№3-2023-06

№3-2023-06

DOI: 10.22281/2413-9912-2023-07-03-46-54

Gavrilenkov A.F.

RELIGIOUS NORMS AND ECONOMIC ACTIVITY OF THE SECT OF THE EUNUCHS IN RUSSIA (THE SECOND HALF OF THE XIX-EARLY XX CENTURIES.)

The article discusses the features of the economic activity of the sect of the Scopians in the conditions of exile in the Yakut region of Siberia of the Russian Empire. It is noted that the religious norms of the faith of the Scopians provoked the peculiarities of their economic activity. Castration, especially the «royal seal», created conditions for the isolation of the Scopians from Russian society. The economic activity of the Scopians, on the contrary, allowed them to return to society. The Scopians could not count on full loyalty to themselves from society, since society rejected the rite of castration. Nevertheless, in the conditions of exile, the Scopians introduced capitalist relations, exploiting the local population (Yakuts) and their less well-off co-religionists. The working day of agricultural salaried workers at the Skoptsy lasted 19-20 hours a day. It should be borne in mind that the process of enrichment among the Scopians was significantly different from the similar process among European Protestants and Russian Old Believers. Protestants created religious norms, which then influenced the process of enrichment, forming a specific economic ethics of capitalist relations. The Old Believers, through enrichment, created conditions for achieving a righteous life. The Scopians sought to get out of isolation and return to society through the enrichment and development of capitalist relations.

Keywords: The Russian Empire, the Yakut region, the doctrine of the eunuchs, castration, «ships», «spiritual eunuchs», exile, economic activity, enrichment of the Eunuchs

Smolensk Orthodox Theological Seminary (Russia)

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