An Important Breakthrough in the Study of Activities of Orthodox Clergy of Northern Kazakhstan in the First 25 Years of the Soviet Power Regime

The article presents analysis of the latest research works on the history of the Orthodox Church in such a complex region as Northern Kazakhstan. The analysis focuses on two important time periods: 1) the period of the Civil War, the activities of anti- Bolshevik governments in the region and the first persecutions of clergy and laity by the Bolshevik government; and 2) the period of the following twenty years — the era of church division, collectivization, and the Great Terror. The study focuses on the works created by priest Mikhail Berezin, a representative of the modern Kazakh clergy, who had been meticulously collecting information about the life and daily routine of Orthodox Christians in the region of his ministry for a number of years. All the works of this historian show his respect for the source. Analysis of his works shows he uses both ego-documents from his personal archive and materials from state and departmental archival repositories of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the Russian Federation. Most of them are introduced into scientific circulation for the first time.