Religion, Church, Believers In the Russian Far East in the late 19th - 20th c

The article is devoted to the processes occurring in the religious life of the Russian Far East from the end of the 19th century to the late 1980s. The author looks at the peculiarities of formation of the Far Eastern religious confessions. The Far East has historically been multi-ethnical, and home to people with diverse religious roots. In the late 19th - early 20th century the Orthodox tradition in the Far East weakened due to the lack of priests, temples and difficulties of life in the region. In the first half of the 20th century the number of religious followers has further reduced, lead to the change in confession, and increased the influence of Protestant confessions. Special attention in the article is paid to the religious policy of the Communist Party and the Soviet State, showing that the Far Eastern "underground religion" was created by the local authorities, who declared Religion a real war.