Stages of the Institutionalization of the Don Army Mission in the Second Half of the XIX Century

The introduction of a wide range of sources into scientific circulation has made it possible to determine the stages of institutionalization of the mission in the Don region in the second half of the 19th century. Hopes associated with the establishment of the Orthodox Missionary Society in 1870 for the development of the mission in the Don region, according to the program planned back in the 1860s by Archbishop Platon (Gorodetsky), turned out to be fruitless. Only in 1884, on the initiative of Archbishop Mitrofan (Vitsinsky), an effective missionary body was established in the Don region, which had different names in different years. Since 1905, it became known as the Don Diocesan ‘anti-schismatic and anti-heretical’ committee. Developed in 1884, the principle of forming a committee, the structure of missionary districts, the principles of electing candidates for missionary positions, stable diocesan funding, and the use of various methods for conducting missionary activities allowed the organized structure to achieve significant results.
The curtailment of activities of the Don Diocesan ‘anti-schismatic and anti-heretical’ committee was associated with the onset of the First World War and subsequent political transformations.