EVOLUTION CONFESSIONAL STRUCTURE OF THE POPULATION BELARUSIAN-LITHUANIAN RUSSIAN PROVINCES (1772-1812)
The article analyzes the evolution of confessional structure of the population of the Belarusian-Lithuanian provinces of the Russian Empire in 1772-1812 years. It is noted that after the partition of Poland (1772, 1793, 1795), the Government's policy in the confessional question was aimed at eliminating the Uniate Church and joining the Uniates to Orthodoxy. However, the outbreak of war in 1812 the authorities have failed to significantly alter confessional situation in the province, where the dominant position occupied by the Catholic and Uniate church. The share of the Orthodox Church accounted for only about 22 percent of the faithful. As a result, the presence on the Belarusian-Lithuanian lands a significant number of representatives of various Christian and non-Christian faiths led to polar relative population of the region to the events of the War of 1812 and predetermined the contradictory nature of this war in the history of Belarus.