Establishment of Edinoverie and the Initial Stage of its Development in the Territory of the Ural Cossack Host
The article presents an attempt of a comprehensive research of the prerequisites and initial stage of introduction of Edinoverie in the territory of the Ural Cossack Host, based on the published and unpublished sources. It discloses some information on the initial stage of the development of Edinoverie in the territory of the Don Host, where governmental activity was not as radical, which, to a certain extent, may be explained with a more positive attitude of the local Cossacks to the official authorities. The establishment of Edinoverie for all the churches and parishes of the Ural Cossack Host was just an act of formal recognition of the Edinoverie, or a “edinoverie religious” practice existing in the Host before. Throughout the first half of the 19th century, the Ural Old Believer Cossacks went both to the Old-Rite Chapel of Dormition in Uralsk and Edinoverie churches, where, as before, the services were conducted in accordance with the old books and Old Belief rites. Therefore, it may be concluded that introduction of Edinoverie in the territory of the Ural Cossack Host was just an act of the formal conversion for the major part of Old Believers, while the actual conversions began closer to the 1840-s.