionary parishes occupy enormous spaces, often reaching up to 3,000 square miles, and in these spaces, here and there, are scattered foreign uluses, the number of which in each parish reaches up to 65. The long distance distance of foreigners from parish churches is accompanied by the impossibility of immediate, more permanent pastoral influence on them from the missionary priests. True, missionaries travel to the uluses from three to five months at different times of the year, but these visits to the uluses are to a certain extent accidental and can hardly be accompanied by significant results in raising the religious, moral state and life of foreigners. In each of the mentioned foreign parishes there is a parochial school, with the exception of the Ust-Abakan and Askiz parishes, in which there are volost schools run by the Ministry of Public Education. In parochial schools in 1896 there were 60 students, and in 1897 there were 130–96 boys and 34 girls, including 80 children of foreigners. In the north of the diocese, in the Turukhansky region, there were 6 missionary parishes: Turukhansky, Verkhne-Inbateky, Esseysky, Tazovsky, Dudinsky and Khatanga. In the areas of these parishes live foreigners: Ostyaks, Tungus, Yuracs, Dolgans, Yakuts and Samoyeds, many of whom have not yet been enlightened by St. baptism. The territories occupied by missionary parishes are even larger here than in the south of the diocese. The climate is very harsh and the living conditions of missionaries are extremely difficult in all respects, and therefore it is not surprising that some of the missionary parishes do not have priests for a long time. Even in the provincial town of Turukhansk, where the Tazovsky and Essene priests live most of the year, it is impossible to find even a shabby, but warm room for a good price. Recently there was a case where a local doctor who lived in the parish house froze his hands and feet in the apartment and was forced to leave his service. Food supplies, except fish, are three times more expensive than in the provincial city. Especially for priests who completed a course in Trans-Ural seminaries and, at their own request, took places in the Turukhansk region in recent years, the conditions of existence there are even more unbearable than for local natives. Tazovsky missionary, priest A. Muranov, in his report, writes: he received only 18 rubles in income from the parishioners, because the parishioners, due to their poverty, not only cannot give anything for the demand, but often they cannot even pay for candles in the church; they themselves hope to receive from the clergy: tea, sugar, bread, etc. During the tour of his parish of 6 thousand square miles, the clergy had to support all his leaders and escorts on his own food, and sometimes from their poverty to give what they can to the most hungry of their parishioners, and especially to children. In 1897, a parochial school with a dormitory for foreign girls was opened at the Trinity Monastery in Turukhansk. In November, classes began at the school and admission of foreign children to the dormitory was opened; foreign boys will be placed in the monastery, and boys in the school building. In 1896, 4,710 rubles were allocated for the maintenance and development of missionary activity in the Yenisei diocese, and in 1897, 9,600 rubles. d) Missions in the Tobolsk diocese: Surgut and Obdorsk. There were two missions in the Tobolsk diocese: Obdorsk and Surgut. Since in pre (In the original, 2 pages are missing) Up to 5,200 rubles were allocated for the maintenance of the missions of the Tobolsk diocese. e) Chukotka mission of the Yakut diocese Within the Yakut diocese there is the Chukotka mission, three thousand versts from Yakutsk, operating among the Chukchi foreigners. The activities of this mission extend to the northeastern part of the Asian continent, starting from the Indigirka River to Cape Shelag and further to the Bering Strait, within the Kolyma and part of the Verkhoyansk districts. The mission has three camps: 1) Chaunsky, the region of which, stretching from the Kolyma River to the Shelagsky Cape and further to the Bering Strait, occupies a space of approximately 550 versts in length, and 200 versts in width and borders to the east with Yakan, to the south - a spur of the ridge separating the Chaunskaya slope from the Anadyr, to the west by the Nizhne-Kolyma parish, and to the north by the Arctic Ocean;. 2) Elambalsky, southwest of Nizhne-Kolymsk, along the Bolshaya and Maly Anyu and Omolon rivers to the Gizhiginsky tract and 3) Alazeya or Sen-Kelsky, between the Kolyma and Indigirka rivers. The mission consisted of six persons: the head of the mission, two missionaries and three psalm-readers. The head of the mission, Hieromonk Victor, in charge of the Chuan camp, has a permanent residence in Nizhne-Kolymsk. Another missionary priest, Mikhail Petelin, in charge of the Elambal camp, lives southwest of Nizhne-Kolymsk, 150 versts from it, in an area called “Pyatistennaya”, along the Bolshoi Anyuy River. The third missionary, Hieromonk Benedict, in charge of the Alazeysky or Sen-Kelsky camp, recently lived at the abolished Ozhoginsky church near the Indigirka River. From these places of their stay, both the head of the mission and the missionaries undertook long and distant journeys to the Chukchi of their regions. At the same time, they had to overcome all sorts of difficulties and hardships along the way. All those who joined Orthodoxy were about 160 people. In addition to the Chukchi, there are many other foreigners in the Yakut diocese: Tungus, Lamut, Yukaghir, wandering across vast spaces. To satisfy the spiritual needs of these foreigners, who were previously baptized at different times, in the said diocese there are four so-called marching priests, who have very vast territories under their charge. The priest of the Yakut district, Ioann Popov, during 1897, traveled 2,465 versts to correct Christian needs among the Tungus and Yakuts. Another priest of the Yakut district, Hieromonk Parfeniy, spent 75 days on the road in 1896 and made 2,148 ver., and he had to spend 18 nights in the open air, in the snow, in frosts of 40° and 50°. f) Kamchatka spiritual mission The Kamchatka spiritual mission, under the direction of its chief, priest Afanasy Protodiakonov, operated in 17 camps located in three departments of the mission: Goldsky, Gilyakok and Korean. Seven other missionary camps, namely: Irkutsk, Tyrsky, Danesovsky (Gilyak department), Udskoy (among the Tungus and Yakuts), Adiminsky, Tezinyahensky and Zarechinsky (Korean department) remained unreplaced due to the lack of the necessary persons. Despite their outward rudeness, the foreigners of the Amur region generally represent an element capable of accepting Christianity. The most susceptible in this regard are the taiga foreign tribes: the Tungus, the Negidals and the Orochens. Koreans also willingly accept Christianity. But Kamchatka missionaries encounter opposition from shamans, whose influence on the foreign population is still very strong, even near cities, such as Khabarovsk. In 1897, a shaman was deliberately invited to this city. This was done, they say, for a scientific purpose, in order to get acquainted with one of the pagan foreign cults. But the special attention given to the shaman in this case further raised the credit of shamanism in the eyes of the ignorant foreign crowd. A sad phenomenon of foreign life seems to be the drinking of foreigners by both the Chinese and the Russians, and their unscrupulous exploitation of foreigners. Deception and violence, reliance on the complete ignorance and naivety of foreigners lie at the basis of trade relations with them established by the Chinese and Russians, and therefore it is not surprising that the educational activities of missionaries among foreigners are viewed as nothing other than something harmful, coupled with a direct undermining of commerce based on these principles. And on this basis many acute troubles and grave sorrows arise for missionaries. The missionaries of the Kamchatka spiritual mission enlightened St. Baptism: in 1896 - 118 Koreans, 41 Orochens and 65 Gilyaks, and in 1897 - 47 Golds, 38 Gilyaks, 94 Orochens, 122 Koreans and 1 Chinese - a total of 513 people. The mission was in charge of 22 schools. In the Gold-Gilyak department of the mission, students are accommodated almost everywhere in dormitories or at the schools themselves, or in special apartments rented with funds from the Missionary Society. For the maintenance of the Kamchatka spiritual mission, the Orthodox Missionary Society allocated 11,938 rubles in 1896 and 31,000 rubles in a year. g) Transbaikal spiritual mission The Transbaikal Spiritual Mission consisted of 23 missionary camps, and there were 20 missionaries and 3 mission employees serving in the mission. The conditions in which the Transbaikal missionaries serve are very difficult. In addition to difficulties depending on topographical reasons - the scattered nature of the uluses and the absence of any tolerable means of communication between them, the harmful activities of a huge number of regular and non-regular lamas (there are more than 18 thousand of them) are of utmost importance in the sense of counteracting the evangelical preaching of our missionaries. Dangerous opponents of the success of Christian preaching among the Buryats were, after the lamas, the foreign authorities from the pagans, who acted to the detriment of Christianity, partly on their own, partly under the influence of the same lamas. In all foreign departments, pagan fanatics serve as taishas and other leaders, from whom come all kinds of persecution and oppression of Christians, sometimes taking on the character of persecution. By January 1, 1898, there were 29 all missionary schools in the Transbaikal mission area. There were 700 students in them. In 1896, St. 152 people from Lamaitivism, shamanism and Mohammedanism were baptized, and in 1897 29 people were Lamaites of both sexes and 47 people were shamanists. In 1896, 37,557 rubles were allocated from the funds of the Orthodox Missionary Society for the maintenance of the Transbaikal spiritual mission. and in 1897 25,184 rubles. h) Irkutsk spiritual mission By the end of 1897, the Irkutsk spiritual mission had 20 camps. The vastness of space, as well as the difficulty of communication routes, deprive missionaries of the opportunity to frequently visit the uluses of baptized foreigners and exert religious and moral influence on them. The religious and moral state of baptized foreigners, who are under the closer pastoral leadership of missionaries, seems more favorable. There were 64 persons serving the mission in the ranks of missionaries, mission employees, psalmists, teachers and interpreters, and interpreters. Of the entire personnel of the Irkutsk mission, only 6 missionaries know the foreign Buryat language, while the rest of the missionaries, in the performance of the duties of their service, resorted either to the help of interpreters, or used the Buryat translations of the liturgy, prayers and teachings printed in Russian. Translation Commission under the Irkutsk Committee. The mission is experiencing great difficulties regarding the replenishment of its personnel with people suitable and capable for missionary service. In 1896, the head of the mission, Bishop Nicodemus of Cyrene, undertook three trips to inspect the missionary camps. On one of these trips, and specifically to the Balagansky district, he had the consolation of personally baptizing 419 pagan Buryats. A similar trip was undertaken in 1897 by His Eminence Eusebius of Cyrene, who directed the mission that year. On one of these trips, undertaken to the Balagansky district from October 5–15, 1897, His Eminence Eusebius, together with His Eminence Tikhon of Irkutsk, performed the sacrament of St. Baptisms over 81 Buryats. In general, in the Irkutsk mission in 1896, 1,400 pagan Buryats were initiated into the Church of Christ, and in 1897 - 1,582. The number of missionary schools in the area of ​​the Irkutsk mission by January 1, 1898 was 17. Some of the school buildings are inconvenient and have small spaces. This circumstance, and mainly the lack of dormitories at schools, is the reason why the number of students is relatively small. According to the estimates of the Orthodox Missionary Society, 30,343 rubles were allocated in 1896 for the maintenance of the Irkutsk spiritual mission. 