Lubov Vasil’yevna Titova,
Candidate of Philology, 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.
“Praise to His Holiness Patriarch Nikon” and “On the Antichrist” – Dialogue of Texts by Ideological Opponents
DOI: 10.31518/2618-9100-2023-2-7
The article is devoted to the publication of little-known polemical works: “Praises to Patriarch Nikon” and “On the Antichrist”. These two monuments represent a kind of dialogue of texts of ideological opponents. On the one hand, “Praise to Patriarch Nikon” by an unknown author, an adherent of the official church, who seeks to elevate the patriarch by comparing him with God, on the other – a little-known Old Believer work “About the Antichrist”, which is a response to “Praise”. An anonymous Old Believer writer aims to completely debunk the image of the ideal church hierarch. The connection between the works is obvious, they follow one after another, in a single block: “The Word about the Antichrist” is directed against “Praise” and seeks to refute it not only in general, but also in individual phrases, it is a kind of response to “Praise to Patriarch Nikon”. Both of these texts are published by Ya.L. Barskov in 1912, but were not in demand by researchers, although they are of considerable interest for the history of the Old Believers: the Old Believers' essay on the Antichrist gives an idea of the formation of the idea of the antichrist essence of Patriarch Nikon among the first generation of opponents of church reform. In the “Word about the Antichrist”, created shortly after 1664, for the first time Patriarch Nikon is openly referred to as the Antichrist. In the conclusion of the work, in order to strengthen this idea, all the signs characterizing the Antichrist essence of the patriarch are placed in five symbolic circles. The publication was carried out according to the text published by Ya.L. Barskov, proofread and corrected according to the only manuscript that preserved these texts (RGADA, f. 27 Order of Secret Affairs, d. 578–579). The texts are accompanied by a historical and literary commentary.
Publishing: 28/02/2023
The article has been received by the editor on 10.01.2023
How to cite: Titova L.V. “Praise to His Holiness Patriarch Nikon” and “On the Antichrist” – Dialogue of Texts by Ideological Opponents // Historical Courier, 2023, No. 2 (28), pp. 91–96. [Available online: http://istkurier.ru/data/2023/ISTKURIER-2023-2-07.pdf]
The article was made on the topic of the state assignment “Memory of the Past in Written Sources of the 16th–20th Centuries: Updating Events, Broadcasting Cultural Traditions, Research Practices” (FWZM-2021-0005).
Links: Issue 2 2023
Keywords: polemical works; “Praise to Patriarch Nikon”; Sermon about the Antichrist; publication of the text