ORGANIZATION OF CHURCH LIFE IN THE SOUTH OF THE SAKHALIN ISLAND AFTER THE RUSSIAN-JAPANESE WAR OF 1904-1905
The presented article is an attempt to comprehend activities of the Japanese Ecclesiastical Mission on the church guidance of the Russian population remaining in the south of Sakhalin Island after the Russo-Japanese War. Its writing is based on documents which are unique in their origin. First of all, these are documents of the Russian State Historical Archive (St. Petersburg) - the correspondence about the need for resumption of activities of the Russian parish, memoirs and travel notes of clergy and civilians. Analysis of the material found revealed the principal directions in which the mission leadership planned to carry out rigorous work. Initially, it was necessary to arrange a liturgical life, restore closed churches, return utensils and liturgical books to church groups, and also take care of completing the Orthodox clergy. The lack of educational institutions - schools for Russian children - was of special concern. Unfortunately, the efforts made by the mission clergy could not be enough. Geopolitical and historical factors of the two powers, Russia and Japan, had a significant impact. Despite all the difficulties, the mission leadership understood the need to maintain the Russian presence on the occupied part of the island. To this end, it was able to receive the approval of the Holy Synod and justify the need for an annual allocation of funds for activities of the Sakhalin clergy. An Orthodox priest from the city of Vladivostok was sent to the Russian islanders almost immediately, as soon as all the formalities were settled. This helped to solve many problems, but it still was impossible to complete the clergy with a teacher and a psalm reader for a considerable time. The author of the article does not put an end in solving the research problem to reveal all the circumstances of activities of the church clergy. This will allow to establish for certain all circumstances of the functioning of the Orthodox clergy on the part of Sakhalin Island occupied by the Japanese over time.