“Imagine the Koreans, lit up by the setting sun, earnestly praying together under the leadership of a priest”. Orthodoxy among the Koreans of the Maritime Region

On the basis of published sources and periodicals, the article examines the history of the spread of the Orthodox faith among the Korean population who lived in the Maritime Region in the second half of the 19th–early 20th centuries. Initially, the conversion of Koreans who lived near the Novgorod harbor began as early as 1865. However, due to the lack of the proper number of missionaries, no special results were achieved. Subsequently, Priest Vasily Pʹyankov, Priest Iosif Nikolʹsky, Archpriest Vasily Popov, Priest F. Barkov, Priest Vasily Ogai and others were engaged in missionary activities in this region. The article pays close attention to the peculiarities of their missionary and educational work. At the beginning of the 20th century, the society of St. Michael was established in Vladivostok, which assisted Koreans in converting to Orthodoxy. Unfortunately, during the Soviet period, the serious results achieved during the previous period in spreading the Orthodox faith among Koreans were lost. As appendices to the article, excerpts from articles published in the journals Missioner (1874, No. 6) and Pravoslavny Blagovestnik (1911, No. 2) are included.