"Russian sectarianism" in the South Ural in regional historiography

The article provides an analysis of development of regional historiography of «Russian sectarianism» in the pre-revolutionary, Soviet and contemporary periods. The author highlights the peculiarities of studying this issue at each stage, and underlines the shortcomings that forced the researchers to search for a new methodological basis. He comes to the conclusion that a comprehensive study of informal religiosity in the Southern Ural in pre-revolutionary Russia remains an actual scholarly task.