Confessional structure of the population of the Russian empire at the turn of the 19–20 centuries: statistical and geographical analysis

The study of the confessional structure of the population in the post-Soviet space using geographical methods is currently a rare phenomenon. One of the reasons is the extreme lack of reliable statistical data reflecting the confessional structure of the population. Far from every population census conducted over the past decades in the former Soviet republics included questions about the religious affiliation of the population. The results of the first All-Russian population census, which was conducted in 1897, were used as a key source of statistical information. The article presents the results of a statistical and cartographic analysis of the territorial structure of the confessional composition of the population of the Russian Empire at the level of provinces and regions with some refinements at the county level. This information most fully reflects the religious diversity of the Russian Empire at different territorial levels. According to the results of the census, the following religions existed in the Russian Empire: Orthodoxy with co-religionists, Old Believers, Roman Catholicism, Lutheranism, Armenian Gregorianism, Armenian Catholicism, Reformed, Mennonites, Anglicans, Baptists, Karaites, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, paganism, etc.