Based on the materials of Vladimir and Ryazan provinces, the influence of mentality and religious beliefs of rural population on zemstvo insurance institute in the 2nd half of the 19th – the early 20th century is analysed in the article. Zemstvos not only insured movable and immovable property from fire, or cattle against various diseases, or fields and crops against natural calamities, but they also carried out mass fire-fighting activities – including planning settlements, planting trees, digging wells, embanking, buying fire-fighting equipment, developing fire-resistant construction. However, sometimes zemstvos failed to involve peasants in insurance operations. Peasants tried to keep their houses, cattle and crops at any cost, but, instead of insuring fields and crops, they often “dissolved” in the depth of religious beliefs and various prejudices. Based on the analysis of a wide range of sources, especially archival ones, zemstvo insurance activity within the territory of Vladimir and Ryazan provinces is studied in the article. The authors conclude that religious beliefs, along with prejudices, still played an important role in the life of rural people of that time, and insurance was viewed by peasants mainly through the prism of different superstitious beliefs.