72 kopecks, and in 1897 27,236 rubles. 74 kopecks II. Missions of European Russia In European Russia, missionary activity, in the form of certain missionary camps, exists in the dioceses of Astrakhan, Stavropol, Orenburg and Ryazan and has the goal of converting the Kalmyks, Kyrgyz and Tatars living in these dioceses to Christianity. a) Kalmyk mission in the Astrakhan diocese The activities of the Kalmyk mission in the Astrakhan diocese were concentrated in three camps: Noin-Shirensky, Chilgirsky and Ulan-Ergensky, located in the Kalmyk steppe. One of these camps, namely Ulan-Ergen, due to the emigration of the Kalmyks, has now lost its missionary significance and represents the parish church with the exclusively Russian population surrounding it. In each of these missionary camps there is a well-equipped church. The Ulan-Ergen Church also has a chapel-school attached to it. The Astrakhan Diocesan Committee is concerned about the speedy establishment of a new missionary camp in the Kegulta tract, where many baptized and wishing to be baptized Kalmyks live. Missionary activity in this diocese encounters significant obstacles from the Kalmyk clergy, as well as from the failure to provide baptized Kalmyks with a certain amount of land at missionary camps. The members of the mission include people who are fluent in the Kalmyk language and who come from natural Kalmyks. To increase the number of such people, especially those needed for the mission, the Astrakhan Diocesan Committee maintains in Astrakhan itself a two-year orphanage school with 16 students, most of whom are children of Kalmyks. The school is temporarily located in a rented house, but there is an idea, close to implementation, to transfer it to the so-called “Kalmyk Bazaar”, to an area 6-7 miles away from Astrakhan, where Kalmyks come from almost all uluses and where relations between the school and the Kalmyk population can be more lively and close than in the city. Together with the school, it is planned to build a church at the Kalmyk Bazaar and form a new missionary camp here. In addition to the mentioned two-class school, the local Missionary Committee administered three more schools at missionary camps: in Noin-Shir, with a shelter for 20 people, Chilgir and Ulan-Erge. There were 82 boys and 22 girls studying in all these schools, a total of 104 people. b) Kalmyk mission in Sta Ropol diocese. In the Stavropol diocese live Kalmyks Trukhmyans, Nogais, Adyges (in the Kuban region), but the mission exists only among Kalmyks. The mission received proper organization in 1889, when, simultaneously with the formation of the Prince-Mikhailovsky village for baptized Kalmyks of the Bolshe-Derbetovsky ulus, an anti-Buddhist missionary camp was founded in this village, 145 versts from Stavropol. In the Prince-Mikhailovsky missionary camp there is currently a church, a gatehouse, an orphanage, a school and a missionary clergy house. The area of ​​activity of the specified missionary camp extends to most of the Bolshe-Derbetovsky ulus, with a population of up to 8,000 souls of both sexes. At the Prince Mikhailovsky missionary camp there is a missionary school in which 10 boys and 4 girls study, all Kalmyks, with the exception of one Russian boy. Teaching is conducted according to the program of Russian parochial schools with a three-year course. c) Kyrgyz mission in the Orenburg diocese In the Orenburg diocese there is a Kyrgyz mission in the Turgai region. This mission was opened recently, in 1894. It currently has two camps, Makaryevsky and Aleksandrovsky, which are located in the Kustanai district, Turgai region. In the Makaryevsky missionary camp there is a church-school, built in 1894 with funds collected through private donations from the forest, granted by the Highest for this item at the request of the military governor of the Turgai region. The church is designed for Russian settlers of the Mikhailovsky village, located 100 fathoms from the Makaryevsky camp, and newly baptized Kyrgyz. Currently, this church-school serves exclusively as a church, since in 1897, in the village of Makaryevsky, where the missionary camp is located, an extensive missionary school was built, covering both villages, with a boarding school for Kyrgyz children. Alexandrova’s second missionary camp is located in the village of Alexandrovsky, 40 years ago. from Kustanai. This Russian village is quite numerous, has a parish church and houses for the clergy. The area of ​​activity of both camps is the entire northern part of the Turgai region, in particular its most populated counties: Kustanai, which occupies an area of ​​60,000 square meters. versts, with a population of 143,557 people, of which 27,258 are Orthodox and 116,299 Muslim Kyrgyz people, and Aktobe - with an area of ​​41,000 sq. versts, with a population of 114,961 people, of which 2,777 are Orthodox. and Kyrgyz 112,184 people. The majority of the population in these counties are Kyrgyz. Distinguished by their lively impressionability, curiosity and receptivity to everything good in life, the Kyrgyz have recently fallen more and more under the influence of the Tatar mullahs, who are trying by all means to seduce them into Islam. As for the Russian population in Kostanay and Aktobe districts, half of it (15,787 people) lives in cities: Kostanay, Aktobe and some large villages where there are churches and schools. In these places, the Russian population remains faithful to Christianity and the Russian nationality. – The other half of the Russian population, numbering 14,247 people, living on lands leased from the Kyrgyz, consists of either several villages, or is scattered across vast steppe spaces in the form of farms or villages, where one or two families live. This half of the population is not only economically dependent on the Kyrgyz, but also in religious and moral terms falls under the influence of Islam, losing faith and national traits. Henceforth, the task of the Kyrgyz mission in the Turgai region is not only to educate St. faith of the Kyrgyz-Mohammedans, but also to establish in Orthodoxy the Russian population of the region, abandoned to the steppe and long ago beginning to become Kyrgyzized. Both camps of the Kyrgyz mission, Aleksandrovsky and Makaryevsky, have missionary schools located in their own buildings. Both missionary schools are structured like parochial schools, with a three-year course of study. Training is conducted in Russian. d) Anti-Muslim mission in the Ryazan diocese There is an anti-Muslim mission in the Ryazan diocese, established in 1897. The mission has one camp in the village of Karamyshevo, 6 versts from the city of Kasimov. The entire Kasimov district, in which there are 27 villages with an exclusively Tatar population and 5 villages with a mixed Tatar and Russian population, is subject to the Kasimov anti-Muslim mission. Kasimovsky district has all inhabitants of both sexes, one hundred thousand, of which Tatars are of both sexes, according to the exact instructions of the Ryazan Lips. Statistician Comit., 7399 souls. In the village There is a missionary school in Karamytev. The school building was built in 1878 with funds from the Orthodox Missionary Society, which at the same time allocated 3239 rubles 50 kopecks for this subject. and at the expense of philanthropists who donated 1147 rubles. 57 k. III. Missionary activity in other dioceses of European Russia In other dioceses of European Russia, with a more or less significant foreign population, the body of missionary activity is missionary schools, the type of which was developed by the memorable founder of the system of foreign education N. I. Ilminsky. By closely educating the young, rising generation of baptized foreigners in the spirit of the Orthodox faith and Russian nationality, these schools do not remain without a good, beneficial influence on the rest of the foreign population, not excluding that part of it that does not yet belong to the church. In general, there were 143 missionary schools in different districts of the Kazan diocese, namely: baptized Tatar 65, Chuvash 54, Cheremis 6, Votyak 10 and Russian 7. The number of students in these schools extended to 4645 people (boys 3922, girls 723), namely: baptized Tatars 1620 (boys 1421, 239 girls), Chuvash 1666 (1524 boys, 142 girls), 115 Cheremis (66 boys, 49 girls), 199 Votyaks (180 boys, 19 girls), 29 Mordvins (25 boys, 4 girls) and 976 Russians (706 boys, 4 girls) 270). In addition to the listed schools and at their head in the Kazan diocese there are: a) a central baptized Tatar school and b) a missionary school in the village. Ishakakh, Kozmodemyansk district with a pedagogical class at this school. The first of these schools consists of two departments, or, more precisely, two special schools: men's and women's. There were 75 students in the men's school, including 71 baptized Tatars, 1 unbaptized, 1 Votyaks and 2 Russians. The school taught, in the scope of the programs of two-year schools of the Ministry of Public Education: Throw God (the sacred history of the Old and New Testaments, worship, Catechism, and Church history), Russian and Church Slavonic languages, arithmetic, history and geography, church singing, calligraphy and the most important foundations of pedagogy and didactics. The baptized Tatar school produces teachers for missionary foreign schools in Kazan and other dioceses with a foreign population. There