The Activities of the Lesninsky Holy Mother of God Convent as an Outpost of Orthodoxy in the North-Western Outskirts of the Russian Empire at the end of the 19th – beginning of the 20th centuries

The article examines the activities of the Lesninsky Holy Mother of God convent, created in the Kholmsky region in order to strengthen the Russian statehood and the Orthodox foundations of the life of the local population. The specificity of the national-confessional policy of the authorities of the Russian Empire and the Russian Orthodox Church in the North-Western Territory is traced in the context of the confrontation with Polish influence. The missionary activity of the monastery is presented in the context of the efforts of the abbess Catherine (Efimovskaya) on the revival of the ancient ministry of deaconesses and the social orientation of the inner way of its life. The innovative approaches and principles of organizing the system of education and upbringing of children, which had continuation and succession in the five newly created monasteries of the Kholm region, have been analyzed. This had a significant impact on the socio-political situation in the Kholm region and made it possible to gain the trust and disposition of the local population in the face of the negative consequences of the Decree “On Strengthening the Principles of Religious Tolerance” in the Kholm region in 1905, which the abbess. Catherine and the sisters of the Lesninsky monastery helped to overcome.