Digital Collections

Old Believer collection of the rare collection of the Scientific Library of ISU

Old Believer bookishness is an important part of traditional Orthodox culture. The book is a system-forming and translating component that allows us to judge not only the foundations of this tradition, but also the forms of its existence and development among Old Believers in different regions of Russia and abroad. Of great interest in this context are the book collections available in regional state libraries, which have absorbed the literature of local Old Believer communities.

In Eastern Siberia, which for a long time was part of the Irkutsk General Government (including the Baikal region and Transbaikalia), a large number of Old Believers lived. They were mainly represented by those exiled to different times(including the Nerchinsk penal servitude) and their descendants. It is characteristic that the first Old Believer exiled to Nerchinsk was Archpriest Avvakum himself. After him, thousands of Old Believers who do not agree with the policies of the government and the church will walk this road. The biggest influx was the cast in the second half XVIII century to Western Transbaikalia (mainly to the territory of Verkhneudinsk district) several thousand followers of ancient piety, who had previously settled in the territory of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and were called “Semeyskie” in the region. From that moment on, the Old Believers became a noticeable part of the local population and began to have a serious influence on the nature of the development of the culture of the region. Throughout the subsequent period, the Old Believers were exiled in small groups and individually, and sometimes they were placed with the Semeys. Sometimes they were settled outside the Semey enclave in the territory of Eastern Transbaikalia. At a later time, namely at the beginning of the 20th century, free migrants from different provinces of the European part of the country began to move to the region, especially to its western part - the Baikal region. The exiled and freely arrived Old Believers brought their books with them, established connections to ensure the supply of books from printing centers, and created a local tradition of rewriting and designing them.

Church authorities, whose functions included fighting the “schism,” periodically confiscated Old Believer literature. Part of it ended up in the library of the Irkutsk Theological Seminary, which not only taught “schism studies,” but also held regional missionary congresses. In 1920, these books, along with other materials, were nationalized and transferred to the emerging library of Irkutsk state university. The library also received books from collectors and donors. The most famous of them was N. S. Romanov, whose collection materials replenished the library’s funds in the 1920s. The entire subsequent period, handwritten and printed collection old tradition was replenished due to income that was not uniform in time and composition.

The collections of the ISU Scientific Library contain 269 early printed books, from total number of which 18 were identified as Old Believer. The earliest edition is the Catechism, published in Grodno in the Printing House of the King of Poland in 1783. The latest is the Bible of the Moscow press, which was published in 1914. Chronologically, the old printed texts were distributed as follows. With the second date half of the XVIII V. there are 5 books, the first half of the 19th century V. - 7, second half of the 19th century. - 3rd and early 20th centuries. - 3 books. It is characteristic that among these publications there is one printed convolute of the first half of the 19th century, which includes lengthy handwritten inserts.

The variety of types of early printed books is represented mainly by liturgical and teaching texts. These are the Bible, Psalter, Book of Hours, Book of Hours, Apostle, Catechism, Charter, Saints, Canon, Eldership, as well as various collections. At the same time, there are Old Believer historical and polemical works. These are, included in one collection, the texts “On the Fathers and Sufferers of Solovetsky”, “The Tale of Our Holy Fathers Archpriest Avvakum and Priest Lazarus and the Venerable Epiphanius”, “The Debate of Hierodeacon Theodore with the Metropolitan”, as well as the separately published “The Truth of the Old Believer Hierarchy” against the charges brought against her" famous figure Belokrinitsky consent of Bishop Arseny (O. V. Shvetsova).

As for the geography of origin of early printed books, those of them that have imprints and other direct indications of origin were published in printing houses in Grodno, Vilna, Moscow, Klintsy, Suprasl, Pochaevskaya, etc. In particular, these are printing houses such as: “ Printing house of the King of Poland" (Grodno), "Printing house Vilenskaya", "Printing house Dm. and Yak. Zheleznyakova" (Klintsy), "Supralskaya printing house", "Pochaevskaya printing house", "Printing house of the Manuilovsky St. Nicholas Monastery", "Printing house permitted by the highest authority (Old Believer)", "Old Believer book printing house", "Printing house at the Preobrazhensky almshouse", "Printing house of fellow believers " Moreover, the largest number of books (3 copies each) were published by the Pochaev and Supral printing houses.

