Old Believer Letters of Request and Thanks during the Imperial Period
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15826/qr.2020.1.455Keywords:
Old Belief; epistolary genre; biblical citations; asking for charity; Vyg and Leksa communityAbstract
This article analyses Old Believer letters from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries containing requests for financial or other assistance and expressing gratitude for it. The letters originate from various Old Believer settlements (sketes and hermitages) in Northern Russia. The author mostly focuses on letters from the Vyg and Leksa community, the largest Old Believer centre of Russia between the eighteenth and the first half of the nineteenth centuries. The letters are analysed both as historical sources and literary works. They are of historical value because they contain information on little-known Old Believer hermitages, the number of monks in them, and the connection of the hermitages with other centres of Old Belief. The letters contain Old Believer writers’ names and autographs. This means that samples of their handwriting can be used to attribute anonymous manuscripts. Letters of request were part of record books that the representatives of Old Believer hermitages took with them when they went to collect donations. The article cites persecution of this activity by the authorities. Also, it considers the literary aspect of the letters, for instance, how the authors used quotations on mercy and compassion from biblical and patristic texts and how they applied the form of the parable and employed a self-deprecating vocabulary. The author concludes that the Vyg Old Believer letters fully correspond to the principles of the Vyg rhetorical school.
References
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Druzhinin, V. G. (1912). Pisaniya russkikh staroobryadtsev [Russian Old Believer Writings]. St Petersburg, Imperatorskaya arkheograficheskaya komissiya. 534 p.
Filippov, I. (1862). Istoriya Vygovskoi staroobryadcheskoi pustyni [The History of the Vyg Old Believer Hermitage]. St Petersburg, Publ. D. E. Kozhanchikov. 499 p.
IRLI [Institute of Russian Literature (Pushkin House) of the Russian Academy of Sciences]. Ust’-Tsilemskoe novoe sobranie. No. 102 (Blagodarstvennoe pis’mo Yakova Koz’micha, nastoyatelya Karkozerskoi pustyni (Kargopol’skii uezd), Stepanu Koz’michu Nosovu (Ust’-Tsilemskii uezd), poslednyaya chetvert’ XIX v.); No. 106 (Blagodarstvennoe pis’mo iz Poromskoi pustyni, konets XIX v.).
Khrushkaya, L. N. (2010). K istorii Pertozerskogo staroobryadcheskogo skita v Kemskom uezde Arkhangel’skoi gubernii [On the History of the Pertozersk Hermitage in Kemsky District of Arkhangelsk Province]. In Staroobryadchestvo: istoriya, kul’tura, sovremennost’. Materialy IX Mezhdunarodnoi konferentsii, Velikii Novgorod, 30 sentyabrya – 2 oktyabrya 2009 g. Moscow, Borovsk, S. n., pp. 102–117.
Korablev, N. A., Moshina, T. A. (2008). Gorodskie golovy Petrozavodska. 1778–1918 gg. Biograficheskii spravochnik [Petrozavodsk City Chiefs. 1778–1918. Biographical Reference Book]. Petrozavodsk, Standart. 76 p.
Maksimov, S. V. (1987). Izbrannye proizvedeniya v 2 t. [Selected Works. 2 Vols.]. Moscow, Khudozhestvennaya literatura. Vol. 1. 448 p.
Malyshev, V. I. (1962). Perepiska i delovye bumagi ust’-tsilemskikh krest’yan XVIII–XIX vv. [Correspondence and Business Papers of Ust-Tsilma Peasants of the 18th–19th Centuries]. In TODRL. Moscow, Leningrad, Izdatel’stvo Akademii nauk SSSR. Vol. 18, pp. 442–457.
Markelov, G. V. (2004). Pisaniya vygovtsev. Katalog-intsipitarii. Teksty. Po materialam Drevlekhranilishcha Pushkinskogo Doma [Vyg Old Believer Writings. Catalogue-Incipitarium. Texts. Based on the Archival Materials of the Pushkin House]. St Petersburg, Dmitrii Bulanin. 420 p.
Markelov, G. V. (2008). Vygoretskii chinovnik v 2 t. [Vygoretsky Official. 2 Vols.]. St Petersburg, Dmitrii Bulanin. Vol. 2. Teksty i issledovanie. 556 p.
