ORIGIN AND SPREAD OF CHURCH SCHISM AMONG THE URAL COSSACKS
The article deals with the history of the origin and spread of Old Belief in environment of the Yaik (Ural) Cossacks in the XVII-XVIII centuries. Reasons for rooting of the schism and periods of the greatest accumulation of fugitive dissenters within the Cossack territory are identified. The special role of the Irgiz monasteries in the life of local Old Believers is emphasized. On the basis of the used sources, the author concludes that service people, who escaped to these lands from governmental repression, as well as the Don Cossacks, among whom schismatics presented a large percentage, had significant influence as to the matters of faith on the Ural Cossacks.