This article describes the sacralization of a Russian monarch’s person in the non‑Christian religious systems of the Russian Empire (Islam, Buddhism, traditional beliefs). It shows that in Christianizing subjects’ mythological worldview a tsar could play the role of a demiurge, replacing the pagan creator, and moreover, Russian Buddhists actually included the supreme rulers of the Empire in the pantheon of their faith.

The article discusses the origins, content, and meaning of two editions of the New Testament constructed by Thomas Jefferson in 1804 and 1819. He had launched these editions in accordance with his views on the interrelatedness of religion and reason, of the freedom of conscience, and the right to interpret the New Testament through the prism of one’s own life experience.