Burial Practice of Russian Population in Tobolsk Irtysh Region in 18^th-19^th Centuries: Cases of Deviations from Official Legislation

Abstract

The article deals with the issue of non-compliance with the legislation in the burial practice of the Russian population of the Tobolsk Irtysh region in the 18th-19th centuries. The archival materials of the Fund of the Tobolsk Spiritual Consistory of the State Archive in Tobolsk, reflecting the cases of deviation from the legally established practice of burial, are introduced into scientific circulation. The materials of records management on the facts of the death of a newborn child of the settler Ivan Minin in 1774, who died unbaptized, are analyzed, as well as the death and burial of the peasant Alexey Vakhrushev made without the consent of the civil authorities in 1815 in the territory of the Abalak Znamensky monastery. As a source for the reconstruction of the funeral rites of the Russian population of Siberia, the materials obtained as a result of archaeological research of two children’s burials from the Russian settlement “Yarkova village” in the Tobolsk Irtysh region are involved. Based on the analysis of the features of the burial rite, the burials are dated by the middle of the 19th - early 20th centuries. In connection with the absence of other burials nearby, it is concluded that these burials are a “home” (family) cemetery of unbaptized babies, located in the garden near the cliff, free from economic activity on the site of the peasant estate.

Keywords

• tobolsk irtysh region
• tobolsk spiritual consistory
• abalak male monastery
• russians
• funeral rites
• infant burial