REGULATORY LEGAL ACTS OF THE CHRISTIANIZING POLICY OF TSARISM: ORDER OF SEPTEMBER 11, 1740

Abstract

The article analyzes one of the important legal acts of the XVIII century – the Decree of september 11, 1740, which defined the activities of a special institute of missionaries under the leadership of Archimandrite Dmitry Sechenov on the conversion to Orthodoxy of «non-believers» of various provinces of the Russian Empire. As a result of the implementation of the decree main provisions, the Commission of Novokreschen Affairs, which had been operating in the Kazan diocese since 1731, was reorganized into the Novokreschen Office. The baptism of Chuvash, Mari, Mordvins, Udmurts, Tatars has become widespread. The establishment of absolutism and the proclamation of the empire required the adjustment of the national and religious policy of the Russian autocracy. The main attention was paid to the Middle Volga region as a region located in the central part of the state. Although the law regulated the measures of baptism of all «Kazan gentiles», but it was aimed primarily at curbing the influence of Islam, gradual ethno-confessional unification of the population. The decree of September 11, 1740 has an ambiguous assessment in the literature, but it played a significant role in the transformation of the spiritual culture of the peoples of Russia.