Ethno-Confessional Aspects of the Existence of the Tamatarcha Zichia Church Pulpit in the XI Century

The article attempts to examine the history of the Zich Archbishopric of Tamatarcha in the XI century in the con-text of ethno-confessional relations that developed between the autochthonous population and Russian settlers who arrived on the Taman Peninsula due to the formation of the principality of Tmutarakan, ruled by Russian dukes. The major scientific problem, which gave rise to a number of contradictory hypotheses and assumptions in modern science, is the question of the jurisdictional affiliation of the church organization of Tamatarcha in the so-called “Russian period” in the XI century. For the purposes of the study, the main facts of the Russian ethnic presence in Taman in the XI century are considered: the peculiarities of the exercise of princely power; relations with the autochthonous population and neighboring tribes of the northwestern Caucasus; relations between the Russian princes and the church community of Tamatarcha, for which in 1022 Prince Mstislav Vla-dimirovich built a votive church of the Mother of God. Particular attention is paid in the work to the Russian church hierarchy in Tmutarakan, among which the personalities of the Monk Nikon of Pechersk and Bishop Nicholas of Tmutarakan, who was the ruling bishop of the Zich diocese during a certain period, are singled out. The ecclesiastical administration of the Tamatarch diocese in the 2nd half of the XI century is studied in the context of the state-confessional policy of the “triumvirate of the Yaroslavichs” – the leading political group of Old Russian dukes in this period.