MISSIONARY ACTIVITIES IN THE TERRITORY OF THE DON TROOPS IN THE 1870s: FROM CONTEXT TO SOURCE ANALYSIS

The presented article characterizes the complex process of confessional interaction in the Don cossack Region, which has traditionally been a contact zone for differentiated religious groups, including those representing certain areas of christian doctrine. A comprehensive study of a wide range of regional sources and the previous historiographic tradition made it possible to establish that the long-term communication practices of local confessions contributed to the consistent formation of social tolerance and conscious religious tolerance, based on the long traditions of internal democracy of the cossack communities. The tolerant environment determined the systemic development of missionary activity, carried out in various intellectual and organizational forms and involving a wide range of interested persons of various faiths. At the same time, despite the religious and confessional diversity, only Orthodoxy had an official status, which in most cases determined the standard samples of behavioral and ideological stereotypes. Orthodox priests actively used the administrative resource and social influence for the comprehensive achievement of missionary goals. An alternative interpretation of the practical activities of the Don missionaries, presented in the epistolary heritage of local Old Believers, is also of considerable interest. Special attention was paid to the epistemological features of documentary and narrative sources reflecting confessional interaction in social reality in the second half of the 19^th century. A structural analysis of the historical evidence under consideration, supplemented by comparative practices, made it possible to establish a deliberate exclusion of authentic empirical material, carried out within the framework of the author’s edition and aimed at artificially forming a positive image of an Orthodox missionary. The presented results of textual analysis, which made it possible to clearly verify the structural and content features of missionary interviews, including differentiated theological and social aspects, are also of considerable interest.

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