The Orthodox Church and the peasantry in the Tomsk province in the XIXth - early XXth century

In the article the problem of the relationship between the Russian Orthodox Church and the peasantry in the Tomsk province in the 19^th - early 20^th centuries is considered. A notion is given of the religious mentality of the rural population, the activity of the parish life, the relationship between the Church hierarchy and the peasantry. Orthodox periodicals, statistical publications, works of the famous historian and ethnographer Prince N. Kostrov are the research sources. In the 19^th - early 20^th centuries peasants made up the largest part of the population of the Russian empire. In 1885 peasants made up 78,16%, and in 1912 - 84,77% of the population of the Tomsk province. The population of Siberia, staying far from the center of the country, and due to slack control on the part of State and Church authorities, had been comparatively indifferent to the Orthodox Church. At the same time, rural population preserved its tradition and culture in the 19^th - early 20^th centuries. However its faith differed from the official Christian doctrine, and was mingled with superstition and magic. The local population did not know the Church doctrine well enough, and used self-made prayers and apocryphal stories. Part of the rural population openly or covertly supported the Old believers. However the influence of the Old believers depended on their number in the area. Crudeness and ignorance were gradually surpassed by the instillation of civilization and culture among the population. Orthodox Church took part in educational and charitable activity establishing parish schools, charity institutions, delivering lectures. Conservative populism, which existed among the Russian clergy, as well as the conservatives in the Russian empire, was an important feature characterizing the attitude of the Church towards the rural population. The following conclusions were drawn: 1) Church regarded peasantry as the bearer of the Czarist and Orthodox traditions, despite the corrupting propaganda of the liberal intelligentsia; 2) However peasantry lacked comprehension of the conservative ideology. Therefore the hopes of the Church hierarchy and the part of politically active clergy that regarded peasantry as a force patriarchal and true to the Church did not come true.

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