Materials of the Russian State Historical Archive of Far East on the Confessional Policy of Provisional Siberian Governments of 1917-1919

Abstract

The relevance of the study is due to the practical need to study the historical experience of interaction between secular and religious structures in Russia in the process of implementing state national policy. The article analyzes the problem of building state-confessional relations in the Siberian region at a turning point - during the civil war. Attention is paid to the religious policy of the provisional Siberian governments during the revolutionary transformations of the early 20th century. The results of a comparative analysis of the implementation peculiarities of the religious policy by successively different governments during 1917-1919 are presented. The novelty of the research lies both in the topic itself and in the previously unexplored source base. Previously unexplored materials from the archival storage of the Russian State Historical Archive of the Far East (RSHA FE) have been put into circulation. The implementation of the research concept was facilitated by historical-comparative, comparative, analytical research methods. The results achieved in the process of analyzing the documents of the archival storage of the Russian State Historical Archive of the Far East indicate the pragmatic approach of the provisional Siberian governments to issues of ideology, including religious. The conclusion is made about the striving of the provisional governments to subordinate religious structures to the interests of the secular authorities.