were 42 students in the girls' school - 41 Tatars and 1 Chuvash. The subjects and scope of teaching are the same as in the boys' school. During extracurricular time, pupils are engaged in handicrafts - mending linen and dresses for themselves and for students of the men's school, as well as knitting tablecloths, lace, stockings, etc. And pupils of the girls' school, upon completion of the course, also serve to replenish the teaching staff in foreign areas of the Volga region. The Ishak school aims to train teachers for rural Chuvash schools and literacy schools. The school is two-class. In addition to the usual school subjects, the school also teaches drawing and icon painting. In 1897, there were 97 students studying at the Ishak school: 54 in the second teacher’s class and 43 in the first. Of these, 91 are Chuvash, 1 Mordvin and 5 Russian, all of the Orthodox faith. In the Vyatka diocese, the foreign population of which extends to 640,160 people and consists of Votyaks, Cheremis, Tatars, Besermyans and Permyaks, there were 57 missionary schools, of which 37 were parochial and 20 literacy schools. The number of students in all these schools was 1,965 (1,735 boys and 230 girls). By nationality, students are distributed as follows: Russians 194 boys and 50 girls, Cheremis 674 boys and 42 girls, Votyaks 340 boys and 28 girls, Besermyans 26 boys, Tatars 501 boys and 110 girls. And here, as in the Kazan diocese, among the students there are pagans and Mohammedans; the first in 1897 there were 81 boys, the second 4 boys. 3) In the Arkhangelsk diocese There were eight missionary schools in the Arkhangelsk diocese. One of the schools, namely Samoyed Kaninskaya, was closed on July 1, 1897, due to the lack of foreign children. Schools such as parochial schools. All students in the above-mentioned schools were 397, of which: Zyryans - 290, Korelyaks - 75, Lapps - 8, Samoyeds - 11 and Russians - 13. In the Simbirsk diocese, the funds of the missionary society supported: the Chuvash teachers' school with a women's school attached to it and the Sredne-Algashin missionary school. 1) In the Simbirsk Chuvash teacher’s school, by January 1, 1898, there were pupils: in the third - senior class - 31, in the second, middle - 38 and in the first, junior - 67, all in all in three teachers’ classes there were 137 people, in addition, in the educational workshop of the school 5 boys were trained in crafts. In total, therefore, there were 141 students at the school, of which 34 were Russians, 103 Chuvash and 4 Mordovians. 2) In the women's school at the said school, by January 1, 1898, there were 63 girls and 27 boys, 9 Russian girls, 54 Chuvash, 2 Russian boys and 25 Chuvash, one of the boys was a pagan. There were 5 departments in the women's school - the last two (4 and 5) were still in the role of an elementary school: pupils of the senior department and students of the senior class of the school were assigned to practical classes in them. 3) By January 1, 1898, in the Middle Algashine missionary school there were 44 students - all Chuvash. – Of these, 34 are Orthodox and 10 are pagans. The students were divided into four sections - two male and two female. In addition to the above-mentioned: the Chuvash teacher's school with its women's school and the Middle Alganshi missionary, in the Buinsky district of the Simbirsk diocese, there were nine schools that received benefits from the Orthodox Missionary Society, of which one was a parish school in the village of Tri-Izby-Shemursha, the other eight literacy schools, namely: Shemalakovskaya, Yamanchurinskaya, Ilinevskaya, Karabay-Shemurshinskaya, Yanshirovskaya, Bolshe-Arabuzinskaya, Tatmysh-Yugelevskaya and Novo-Chelny-Syurbeevskaya, opened only at the beginning of 1897. All these schools are located in villages with a foreign population. The opening of these schools was caused by the fact that the villages in which these schools are located are far from the parish churches. Along with Christian beliefs and concepts, remnants of paganism continue to live and make themselves known. Many truths of Christian doctrine remain incomprehensible to Chuvash foreigners. Thanks to schools, people little by little realize that light is better than darkness, and willingly send their children to school to learn to read and write, and especially to learn prayers and the truths of the Christian faith. In the Samara Diocese, with funds from the Orthodox Missionary Society, 15 foreign schools are maintained in the villages of Tuarma, Devlezerkin, Lashmanka, Urmeteva, Yarzov, Novo-Gankin, Staro-Gankin, Rysaykin, Boriskin, Chernykh-Klyuchi, Urustamak, Staro-Surgin, Naratl and Alekseevka. Regardless of this, with funds specifically raised for the local foreign mission by His Eminence Gury, 6 more schools were maintained in foreign villages: Izmailovo and Novo-Serezhkino, Bugulminsky district, and Nizhne-Averkino, Sultangulovo, Vasilievka and Stepanov, Buguruslansky district. The teachers in the above-mentioned schools are either natural foreigners, or Russians who know foreign languages ​​well, who were educated either at the Kazan Teachers' Seminary or at the Simbirsk Teachers' School. They receive remuneration for this work up to two hundred (200) rubles per year. The course of study is four years. In the first year of study, all subjects are taught in a foreign language, in the second and third years - in a foreign language with translation into Russian and back, and, finally, in the fourth year, all teaching is conducted in Russian. In the foreign schools of the Samara diocese, many children of pagan Chuvash and Votyaks study, along with the children of Christian parents. Thus, in the Staro-Surkinsky school, Kazebash parish, there are 30 pagan boys studying, in the Izmailovsky school there are 10 boys and in the Tashlinsky school there are 5 boys and girls. In the Saratov diocese of missionary schools. There were 14, previously discovered in Chuvash villages and villages adjacent to the Mohammedan population. Six of these schools in the villages: Sosnovy Vrag, Krivoluchye, Bikmurzin, Aleshkin, Kamenny Vrag and Ilyushkin are located in Kuznetsk district, three: in the villages of Shnyaevo, Belaya Gora and Abdulovka - in Petrovsky district and four: in Chuvashskaya Kulatka, Novaya Lebezhayka, Ilim Gora, Kamenny Klyuch and Kalmantay - in Khvalynsky district. The one-class parochial school program in Chuvash schools takes four years, and this four-year course for completing the school program for foreigners was developed by many years of practice in the provinces of the Kazan Educational District. All missionary schools in Ufa. There were 39 in the diocese. The schools adopted a four-year course, since children of foreigners in three winters cannot go through and master the required program of a one-class rural school, and the fourth year of study is primarily used for studying and mastering the Russian language. The main subjects of study are the Law of God and church singing, then the Russian language, Slavic and foreign reading, counting and writing, and in the Bizhbulyak girls' school, in addition to these subjects, classes are taught to teach girls handicrafts. Schools are placed in close living connection with the church in the sense that students constantly participate in church services by reading and singing, in many places forming harmonious singing choirs led by teachers of missionary schools. In the Perm diocese there were 12 missionary schools: 1) seven one-class schools - in Osinsky district, Votyatsky: Bolshe-Gondyrskaya, Gozhanskaya and Kipchakskaya, and in Krasnoufimsky district, Cheremissky: Yuvinskaya, Bolshe-Karzinskaya, Bolshe-Tavrinskaya, Nizhne-Potamskaya, and 2) five literacy schools in Krasnoufimskaya district, Cheremisskaya: Verkhne-Potamskaya, Karshinskaya, Vaskinskaya, Klyuchikovskaya and Sarsinskaya. There were 570 students in 1897 (504 boys and 66 girls). Of these, 247 Cheremis, 127 Votyaks, 5 Tatars and 191 Russians. Among the foreign children, 340 pagans studied in schools. 9) In the Ekaterinburg diocese In the Yekaterinburg diocese there are four missionary schools: Lachinskaya, Mityaevskaya, Lopaevskaya and Petrovskaya, located in the Verkhoturye district and aimed at the spiritual enlightenment of foreigners living in the said district, the so-called yasak Voguls. The first two schools are located in villages belonging to the Peter and Paul parish and separated from the parish church - the first is 66 versts, and the second is 85 versts. The communication routes between the villages of Lachi and Mityaeva with the parish village and its priest are extremely difficult. “Here the priest rides on horseback, walks through marshy swamps, fire pits and slums, and often floats on the water in a gas chamber. Often, on the way to the village of Lachu, the person traveling or walking has to lay bridges and arrange rafts for crossing rivers, and has to pave the summer path alone along a forest path.” As for the Lopayevskaya and Petrovskaya schools, the latter is 16 versts from its parish village of Ivanovskoye, and the first is 6 versts. There were 63 students in all these schools. The schools are primary, and with a small number of students, they also bring their considerable share of benefit to the population of these remote areas. Literate people also appeared among the Voguls, and along with literacy, more correct concepts about the Christian faith and life gradually spread among them. Reasons for the stability and vitality of the split One of the main conditions conducive to the strengthening of the schism and its propaganda among the Orthodox is the fact that schismatics often live in dense masses. In some, for example, the villages of the Don Diocese, schismatics comprise a solid (several thousand) population, without any admixture of Orthodox Christians. In many suburbs of the Chernigov diocese, schismatics outnumber Orthodox and co-religionists by 20 times. In such places, the schism, grouped into closely knit communities, acts as a common mass and unanimously stands for its interests, and the benefit of the schism is pursued as a social benefit, as the benefit of the entire endowment, and, conversely, everything dangerous for the schism, such as the successes of the Orthodox mission, is mourned as a public grief. The life of those who survived among the fanatical schismatic mass of Orthodox Christians, in the words of the Right Reverend Chernigovsky, is unbearably difficult, because the rural authorities, elected almost entirely from schismatics, act in government with bias in favor of the schism and the oppression of the Orthodox, while allowing themselves to mock the Orthodox faith. So, it happens that Orthodox Christians living in places where the schism occupies a dominant position in terms of its numbers and influence on public affairs, often, out of material need, deviate into schism. On the contrary, the rapprochement of schismatics