The article draws reader's attention to the peasant migration from the European Russia to Siberia between the abolition of serfdom at Russia (1861) and World War I (1914). This phenomenon is well known as an example of a successful migration that gave a mighty push to the development of Siberia. But why did not this process grow as powerful as the mass transatlantic migration of Europeans at the second half of 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries – this issue is not yet studied enough. In search of the answer the authors take for consideration conflicts between Siberian old dwellers and newcomers. It is used to consider religious contradictions between the official orthodoxy of the migrants and the "old belief" popular among the old dwellers as one of the reasons for clashes. The authors take the village of Ognevo (at Altai) as a subject for a case study. This case is covered comprehensively by documents coming both from the migrants and from the old dwellers as well as from the state officials who had to face the peasants' complaints. The authors conclude that religion was just a pretext for conflicts. Lack of ploughlands created at Siberia for the first time by the Great Siberian migration appears the true cause of the conflict.