The collection of manuscripts [of the ancient Russian tradition] of the Scientific Library of ISU amounts to 100 units. Of these, 25 were previously indicated as Old Believers (Igumnova, 1995). In addition to this list, 17 more manuscripts belonging to the Old Believer tradition have now been identified. Their volume ranges from 12 (“Teachings...” of the first half of the 19th century) to 362 (Psalter of the first half of the 19th century) sheets. The oldest book in use among local Old Believers can be considered the Psalter of the early 16th century. with handwritten Old Believer inserts from the 19th century, seized by the Nerchinsk factory police (as a result of which the book has a corresponding seal). The latest manuscript is the znamenny (“hook”) Liturgy, which is dated turn of XIX-XX centuries At the same time, the manuscripts are distributed chronologically as follows. Dating to the first half of the 18th century. available - 2, second half of the 18th century. - 8, first half of the 19th century. - 21, second half of the 19th - early 20th centuries. - 11 manuscripts. It is characteristic that in this collection, along with the manuscripts themselves, there is one hectograph late XIX- beginning of the 20th century The predominance of books dating from the first half of the 19th century. most likely a consequence of the tightening of policies towards Old Believers during the reign of Emperor Nicholas I, when secular and church authorities actively fought against Old Belief and carried out mass confiscations.

The variety of types of manuscripts is represented by liturgical, teaching, historical and polemical texts. There are 3 texts on hook notes. It's the Holidays late XVII I century (2 copies) and Liturgy of the turn of the 19th-20th centuries. Along with the Psalter, Book of Hours, Rules, Funeral Rite, Skete Repentance, Canons, Holidays and liturgical collections, there is “Apocalypse of John the Theologian”, “Interpretation of the Apocalypse of John the Theologian”, Andrew the Archbishop of Caesarea, “Flower Garden” of Abba Dorotheus and others. Polemical Old Believer works are presented in the form of such texts as: “The Book of the Antichrist”, “On Incidents of the Last Time...”, “Olonets Answers” ​​by Andrei Denisov, etc. There is also an interesting list from the end of the 19th century. from the work of John Verkhovsky “The Schism is not a heresy and the Old Believers are not heretics”, executed in a good individual handwriting. As the actual Old Believer historical work The collection includes a hectograph “The Life of Ambrose, Metropolitan of Belokrinitsky.”

A review of the Old Believer collection of the Scientific Library of Irkutsk State University allows us to draw some conclusions. This collection includes 62 monuments of Old Believer culture. Of these, 20 are printed books and 42 are manuscripts. Species composition, chronology of appearance and approximate distribution area give interesting information about the nature of development book culture Old Believers of Eastern Siberia. Availability large quantity manuscripts suggests that, despite the fact that the Old Believers organized supply channels from publishing centers, they had a shortage of book products until the beginning of the 20th century. Among other things, this led to the formation local tradition rewriting of religious texts, which did not disappear either at the beginning of the 20th century or at a later time. A large number of manuscripts dated late XVIII and especially the first half of the 19th century. suggests that, despite the distance from the capital, the policy of persecution of the Old Believers, in once again which unfolded during the reign of Emperor Nicholas I, reached serious proportions in the region. Availability of printed publications from government-approved Old Believer printing houses of the inter-revolutionary period 1905-1917. speaks of the involvement of local Old Believers in all-Russian processes, be it the development of trade or the resettlement movement.

I couldn’t imagine that Old Believers still exist in Chelyabinsk and have managed to survive all the attacks and persecution. I never thought that the Old Believer library, or rather the Old Believers’ prayer house, contains ancient books and icons. This is the only officially registered Chelyabinsk Old Believer Pomeranian community of the Ancient Orthodox Pomeranian Church.

