State-confessional policy of the provisional siberian governments (1917-1919)

Abstract

The study is devoted to identifying the features of the state-confessional policy of the provisional governments that functioned in Siberia in 1917-1919.

The source base of the research was made up of archival storage materials from the funds of mainly the Russian State Historical Archive of the Far East (Vladivostok), as well as the Historical Archive of the Omsk Region (Omsk). Previously unexplored materials of the archival storage of the Russian State Historical Archive of the Far East have been introduced into scientific circulation.

The research methodology is determined by the specifics of the analyzed array of documentary materials and includes methods of content analysis, comparison, synthesis and generalization.

The object of the study was the state-confessional policy of the provisional Siberian governments during the revolutionary transformations of the early twentieth century.

The analysis of the historical experience of interaction between secular and religious structures in Russia has a special relevance in the process of implementing the state national policy.

Conclusions are drawn about the main directions of state-confessional interactions, the dynamics and continuity of the religious policy of the provisional governments of Siberia are characterized. It is established that the main strategy of the provisional Siberian governments, which dynamically emerged and replaced each other a century ago, in relation to religious ideology and religious institutions was based on the traditions of secular power established in the history of the Russian state and, unlike the policy of the Soviet government, did not imply the abolition of religious institutions; on the contrary, it was planned to use the ideological potential of religious leaders in order to justify the legitimization of their own activities.