with the Orthodox Church in the described “nests” of schismatics is almost impossible, since the transition from schism to Orthodoxy in such places is accompanied by all kinds of deprivations for the convert. The fanatical persistence of the schism is largely supported by the darkness of deep ignorance that still surrounds it. True, schismatics strive for “enlightenment,” but this specially schismatic enlightenment, which does not extend beyond the old printed psalms and books of hours and homemade “flower beds” full of blasphemy against the Orthodox Church, can only serve as a means of further enslavement in the schism, but in no way for rapprochement with Orthodoxy, educating the schismatic younger generation in the same external and narrowly ritualistic view of religion with which the schism has been going on for the third century. And now the vast majority of schismatics place all their hope for salvation not in the Church and the sacraments, but in the double-fingered gesture, the lestvo and the mechanical fulfillment of the rules of prayer. “We don’t need anything else,” the Reverend Tomsky quotes the expression of the schismatics, “except for the two-fingered constitution, which we hope for, as for Christ Himself. Lestovka is also a great and wise dogma. Without a flattery there can be no true prayer, because each prayer must be read exactly the number of times it should be so as not to be in debt to God.” Believing the entire essence of faith in one visible ritual, schismatics either do not know the basic truths of Christianity or present them in an extremely distorted form. Another important reason for the persistence of the schism is the schismatic prayer houses in the dark corners, which for schismatics are not only houses of prayer, but also religious schools, where lecturers and mentors try to instill in schismatics the spirit of fanaticism and intolerance towards Orthodoxy and the Orthodox. The schismatics greatly value their prayer houses, as the center of their religious life, as centers that unite them with each other. This explains the many petitions they initiate, through special proxies, to open houses of worship. But in other cases, they do not hesitate to open prayer houses even without the permission of their superiors. Thus, of the 58 schismatic prayer houses existing in the Vyateka diocese, only 5 are authorized by the government, while the remaining 53 were set up on their own. The stronghold of the schism is the schismatic monasteries and monasteries that exist in some dioceses (for example: Don, Kherson, Ekaterinoslav and Podolsk). The first, according to the description of the Right Reverend of Kherson, are built near prayer houses and are divided into several sections (cells), serving as premises for “monks” and “nuns”. The latter are settled for the most part in places remote from villages and towns, known to few except schismatics and in secluded places: schismatic “schemamonks and schemamonks” live in them, in other places called “saviors.” In the life of the schism, monasteries and monasteries are of enormous importance. Some of them, according to the report of the Eminence of Ekaterinoslav, even monitor the actions of Orthodox missionaries, through special agents who, noticing hesitations in their co-religionists under the influence of the missionaries’ conversations, send them to the monastery, sometimes using violence for this purpose. Some of the schismatic monasteries, in their influence on the schism, stand out from others. This is the Kurenevsky schismatic (male and female) monastery, located in the Olgopol district of the Podolsk province. Supplying the whole of Russia with schismatic bishops of an anti-circumstances kind, this monastery sends its monks and nuns throughout the south as agents to maintain and spread the schism. The extent to which the fanaticism of these monks and nuns reaches and how great their influence on the schismatics is shown by the horror-stricken story of the Tiraspol fanatic schismatics who buried themselves alive in the ground. The main character of this story is the “schema-nun” Vitaly. This Vitalia, in the world Vera Makeeva, the daughter of a Kherson tradesman, took monastic vows at the Kurenevsky schismatic monastery, but 10-12 years before the general census she left the Kurenevsky monastery and settled in Ternovsky plavni - in a monastery located in the garden of the Kovalev family. Acquired at the Kurenevsky Monastery by her erudition in old printed books and fanaticism, Vitaly acquired a strong influence on the schismatics around her, whose property, life and death she disposed of in accordance with her mood. In 1896, a rumor about a nationwide census spread among the Terniv hermitages. This message of greeting greatly confuses all Ternov schismatics, who consider it a deviation from the faith to be registered in the register of parishes. Vitalia, who had long earlier said that “in the eighth thousand of this century the end and judgment will take place, saw in the people’s census a sign of the proximity of the end of the world and the Last Judgment and convinced her followers that the census is the “seal of the Antichrist.” In order not to give themselves into the hands of “evil spirits” and to save their souls, Vitalia and her followers decided not to give any information about themselves to the scribes, even if they were threatened with torture and death for this. The thought of suicide appeared when Vitalia, in constant conversations with others, painted before them pictures of torture and death threatening for resisting the census. Upset by such conversations, the wife of Theodore Kovalev (the owner of the garden where Vitalia’s monastery was located), asked her husband: “What will happen to our children when we are tortured and killed.” “Our children are small,” Kovalev answered his wife, they will not oppose the census, they will be taken into Nikonianism and then registered.” Kovaleva answered her husband that she would rather go to the grave with her children alive than allow them to suffer such eternal death. Vitalia, who learned about this conversation, recognized Anna Kovaleva’s answer as an insight from above and promised her and her children martyr’s crowns if she buried herself alive in the ground with them and blessed her for such a feat. The conversation described took place on the morning of December 22, 1896, and by the evening of the same day several people appeared who wanted to bury themselves alive. During the night of December 23rd, those who condemned themselves to voluntary death dismantled part of the wall in the stone cellar of Fomin, the Kovalevs’ neighbor, dug a horizontal hole in the ground behind it, with Vitalia’s participation, they themselves sang the burial ceremony over themselves, and on the morning of December 23rd they lay down (including 9 people) in the hole, and Feodor Kovalev, as a mason, walled them up. In this batch of those buried alive, Kovalev also immured his wife and two children, in the firm belief that these creatures dear to him went not to torture, but to the Kingdom of Heaven. The example of those buried alive did not remain without imitation among Vitalia’s followers: four days later, on the night of December 26-27, 1896, a new grave dug one and a half miles from the Kovalevs’ estate accepted six new human victims. Vitalia and Kovalev kept these burials of living people secret. Finally, the days of the census arrived, and when the census taker came to the Kovalevs’ estate, he found the doors of the monastery locked, and only through the opening received a written statement that the hermitages “do not agree to write down their name and patronymic,” since “the metrics alienate them from Christ and from the true Christian faith,” that “they cannot obey the new laws, but want to die for Christ.” Neither the police nor the local zemstvo chief could convince them to give the necessary information about themselves. Then Vitalia, along with four nuns and one monk, were arrested and imprisoned in the Tiraspol prison castle. The arrest lasted for five days and for five days the arrested did not eat or drink anything, stubbornly refusing the food offered to them. That is why the local judicial authorities, so that the arrested would not die of hunger, released them from prison under house arrest in the Kovalevs’ house. On February 9, 1897, the arrested returned from prison, and on the night of February 10-11, Vitalia ordered Kovalev to cover four more women with earth. Finally, on the night of February 27-28, 1897, Vitalia herself, the 60-year-old old woman Kovaleva with her daughter and son, and two unknown nuns disappeared without a trace from the Kovalevs’ house and, as it later turned out, at their request they were also immured by Feodor Kovalev. According to the latter’s explanation, the reason for the suicide of the persons buried by him in February was the same census, although it had already been completed: some decided to bury themselves because they were included in the census and with such death they wanted to save the soul from the “seal” placed on them, others, including Vitaly, were afraid that they would not avoid being included in the census, since there would be people who, knowing them, would give answers for them to the questions posed in the census forms and therefore decided also “It is better to be buried alive in the ground than to give yourself into the hands of the Antichrist.” Prosecution was initiated against Feodor Kovalev by the judiciary, but Your Imperial Majesty, on the 31st day of December 1897, was most pleased to command that this persecution be stopped with Kovalev’s transfer indefinitely to one of the Orthodox monasteries at the discretion of the spiritual authorities. In pursuance of this highest command, the Holy Synod decided to imprison Kovalev indefinitely in the Suzdal Spaso-Evfimiev Monastery, in its prison department, under the strict supervision of the abbot of the monastery. The sect of priests, who call themselves “Old Believers accepting the priesthood,” is distinguished by the greatest stability and a stronger desire for propaganda. Each follower of it, according to the fair remark of His Eminence Vyatsky, is an apologist and propagandist of his own false teaching. The main force uniting the priests and inspiring them is the Austrian false hierarchy, which in 1896 celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of its illegal existence in the centers of schism with solemn services. The common people, easily susceptible to deception, out of ignorance willingly surrender themselves to the leadership of a false priesthood created in a deceptive manner. The name of bishop, priest and deacon, service in vestments, the establishment of churches and monasteries similar to Orthodox ones - all this serves as bait and deception for the common people, especially in places where there is not yet an Orthodox church and