Orthodox parish schools in the natural landscape and infrastructure of Tomsk Uezd: Digital mapping as a tool for source information synthesis

This article presents a pilot study on the application of digital cartography to the analysis of parish school infrastructure. By utilizing cartographic data, administrative records, statistical sources, and eparchy periodicals, the study has identified patterns in the distribution of parish schools within the 2nd Deanery of the Tomsk Eparchy at the turn of the 20th century. It also raises the question of the "visibility" to church authorities of those areas within the deanery that lay beyond the developed transport network of the Lower Tom River basin. An analysis of these sources yielded geodata, ranging from the names of localities covering dozens or hundreds of square kilometers to toponyms with more or less precise coordinates. The pilot use of GIS for mapping the parish school network has led to the following conclusions. Firstly, it revealed dependencies in their locations and provided an understanding of the motivations behind the eparchy authorities' decisions to allocate funds for school establishment and to assign clergy and missionaries. Secondly, the activities of parish schools could not be focused solely on promoting literacy, as this was hindered by the varying micro-regional contexts of their operation. In the future, by combining the factors examined with data on the career and educational backgrounds of the clergy and the economic conditions of settlements, and by incorporating time-series analysis, it will be possible to identify new correlations and refine our understanding of how the institution of the parish school adapted to the specific conditions of different localities. This approach helps to overcome the fragmentation inherent in the multitude of historical source types. The author declares no conflicts of interests.

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