The publication deals with the issue of representation of the transition in Orthodoxy of the native population of the Baltic region in the middle and the end of the 19th century. The main focus is on the consideration of this process by Nikolai Leysman, an Orthodox priest and future prominent church hierarch of the interwar Estonia. As shown in the work, in the period of the Russian Empire, the pastor acted with pro-Russian, and not at all autocephalistic positions.