ALTAI RUSSIA: ON THE HISTORY OF NATIONAL RESISTANCE TO THE DISCRIMINATION “ANTIRASKOL” POLICY OF THE IMPERIAL REGIME

Abstract

On the basis of modern methodological positions, the article highlights the unique historical experience of the formation of a large territorial community of “bricklayers” in the mountainous areas of the Russian Altai, the system-forming core of which was the peasants migrated from northern Russian regions who were Orthodox believers in their religion. The purpose of the study is to emphasize the importance of freedom as a basic ideological value, organically inherent in this ethno-confessional community and allowing them to successfully operate in adverse political conditions. Emphasizing the love of freedom of the founding fathers of Altai Russia, the author argues that it is this quality of human capital of the Russian Old Believers that allowed them not only to withstand the long-term opposition to the expansion of the serf regime, but it also allowed to develop their economies in a market-oriented, entrepreneurial manner. Special attention is paid to the economic success of this people’s colony, the principles of organization of local self-government, collectivist relationships, lifestyles, culture and morality of the peasant Old Believers of Altai Russia. In the final section of the article, the author dwells on the final results of this phenomenal experiment and formulates the conclusion that the resistance of the Altai pioneers to the discriminatory policy of the imperial regime was not fruitless. The will to freedom helped them to maintain their relative autonomy as an autonomous communal-volost territory, which subsequently existed in fact outside the jurisdiction of the mining and imperial department.