Larisa Denisovna Demidova,
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.
“Pomoranian” Version of the Petition of Monk Avraamii
DOI: 10.31518/2618-9100-2026-2-16
The works created by the first generation of Old Believer polemicists remained relevant in a later period, when the movement was forced to adapt to new historical conditions. Many of the texts continued to be copied in their authorial versions, but some underwent changes. Today, two versions of the Petition of Monk Avraamii (1670) are known, the first of which is the original authorial text. In the 18th century, another version was created on the basis of this one, which we have provisionally termed “Pomorskaya”. It has been preserved in a handwritten codex from the mid-18th century held at the Russian State Library (RSL, f. 17, Barsov collection, no. 760). A distinctive feature of this version is the large number of interpolations. The editor made these to expand Avraamii’s argument. Its main source was the text of the fifth Pomorskiy Otvet (“Pomorian Answer”), which contains an comprehensive list of both textual and iconographic evidence in defense of the two-fingered sign of the cross. Furthermore, the inserts contain polemical attacks against printed anti-Old Believer polemical works. In addition to Skrizhal (“The Tablet”) and Zhezl pravleniya (“The Rod of Rule”), with which Avraamii was already familiar, these included Uvet dukhovnyi (“Spiritual Admonition”), Prashchitsa (“The Sling”), and Rozysk (“Inquiry”), all published after the monk’s death. While exposing them in a variety of ways, the editor of the text, however, refrains from attacks on the secular authorities even in those cases where they were the initiators of the criticized innovations (calendar reform and beard shaving). The text is also of interest as an example of a unconventional case of authorial adaptation: the latest historical events are portrayed as if they occurred during the life of Avraamii, who lived in the 17th century. This not only lends authority to the interpolations, but also frees the editor from the need to act as a contemporary and witness to the reforms he criticizes. The composition of the codex, which also includes copies of Solovetsky petitions and the beginning of the “The History of the Solovki Fathers and Martyrs”, the content of the interpolations and later marginalia, suggests that this redaction was created by a member of one of the Pomorian communities. The appearance of this text is not only an interesting fact about the largely obscure literary history of the written work, but also represents an atypical form of polemic: the 18th-century author preferred to create his own text or a polemical miscellany, an extensive intervention in one of the fundamental works, which was typically reproduced in its original authorial version with only minimal changes.
Publishing: 28/04/2026
The article has been received by the editor on 12/01/2026
How to cite: Demidova L.D. “Pomoranian” Version of the Petition of Monk Avraamii // Historical Courier, 2026, No. 2 (46), pp. 218−231. [Available online: http://istkurier.ru/data/2026/ISTKURIER-2026-2-16.pdf]
The article was made on the topic of the state assignment “The Past in the Manuscript Sources of the 16th−20th Centuries: Preservation and Development of Traditions” (FWZM-2024-0006).
Links: Issue 2 2026
Keywords: Old Believers; handwritten codices; monk Avraamii; Petition (1670); Pomorskie Otvety (“Pomorian Answers”); Anti‑Old Believer polemics