Abstract. This article reviewes the book by S.E.Nikitina «Confessional cultures in their territorial versions.» The research is based on the author’s study of the verbal traditions of three Russian religious groups - Molokan, Old Believers and Doukhobor and first contemplates the problem of describing the confessional culture in modern conditions in its different regional variants. The technique of such description is based on the allocation of the two types of units: the thematic parameters and cultural concepts. Different levels of cultural safety are considered and analyzed on the concrete examples, mainly on the material of the Molokan culture. One of the main characteristics of this culture is the sharp self-consciousness which expresses itself in the highly developed folk hermeneutics.