The liberal course of cooperation of the government with Muslim clergy in the Russian Empire in the XIX^th century was combined with rigid control over religious institutes. Interference of the government in Muslim ecclesiastical institutes led to decrease of authority of clergy among parishioners. The government considered parish clergy as direct assistants in assimilation of Muslim population of the country, and in fact pushed them away from the community, and the community in turn frequently considered them as the opponents of Islam. At the same time the refusal of the state to material support the clerics and the transfer of their maintenance to the parish put them in a state of dependence from the community and led to competitive struggle in the given institute. Such oppressed state of the clergy could not render positive influence on immoral life of the Muslim community.

Key words: mussulman community, state-confessional policy, clergy, West Siberia.