Humanities & Social Sciences 1 (2015 8) 138-148 ~ ~ ~ УДК 2(571.54)+316.7 Religious Situation and Buryat Identity Irina E. Yelaeva* Institute for Mongolian, Buddhist and Tibetan Studies SB RAS 6 Sakhyanovoi, Ulan-Ude, 670047, Russia Received 30.10.2013, received in revised form 28.04.2014, accepted 17.09.2014 This article is devoted to the analysis of the relationship of the religiosity and Buryat identity; the historical context of the formation of the modern religious situation in Buryatia, which, in turn, has an impact on the religious practices of the Buryats, is given; peculiarities of religious and confessional identity of the Buryats are considered. <...> Many religions of the world are represented in Buryatia. <...> Structurally, the Buryat shamanism is a unity © Siberian Federal University. <...> In the XVIIth century a wide spreading of Buddhism and Christianity began. <...> Buddhism was offi cially recognized by the Buryat the Russian government in 1741 year: Empress Elizabeth issued a decree about legal status of the Buddhist clergy. <...> According to this decree, the government offi cially permitted the Buddhist monks religious sermons and other activities among the Buryats. <...> The fi rst Orthodox Church in Buryatia – Spaso-Preobrazhenskaya – was built in 1648 year on the territory of the fi rst fortress in Buryatia – Barguzinskii ostrog, founded by Russian Irina E. Yelaeva. <...> Religious Situation and Buryat Identity Cossacks under the leadership of Ivan Galkin (Zhalsaraev, 2001, pp. 10-11). <...> Old Believers began to move to Transbaikalia in the second half of the XVIIIth century from Starodubje and Vetka, which were part of that time in Poland, where the old believers had gone from prosecutions by not having taken the church reforms of Patriarch Nikon. <...> As of 1922, on the territory of two BuryatMongolian Autonomous areas within the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and the Far Eastern Republic, formed on May, 30th, 1923 the Buryat-Mongolian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, confessions were distributed in the following way (see Table 1): During the period from the repressions Religious (1930-s years) till 1945, there was no functioning temple in operation in Buryatia. <...> All Buddhist temples-datsans, Orthodox churches, Old believer's churches and other temples belonging to other religious communities have been closed; invaluable Cult objects have been destroyed or plundered. <...> In 1945 <...>