Католики Екатеринбурга в конце XIX — начале XX в. по материалам переписей и метрических книг

This article studies the Catholic community of Yekaterinburg, its size, ethnic composition, religious life, and demography. The analysis is based on the aggregates of the first all-Russian census of 1897 and nominative data from the church books of St Anna’s Church. For this purpose, the authors transcribed the 1897 census’ tables electronically and analyzed the size, age and gender composition, social status, occupations and education of the Yekaterinburg Catholics. In addition, they divided entries from the St Anna’s Church parish books into three data tables: baptisms, marriages, and burials. The data were processed to analyze the intensity of the community’s religious life and find its main demographic characteristics. Despite the fact that they were a religious minority representing less than one percent of the city’s residents, the research shows that the Yekaterinburg Catholics in many respects constituted a wealthy, and well-established ethno-confessional community, integrated in the city’s religious landscape. Their number was relatively stable over the fifteen prewar years and the community’s high quality and continuity made it distinct from the Catholic communities in Siberia.В статье на основе анализа материалов Первой всероссийской переписи населения 1897 г. и сведений из метрических книг церкви Св. Анны г. Екатеринбурга впервые проанализирована численность, состав и конфессиональная жизнь католического прихода города в конце XIX — начале XX в. В процессе работы была создана электронная версия переписи на основе агрегированных таблиц, что позволило определить численность и распределение католиков по территории уезда, выявить их этническую принадлежность и выдвинуть гипотезу о возможности использования данных по полякам, которые составляли 80 % католиков Екатеринбурга, для характеристики всего католического сообщества города. В ходе исследования была также составлена база данных по всем бракам, рождениям и отпеваниям, совершенным ксендзами костела Св. Анны за 1898–1915 гг. Применение компьютерных методов при анализе информации БД позволило выявить степень активности конфессиональной жизни католиков Екатеринбурга, отчасти оценить их брачные стратегии и образ жизни. Сделан вывод о том, что католики Екатеринбурга, несмотря на то, что являлись религиозным меньшинством и составляли менее 1 % жителей города, являлись благополучным во многих отношениях этноконфессиональным сообществом, встроенным в городской религиозный ландшафт. Их численность была достаточно стабильной на протяжении 15 предвоенных лет, сообщество характеризовалось высокой продолжительностью и качеством жизни

Dialogue, cooperation and confrontation in the religious societies of the Russian province of the early 20th century (based on experience of the 1st All-Russian Congress: ‘Chasovennoe Soglasiye’)

The article analyses materials of the first and only All-Russian Congress of ‘Chasovennye’ Old Believers held in Yekaterinburg in 1911. These materials were little known to specialists. The organization and discussions showed the presence of at least three branches among ‘Chasovennoe soglasiye’ as the largest Old Believers denomination in the Urals and Siberia: conservative, moderate and loyal. Their representatives came to agreement about the rules of religious practices, but disagreed in understanding of ‘openness’ and permissible interaction with the authorities, other denominations and loyalists in their societies. The purpose of the work is to show the heterogeneity of views and interests of urban, factory and rural Old Believer societies, depending on socio-cultural factors

Urban infant mortality and religion at the end of the nineteenth and in the early twentieth century: the case of Ekaterinburg, Russia

Modern demographers analyse regional and other infant mortality differentials as important factors behind the current life expectancy of Russian citizens. Historically, however, the Russian Empire is simply displayed as one block with high infant mortality rates. Also with respect to cultural background factors, Russia is often perceived as religiously homogeneous with the Orthodox Church dominating the country. In reality, Russia has a long history of coexisting religious traditions. This includes both provinces with a majority of Catholics, Muslims, Buddhists or shamanistic populations as well as territories characterized by religious diversity and significant minority religions. Our project studies minority religious groups in the Urals, a province by the Ural Mountains stretching into Asia. While no territory can claim to be truly representative of this mega-country, we believe that this centrally located province is well suited to show some of the Russian variety, including differential infant mortality among the followers of minority religions, which is the topic of this article. We employ church record microdata to study Catholics, Jews and Old Believers in the main metal-producing city of Ekaterinburg