Religious polemics in the Steppe Region (late XIX – early XX centuries)

Abstract

The article is aimed at studying the role of the Tatar clergy in opposing the processes of Russification and Christianization of the Kazakh people in the late 19th - early 20th centuries. The work was written on the basis of archival documents deposited in the State Archives of the Republic of Tatarstan, the Central State Archives of the Republic of Kazakhstan and published ethnographic works of the period under study. The main research method is the problem-chronological approach, which made it possible to consider the studied processes in the dynamics of socio-cultural processes that took place in the Steppe region. The work also applied a systematic approach, which made it possible to consider the research problem in an interdisciplinary perspective. The following scientific and theoretical approaches were used: the theory of delineating boundaries in ethnocultural meaning (F. Barth's theory), the theory of social construction of reality and social interaction during the development of ethno-religious identity (P. Berger, T. Luckmann's theory), theory the influence of political forces using the competitive phenomena of culture and based on cultural institutions (B. Anderson, A. Appadurai, E. Gelner, etc.). The study made it possible to identify a number of works on speculative theology, both Orthodox and Muslim, and to consider the ideological opposition of the apologists of the religions in question.

Key words: acculturation, speculative theology, Islam, Orthodoxy, polemics