At the end of XVII–XVIII centuries Orthodox parishes were in the process of their making in the Baikal Region. By 1800 there were 83 of them. Their number of believers didn’t much differ from that of national, but they had a number of peculiarities. First of all it was wide territory coverage and scattered settlements, with only 40–55 % of believers living in a parish center. The rest of believers occupied nearby villages, hunters’ lodges, and nomad camps. The only densely populated parishes were Irkutsk ones. On the average a number of households of a perish was not large – 60 % were with single parish (up to 150 households). And 9–10 people were accounted for by 1 household. From the point of estates composition proportion of nobility and officialdom was insignificant, and there was no one in rural parishes. Thus there was no pressure upon parish community on the part of patrimonial estate holders, which was characteristic for European part of Russia. Parishes-estates were only under abbey steads, and after the 1764 reform they were reorganized. In many Baikal Territory parishes there were indigenous people as a result of missionary work of Orthodox clergy and cultural rapprochement with Russian settlers.