The article describes the activities of a research group that studied domestic orthodoxy and religious syncretism. This group was founded in 1928 by Nicholai Matorin at the geographical faculty of the Leningrad State University. Group members (historians, ethnographers and folklorists) made presentations on contemporary religious practices. They also actively discussed such an important component of the "living religion" as the cult stones. The article published includes the minutes of meetings at which discussed the cult of stones in the daily religious practice, as well as the draft report of O. Dobiash-Rozhdestvenskaia. The report was never held because two days before the scheduled date N. Matorin was arrested and the group ceased to exist.