Christianization of the Samoyeds in the European North of Russia in the XVI-XIX centuries

The analysis of the historical experience of state governance and the implementation ofchurch-state policy, including at the regional level, serves as a resource for adaptive management in the context of modern diversity of the socio-cultural environment and the need for harmonization of interethnic and interfaith relations. The spread of Christianity among the small-numbered peoples of the European North in the 16th-19th centuries was an attempt to integrate them into Russian society. The preservation of identity, thesynthesis of indigenous and introduced elements is evidence not only of religious syncretism but also of the uniqueness of the Christianization processes of the specified period. The purpose of the article is to present the periods of Christianization of the Samoyeds in the European North of Russia in the 16th-19th centuries. The source base of the research is represented by materials of legislative acts of the Russian Empire, 29 funds of the Arkhangelsk Spiritual Consistory of the State Archive of the Arkhangelsk Region, and regional periodicals. The research methods were historical-comparative and problem-chronological. According to the results of the study, four periods of the implementation of church-state policy on the Christianization of the Samoyeds in the European North of Russia in the 16th-19th centuries were identified. In the first period (late 16th century -early 19th centuries), Christianization was carried out through the education and activities of individual missionaries among the local population. The second period (1825-1830) is characterized by mass baptism and attempts to convert the Samoyeds to the church. Within the framework of the third period (1830'1880), the creation of parishes in the Nenets tundra and the churching of the Samoyeds by the parish clergy were recorded. The fourth period (1887-1899) is characterized by missionary activity on Novaya Zemlya and the creation of monastic sketes in the tundra of the European North of Russia