As fans of the history of the Fatherland know, in 1666 the Russian Orthodox Church split in two, largely through the efforts of the then Patriarch of All Rus' Nikon. One branch, where new laws and rules were adopted, in particular, to make the sign of the cross with three fingers, became official. And the Old Believers (two-fingered, two-fingered) became heretical outcasts and were forced to hide in taiga hermitages - in Pomorie, the Urals, and Siberia. Let us at least recall the life of the disgraced, frantic adherent of the old, canonical views of Archpriest Avvakum. He was killed “for heresy” in Siberian exile.

They persecuted the Old Believers, leading them to collective self-immolation in monasteries and houses of worship, and they also persecuted the ancient books that the Old Believers managed to preserve. If in the old days double-talkers were persecuted for their beliefs unheard of, then in modern history, during the times of Bolshevism and even more so...

Surikov’s stunning painting “Boyaryna Morozova” always stands before my eyes. As a child, of course, I did not understand why the noblewoman, very richly dressed, was “chained in glands,” what this proud two-fingered gesture of hers meant, why the beggar holy fool sitting in the snow answered her with the same two-fingered gesture...

I couldn’t imagine that Old Believers still exist in Chelyabinsk and have managed to survive all the attacks and persecution. I never thought that the Old Believer library, or rather the Old Believers’ prayer house, contains ancient books and icons. This is the only officially registered Chelyabinsk Old Believer Pomeranian community of the Ancient Orthodox Pomeranian Church, its council is headed by Dmitry Anfimovich Kargapolov. He himself, although not a very old man, has a solid, thick beard.

Together with Dmitry Anfimovich, the journalist, under his supervision, was allowed into the prayer house to look at the unique volumes. There are also handwritten ones in leather bindings with clasps, charred here and there, that are nearly four hundred years old! I can’t imagine how many trials befell their fate; people from the burning monasteries and temples endured them at the cost of their own lives.

Dmitry Anfimovich told me something about the centuries-old history of saving ancient tomes:

— The persecution of the old book, which began with Nikon’s reforms, gave it special significance. These persecutions contributed to the fact that old book moved from churches to private homes of adherents of antiquity. They tried in every possible way, sparing no effort, no time, no money, to acquire persecuted books. Hide them and save them! And almost all Russian early printed and ancient written literature spread extremely quickly among the Russian people, mainly among the lower classes. This phenomenon is of extraordinary importance for history. It means that almost all monastic and church libraries entered free circulation among the masses.

— By orders from the authorities, the old books were ordered to be replaced with new ones. In rich monasteries and parish churches, with secret displeasure and sadness, old books were taken down and hidden in basements and attics before they were sent to Moscow to the Printing Yard. And from Moscow new money was written out for pure silver and copper. In run-down monasteries and poor parishes, this novelty was introduced with a hitch: there was not enough money to buy new books and to send old ones to Moscow. Adherents of antiquity simply bought old books or exchanged them for new ones.

— The very first and most important consequence of the introduction of new books was that the old book passed on to the people. And this book, which found its way into private homes, into wretched huts, quickly led to almost complete literacy of the entire Old Believers. There was a purely popular, spontaneous spread of literacy. According to the Old Believer acts of the end XVII century, just 20-30 years after the start of the schism, one can judge that even then the Old Believers had a lot of books and knew how to read and write. In the 18th century, in its first quarter, the Old Believers even felt a shortage of books, especially of an instructive and religious-everyday nature. Help came from the famous Vygovsky monastery, where a scriptorium was organized. Not only monuments of ancient Russian literature were copied, but also the works of Old Believer authors. Handwritten Vygov books were distributed throughout Russia, especially in the Volga, Don, and Ural regions. A special workshop for copying books, organized in the convent on the Lex River, played a special role in this. This census workshop replaced a real printing house and produced more books than the then Moscow Patriarchal Printing House, the only one in all of Russia.

“But the Vygovites did not limit themselves to just copying books. Occupies a special place literary heritage spiritual leaders, monks from the Deserts - they created hundreds original compositions, including the famous “Pomeranian Answers” ​​by Andrei Denisov: a set of rules on theology, church archeology and paleography, in defense of the old faith from the attacks of synodal missionaries. As modern researcher Elena Yukhimenko notes, “the works of this circle were designed for high level literacy of readers, they are characterized by a special style that goes back to the ancient Russian style of “weaving words,” a variety of rhetorical techniques, and a complex and sometimes archaic language.”

