Description

Veniamin (born Vasilii Antonovich Blagonravov, 1825–92), Bishop of Selenginsk in the 1860s and Archbishop of Irkutsk and Nerchinsk from 1873 until his death, was for many years the leading missionary in the region of Siberia east of Lake Baikal. He was a proponent of Christianizing the local Buriat people and promoting among them the culture and language of European Russia. Veniamin saw the baptism of the local population, who were mostly Buddhist, as critical for the Russification of Siberia. In this book, Veniaminov provides answers in essay form to ...