Ilya Alexandrovich Shipilov,
Candidate of Historical Sciences, Institute of History of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, Russia, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
The Orthodox Population of Siberia in the 18th Century in the Works of Academic and Government Expeditions’ Participants
DOI: 10.31518/2618-9100-2022-2-9
The article is written based on complex analysis of scientific works and materials of participants of expedition (organized by D.G. Messerschmidt (1719–1727) and academician J.‑N. De L’Isle (1740), as well as “physical” (1768–1774), Second Kamchatka (1733–1743) and North-Eastern geographical and astronomical (1785–1795) expeditions) dealing with the Orthodox population of Siberia. Such an analysis made it possible to represent the geographic and ethnographic dynamics of Orthodox Christianity in the region. Author used cognitive means of the “imperial paradigm” in order to consider the process of Christianization of the indigenous peoples of Siberia, its coverage in the works of the expedition participants as a component of the cultural policy of the Russian Empire that correlates with Enlightenment. As shown in the research, academic and government expeditions to Siberia were one of the most effective means of realization and correction this policy. Assistance and direct participation of travelers in Orthodox christening and Enlightenment of Siberian ethnic groups, special aspects of the perception of the new religion by indigenous people and the attitude to the values of civilization was studied from the standpoint of “anthropological” and “pragmatic” methodological turns. It was established that the expedition’s participants, representing various directions of Christianity, demonstrated exemplary religious tolerance in spreading Orthodoxy and Enlightenment among the local population of Siberia. Travelers recorded the penetration of Orthodox Christianity in the 18th century to most regions of Siberia and the flock’s multi-ethnic composition. It was concluded that the cases of non-acceptance of the new faith and the religious syncretism of the aborigines noted by the researchers, doe to the peculiarities of the cultures and ecologies of ethnic groups, the spread of Islam and Buddhism in Siberia, required the continuation and correction of the confessional and cultural policy of Russia in the region.
Publishing: 28/04/2022
The article has been received by the editor on 14.03.2022
How to cite: Shipilov I.A. The Orthodox Population of Siberia in the 18th Century in the Works of Academic and Government Expeditions’ Participants // Historical Courier, 2022, No. 2 (22), pp. 141–157. [Available online: http://istkurier.ru/data/2022/ISTKURIER-2022-2-09.pdf]
Links: Issue 2 2022
Keywords: Siberia in the 18th century, cultural policy of the Russian Empire, academic and government expeditions, Christianization, the Orthodox population of Siberia, Siberian aborigines, religious picture of the world, world religions in Siberia