— In 1857, the authorities confiscated a library of 286 books on Vyga. In 1862, the remains of this library were transported to Petrozavodsk and transferred to cathedral. Some of the books were stolen by officials - lovers of antiquities, another part of the books were distributed throughout Zaonezhie, many manuscripts were lost. Currently, only 1,450 manuscripts of the “Pomeranian letter” are stored in the ancient storage of the Pushkin House in St. Petersburg.

...At the Dvoedan prayer house we were also met by a fan of the Old Believers, a veteran of the Great Patriotic War Petr Vasilievich Terentyev. He is eighty years old, but strong, strong! They allowed me to see the iconostasis of ancient icons and to bow to books from the sixteenth century. With respect and understanding, I managed to hold such a valuable and rare rarity in my hands. Touch ancient pages.
One problem is that the microclimate in the old hut - the house of worship - is not the same; due to water supply failures, it can be too humid.

Ust-Tsilma. What we call the Old Believer library is a rather arbitrary concept. These are, first of all, books created by the Old Believers themselves or rewritten by them; these are books that they used and owned.

Ust-Tsilma. What we call the Old Believer library is a rather arbitrary concept. These are, first of all, books created by the Old Believers themselves or rewritten by them; these are books that they used and owned. In a word, everything that made up their reading range. The Ust-Tsilma library included almost all types and genres of ancient Russian books.

The formation of the book tradition of Nizovaya Pechora went through several stages. On initial stage books came here with the first settlers during the period of economic development of the region until the end of the 17th century. The next stage in the development of book culture is associated with the stage of “Old Believer colonization.” The emergence of local Old Believers in Pechora is associated with the migration of large masses of peasants who fell into schism and were subjected to repression by the authorities. WITH early XVIII V. fugitive Old Believers from Pinega, Mezen, Dvina, as well as from central regions The Russians settle in Ust-Tsilma. Around 1715, the Mezen resident Parfen Klokotov, who came from the Vygoleksinsky hostel, and the former Solovetsky elder Feofan founded the Velikopozhensky monastery, which existed until 1851. mid-18th century V. Omelinsky monastery arose on the river. Tsilme.

These monasteries became the main centers of local book culture; the local manuscript tradition began to actively develop in Pizhma and Tsilma. The inhabitants of the Pizhemsky and Tsilma monasteries maintained close contact with the Vygoleksinsky book center, from where handwritten collections were transported to Pechora, which were copied by Pechora scribes and distributed throughout the Pechora region.

After the closure of the Old Believer hermitages, the influx of books to Pechora decreased significantly, while the need for them was constantly increasing. This intensified the work of the Pechora scribes from the peasants. In the second half of the 19th century. Pechora has its own talented scribes and editors ancient Russian stories, bookbinders, artists. The most famous is the book-writing activity of I.S. Myandin. IN last third XIX century The Ust-Tsilma scribes developed a special handwriting, the so-called “Pechora semi-ustav”, the model for which was the Pomeranian semi-ustav created by the Vygov scribes of the 18th century. The Pechora semi-ustav, in contrast to its prototype, is characterized by greater freedom of writing, the absence of strict linearity in the line, and the squareness of the letters. It is less written, not so well-structured, its letters have more curls, wide free strokes of the pen, fine lines. The Pechora Half-Ustav, although inferior in many respects in beauty and clarity to the Pomeranian script, testifies to the extraordinary activity of local copyists of manuscripts who continued the best traditions Pomeranian book writing. A special type of Pechora semi-ustav is the type of handwriting developed by I.S. Myandin. It is characterized by sharp ends of the letters and a peculiar slant to the left.

At the beginning of the 20th century. There is a turning point in the development of the handwritten tradition in Pechora - it begins to fade away, which was largely due to the appearance here of a large number of printed products Old Believer printing houses. The printed book quickly replaced many handwritten books from peasant use. Only those books that were in great demand on Pechora but were not published continued to be copied, for example, apocrypha, spiritual poems, and conspiracies.

