Legislative framework for Orthodox Church and Old Belief of western provinces of Russian Empire in the end of 18 th – beginning of 20 th centuries; a historiography of the problem

Abstract

The issues of strengthening the Orthodox Church position, of Russian Empire
authorities attitude to old believers in imperial western provinces in the late
18 th – early 20 th centuries have not been studied thoroughly yet. At the thresh-old of the 21 st century contemporary religion studies school took its shape in
Russian, Ukrainian, Lithuanian and Belarusian historiographies. The scholars,
belonging to this school, base their studies on a large number of archival
materials and propose novel views and interpretations of the subject matter.
Key words: Russian Empire, western provinces, Orthodox Church, Old Belief, clergy.