Establishment and Activities of Parish Guardianships in the Territory of Tomsk Diocese.

A civil society suggests the activities of voluntary associations without a direct interference of the state. However, the historicalrealities of the Russian Empire at the turn of the 20th century do not allow us to find institutions that would be totally independent of the state.There were associations with a relatively high level of self-organization and self-governance, but they were either initiated by the governmentor controlled or partly financed by the state. At that time it was characteristic for the Russian Orthodox Church also where parishguardianships, a prototype of autonomous institutions of self-government, began to be established at the lowest structures, such as parishcommunities. Their establishment was spurred by the government's initiative. In the 1860s within the activities of the Special Committee forthe Amelioration of Clergymen's Well-Being, established on June 18, 1862, the "Statute on Parish Guardianships of Orthodox Churches"was developed. It was signed into law on August 2, 1864. A special place in the activities of the guardianships belonged to the struggle withpoverty and beggary. Much money was spent on the renovation of the existing churches and chapels and the construction of new ones. Specialattention was paid to the conditions in parish schools and the building of new schools not only in the center of the parish, but also in thenearby villages (expenses were sometimes up to 50 % of guardianships' revenues). At the beginning of the 20th century much attention waspaid to the development of the movement for sobriety, in Mariinsk attention was paid to the struggle with card games. Besides, guardianshipspaid special attention to the measures aimed at helping the victims of natural calamities, such as fires, and anti-epidemic measures in theirparishes, provinces and the whole of the country. Ideally, guardianships were to become a link in the overarching system of public influenceon the development of a concrete parish which often united several villages. The experience of the development of parish guardianships inTomsk Province in the late 19th - early 20th century allows us to trace the general tendency to a greater role of public in the life of the countryand concrete localities which was interrupted by the World War I and the revolutionary events of 1917.

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