However, despite all the changes in social and cultural life region, the handwritten tradition in Pechora turned out to be very stable. Manuscripts here, even after the distribution of printed books throughout the Pechora region, continued to be read, copied and carefully preserved until the end of the 20th century.

The fundamentally Old Believer culture of the Pechora people largely determined the nature and content of local writing. The works of Old Believer writers of the 17th century occupy a large place in it. - Avvakum, Deacon Fyodor, priest Lazar, Spiridon Potemkin, Gerasim Firsov and others, works by nameless writers of the 18th century. about the founders of the Old Believers, as well as works by Vygov writers of almost all genres in which the Pomeranians tried their literary powers. Their messages, words, teachings, stories, and lives were copied on Pechora. Among the Ust-Tsilma manuscripts there are autographs of Vygov writers, as well as older lists of their works. Short Old Believer teachings of a moral and ethical nature were very popular in Ust-Tsilma, from which the Pechora scribes compiled entire collections of an edifying nature. Widespread here were adaptations of folk fairy tales, collections of short sayings such as the Bee, extracts from various chroniclers, chronographs, the Book of Degrees, books of grades, works reflecting the history of heretical movements in Rus', spiritual poems on a wide variety of topics.

The peasants of Nizovaya Pechora showed great interest in ancient Russian literary and historical works of various genres and the works of Russian writers of the 11th-18th centuries. The Ust-Tsilems rewrote many stories and tales. Teachings, samples of Russian church historical literature, apocryphal works. They also showed great interest in vernacular literature: in handwritten collections there are many extracts from the Great Mirror, the Most Bright Star, the Skete Patericon, Izmaragd, Zlatostroy, Triumphant and other books.

But the Ust-Tsilma scribes not only copied original and revised ancient Russian works from old collections that came to Pechora. But they themselves were compilers and editors of literary, historical and journalistic works. They came down as part of local handwritten collections and are of particular value for studying the worldview and mentality of the Pechora peasantry. In these works, diverse in genres, themes that primarily worried ordinary Ust-Tsilema residents sound with particular force: predominantly honest labor, the theme of marital fidelity, the problem of the people's king, etc.

The handwritten tradition of Pechora brought to us and interesting materials on the history of the region - local synodics, lists of books from the Pizhemsky monastery, letters from peasants.

The study of all this vast and diverse material, successfully carried out by V.I. Malyshev and other researchers, is, however, far from complete. Most of the book heritage of Ust-Tsilma was saved thanks to the many years of work of the famous archaeographer V.I. Malyshev, archaeographers of Syktyvkar University. The main repositories of the Pechora Old Believer Library are now located: IRLI (Pushkin House) RAS (Ancient Repository named after V.I. Malyshev) and the Rare Book Department of the Scientific Library of Syktyvkar University.

Literature and sources:

Malyshev V.I. Ust-Tsilma manuscript collections of the 16th-20th centuries. Syktyvkar, 1960;

Gagarin Yu.V. History of religion and atheism of the Komi people. M., 1978;

Bernshtam T.A. On the problem of the formation of the Russian population of the Pechora basin // Materials for ethnic history European Northeast. Syktyvkar, 1985. P. 138;

Monuments of writing in the repositories of the Komi ASSR. Catalog guide. Part 1. Handwritten books. Issue 1. Syktyvkar, 1989;

From the diary of a Vologda diocesan missionary for 1903 // Vologda Diocesan Gazette. 1904.N15. Additions.

A.N. Vlasov http://www.komi.com/

Old printed books

Old printed books are a collection of publications from the collections of the Russian state library, published before 1830. It consists of electronic copies of books that have outstanding spiritual, material value and having special historical, scientific and cultural significance.

Currently, the collection contains examples of Slavic first-printed books published in early Slavic printing houses in Poland, Montenegro, Wallachia, Venice, Prague, starting with the “Octoechus” of 1491, printed by Schweipolt Fiol in Krakow. There are also a number of publications published at the Moscow Printing Yard in the 17th century.

