Abstract
The article studies the religious policy of the Russian government in the Early Modern era. It reviews some latest domestic historiographic sources dealing with irregular troops in the service of Russia, including Cossack ones, identifies most significant topics and segments of respective studies, characterizes the role assigned by contemporary historians to the mentioned military units within campaigns for the defense and development of peripheral lands. The work provides an insight into ethnoconfessional issues of emerging Cossack communities that was quite a concern for authorities. It resumes that there is enough historiographic evidence to conclude that throughout the 18th century the authorities seriously feared Cossack Old Believers might revolt and sought to reduce the threat establishing new Cossack-ranked units consisting of Buddhists, Muslims, and representatives of other ethnic groups culturally and mentally resistant to ides of Old Believers.
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