The Russian Diaspora in Mongolia: Stages of the Formation of Frontier Religiosity

Abstract

This article, on the problem of religiosity in frontier communities, examines the transformation of ethnic Russian religiosity in Mongolia. In tracing how change in borders can affect religious identity, we find that a community existing under conditions of a constantly changing border most likely cannot preserve a religious tradition. With the end of the imperial period in Russia’s history, Orthodoxy became simply an element of collective memory, determining identity for ethnic Russians permanently residing in Mongolia. For this reason, the author introduces for scholarly circulation the concept of “memory of Orthodoxy.” It assumes a set of commemorative practices without church-going and without the church as a formal institution. Such lacuna led to a specific type of frontier religiosity, reliant on two or three traditions. Dual-faith and triple-faith are widespread phenomena among peoples of Inner Asia, often expressed as a combination of Buddhism and shamanism. Ethnic Russian colonization of Mongolia, launched from eastern Siberia where such practices were widely prevalent, led to their entrenchment. Cultural borrowings from the Mongols were not limited to religion alone; they involved language and everyday life. Russian identity was refined, as Russians became “local Russians” and then simply “locals.” The tie to local traditions and to the border as a resource opened new opportunities for a broader choice of confessions. The chronological span of the research encompasses the ethnic Russian diaspora in Mongolia from the late nineteenth century to the early twenty-first.