Visits of Tobolsk Diocesan bishops to the north of Western Siberia in XVIII-Early XX centuries

Abstract

The paper is devoted to Tobolsk and Siberian Diocesan Bishop's visits to the north of Western Siberia with different purposes throughout the Sinodical period (XVIII-early XX centuries). It was pointed out that Diocese management had been complicated by its large size, poor infrastructure, and extreme weather conditions. Therefore, the aims of Diocesan bishops' visits were to collect information about current state of affairs, to effectively solve accumulated problems, design and implement concrete measures to enhance the church management system and organization of the parish life. It is noted that visits' frequency and travel speed increased steadily by reason of steamship communication development, timely allocation of state-owned funds and reduction of Diocese's size. As a result, visits became ordinary events instead of the extraordinary ones for Tobolsk North in the early XX century. Following the visits important decisions affecting missionary work were taken. The presence of priests resulted in mass Christianization of ingenious people in early XVIII century and launch, completion, restructuring of anti-paganism actions in XIX century. In frame of these visits, the revision of local schools was organized. The visits enabled to solve different current problems, such as: place selection for building temples, encouragement, promotion of staff who performed their duties well, penalties for negligent staff. The author concludes that visits of Diocesan Bishops fit well in the system of church management in Sinodical period.