The first editions of the most important legislative and regulatory acts of the 18th century are widely represented. (manifestos, laws, decrees, tariffs, articles, instructions) adopted during the reign of Peter I, Anna Ioannovna, Elizaveta Petrovna, Catherine II. You can familiarize yourself with statistical, geographical, topographical descriptions of regions, provinces and cities (I. I. Lepekhin, P. S. Pallas, P. I. Rychkov). For all those interested in the history of our country, the first editions of chronicles, armorials, international treaties, “Ancient Russian history"M. V. Lomonosov, "Russian History from the Most Ancient Times" by V. N. Tatishchev, "Russian History from the Most Ancient Times" by M. M. Shcherbatov, a dictionary of writers by N. I. Novikov and other rare documents.

New arrivals

A collection of portraits of Russians, famous for their military and civil deeds, for their learning, writings, talents, or whose names for some other reason became known to the world.

In chronological order, by year of death, with brief life descriptions attached. / Published by Plato Beketov. — Moscow: [In the printing house of Semyon Selivanovsky], 1821 — 1824. - I - X, 11 - 63, , 67 - 74, 1 - 2, 75 - 76, 1 - 12, 77 - 93, , 1 - 4, , 97 - 150, 1 - 3, , 151 - 292 , p., 50 l. portrait; 4° (31 cm)

The book by the collector and publisher-philanthropist P. P. Beketov (1761-1836) is based on materials from his famous collection of portraits. The richest, iconographically accurate collection of portraits of famous Russians was a source of special pride for the collector. On Beketov’s initiative, academician engraver N.I. Sokolov and experienced book engraver I. Rozanov trained serfs Beketov A. Osipov, F. Alekseev, K. Anisimov, A. Afanasyev, M. Vorobyov, A. Grachev, F. Kasatkin and others . Dotted line engraving technique. This unique team engraved more than 300 boards from the originals of the collection. Soon, a significant part of Beketov’s collection was lost in the Moscow fire of 1812, which gives special value to this publication.

5 (100%) 3 votes Not long ago, I came across information that among Old Believers, during Lent, it was customary to read the book “The Passion of Christ.” Soon this book, republished on excellent paper with marvelous illustrations, miraculously caught my eye in the shop of the Tver Old Believer community in Moscow, near the Belorusskaya metro station. There was only one copy on the second-hand bookshelf. IN...

4.8 (96.52%) 23 votes HAPPY HOLIDAY! We congratulate all our readers on the upcoming highly solemn Feast: the Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem. On this occasion, we share our verified report from Rogozhsky several years ago. There is nothing more pleasant than stability in a busy world: this year everything will be the same, thank God, even if the ranks of grandmothers are objectively growing... Holiday 2016 I was able to visit the temple both morning and evening on Saturday. In the morning...

5 (100%) 3 votes Today's holiday mentally takes us to difficult last days earthly life of our Lord Jesus Christ. The day after the miraculous resurrection of his friend Lazarus from the dead, the Lord Jesus Christ left Bethany for Jerusalem. Numerous crowds of people followed Christ and went to meet Him. On the Mount of Olives, before entering the city, He stopped and sent two...

5 (100%) 1 vote Lent is ending, and we are on the eve of the Holy Days. At the beginning of Lent, speaking about its meaning and meaning, we thought that Lent should be a time for us when we limit ourselves in everything that prompts us to sin, in order to stand in repentance in the face of our conscience, human and Divine truth. Our limitation of ourselves in everything...

5 (100%) 4 votes April 17 (April 4, old style) Orthodox Church honors the memory of our venerable and God-bearing father Joseph, hymn writer and creator of canons (883) (4). The Monk Joseph the Songwriter was born in Sicily into a pious Christian family. The youth was brought up in good book learning and good behavior, and already in his childhood customs one could see an indication that, having become a husband, he...

4.6 (92%) 5 votes On April 16, the Orthodox Old Believer Church will honor the memory of the holy martyr Paul, Bishop of Kolomna, for the ancient piety of the victim. This year marks the 363rd anniversary of tragic death Saint On the eve of this mournful anniversary, we present an extremely informative article by our writer Dimitry Urushev, published in Nezavisimaya Gazeta. Demetrius's works represent a meticulous study and synthesis of a number of sources that have come down...