splendid worship. The Austrian priesthood has up to 20 false bishops in its ranks. The latter, being in unconditional subordination to the schismatics, to please the latter, supply false archimandrites, false archpriests, false priests and other members of the clergy in disproportionately greater numbers than the number of schismatics requires, and the ease with which the schismatics obtain and replace their priests - illiterate peasants and townspeople, who depend on them for everything, unhindered weddings of minors, ease divorce, independence from any authorities in church affairs, force the false bishops, in their own interests, to maintain the persistence of the schism and resist everything that would bring light into its dark environment. Outstanding events in the life of the schism From the life of the schism of the Austrian sect, the following two events should be noted: the attempts of the Bukovinian Old Believers to transport the ashes of the founder of the Belokrinitsa hierarchy, the former Bosnian Metropolitan Ambrose from Trieste to Belaya Krinitsa and the harassment of the Russian Old Believers before the Church of Constantinople regarding the canonical legal capacity of the said metropolitan. The idea of ​​transferring the ashes of Metropolitan Ambrose from Trieste to Belaya Krinitsa arose not among the Bukovinian Old Believers, but among the Moscow Rogozhsky ones, and without a doubt the intention was to open the “relics” of Ambrose and declare him a saint. However, the petition of the schismatics on this subject was not respected by the Austrian government. On the other hand, the repeated appeal of the Siberian schismatics to the Patriarch of Constantinople on the issue of the canonical legal capacity of the first schismatic Metropolitan Ambrose was not successful. There are some new facts in the life of the schism that allow us to assume that in the Russian Old Believer schism some kind of internal degeneration is beginning. For more than two hundred years, our schism tried to justify its break with the Orthodox Russian Church from the point of view of fidelity to the teachings and traditions of the ancient Universal Church. But these attempts could not be successful. Orthodox polemicists in their writings, pastors and missionaries in oral conversations found out that the schism, boasting of its fidelity to the teachings and traditions of the ancient Church, actually changed and distorted some of the most important dogmas of Christian teaching, deviated from many canonical decrees of the Orthodox Church, and that even those very old books respected by schismatics, regarding the correction of which they separated from the Church, accuse them of this department, as in many other “wines”. Despite the tenacity of the schismatics, two centuries of polemic experience begins to lead them to the conviction that the path they have hitherto followed in defending their teaching is the wrong path, which cannot lead them out of the contradictions. Nowadays it is noticed that the schism is beginning to abandon the old methods of defense and resorting more and more often to new ones. Recently, it has put forward from its ranks a significant number of apologists of the new formation, rationalist apologists, who, both in their writings and in conversations with Orthodox missionaries, sometimes express the most extreme rationalistic judgments that destroy the most fundamental truths of the Christian doctrine and thus undermine the last ties of our Old Believers with the Universal Church. How strongly and deeply our schism of the Old Believers is infected with dangerous and destructive rationalism, this can be evidenced by the messages below from the Eminences about new trends in the schism. In the Nizhny Novgorod diocese, a sect of “non-Molys” is developing on the basis of a schism: it is distinguished by extreme hostility towards Orthodoxy and, being iconoclastic, rejects rituals, sacraments and sacred tradition. Among the schismatics of the Tomsk diocese, rationalists also begin to appear, some of whom reject fasting, others, remaining true Old Believers in everything, do not bow only to icons, although they do not reject the sign of the cross, and still others completely deny the sign of the cross. “Now the time has passed to pray to God,” these latter say, unfairly pointing as evidence to the 105th word of Ephraim the Syrian, where it is said that during the time of the Antichrist there will be no service of God at the altars. All these rationalistic opinions, according to the Tomsk Eminence, are beginning to unite in the “Nemolyakov” sect in Altai, similar to the described sect of the Nizhny Novgorod diocese. In the Sarapul district of the Vyatka diocese, “non-Molys” also appeared during the reporting period, who do not believe in the incarnation of the Son of God, do not have the sacraments and priesthood, do not go to the church of God and do not venerate icons. Sharing the idea of ​​the reign of the Antichrist, these sectarians do not engage in arable farming, so as not to pay taxes and not submit to the power of the Antichrist, because civil power, as well as church power, are the servants of the Antichrist. In the Sarapul vicariate of the Vyatka diocese, a new consensus emerged from the Danilov-type bespopovshchina sect in 1897 under the name “Kolnogorovtsy” after the name of a certain, already deceased, watchmaker Kolnogorov. Kolnogorovians merge the faces of the Holy Trinity into one face of Jesus Christ. They have no sacraments except baptism, and they reject their necessity. Holy Scripture and St. Although they recognize tradition, they use it in their own way. They don’t venerate icons, they don’t pray to angels and saints. Church services are performed with arbitrary changes. In the Oryol district of the same Vyatka diocese, several families of Old Believers also separated from the Pomeranian persuasion into a special sect. These sectarians do not recognize a single line of literal meaning in all of the Holy Scriptures and old printed books, interpreting everything allegorically. Everything literal, in their opinion, was literal for seven thousand years, and in the eighth thousand everything must be understood in a spiritual sense, which meaning, however, they alone understand. In the Stavropol district of the Samara diocese, in the village of Krasny Yar, a new type of schism of a rationalistic nature was seen, the so-called “Belorists”, who received their name from the white clothes they adopted, which should remind a Christian not to sin, to be pure in soul. According to their teaching, the Orthodox Church fell away from piety. To the question of how this could happen, the Belorians answer with the doctrine of the Antichrist, who, in their opinion, reigns now and will reign for an indefinite time. Elijah and Enoch are all pious people who expose human untruth. Recognizing the sacraments as necessary for salvation, the Belorians do not, however, share the teachings about the sacraments of the Orthodox Church. About confession, they say that you can confess directly before God, before an icon, or even before each other. They probably do not see any special need for the priesthood if they say: “We are all kings and priests of the Most High God.” The Belarusians also do not agree with the teaching of the Orthodox Church about the sacrament of Baptism, in which a person is reborn spiritually. According to their teaching, the second birth does not happen in Baptism, but when a person comes to “feeling” and begins a new life in accordance with the Gospel teaching. Belorians reject the benefits of commemorating the dead. Both from the above messages of the diocesan eminences, and also from the frequent cases indicated by the eminences in the deviation of schismatics into Baptistism, Molokanism and other rationalistic sects, one can see what deep roots rationalism is beginning to take in the schism. This extremely sad trend in the schism is beginning to manifest itself not only in the religious sphere, but also in the schismatics’ views on church-social relations. This is evidenced by the numerous schismatic apologetic works that are being circulated. A particularly striking description of the new leaders of the schism and their views is provided by the schismatic magazine published since 1896 in Romania, in Brailov, under the title “The Word of Truth.” This journal proves the need for abolition or reorganization of church administration in the Russian Church, complete separation of Church and state, diocesan, communal, parish freedom of choice of bishops and priests, communal and everyday management of the affairs of the Church; Many other similar demands are also being expressed, tending to overturn the entire existing system of our social life and church-state relations. For its extremely outrageous, impudent tone, and generally blasphemous attitude towards the Orthodox Church, the magazine “Word of Truth” is prohibited from circulation in Russia. It is not difficult to understand where the indicated representatives and defenders of the modern schism are leading the dark schismatic masses. The increasing distance of schismatics from the true Church of Christ, coldness towards faith and even complete unbelief and, finally, a negative attitude towards government authority - these are the fruits that can already be observed where destructive and destructive rationalism has managed to infect the simple schismatic mass. To educate this mass on the Christian principles of spiritual life, the most significant and most effective means is the parochial school, which consistently and irresistibly acts on children and, through children, on parents. Experience shows that wherever this school, avoiding polemics and direct paths of propaganda, is established in an inseparable connection with the Church and with true church worship, on the primordial principles of church teaching, singing and reading, schismatics, looking closely at it, not only do not avoid it, but willingly bring their children into it and little by little become related to it. Another gradually effective means of pacifying the Old Believer schism is the establishment of Edinoverie parishes among the schismatic population. Unfortunately, since the establishment of Edinoverie, established with the goal of uniting in the spirit of Christian love, the differences of ritual in the bosom of a single Orthodox Church, this means has rarely been used due to a misunderstanding, due to which often in the opinion of the authorities themselves, Edinoverie was not given true meaning and was considered as a cover for a schism. But recently, the Holy Synod has explained the true meaning of this institution, and now in many places, at the request of the population itself, burdened by alienation from the canonical hierarchy, co-religious parishes are being established, often with assistance for the construction of churches, with priests