Alexey Beglov Zemstvo's Projects of Reforming Orthodox Parishes in 1860 - 1890-s. Aleksey Beglov - Senior Researcher, Institute of World History, Russian Academy of Sciences, religion07@rambler.ru The article examines the attitude of the Russian Zemstvo movement of the second half of the lgth century to the reform of the Orthodox parish. Dmitry Samarin's paper "The Parish" (1867 - 1868) is studied in detail. It shows that Slavophile oriented members of Zemstvo were critical towards the actual status of the parish and wanted to see it as an independent unit though a subject to the power of Bishop. They saw it as a public institution with property and an elected priest. Understanding of the parish as a public institution led to the constant attention of the Zemstvo to its fate and the regular appearance of projects of its transformation. These projects included providing clergy with regular salary and converting the parish into a small regional unit. The author comes to the conclusion that obstacles to the implementation of these projects were not oN1y the negative reaction of the Spiritual Department, but deep fragmentation of Russian society, which created mistrust between the clergy and active laymen - members of Zemstvo. Keywords: history of the Russian Orthodox Church in the 19th century, the reform of the Orthodox parish, Zemstvo institutions, parish guardianship, Church property, the election of the clergy, and the financial position of the clergy, the discussion about Church transformations, small territorial unit, J.F.Samarin. The research was supported by the Program of Fundamental Research of the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences "Traditions and Innovations in History and Culture". page 172One of the elements of the crisis of the synodal system of state-church relations and the state ecclesiasticism formed by it1, which was increasingly recognized by contemporaries in the second half of the XIX century, was the crisis of the Orthodox parish. Afte ... Read more