Tumanik Ekaterina N.,
Candidate of Historical Sciences, Institute of History of the Siberian Branch 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.
“An Incident in the Aleutian Islands Which Happened in 1828” – Documents of the Irkutsk Clerical Consistory from the Archive of the Basnin Merchants
DOI: 10.31518/2618-9100-2020-2-6
This article-publication introduces into scientific circulation a correspondence complex of the Siberian clergy of the first third of the 19th century. A new copy of a letter of St. Innocent (Veniaminov) is being published. In this letter, St. Innocent talks about his missionary work in the Aleutian Islands and reports on a miracle (an appearance of angels) that he encountered among the newly baptized Aleuts. The correspondence of Siberian archbishops gives information about the attitude of church officials to such miracles, as well as about the worldview, spiritual search and interests of a top of the Siberian clergy. The main theme of the documents being published is the missionary activity of St. Innocent. Furthermore, not only the content but also the fate of the documents and their origin are important in this case. The correspondence complex is noteworthy because it was preserved due to the attention given to it by the representatives of the Siberian society. These were contemporaries of St. Innocent: Decembrist A.N. Muravyov and a young Irkutsk merchant D.O. Portnov. In this article, the story of the source is being reconstructed. The documents had been originally rewritten by A.N. Muravyov, then D.O. Portnov got a copy from him. For the young merchant, the exiled Decembrist Muravyov was a mentor in spiritual practice and spiritual knowledge, whose opinion he highly valued. The published text was rewritten and verified by D.O. Portnov; by his own hand, the text was corrected during verification. Thus, the source presents moral and spiritual interests and values of the Siberians.
Publishing: 29/04/2020
How to cite: Tumanik E.N. “An Incident in the Aleutian Islands Which Happened in 1828” – Documents of the Irkutsk Clerical Consistory from the Archive of the Basnin Merchants // Historical Courier, 2020, No. 2 (10), pp. 72–83. [Available online:] http://istkurier.ru/data/2020/ISTKURIER-2020-2-06.pdf
Links: Issue 2 2020
Keywords: Orthodoxy; Siberia; St. Innocent (Veniaminov); clergy; missionary work; merchants; Decembrists