appointed in them, mainly from among the same population. The attitude of schismatics to the All-Russian People's Census of 1897 The first all-Russian people's census, which took place from one region to another of the Russian Empire and penetrated into its most remote and remote corners, was an extraordinary phenomenon for the people. That is why in many places in the empire it was greeted by the population with a mixture of fear, suspicion, hopes, absurd interpretations and rumors. The schismatics were especially suspicious and unfriendly towards the census. The idea of ​​the sinfulness of the census arose from the fact that the followers of “ancient piety,” as the schismatics themselves call themselves, had to register either as “schismatic” and thereby blaspheme this “piety,” or as Orthodox, and therefore, renounce their confession: both would be tantamount to apostasy from the anciently betrayed paternal faith. Regardless of this, among the followers of schismatic sects there is a strong idea that recording in metrics and in general in all kinds of documents seems like surrendering oneself to the power of the Antichrist and imposing his seal. For the schismatic imagination, already heavily occupied with the thought of the Antichrist, the last tormentor of the faithful, the rumor about the census, thus, naturally could seem to confirm terrible fears, further exacerbating these fears. In addition, some schismatic literati, according to the Tomsk Eminence, who do not disdain secular newspapers, gleaned from them news of a comet that will appear in 1899 and will supposedly collide with the earth. This news further strengthened the schismatics in the idea that the end of the world was imminent and even more intensified their anxiety. But especially strong excitement was noticed among the followers of the wandering sect, which from the very beginning of its existence was defined as an anti-social sect, denying not only the church, but also the entire existing social and state system, coming out of the extremely fanatical doctrine of the Antichrist, who reigned in the world in a succession of bearers of supreme power. One wandering family living in the Mariinsky-Chulym taiga, fearing the seal of the Antichrist, was going, according to the Reverend Tomsky, to even commit themselves to burning, and only the convictions of more well-meaning neighbors prevented this fanatical plan from being realized. Wanderers living within the Sarapul vicariate of the Vyatka diocese organized several meetings in the year of the census, the subject of which was the general census. They decided to evade the census, which they actually did. According to the report of Bishop Vyatsky, they did not allow census takers into their houses, or if they did enter, they did not say their names. Some of the figures in the census - counters and those in charge of the plots - testify that many of the wanderers and runners belonging to the sect in the Tver, Yaroslavl and Kostroma provinces eluded the census, hidden in various hiding places, undergrounds and other dens, set up in the houses of less perfect followers of the wandering sect of the so-called “residential” runners, “strangers” or “receivers”. The latter, living in the world, are obliged to give shelter to real wanderers. In Danilovsky district, for example, as is known, according to one census worker, all local residents have hospice houses every 5 miles. In two societies of the Georgievsk volost, Kineshma district, in which there is generally a fairly significant number of wanderers, the enumerator was able to see only three. According to the testimony of the Right Reverend Tomsky, some of the schismatics living in the Tomsk province also evaded the census. The most stubborn and fanatical schismatics of the Kherson diocese, in order to evade entering their names and surnames on the census forms, fled, according to the testimony of the Right Reverend of Kherson, to Romania, where they waited out the time of the census. One enumerator (4 precincts of Makaryevsky district) says that when he came to the house of a schismatic peasant, a local policeman, the latter did not let him in for a long time, and then refused to give the necessary answers, citing the fact that all the information could be obtained from the volost government. Finally, they were told that he was an Orthodox Christian, had a holy name, and the counter came from the Antichrist, but he did not want to write down his name on the Antichrist sheet; at the same time, he took his sign of a policeman and threw it with the words: “Take this aptyhrst sign, I am not his servant.” A particular difficulty in the census of followers of one sect is indicated by the head of the 5th precinct of the Varnavinsky district, testifying that it was difficult to obtain answers about the names of persons belonging to this sect, since these names are not announced to these persons until baptism occurs at the age of 30. Therefore, the census included many adults without a name, and until adolescence, almost all the children of such sectarians were recorded as boys and girls with the same patronymic. Before baptism, the name is kept in such secrecy that the family does not use it between its members, and the unbaptized are simply called “boy” and “girl.” Such schismatics did not explain the name of their sect at all; local residents call them “non-prayers,” as they reject icons and external prayer. Of all the sects, both rationalistic and mystical sectarianism, the most harmful, in church and state relations, and least amenable to missionary influence, was still the Stunda. Stundism, a distinctive feature of which is the desire for energetic and persistent propaganda of its false teachings, has significantly strengthened and expanded this activity. Sectarian ferment also affected new places where there was no idea about the shtunda before. According to the information provided by the bishops, the shtunda penetrated into the Nizhny Novgorod and Kaluga provinces. The distributor of shtunda in the Nizhny Novgorod province was one of the peasants of the village of Gorok, Vasilyevsky district, who had lived in St. Petersburg for more than 20 years. According to custom, the propagandist first of all tried to instill in people hostility towards the Orthodox Church and its clergy, and then, assuring them of the futility of following the statutes and ritual decrees of the church, he lured the Orthodox into his false teaching with the seductive thought of the ease of obtaining salvation in the Gospel, i.e. Shtunda faith. To help him, one sectarian came from the capital, with a supply of books and brochures (up to 6 pounds) of a harmful sectarian trend. The people began to move to the shtunda; although only 22 people finally or formally, through baptism, deviated into the shtunda, nevertheless, the entire village of Gorki was seduced by the preaching of the sectarians, rumors of the new faith spread through the surrounding villages and hamlets, where false teachers also appeared. In the Kaluga province, Stundism appeared in 1896 in two neighboring villages of the Kozelsky district: Ukolitsy and Sorokin. At first insignificant (only 10–15 people), the number of Stundists increased more and more, and by the end of 1896 it reached a fairly significant figure - 70 people. In the Oryol province, the shtunda received significant development in the village of Glybochka, Trubchevsky district. The culprits of its spread turned out to be three peasants from the village of Glybochki, who were brought to legal responsibility for this. In the southwestern region, in some areas, the shtunda flared up again and was expressed in a significant number of apostasies from Orthodoxy. Among the Orenburg Cossacks until 1895 there were no adherents of rationalist sects, and in 1896 the eparch. The missionary in one of the villages found up to 8 families who accepted the Stundo-Baptist teaching. The old rationalist sects provide particularly favorable ground for the propaganda of Stundo-Baptism. The shtunda had a special effect on the Molokan sect; although in essence it differs little from Stundism, it introduces a new stream of spirit into Molokan gatherings, replacing their previous monotony and monotony. In 189 5/6, a special commission, which carefully examined, on behalf of the Tauride diocesan authorities, Molokanism in the Tauride diocese, found that two of the 6 sects into which Molokanism was divided in this diocese, namely the 2nd Don sect and the Baptist sect, should be recognized as Shtund and that the first Don sect in the village also merged almost completely with the latter. Astrakhan. In the Tauride diocese, even the centuries-old pillars of Molokanism are going over to the side of Stundism and transferring their capital and influence here; Their example is followed by the rest of the Molokans, who have long been accustomed to seeing them as leaders in matters of faith and in public life. The same is observed among the Molokans of the Samara province, and in the Nikolaev district the shtunda took root in the form of evangelism, and in Novouzensky in the form of Baptistism. The propaganda of the Stundists is successful not only among rationalist sects, but also mystical ones, such as among the Khlys of the Kherson diocese. As before, the main leaders in uniting and strengthening the Stundists and in spreading the Stunda among the Russian population were the Baptist Germans. According to the testimony of the Kherson Eminence, the German Baptists living in the Kherson province are still in the closest unity with the Russian Stundists. Stundism, which arose in 1895 in the Simferopol district, Tauride diocese, owes its appearance and spread to one German. The reason for the stability of the shtunda in the village of Petro-Pavlovka in the same Tauride province is also the German colony located near this village, which serves as a collection point for the stunda. According to the testimony of His Eminence Volynsky, in the area of ​​Kremenets and Ostrozh districts. Stunda developed to a large extent between peasants, and also under the influence of German colonists. In the village of Taykurge, Ostrog district, the total number of German Baptists is equal to the number of the Orthodox population of the named place. With frequent relations with Orthodox Christians, the colonists try to explain their teachings to them, while condemning the Orthodox faith. The ways in which the shtunda spreads are varied, and the sectarians do not stop at the same methods of propaganda they previously practiced, but invent new ones. The main means of propaganda were their public prayer meetings, at which sectarians feel like members of one fraternal family, songs and exalted prayers greatly excite their spirit; there the sectarian hears about himself that he is “a lamp for the world, who should shed the radiant light of the Gospel truth in the darkness of ignorance.” Without