Abstract
This article, based on a comprehensive analysis of scientific works and materials of participants in the D.G. Messerschmidt (1719–1727), Second Kamchatka (1733–1743), Academician J.-N. Delisle (1740), physical (1768–1774), and Northeastern geographical and astronomical (1785–1795) expeditions, dedicated to the Orthodox population of Siberia, presents the geographical and ethnographic dynamics of Orthodox Christianity in the region. The author’s use of the cognitive tools of the “imperial paradigm” made it possible to consider the process of Christianization of the indigenous peoples of Siberia and its coverage in the works of expedition participants as a component of the cultural policy of the Russian Empire that correlates with enlightenment. As shown in the study, academic and government expeditions to Siberia were one of the effective means of implementing and adjusting this policy. The assistance and direct participation of travelers in the baptism into Orthodoxy and the education of Siberian ethnic groups, the peculiarities of the indigenous population’s perception of the new religion, and the attitude towards the values of civilization are studied from the standpoint of “anthropological” and “pragmatic” methodological turns. It has been established that the expedition participants, representing various directions of Christianity, showed exemplary religious tolerance in the spread of Orthodoxy and education among the local population of Siberia. Travelers recorded the penetration of Orthodox Christianity in the 18th century to most regions of Siberia and the multiethnic composition of its flock. It is concluded that the noted cases of nonacceptance of the new faith and the religious syncretism of the aborigines, caused by the peculiarities of the cultures and ecologies of the ethnic groups, and the spread of Islam and Buddhism in Siberia required the continuation and adjustment of the confessional and cultural policy of Russia in the region.