Starukhin Nikolay A.,
Candidate of Historical Sciences, Institute of History of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, Russia, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
“Standard Cleanly Medieval Obscurantism” (to the History of One Neokruzhnichesk’s of Educational Project of Belokrinitsky Old Believers)
DOI: 10.31518/2618-9100-2020-2-11
The paper introduces in scientific circulation a previously unstudied writing titled ‘About the needs of the Old Believer world’. It was written by an unknown author who was a member of a radical Neokruzhnik group of the Belokrinitsky Agreement or ‘Austrian Agreement’ after 1901. An analysis of the sources demonstrates how the largest Neokruzhnik conflict in the Belokrinitsky hierarchy has been connected with provisions in the ex-Beglopopovtsy movement regarding the official Orthodox church and revising the reason of the conflict in Russian Orthodox Church in the 17th century. This process took place in the context of changing governmental policy towards the Old believers. The Neokruzhnik conflict was started in 1860. The next wave of discussions after the publication of the ‘Circular Epistle’ had an impact on the development of the missionary apologetics against the Old believers because the missionaries of the official church paid special attention to the internal divisions among the Old believers. The Synodal missionaries considered a certain enhancement of centrifugal tendencies like evidence of a non-substantiation of the old believer movements. Furthermore, the tendentious interpretations of the sources did not pay enough attention to the conciliation efforts that were specific for the apologetic of the main old believers’ groups. To date, the writing ‘About the needs of the Old Believer world’ is one of the few famous works which allows to follow the intentions of a certain part of the Neokruznik party. Perhaps this work was read out at the Neokruzhnik congress that remains unknown for the research community. The writing was a rewritten text of a Synodal bishop, as it turns out. His name was Ambrose Klyucharev and he was a significant figure of the Synodal episcopate. Nevertheless, the writing includes original fragments that demonstrated the Neokruzhik postulates very well during the period under study.
Publishing: 29/04/2020
How to cite: Starukhin N.A. “Standard Cleanly Medieval Obscurantism” (to the History of One Neokruzhnichesk’s of Educational Project of Belokrinitsky Old Believers) // Historical Courier, 2020, No. 2 (10), pp. 145–157. [Available online:] http://istkurier.ru/data/2020/ISTKURIER-2020-2-11.pdf
Links: Issue 2 2020
Keywords: Old Believers’ community; Belokrinitsky Agreement; Circuitous message; neokruzhniki; polemics