MISSIONARY ACTIVITIES OF RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH IN YAKUTIA (XVII - EARLY XX TH CENTURIES)

The article is devoted the history of the missionary work in one of the northern parts of the Russian state. The author analyzes the major directions of the state-church policy in the Yakutsk region, points out the main stages of the missionary activity (preachers, hiking church mission) and considers the relationship of religion and state representatives of local civil authorities and shamans. There are emphasized the objective and subjective difficulties of the missionary service in Yakutia, including the severe climate, considerable territorial space, low population density with a different mentality within the most nomadic or semi-nomadic lifestyle.Main attention is paid to the Christianization of the Chukchi. The author concludes that the missionary in the Yakut region has come a long way of development, its most effective solutions were worked out during the practical activity and at the beginning of the XXth century there was developed a unified nation-wide integrated system. In the conditions of Yakutia the missionary activity of the spiritual department became one of the integrators of incorporation into the Russian state.

missionary activities, Orthodoxy, baptism, Yakut region, the Yakut, tribute, ambulatory church, missionary