The Evolution of State Policy Towards “Non-Tolerated” Religious Denominations in the Russian Empire in the second half of the 19th – early 20th century (based on materials from Western and Northwestern Kazakhstan)
Эволюция государственной политики в отношении «нетерпимых» вероисповеданий в Российской империи во второй половине XIX – начале XX в. (на материалах Западного и Северо-Западного Казахстана)
Mustafina Z.D. Maden A.T. Sugurbayeva B.K.
4 December 2025Cherkas Global University Press
Bylye Gody
2025#20Issue 41843 - 1851 pp.
The article is devoted to the analysis of changes in the state policy of the Russian Empire in the second half of the 19th – early 20th centuries regarding the so-called “non-tolerated” denominations, using the example of Western and Northwestern Kazakhstan. Based on diverse sources, including legislation, archival evidence, and academic works of Russian and international researchers, the study traces how the state approached religious movements that, in the pre-revolutionary period, were considered “sects” and exposed to different forms of administrative and police control. It is shown that in the imperial period, confessional policy combined legal restrictions with measures of surveillance and control aimed at curbing their spread, while still allowing opportunities for legalization and missionary activity. Special attention is given to the missionary activity of Protestant groups, their interaction with co-religionists from neighboring regions, and the impact of resettlement policy on the confessional situation in the empire’s peripheral areas. The dynamics of the development of local religious communities and the mechanisms of their adaptation to legal and administrative conditions are traced. The methodological basis of the study includes the problem-chronological, comparative-historical, and historical-typological methods, as well as the analysis of archival documents, which made it possible to identify the stages of policy evolution, classify forms of state influence, and reconstruct the specifics of implementing legislative norms at the regional level. The study demonstrates how state policy shaped religious life in the borderlands of the Russian Empire and contributes to a better understanding of the local particularities of confessional policy with regard to religious minorities.
Baptism , Molokans , Protestantism , Russian Empire , state policy , Stundism , Western Kazakhstan , “non-tolerated” denominations
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K. Zhubanov Aktobe Regional University, Aktobe, Kazakhstan
K. Zhubanov Aktobe Regional University
10 лет помогаем публиковать статьи Международный издатель
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