Orthodox Transfer on the Eastern Outskirts of the Empire: a Brief Historical Review of the Newspaper Diocesan Gazette

Abstract

The article examines the history of the creation and activity of the Orthodox press of Eastern Siberia in the second half of the XIXth century, defines its goals and objectives, and provides a brief comparative analysis of the newspaper Diocesan Gazette of the Irkutsk, Yenisei, Yakut and Trans-Baikal dioceses. We note that despite the widespread involvement of the materials of the diocesan press by modern humanities as a multifunctional historical source and an element of scientific tools, one of the gaps seems to be the study of the intellectual component of the diocesan press in the life of East Siberian society, which necessitated the appeal to the stated topic. The purpose of the study is the process of formation and evolution of the newspaper Diocesan Gazette. We determine that despite the regulated algorithm, a variety of historical and ethnographic material was published on the pages of Orthodox publications, including translations in the languages of local ethnic groups. The potential of the provincial clergy of Eastern Siberia provided opportunities for staffing the editorial body and author collectives, and the elite of the clergy of the dioceses was represented as part of the editors-in-chief: theologians, writers, local historians. We draw a conclusion that Orthodox publications, namely the East Siberian newspaper Diocesan Gazette was a center of enlightenment, a platform for polemics and discussions on topical issues of public thought. An appeal to the composition and content of the issues provides extensive research opportunities for reconstructing the everyday life of the East Siberian province of the second half of the XIXth – early XXth centuries.