Melikhov, M. V. (Ed.). (2005). Pechorskii staroobryadcheskii pisatel’ S. A. Nosov: videniya, pis’ma, zapiski [S. A. Nosov, an Old Believer Writer from the Pechora River: Visions, Letters, Notes]. Moscow, Pamyatniki istoricheskoi mysli. 423 p.
Melyutina, M. N., Terebikhin, N. M. (2013). Sakral’nyi landshaft Kenozer’ya. [The Sacred Landscape of Kenozerye]. Arkhangel’sk, Natsional’nyi park “Kenozerskii”. 202 p.
NARK [National Archive of the Republic of Karelia]. Stock 1 (Kantselyariya Olonetskogo gubernatora). List 1. Dos. 43/20 (Delo po otnosheniyu olonetskogo arkhiepiskopa o naidennoi pristavom Kachalovym v dome krest’yanina Vasil’ya Basargina knizhke dlya sbora podayanii na rasprostranenie raskola, 1868 g.); List 46. Dos. 4/70 (Delo o staroobryadcheskoi molennoi, otkrytoi v Kenoretskoi volosti Kargopol’skogo uezda, 1838–1841 gg.); List 46. Dos. 14/365 (Delo kantselyarii Olonetskogo grazhdanskogo gubernatora sekretnogo stola po predstavleniyu Kargopol’skogo uezdnogo suda o sbore deneg na raskol’nicheskie skity krest’yaninom Mikhailom Shel’ginskim i o Shozhmozerskoi pustyni, 1849–1856 gg.).
Novikova L. N. (1998). Epistolyarnoe nasledie staroobryadki A. N. Putinoi. K voprosu o staroobryadcheskoi simvolike XX v. [The Epistolary Heritage of Old Believer A. N. Putina. Discussing the Question of the Old Believer Symbolism of the 20th Century]. In Mir staroobryadchestva. Zhivye traditsii. Moscow, ROSSPEN. Iss. 4, pp. 206–215.
ORK NB PetrGU [Department of Rare Books of the Scientific Library of Petrozavodsk State University]. No. 1004689 (Pis’mo Kh. P. Kostinu iz Vygovskoi pustyni, 1819 g.).
ORK NB SGU [Department of Rare Books of the Scientific Library of Saratov State University]. Sobranie I. A. Shlyapkina. No. 284 (Sbornik-konvolyut, XVIII–XIX vv.).
Ostrovskii, D. (1900). Kargopol’skie “beguny”. (Kratkii istoricheskii ocherk) [Kargopol Fugitives. (A Historical Summary)]. Petrozavodsk, S. n. 22 p.
Pashkov, A. M. (2006). S. A. Priklonskii – issledovatel’ staroobryadchestva Karelii [S. A. Priklonsky, a Researcher of Old Believers of Karelia]. In Zhenshchina v staroobryadchestve. Materialy mezhdunarodnoi nauchno-prakticheskoi konferentsii, posvyashchennoi 300-letiyu osnovaniya Leksinskoi staroobryadcheskoi obiteli. Petrozavodsk, Izdatel’stvo Petrozavodskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta, pp. 59–66.
Peretts, V. N. (1960). Opisanie sobraniya rukopisei professora I. A. Shlyapkina, prinesennogo v dar vladel’tsem Saratovskomu gosudarstvennomu universitetu [Description of the Manuscript Collection of Professor I. A. Shlyapkin Donated by the Owner to Saratov State University]. In Arkheograficheskii ezhegodnik za 1959 god. Moscow, Izdatel’stvo Akademii nauk SSSR, pp. 361–466.
Pigin, A. V. (2016). Prositel’noe poslanie staroobryadtsev Sheltoporogskogo skita o milostyne [A Letter of Request for Donations by the Old Believers of the Sheltoporog Hermitage]. In Finno-ugorskaya mozaika. Sbornik statei k yubileyu Irmy Ivanovny Mullonen. Petrozavodsk, Izdatel’stvo Karel’skogo nauchnogo tsentra RAN, pp. 308–314.
Pigin, A. V. (Ed.). (2010). Pamyatniki knizhnoi stariny Russkogo Severa: kollektsii rukopisei XV–XX vekov v gosudarstvennykh khranilishchakh Respubliki Kareliya [Book Antiquities of Northern Russia: Manuscript Collections from the 15th–20th Centuries in the State Depositories of the Republic of Karelia]. St Petersburg, Dmitrii Bulanin. 608 p.
