Religious policy of the Department of independent principality relative to the Molokans movement among the appanage peasants in the first third of the XIX century

Abstract

The article considers the religious policy of the Department of independent principality relative to the appanage peasants, practicing the Molokan religion, which was under a strict control of the emperor. The article presents the unpublished before archive documents. The author comes to the conclusion that the religious policy relative to the appanage peasants was not unambiguous and kept changing from one governing to another, passing from the stage of restrained liberalism to the open reaction.