The Russian Orthodox Church and the Peoples of Eastern Siberia: the Communicative Aspect of Incorporation into the Empire (a Problem Statement)

The research is devoted to the study of the communicative practices of the Russian Orthodox Church in Eastern Siberia as an integral part of the incorporation of local ethnic groups into the imperial space. It is noted that the daily life of missionary and parish activities contributed to the attraction of various communication channels: the basis of the formation of oral communication became verbal and non-verbal, the beginning of documentary communication — iconic and symbolic, which was continued in the creation of grammars for non-literate peoples, schoolwork, book culture, icon painting, etc. The communication signs of the missionaries and the parish clergy were sermons and prayers, church rites, spiritual literature and church utensils, brought at the personal, group, and public levels. The specificity of the communications of the Russian Church aimed at involving foreigners in the Christian civilization is noted. According to the author, these theses can be confirmed in the course of further study of the activities of the Church as a communication system in the East Siberian region with reference to historical sources and, above all, to the ego-documents of missionaries and parish clergy, containing observations and notes on the possibilities and results of such communications.