Monastic charity in the Kuban region (1878-1914): documents from the spiritual consistory fund of the State arcftive of the Stavropol territory

The subject of this work was to study the process of charitable activities of Orthodox monasteries of the Kuban region, operating at the turn of the late 19th - early 20th centuries. The purpose of the study is to identify and analyze various forms of monastic philanthropy using documents from the foundation of the spiritual consistory of the State Archive of the Stavropol Territory. The main attention is focused on the four forms of charity, which include primary schooling (for children from families living in nearby villages) and also monastic hospitals, orphanages. The basis of the methodological approach in writing the article was the problem-chronological method. All the variety of factors of the charitable activities of the Kuban monasteries was orderly and systematized, which made it possible to group and summarize the material under study. The novelty of this work is the introduction into the scientific circulation of new archival documents with the help of which it was possible to expand the historiographic framework on the studied problem. The documents of the Stavropol Spiritual Consistory reveal the forms of charitable activity in the region, and the dynamics of their development are indicated. When working with these sources, internal problems were identified, mainly related to the meager funding of charitable projects.