these meetings, according to the sectarians’ own consciousness, their spirit falls. Free speeches and teachings, deep sighs, tears and various actions, supposedly performed at the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, that accompany Stundist prayers make a strong impression on those who attend them, and sometimes in large numbers, Orthodox Christians. In order to avoid legal prosecution for these meetings, prohibited by the law of July 4, 1894, the Stundists began to classify themselves as followers of other recognized sects, mainly Baptists. The fanaticism of propaganda often reaches the point that it does not hesitate to buy the conscience and souls of the poor with money. According to the testimony of His Eminence of Kherson, the Stundists of the village of Muzykinykh Khutor, Kherson district, give the Orthodox a lot of money for moving to the Stunda. The Rikkenaus sectarian community (Tauria diocese) gave everyone who joined the sect an allowance of 7 rubles per month. The importance of material assistance in spreading the shtunda can be seen in the development of the shtunda in Sevastopol. The Stundists are led by a rich man who has huge vegetable gardens. Those who come to work for him immediately become financially dependent on him, from which they are released only upon transfer to the stunda, with their material well-being ensured. In many places of the Kherson diocese, sectarians maintain mills and forges, and skillfully use the crowds of people there for propaganda purposes. In Elizavetgrad, some conduct propaganda in taverns, especially when people gather there on Sundays and holidays; others disguised as ragpickers. grinders and similar persons, conduct propaganda in the crowded market, as well as in local factories, sometimes using the following insidious trick: one of them deliberately poses as a defender of the Orthodox Church, but defends it, of course, in such a way that the Shtunda seems more right than Orthodoxy. Propaganda also uses literature and school for its purposes. Among the literate Russian people, even in the most remote outskirts, various publications are beginning to spread, introducing a non-Orthodox worldview to the people. Printed Stundist brochures and leaflets from the foreign publication of the International Tract Society, sent directly from Hamburg by mail, are distributed. In Tulcea (in Romania), an administrative center of Stundo-Baptism was formed, publishing two special sectarian magazines. In the village of Novoselovka, Elizavetgrad district, the village clerk, who later turned out to be a secret Stundist, opened a literacy school with 20 students in 1895 and began to instill Stundist ideas in those studying at this school; this school was subsequently closed, but instead a secret school was opened in the same village in the house of another Stundist; similar attempts were found in other places. The most acute period of sectarian excitement and ferment falls in 1896 and precisely in the months preceding the Coronation of Your Imperial Majesty, when agitators dissolved among the sectarian masses and among the Orthodox population dark rumors that in the new reign all restrictive laws on sectarians would be abolished, the faith of sectarians would be recognized by the highest authority as right and all sectarians would be granted full freedom to openly profess and propagate one's beliefs. In the Taurida diocese, one Shtundo-Baptist even spread a daring rumor that the Empress and Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich belonged to the Baptist sect, to which, allegedly, 300 Orthodox pastors had also joined. The belief in obtaining freedom of religion during the reign of Your Imperial Majesty was unfortunately supported by sectarians and other persons from the highest and supposedly educated circle who sympathized with them. It is known, for example, that in the spring of 1896, the leaders of the Shtunda of the southwestern region went to St. Petersburg, had meetings with the local Pashkovites and, having returned, breathed false hopes into the dark masses with stories that “we are a great force,” that they “bachili (saw) richly in St. Petersburg brothers from the lords and counts” and that “these brothers said that you will hold on a little, and He will take your water there.” It is not surprising that, excited by such stories, the Stundists adopted a defiant tone not only towards the Orthodox population and clergy, but also towards the authorities, and began to gather not only secretly for their prayers, but also openly. There were many cases of public display of sectarianism, such as religious processions in the streets with singing, open propaganda of sectarianism, and mockery of Orthodoxy. According to the testimony of the Eminences, among the followers of various sects there are now more and more sectarians who deny the inspiration of the Holy Scriptures, retaining from it only what they like and what is suitable for justifying their mutual relations, as well as their relations to society and the political system. It is not surprising that with such an attitude of sectarians towards the word of God, people appear among them who distort the teaching of the word of God about the most important subjects of Christian doctrine and morality. As a result of the same negative attitude towards the sources of Christian doctrine, in many places among sectarians one notices the manifestation of even purely atheistic ideas expressed by them publicly. According to the testimony of one missionary priest cited by the Eminence of Kherson, among the Stundists of the Kherson diocese there are many people who are not believers at all, who do not, as they say to themselves, belong to any religion. In Chigirin, Kyiv province, the Stundists teach that one should believe only one of the laws of nature, which are always unchangeable and eternal, and that man should strive for what nature requires. The above-mentioned new direction in our sectarianism, according to the testimony of His Eminence of Kherson, is being developed and supported not by simple sectarians, but by intelligent persons. The latter, apparently, would like to unite and formalize the dogmatic instability and religious diversity of opinions that dominates the positive teaching of the Shtunda. In these, one might think, types of unification of Stund talk, in recent years, handwritten anonymous works, undoubtedly belonging to intelligent authors, began to appear in the hands of advanced Stundists, in the form of religious sectarian treatises in a popular and even popular presentation. Some of these works contain a confession of faith in the spirit of the mentioned movement, while others are popular commentaries on the Holy Scriptures, or allegorical stories in the biblical spirit, as well as apologies for rationalistic sectarianism. The latter were compiled on the basis of tendentiously selected places from those especially revered by the people of St. fathers and teachers of the church: John Chrysostom, Tikhon of Zadonsk, etc., which is all, apparently, designed for the trust of Russian literati in this type of works. In the religious direction, these works have the task of introducing into the consciousness of the common people not only anti-church and anti-Orthodox, but also directly anti-Christian views on the Divine, the world and man. But these sectarian treatises are not limited to the area of ​​faith, but stop the people’s thoughts on issues of a purely social, social and state order and resolve them, although apparently on religious grounds, through a number of references to biblical texts, but in the spirit of socialism and not even hidden everywhere. Questions about the welfare of all people, freedom, equality, fraternity, authorities, state duties, the oath, war and courts are especially often touched upon in these works and tendentiously resolved. The results of the religious sectarian anarchist teaching, set forth in these manuscript works and increasingly penetrating into the sectarian environment, are extremely sad. How great the danger is for the Church and the state, which threatens the persistent attempts of intelligent sectarianism to become leaders of followers of existing sects who have broken away from Orthodoxy, was clearly shown by a well-known movement among the Transcaucasian Doukhobors, who formed a criminal anarchic society (the fasting party), which refused to recognize the supreme power of the tsar, to obey the authorities appointed by him, denying government institutions, laws, etc. Those sad fruits that the Transcaucasian Doukhobor anarchy marked itself are beginning to affect other sects. Cooling down towards religious issues, sectarians, as established at the Kharkov Diocesan Missionary Congress, take a socialist and nihilistic approach. Deep social fermentation is also occurring among some Tambov Molokans under the influence of various handwritten books circulating among them. By their internal make-up, these sectarians are hostile to the existing order. “There should be no power,” these Molokans say, because power is violence. Initially, in the Church of Christ everyone was equal; there were no bosses then. It’s not good, they say further, that kings act when they start a war, they only shed blood in vain.” They express their view of social relations as follows: “God gave the earth to the entire human race for common use. It is only because of human malice that the order appointed by God has changed and now only gentlemen use the land, while all others look at the land from the hands of others.” Unfortunately, far from all of the authorities, as well as of the writers who guide the opinion of society in literature, either out of ignorance or out of prejudiced opinion, are aware of the danger to public order from the spread of these teachings among the people. Others are even inclined to glorify notorious propagandists of anarchist teachings, in the name of imaginary freedom of belief, or to present them as sufferers for this freedom. Anti-government movement among the Doukhobor-fasters The Doukhobor-fasters continued to persist in the anti-government movement that arose among them, which sharply manifested itself in 1895. Particularly strong anarchic ferment among the Doukhobors manifested itself in 1896. At the beginning of 1896, the Doukhobors sat down. The Slavs of the Elizavetpol province put up armed resistance to the bailiff of the Dzegamsky world district Ter Azaryev and the local police bailiff Astsaturov. In the Kara region they refused to perform horse duties. About the emergence of a new sect in the Astrakhan province In 1896, in the village of Verkhne-Akhtubinskoye, Astrakhan province, rumors began to spread about the imminent end of the world and the reign of the Antichrist. An investigation carried out by the Astrakhan Gendarmerie Provincial Directorate revealed that retired non-commissioned officer Vasily