Mother of God of Tabynskoye lands is one of the most mysterious icons of Russian Orthodox Church. It is very significant for the Orthodox population of the whole Ural region.
The Cossacks of Orenburg, Ural and Siberia armies considered the icon as their protector.
Since that and up to 1918 the icon was kept in Voznesenskiy hermitage in Tabynskaya fortress. Gradually the tradition to walk several thousand kilometers carrying an icon became stronger. The last Religious procession with the icon took place during the Civil war in 1918. Then the original icon and several replicas were transported to China. The icon of the Mother of God of Tabynskoye lands were in the Orthodox monastery in Harbin until late 1940-s. Later its trace is lost. Perhaps it was brought to the USA. Currently the location of the icon is not established.
In late 1940-s the holiday of Icon Apparition of the Mother of God of Tabynskoye lands was prohibited and in 1972 the place where the icon had been found was exploded. However, people in Russia kept worshiping to the icon and since 1992 the Religious Procession takes place every year on the ninth Friday after Easter on the territories of Bogoroditse-Tabynskiy Covent and Saint Springs Monastery. Thousands of believers participate it. The Orenburg Cossack army restored the Religious Procession with an icon in 2010. It has been in thousands of perishes of Russian Orthodox Church in Russian and abroad. The Cossacks walked in the Religious Procession carrying the Tabynskaya icon on mountain Athos in 2013 for the first time in history.
The material was prepared jointly with the Institute of History, Language and Literature of the Ufa (Order of the Badge of Honor) Federal Research Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS)
