The Church as a Center for the Integration of Confessional Groups in Verkhneudinsk in the Second Half of the 19th and Early 20th Centuries

The article examines the integrative role of the Orthodox Church in the life of the city of Verkhneudinsk and its residents – representatives of various nationalities and confessions — during the second half of the nineteenth and the early twentieth centuries. In light of the state’s religious policy of the nineteenth century, Old Be-lievers were restricted in their ability to reside in urban areas, a fact reflected in the confessional structure of Verkhneudinsk during the period under study. Despite the confessional heterogeneity of the city’s population, there were no conflicts on ethnic or religious grounds during this time. Religious communities played a particularly important role in consolidating members of national minority groups. By comprehensively regulating the lives of their members, religious communities served as a source of support and a unifying core. Religion, regardless of national or confessional affilia-tion, played a significant role in the lives of the urban population. In the process of forming stable confessional associations, religious institutions functioned as a decisive and im-portant internal unifying factor. The church served as a center of activity for national associations, a factor of iden-tification and, consequently, of differentiation.