Lifeway and traditions of Russians in the process of forming the religious landscape of the Far Eastern frontier (based on the materials of publications of A. V. Kirillov)

Abstract

The article raises the problem of studying the religious landscape of the Far Eastern Frontier. The theoretical part of the study is based on the works of landscape science specialists and on conceptual provisions on the topic of the frontier. Also, when preparing the article, literature related to the key stages of resettlement and settlement of Russians in the Amur region was used.

The sources of the study were published articles, books, and diary notes of the first Amur regional historian A. V. Kirillov.

In conclusion, several provisions are formulated regarding the specifics of the formation of the religious landscape of the Far Eastern borderland. The religious landscape of the Far Eastern borderland was formed taking into account the ethno-confessional diversity of settlers and the local population. The concept of “religious landscape” correlates with the concept of “religious situation”; when studying the religious landscape, it is worth paying attention to the transformation of the surrounding space taking into account the religious worldview and ritual activities of believing individuals and groups. Russian settlers in the mid-19^th century in the conditions of the frontier encountered the sacred topoi of local peoples and began landscape transformations taking into account their own traditions. In addition to the construction of churches, which became a marker of the presence of Russian Orthodoxy in the region, adaptation to a new place was carried out through the reproduction of ritual actions learned from ancestors. Ritual activity contributed to the understanding of the new living environment as “one's own”, made it more understandable and safe.