Formation and Development of the Barnaul Spiritual Government (BSG) Parish System in the Second Half of 18th — Early 19th Centuries

Abstract

This article examines the issues of the parish’s system formation of the Barnaul Spiritual Government (BSG) in the second half of the 18th — early 19th centuries. The work is aimed at restoring the list of settlements (constituent parts of the BSG parishes), as well as at constructing parish boundaries using a GIS model and also analyzing the dynamics of the number and composition of settlements (constituent parts of parishes). It is concluded that there were several types of parishes in the BSG (formed in 1750): at factories (7), at mines (1), rural (13), at military fortifications (3), urban (6). Parishes at military fortifications appear among the very first, some of them were formed before the formation of the BSG. Factory parishes and communities at the mines were formed by the end of the 1760s. The chronology of the rural parish’s formation is the widest — starting from the first half of the 18 century and up to the 1780s. The process of the parish’s emergence was largely due to the policy of developing the metallurgical industry in the region, as well as active colonization.
 According to the data for 1755, there were 242 settlements in the BSG, for 1780 — 385, for 1800 — 619, for 1820 — 780, for 1829 — 545. The number of parishes was also not stable — the network was finally formed by 1787 in the number of 23 communities. Only in 1829 their composition was reduced to 16. At the initial stage of the BSG work, there were also parishes within the boundaries of only one locality. The record holders for the maximum number of objects were communities with centers in the villages of Chingis (99) and Beloyarsk (98).