Pigin, A. V. (Ed.). (2017). Svyatoi prepodobnyi Diodor Yur’egorskii i sozdannyi im monastyr’ [St Reverend Diodor Yuryegorsky and the Monastery He Established]. St Petersburg, Dmitrii Bulanin. 528 p.
Ponyrko, N. V. (1974). Vygovskoe sillabicheskoe stikhotvorstvo [The Syllabic Poetry of the Vyg Community]. In TODRL. Leningrad, Nauka. Vol. 29, pp. 274–290.
Romanenko, E. V. (2003). Nil Sorskii i traditsii russkogo monashestva [Nilus of Sora and the Traditions of Russian Monasticism]. Moscow, Pamyatniki istoricheskoi mysli. 256 p.
Staritsyn, A. N. (2014). Starovercheskie poseleniya v okrestnostyakh Diodoro-Yur’egorskogo monastyrya [Old Believer Settlements in the Surroundings of Diodor-Yur’egorskiy Monastery]. In Uchenye zapiski Petrozavodskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta. Seriya Obshchestvennye i gumanitarnye nauki. No. 3 (140), pp. 18–23.
Yukhimenko, E. M. (2019). 25 let epistolyarnogo obshcheniya I. N. Zavoloko i M. I. Chuvanova [25 Years of Epistolary Communication between I. N. Zavoloko and M. I. Chuvanov]. Moscow, Izdatel’skii dom YaSK. 264 p.
Yukhimenko, E. M. (2002). Vygovskaya staroobryadcheskaya pustyn’: dukhovnaya zhizn’ i literatura v 2 t. [The Vyg Old Believer Hermitage – Spiritual Life and Literature. 2 Vols.]. Moscow, Yazyki slavyanskoi kul’tury. Vol. 1. 544 p. Vol. 2. 480 p.
Yukhimenko, E. M. (2008). Literaturnoe nasledie Vygovskogo staroobryadcheskogo obshchezhitel’stva v 2 t. [The Literary Heritage of the Vyg Old Believer Community. 2 Vols.]. Moscow, Yazyki slavyanskikh kul’tur. Vol. 2. 568 p.
Zhuravel’, O. D. (2012). Literaturnoe tvorchestvo staroobryadtsev XVIII – nachala XXI v.: temy, problemy, poetika [Old Believer Literary Works of the 18th – Early 21st Centuries: Topics, Issues, Poetics]. Novosibirsk, Izdatel’stvo Sibirskogo otdeleniya RAN. 442 p.
Dnevnye dozornye zapisi o moskovskikh raskol’nikakh. Chasti 3–7. S predisloviem A. Titova [Diurnal Records Tracking Moscow Schismatics. Parts 3–7. Foreword by A. Titov]. (1892). In ChOIDR. Book 1 (160), pp. 1–98.
Druzhinin, V. G. (1912). Pisaniya russkikh staroobryadtsev [Russian Old Believer Writings]. St Petersburg, Imperatorskaya arkheograficheskaya komissiya. 534 p.
Filippov, I. (1862). Istoriya Vygovskoi staroobryadcheskoi pustyni [The History of the Vyg Old Believer Hermitage]. St Petersburg, Publ. D. E. Kozhanchikov. 499 p.
IRLI [Institute of Russian Literature (Pushkin House) of the Russian Academy of Sciences]. Ust’-Tsilemskoe novoe sobranie. No. 102 (Blagodarstvennoe pis’mo Yakova Koz’micha, nastoyatelya Karkozerskoi pustyni (Kargopol’skii uezd), Stepanu Koz’michu Nosovu (Ust’-Tsilemskii uezd), poslednyaya chetvert’ XIX v.); No. 106 (Blagodarstvennoe pis’mo iz Poromskoi pustyni, konets XIX v.).
Khrushkaya, L. N. (2010). K istorii Pertozerskogo staroobryadcheskogo skita v Kemskom uezde Arkhangel’skoi gubernii [On the History of the Pertozersk Hermitage in Kemsky District of Arkhangelsk Province]. In Staroobryadchestvo: istoriya, kul’tura, sovremennost’. Materialy IX Mezhdunarodnoi konferentsii, Velikii Novgorod, 30 sentyabrya – 2 oktyabrya 2009 g. Moscow, Borovsk, S. n., pp. 102–117.
