Description

Archbishop Veniamin of Irkutsk and Nerchinsk (born Vasilii Antonovich Blagonravov, 1825‒92) was for many years the leading missionary in the area of Siberia east of Lake Baikal. He was a proponent of Christianizing the local Buryat people and promoting the culture and language of European Russia among them. Veniamin saw the baptism of the local population, who were mostly Buddhist, as critical for the Russification of Siberia. This collection of letters written by Veniamin describes the work in the missionary field and the people with whom the missionaries lived ...