The highest hierarchs of the Russian Orthodox Church: graduates of the Kiev Academy in Siberia in the 18th and in the first half of the 19th centuries

The article represents the variety of opinions on the activity of the highest hierarchs, graduates of the Kiev Academy, in Siberia in the 18th and in the first half of the 19th century. The incorporation of Siberia into the Moscow State was not just the increase of the territory of the country, but also the time of penetration of the Russian Orthodox Church into the lands of the pagans, Muslims and Buddhists. The Orthodox clergymen aimed not only at converting the non-Russians into Christianity, but also at maintaining Christian values and morals among the Slavic population. It was especially important to preserve the unity and the structure of the Orthodox clergy. The ideas of the graduates of the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy regarding the structure of the clergy life and the interaction between the lay and the clerical powers were formed in the society which for a number of centuries developed as the Polish-Lithuanian state and adapted to the realities of the Russian Empire. Coming to the Siberian stand they, as a rule, were accused of excessive violence to other clergymen and to the congregation, of excessive claims to the local representatives of the government, of excessive opposition to the secularization of the church lands. Were they really so much violent and alien in comparison with their Russian predecessors and contemporaries? Or was, on the contrary, their activity quite in correspondence with the state policy? Recent studies make adjustments to traditional assessment and stereotypes. One can write about the approximate parity of the role of the Little Russians and the Russians in church life. Both cohorts did not represent real communities, each of the existing church-based groups was multiethnic, which did not repeal the awareness of ethnic differences. Linguistic and cultural specificity of the Little Russians was determined by the peculiarities of speech, the details of biographies and relative-client ties. The history of the hierarchs of the Russian Orthodox Church in Siberia, graduates of the Kiev Academy, is a reflection of the policy of state power, the essence of which was to demonstrate the advantages of a great career and, at times, provision of special favor to Ruthenian clergy. As a result, graduates of the Kiev Academy were integrated into the Russian Orthodox Church. The 18th and the first half of the 19th century was a long process of formation of the Empire's identity, which superseded the ethnic one. The author of the article analyzes the historical material, gives a new interpretation to the sources and tries to give objective characteristics of the personalities of the top hierarchs, graduates of the Kiev Academy in Siberia, and of their activity.

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