Korablev, N. A., Moshina, T. A. (2008). Gorodskie golovy Petrozavodska. 1778–1918 gg. Biograficheskii spravochnik [Petrozavodsk City Chiefs. 1778–1918. Biographical Reference Book]. Petrozavodsk, Standart. 76 p.
Maksimov, S. V. (1987). Izbrannye proizvedeniya v 2 t. [Selected Works. 2 Vols.]. Moscow, Khudozhestvennaya literatura. Vol. 1. 448 p.
Malyshev, V. I. (1962). Perepiska i delovye bumagi ust’-tsilemskikh krest’yan XVIII–XIX vv. [Correspondence and Business Papers of Ust-Tsilma Peasants of the 18th–19th Centuries]. In TODRL. Moscow, Leningrad, Izdatel’stvo Akademii nauk SSSR. Vol. 18, pp. 442–457.
Markelov, G. V. (2004). Pisaniya vygovtsev. Katalog-intsipitarii. Teksty. Po materialam Drevlekhranilishcha Pushkinskogo Doma [Vyg Old Believer Writings. Catalogue-Incipitarium. Texts. Based on the Archival Materials of the Pushkin House]. St Petersburg, Dmitrii Bulanin. 420 p.
Markelov, G. V. (2008). Vygoretskii chinovnik v 2 t. [Vygoretsky Official. 2 Vols.]. St Petersburg, Dmitrii Bulanin. Vol. 2. Teksty i issledovanie. 556 p.
Melikhov, M. V. (Ed.). (2005). Pechorskii staroobryadcheskii pisatel’ S. A. Nosov: videniya, pis’ma, zapiski [S. A. Nosov, an Old Believer Writer from the Pechora River: Visions, Letters, Notes]. Moscow, Pamyatniki istoricheskoi mysli. 423 p.
Melyutina, M. N., Terebikhin, N. M. (2013). Sakral’nyi landshaft Kenozer’ya. [The Sacred Landscape of Kenozerye]. Arkhangel’sk, Natsional’nyi park “Kenozerskii”. 202 p.
NARK [National Archive of the Republic of Karelia]. Stock 1 (Kantselyariya Olonetskogo gubernatora). List 1. Dos. 43/20 (Delo po otnosheniyu olonetskogo arkhiepiskopa o naidennoi pristavom Kachalovym v dome krest’yanina Vasil’ya Basargina knizhke dlya sbora podayanii na rasprostranenie raskola, 1868 g.); List 46. Dos. 4/70 (Delo o staroobryadcheskoi molennoi, otkrytoi v Kenoretskoi volosti Kargopol’skogo uezda, 1838–1841 gg.); List 46. Dos. 14/365 (Delo kantselyarii Olonetskogo grazhdanskogo gubernatora sekretnogo stola po predstavleniyu Kargopol’skogo uezdnogo suda o sbore deneg na raskol’nicheskie skity krest’yaninom Mikhailom Shel’ginskim i o Shozhmozerskoi pustyni, 1849–1856 gg.).
Novikova L. N. (1998). Epistolyarnoe nasledie staroobryadki A. N. Putinoi. K voprosu o staroobryadcheskoi simvolike XX v. [The Epistolary Heritage of Old Believer A. N. Putina. Discussing the Question of the Old Believer Symbolism of the 20th Century]. In Mir staroobryadchestva. Zhivye traditsii. Moscow, ROSSPEN. Iss. 4, pp. 206–215.
ORK NB PetrGU [Department of Rare Books of the Scientific Library of Petrozavodsk State University]. No. 1004689 (Pis’mo Kh. P. Kostinu iz Vygovskoi pustyni, 1819 g.).
ORK NB SGU [Department of Rare Books of the Scientific Library of Saratov State University]. Sobranie I. A. Shlyapkina. No. 284 (Sbornik-konvolyut, XVIII–XIX vv.).
Ostrovskii, D. (1900). Kargopol’skie “beguny”. (Kratkii istoricheskii ocherk) [Kargopol Fugitives. (A Historical Summary)]. Petrozavodsk, S. n. 22 p.
Pashkov, A. M. (2006). S. A. Priklonskii – issledovatel’ staroobryadchestva Karelii [S. A. Priklonsky, a Researcher of Old Believers of Karelia]. In Zhenshchina v staroobryadchestve. Materialy mezhdunarodnoi nauchno-prakticheskoi konferentsii, posvyashchennoi 300-letiyu osnovaniya Leksinskoi staroobryadcheskoi obiteli. Petrozavodsk, Izdatel’stvo Petrozavodskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta, pp. 59–66.
