Bashnin Nikita V.,
Candidate of Historical Sciences, Saint Petersburg Institute of History of the Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg, Russia; Saint Petersburg State Academic Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture named after I.E. Repin, St. Petersburg, Russia, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Poliakov Ivan A.,
National Library of Russia, St. Petersburg, Russia; Saint Petersburg Institute of History of the Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg, Russia, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Sheremetov Nikita A.,
Institute of Russian Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences (The Pushkin House), St. Petersburg, Russia, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Women’s Petitions of the Second Half of the 17th Century from the Archives of the Tikhvin Assumption Monastery and the Vologda Bishop’s House
DOI: 10.31518/2618-9100-2019-3-6
This work introduces into scientific circulation the documents of the second half of the 17th century, initiated by women. They were found in the fonds of the Tikhvin Assumption monastery and the Vologda Archbishop’s house. These sources contain information about various life situations in which a woman found herself: violence, fights, inheritance of property, monastic tonsure. Court cases contain testimony of participants and witnesses of incidents, which makes it possible to present a particular case from different sides. Documents of the 1666 court case show different points of view on the same event – Savka Kopylov’s hooliganism. This man was beaten by Natalia and her daughters for singing obscene songs. Sources have documented the success of the judicial action of the widow, (“wife of Semyon Belozerov”) against her nephew Perfiriy Prokop’ev son Popov. By the decision of the monastic authorities, he was expelled from Anna’s house for threats and violence. The author notes a paradoxical situation, when the petition came from a mute resident of Tikhvin – girl named Marinitsa. It is unclear, how she could explain the situation to the clerk and present her claims. Petition of Marinitsa contains two counts of indictment: 1) rape and defilement; 2) plundering of her property. At the Council of the elders of the monastery, headed by Archimandrite Jonah, the first paragraph was left without attention; only the issue of Marinitsa’s property was solved. According to the petition of widow Daria, she was knocked down and bitten by a dog, “who ate her arm”, and she is “an old woman, forever mutilated by that dog”. However after investigation and examination it became clear that on a hand of the aged woman there was a bruise and swelling, while marks of dog teeth were not present. These and other documents clearly show the deliberate exaggeration of the scale of the events by the petitioners. Petition of the widow Agatha, Avdeev’s daughter, to the Archbishop of Vologda and Beloozero Gabriel completes the selection of sources. This document contains a brief history of the life of a woman who decided to take the veil and go to the monastery.
Publishing: 30/06/2019
How to cite: Bashnin N.V., Poliakov I.A., Sheremetov N.A. Women’s Petitions of the Second Half of the 17th Century from the Archives of the Tikhvin Assumption Monastery and the Vologda Bishop’s House // Historical Courier, 2019, # 3 (5). Article 6. [Available online:] http://istkurier.ru/data/2019/ISTKURIER-2019-3-06.pdf
Links: Issue 3 2019
Keywords: petition; woman; Tikhvin Assumption monastery; Vologda Archbishop’s house