Abstract: The object of this research is the ethno-confessional situation in USSR throughout the entire period of its existence. The subject is the movement of “Initiatives” as a response to ethno-confessional policy of the Soviet State on the example of Kemerovo Oblast during the 1950’s – 1960’s. Attention is focuses on the inner structure of the movement of Baptists-“Initiatives”, determining the two main wings with different confessional and ethic compositions and objectives. Alongside the use of general scientific methods of analysis, synthesis, induction and deduction, the author applies the historical-comparative method in diachronic aspect, and the elements of systemic analysis. The main conclusion of the conducted research lies in the thesis on the not always though out confessional and ethnic policy of the Soviet State, which provokes the origination, development and large scale of the movement. The movement of the “Initiatives” encompasses a number of Protestant confessions and representatives of different nationalities, including Germans, who had a significant impact upon the inner structure of the Protestant religious organizations.

Abstract: The object of this research is the metric books of the Synagogue of the city of Mariinsk and Mariinsky district of Tomsk Governorate, which represent a natural sampling and contain cumulative data that reflect demographic processes in Jewish community of the late XIX – early XX century. The subject of this research is the external and internal criticism with delineation of information gaps and determination of limits in exploitation of the data for genealogical and demographic reconstructions. Focus is made on the internal criticism of the source, correlating the extent and quality of filling in the metric books with a particular Jewish scholar of Rabbi, their level of education and command of the Russian language. The author concludes that the metric books of Mariinsk Synagogue of Tomsk Governorate also have distortions and information gaps inherent to all historical sources. In the context of genealogical reconstruction, a researcher will inevitably face the incompleteness of data due to the partial absence of separate pages that contain the data alongside the peculiarities of filling in the metric books. In assessing the demographic processes, the marriage and death data, due to the high level of representativity will provide the appropriate results, while the birth data will not be able to do the same, due to the low representativity of data that survived.