Foreigners in orthodox parishes: features of daily life in the Khakass-Minusinsk region in the second half of the XIX - early XX centuries

According to official statistics, in the second half of the 19th - early 20th centuries, more than half of the Khakassians, officially recognized by the Russian Empire as foreigners of the Khakass-Minusinsk Region, were Orthodox. In fact, according to written sources, the autochthons of the local territory continued to adhere to their centuries-old traditions and resisted the strengthening of Christian dogmas. The purpose of the paper is to study the daily life of the Khakassians in the conditions of a multiethnic environment of Orthodox parishes; their way of life, traditional worldview, religious practices. The source base of the study was archival documents, representing reports, dispatches to the Yenisei Spiritual Consistory, reviews and essays of direct eyewitnesses of events, clergy of local Orthodox parishes, as well as journalistic materials published in the Yenisei Diocesan Gazette. The study examined various aspects of daily life related to the material (daily life, way of life, territorial features) and spiritual spheres (worldview, traditional views). The territorial dispersion of parishes, complex relationships between the clergy and parishioners, adherence to pagan traditions and shamanism, syncretism of religious beliefs, and gradual assimilation determined the features of daily life of the autochthons of the Khakass-Minusinsk Region. At the same time, the opening of parish schools, official registration of civil status acts, and record keeping constituted the strong side of changes in the traditional way of life of the indigenous population in the second half of the 19th - early 20th centuries and had a positive effect on strengthening the position of the Russian Orthodox Church. As a result of the study, it was possible to find out that such features of everyday life, on the one hand, prevented the deep penetration of Orthodoxy among the Khakass, and on the other hand, contributed to the borrowing and interpenetration of the cultures of the peoples inhabiting the territory of the Khakass-Minusinsk Region.