Bicharov, townspeople Artemy Nesvetaev, Vasily Nesmachnev and Timofey Pustovalov and peasant Fyodor Ganchev are indeed spreading fanatical religious views, the essence of which is as follows. Nesvetaev had a revelation from above about the imminent end of the world, evidence of which was the coming to earth of the prophets Elijah, Enoch and John the Theologian, in the person of Archpriest Fr. John of Kronstadt, the priest of the Edinoverie church in the Dubovka settlement, Nikolai Blagoveshchensky, and the peasant of the village of Verkhne-Akhtubinsky, Andrei Lukyanov Cherkasov, and the accession of the Antichrist. The absurdity of the fantastic judgments of the accused served as the reason for examining them in the prescribed manner regarding their mental abilities, and although no indications of their mental disorder were received, the extremely low degree of their mental development was nevertheless revealed, thanks to which they, reading the Apocalypse, became confused in abstract truths and began to identify signs of the end of the world with current events. In conclusion, the accused stated that they “are obliged to warn the people about the imminent end of the world, that for their beliefs they will be beheaded and will not remain silent, but, on the contrary, will talk about it everywhere.” About a new anti-government sect discovered in the Yakut region In 1897, in the village of Markhe, Yakutsk region, a new anti-government sect was discovered, founded by the eunuch Philip Likhachev, who came from the peasants of the Ufa province. The confession of the new sect, set out in a handwritten book taken from Likhachev during the inquiry under the title “My Confession,” has the following main provisions: man is subject to sin from birth, his entire earthly life is one continuous sin, that is, a crime against the laws of God, requiring not only repentance, but according to the law of supreme justice, and sufficient punishment, which for a crime against God can only be death. Man, as a rational being, must impose punishment on himself. An example for people should be the Son of God, who atoned for the sins of the world with nothing other than his death on the cross, and the first real follower of Christ is Judas, who sinned against God, but repented and punished himself by hanging - a method of death especially recommended by the followers of the sect. All people, Likhachev further teaches, as those born from fornication and therefore equally sinful and worthy of death, should not, as such, serve anyone other than God. Any honor shown to a person by others is idolatry. Not a single person, due to his sinfulness and tendency to involve his own kind in sin, should have any power over the latter. This implies the denial of supreme and governmental power, allegiance and all duties towards the state. “Every person,” says Likhachev in the manuscript, “must look at this earthly world and all its established power as the kingdom of the devil and his mark, which is all kinds of laws and commands.” “I reject all representatives of this world; I do not consider leaders to be servants of God, but to be executors of satanic power.” Considering all clergy also full of sin, Likhachev denies the worship of God with their participation, while rejecting the sacraments and the Church itself. Finally, Likhachev denies family ties, as a result of sinful motives, and property, as a consequence of covetousness. The peasant Philip Likhachev, questioned at the inquiry, confirmed the teaching set out in his manuscript, explained that he himself was the creator of this teaching, with all his soul he wanted it to spread, and indeed spread it among people inclined to it. Ardent adherents of the new false teaching turned out to be four peasants from the eunuchs, exiled to the Yakut region from European Russia for self-castration. Measures to combat schism and sectarianism From the above it is clear with what difficulties and with what opposition the fight against schism and sectarianism is associated with both the central and diocesan church authorities. The concerns of the diocesan authorities are aimed at better organizing the parish mission and mainly at raising missionary knowledge and energy in the fight against the split-sectarianism of parish priests, since the success of the missionary work of admonishing the lost, protecting the Orthodox population in the parish and suppressing the further development of false teachings among parishioners mainly depends on them. In many dioceses, specially missionary diocesan and district libraries were established, and deanery and church libraries were supplied with missionary publications necessary for pastors. Periodic meetings of priests of parishes infected with sects and schism are aimed at the same goal. Such meetings began with the order of His Grace, the Metropolitan of Kyiv, on the establishment of district missionary congresses in the Kyiv diocese. These congresses, in which all dean districts, district missionaries and priests of parishes infected with sectarianism were involved, have taken place at least once or twice a year since their establishment, and at them many decisions were made that raised the cause of the fight against sectarianism (shtunda) to the proper height. Similar congresses of deaneries have also been established in the Kherson diocese for the mutual exchange of observations on local sectarianism and for conversation about means of combating it, about the better organization of church and extra-church teaching, and about strengthening pastoral influence on the people. In some dioceses, for example, Kharkov and Yekaterinoslav, diocesan congresses of missionaries were held, which touched upon many important issues of modern mission and gave a lot of important information and useful instructions. The rise and revitalization of missionary activity was also facilitated by both previously existing and newly opened in dioceses, various spiritual and educational institutions, such as church brotherhoods, missionary societies, etc. Of the newly opened missionary institutions, noteworthy are: 1) “Ufa Brotherhood of the Resurrection of Christ”, 2) Tiflis Missionary Society, 3) Kiev Missionary Department of the Religious and Educational Society, which organized and conducted polemical and apologetic interviews with local Stundists with great success. Recently (in 1895), two brotherhoods opened in the Kharkov diocese to combat local sectarianism - the Belopolsky brotherhood of zealots of the faith and the Orthodox Church, in the name of the Most Holy Theotokos and the Starobelsk Intercession brotherhood of zealots of public education in the spirit of faith and the Orthodox Church - also managed to declare themselves with beneficial and useful activities. Of these, the Belopol Brotherhood established folk readings in the parishes of the Sumy district infected with sectarianism. For greater success of the mission and uniform direction of missionary activity in the Tauride diocese, the Diocesan Missionary Committee and several district missionary committees were established. Under the first, a missionary library of books and brochures with anti-sectarian content was established, an independent missionary fund was established and a warehouse of books with religious, moral and anti-sectarian content was established. In the same Taurida diocese in 1896, the beginning was laid for the opening of parochial brotherhoods, for which the diocesan Missionary Committee developed a special charter, approved by the diocesan authorities. Among the spiritual and educational institutions should also be included the circles of zealots of Orthodoxy that have recently appeared in the villages of some dioceses. These new missionary parish institutions provide great assistance to the priest in his difficult feat of admonishing the erring members of the parish society and in protecting the faithful from temptation. In some dioceses special missionary schools have been established. This is the diocesan missionary school in the Don dioceses, opened in 1896 to prepare young people and people of mature age, from 22 to 40 years old, to conduct missionary work against the Old Believer schism and heresies within the Don diocese. Those who complete the full three-year course of this school are destined for: fellow believers to clergy and clergy positions in Edinoverie parishes, and Orthodox Christians for missionary positions in the diocese, that is, for the positions of independent missionaries or missionary assistants. The missionary psalm school existing in the Tambov diocese prepares students for psalm activities and at the same time gives future clergy the necessary knowledge to expose schism and sectarianism; there is a need for this for the lower members of the clergy, because regarding religious issues and perplexities, schismatics and sectarians are closer to the lower members of the clergy and are more willing to enter into conversation with them than with the priests. The effect of parochial schools on the younger generation is especially beneficial and successful in this regard; Women's church schools are especially important for this. By educating girls in the spirit of faith and the Orthodox Church, these schools thereby prepare the best missionaries for the peasant family. The Department of Missionary Sciences (history and analysis of Western confessions and the history and denunciation of the Russian schism, sciences that were previously special subjects of the historical group in theological academies) was introduced by order of the Holy Synod into the number of compulsory subjects of the academic course. In second-class schools opened in areas infected with schism, the teaching of general information about the schism and local sects is introduced. The Third All-Russian Congress of anti-schism and anti-sectarian missionaries, convened in the summer of 1897 in Kazan, also by order of the highest spiritual authority, to clarify the current state of schism and sectarianism and to find the most appropriate ways of missionary struggle against both, is an outstanding event in church and public life. This congress was blessed by your Imperial Majesty's highest greetings and good wishes for the success of the preaching. He touched upon many issues of paramount church and state importance. Missionary specialists from all over Russia who gathered at the congress found out exact data regarding the nature of the teaching and life of the most important, most attracting attention for some reason, schismatic talk and mystical-rationalistic sects; the methodology of interviews with the erring was carefully studied and measures and methods of educational action of the mission were found, which boil down mainly to the establishment of missions and the revitalization of pastoral missionary work, to the school and educational preparation of candidates for the priesthood for missionary service.