Peretts, V. N. (1960). Opisanie sobraniya rukopisei professora I. A. Shlyapkina, prinesennogo v dar vladel’tsem Saratovskomu gosudarstvennomu universitetu [Description of the Manuscript Collection of Professor I. A. Shlyapkin Donated by the Owner to Saratov State University]. In Arkheograficheskii ezhegodnik za 1959 god. Moscow, Izdatel’stvo Akademii nauk SSSR, pp. 361–466.
Pigin, A. V. (2016). Prositel’noe poslanie staroobryadtsev Sheltoporogskogo skita o milostyne [A Letter of Request for Donations by the Old Believers of the Sheltoporog Hermitage]. In Finno-ugorskaya mozaika. Sbornik statei k yubileyu Irmy Ivanovny Mullonen. Petrozavodsk, Izdatel’stvo Karel’skogo nauchnogo tsentra RAN, pp. 308–314.
Pigin, A. V. (Ed.). (2010). Pamyatniki knizhnoi stariny Russkogo Severa: kollektsii rukopisei XV–XX vekov v gosudarstvennykh khranilishchakh Respubliki Kareliya [Book Antiquities of Northern Russia: Manuscript Collections from the 15th–20th Centuries in the State Depositories of the Republic of Karelia]. St Petersburg, Dmitrii Bulanin. 608 p.
Pigin, A. V. (Ed.). (2017). Svyatoi prepodobnyi Diodor Yur’egorskii i sozdannyi im monastyr’ [St Reverend Diodor Yuryegorsky and the Monastery He Established]. St Petersburg, Dmitrii Bulanin. 528 p.
Ponyrko, N. V. (1974). Vygovskoe sillabicheskoe stikhotvorstvo [The Syllabic Poetry of the Vyg Community]. In TODRL. Leningrad, Nauka. Vol. 29, pp. 274–290.
Romanenko, E. V. (2003). Nil Sorskii i traditsii russkogo monashestva [Nilus of Sora and the Traditions of Russian Monasticism]. Moscow, Pamyatniki istoricheskoi mysli. 256 p.
Staritsyn, A. N. (2014). Starovercheskie poseleniya v okrestnostyakh Diodoro-Yur’egorskogo monastyrya [Old Believer Settlements in the Surroundings of Diodor-Yur’egorskiy Monastery]. In Uchenye zapiski Petrozavodskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta. Seriya Obshchestvennye i gumanitarnye nauki. No. 3 (140), pp. 18–23.
Yukhimenko, E. M. (2019). 25 let epistolyarnogo obshcheniya I. N. Zavoloko i M. I. Chuvanova [25 Years of Epistolary Communication between I. N. Zavoloko and M. I. Chuvanov]. Moscow, Izdatel’skii dom YaSK. 264 p.
Yukhimenko, E. M. (2002). Vygovskaya staroobryadcheskaya pustyn’: dukhovnaya zhizn’ i literatura v 2 t. [The Vyg Old Believer Hermitage – Spiritual Life and Literature. 2 Vols.]. Moscow, Yazyki slavyanskoi kul’tury. Vol. 1. 544 p. Vol. 2. 480 p.
Yukhimenko, E. M. (2008). Literaturnoe nasledie Vygovskogo staroobryadcheskogo obshchezhitel’stva v 2 t. [The Literary Heritage of the Vyg Old Believer Community. 2 Vols.]. Moscow, Yazyki slavyanskikh kul’tur. Vol. 2. 568 p.
Zhuravel’, O. D. (2012). Literaturnoe tvorchestvo staroobryadtsev XVIII – nachala XXI v.: temy, problemy, poetika [Old Believer Literary Works of the 18th – Early 21st Centuries: Topics, Issues, Poetics]. Novosibirsk, Izdatel’stvo Sibirskogo otdeleniya RAN. 442 p.
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Published
2020-04-01
How to Cite
Pigin, A. (2020). Old Believer Letters of Request and Thanks during the Imperial Period. Quaestio Rossica, 8(1), 176–189. https://doi.org/10.15826/qr.2020.1.455
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Problema voluminis
