Tax policy and the baptism of non-Russian population in Eastern Siberia

Abstract

The article focuses on the process of Christianization of the territories of Eastern Siberia as one of the elements of state policy aimed at the economic and administrative development of the region. The author examines the issues of baptism in the context of benefits provided by the state to neophytes, who were exempted from paying the main tax – yasak, which contributed to the increase in the formally Orthodox population. The author believes that participation of the state in regulating the process of Christianization of Eastern Siberian ethnic groups was the main reason for its permanence from the XVIIth to the early XXth century.