Technologies of Incorporation of Confessional Structures in Plural Society: the Experience of Imperial Political Integration of the Caucasus

The work is devoted to the problem of incorporation of religious communities in plural societies in the system of the state religious policy of the Russian empire. We try to answer to the research question: how in plural society in the conditions of the increasing of the protest movements, the incorporated religious institutes work and how the power reacts to their actions. Research methodology based on the plural society theory, cleavage theory, historical institutionalism and the elements of the theory of social representations. We proved that the three models were used in the process of incorporation: inclusive, protective, adaptive. In each of three cases we fixed the «path dependence» which predetermined a distancing of formally recorded functions and the rights of institutes from their real embodiment. Defined that the «cleavage» the state church is partially combined with cleavage the center-periphery, aggravating contradictions and therefore promoting expansion of a range of participants of the conflict. Verified that in the conditions of increase of protest movements, the range of choice of the actions available to the imperial center was extremely limited, and intended blocking of attempts of expansion of the rights of confessional institutes aggravated contradictions of polysynthetic society, but could not constrain changes. Key words: Caucasus, plural society, religion.