Libmonster ID: RU-20304
Author(s) of the publication: V. G. KARTSOV

Medieval Western Europe was divided into a number of independent states, often opposing each other. The Catholic religion brought them spiritually closer together not only through a common church headed by the Papal Curia, but also through the Latinization of worship and science. In Russia, the unity of the state and faith was established with worship in the Church Slavonic language, which also greatly contributed to the unity of the people, especially with the multinational population. The creation of the Russian centralized state was accompanied by a corresponding religious propaganda, which expanded after the fall of Constantinople in 1453 and the establishment of Turkish rule in the Balkans. The end of the Byzantine Empire was characterized as a punishment for the "Florentine apostasy" (the 1439 union of the Orthodox Church with the Catholic Church).

After the overthrow of the Golden Horde yoke (1480), with the annexation of Kazan (1552), Astrakhan (1556) and with the fall of the Siberian Khanate (1581-1584), the former eastern border of Russia was erased and the wall collapsed, which for centuries not only limited it geographically, but also squeezed it from the East. For the Russian people, the ways of advancing to the Don, the Volga basin, the Urals and Siberia were opened up. There was an opportunity to "withdraw" without military force, on their own, by free Cossacks, and the people moved. No amount of attachment to the ground could hold it up. The route laid out in 1581 by the Yermak bands to the Irtysh River, in less than 60 years, ran through all of Siberia and the Far East and ended in 1639 with the departure of the Cossack Ivan Moskvitin to the Pacific coast. So from the Volga-Oka interfluve, from the central Russian lands, long seized by feudal lords of all sorts and ranks, the Russian people moved away from the growing serfdom to the free lands and gained a foothold in the wide expanses of Siberia.

In the minds of the people, "it was high to God, but far from the tsar," and the tsarist power in the conditions of vast Russia was not only in life reality, but also psychologically a symbol of the unity of the country. The king's prestige was exceptionally high. At that time, the political system, in this case the monarchical one, was "the religious sphere, the religion of popular life, the sky of its universality, as opposed to the earthly existence of its reality"; but since "it is not the state system that creates the people, but the people create the state system", then the formation of autocratic power was objectively " democracy unfreedom " 1 . In that era of the formation of a pan-European market in the West, the XVI - XVII centuries were a time of rapid development of trade. The massive export of natural resources from Russia, obtained by forced labor of the people, promised enrichment to the government and the feudal nobility. The export of Russian goods, carried out through Arkhangelsk, gave annually about 1 million rubles., at that time a very significant amount. And the revival of European trade entailed an increase in serfdom in the country. And if Russia, with its peasant face, remained turned to the East, then its feudal-aristocratic face looked more to the West.

The church and the state were bound together by a common task: to smooth out social contradictions, and both of them ultimately carried out their activities from the positions and in the interests of the ruling class. At the same time, their unity was "the unity of opposites", because both of them claimed to be opposites.

1 K. Marx and F. Engels, Soch. Vol. 1, pp. 252, 254.

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priority. God, as it was then said, is omnipotent, and kings walk under God, but God was in heaven, and the king was on earth. Simultaneously with the formation and strengthening of the Russian centralized state, in connection with the polarization of the two main classes of feudal society, two fairly clearly marked ideological trends developed in the "socio - geographical" sphere: centralizing- "pro-Western", noble, and" provost", peasant; and in parallel, in the religious sphere, two different perceptions religious doctrines and therefore two views on the church organization, with the tsarist ideology of the masses as a whole. But a critical attitude towards the authorities was already emerging among the people: the concept of a "good tsar" was emerging, which, of course, was contrasted with the concept of a "bad tsar". Finally, after the "Stoglav" under Ivan the Terrible strongly condemned as heretical all deviations from the established religious doctrines in Russia, which he recorded in his decisions as the unquestionable canon of piety, and after the war of 1654-1667. for the reunification of Ukraine with Russia, as well as in connection with the strengthening of contacts with the fraternal Balkan peoples and the Greek Church, the question arose about the need to bring the Russian Church to unity with the Ukrainian and Balkan ones.

Such were the economic, social, political and ideological prerequisites for the cataclysms of the mid-17th century, when a number of urban uprisings broke out, followed by the church reform of Nikon 2 and the Peasant War under the leadership of S. T. Razin shook the country.

The new, "Nikonian" faith in a number of dogmatic provisions diverged from the old, lived-in and familiar for centuries. Now these discrepancies do not seem to us to have any fundamental significance. But in that dark time, they seemed to be fundamentally significant. At that time, the adherents of the old faith were ready to go to the stake and martyrdom for each of these discrepancies, especially since religious symbols often hid social confrontation. The magic sign of Christianity is the cross. The sign of the cross was indicated by fingers folded in a special way. In the Old Russian finger composition, two overshadowing fingers symbolized the duality of Christ as God and man, and three bent fingers-the divine Trinity. The idea of the incarnation of God in man was closer and clearer to the common people than the abstract idea of the trinity. Nikonianism, on the other hand, adopted the three-finger addition ("pinch", as the Old Believers used to say) for the sign of the cross, as if relegating the symbol of the son of God, who suffered for ordinary people, to the background. In accordance with the same principle, the service in honor of Christ as the "God-man" required a special hallelujah, that is, a twice-repeated hymn: "hallelujah, hallelujah!". Now the pure hallelujah was replaced by a treguba. The very name of Christ received a new spelling: instead of "Jesus" - "Jesus", which was considered by adherents of the old faith as a direct renunciation of the "true" son of God. The accepted Old Russian image of the cross (not a simple crosshair-kryzh, but as a symbol of the "passion of the Lord" - the redemptive sacrifice that Jesus made in the name of saving people) was necessarily eight - pointed-the four ends of the crucifix plus the ends of the crossbars: the upper one, that is, the board with the title of Christ, and the lower one, that is, the foot. Nikonianism also introduced a four-pointed cross. There were also a number of other ceremonial innovations: earlier, during a number of sacred rites (for example, carrying a baptised child around the font, getting married around the lectern), walking went "along the solon", that is, along the sun, from east to west; in Nikonianism, on the contrary, from west to east. Soon the icons of the Old Russian script were ordered to be withdrawn from use. The ancient church "znamennoe" singing by "hooks" (peculiar musical signs) with monody (one-voice), when sung in unison, in Nikonian churches began to be replaced by a multi-voiced choir singing by notes.

Nikon's church reform caused widespread protest. In 1655, a church council met in Moscow with the participation of Patriarch Macarius of Antioch. On it, the supporters of dvoeperstiya were cursed. Confusion gripped the people. They said: if the double-finger sign is heretical, then all the ancient shrines of the church are cursed and all the Russian saints are heretics; then all the deceased ancestors are doomed to eternal torment

2 See for more information: O. F. Kozlov "The Nikon Case". Voprosy Istorii, 1976, No. 1.

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hells! Nikon took decisive measures to suppress religious opposition, and the new Council of 1656 proclaimed the excommunication of all Old Believers from the Church. It was then that the Russian Orthodox Church split into the official, Nikonian, and the ostracized and persecuted, Old Believers. The transition to a new worship service and the removal from the church of clergymen who adhered to the Old Faith caused a number of excesses. When, for example, in the Nile Desert, the priest began the service in a new way, on five prosphora, the clergy objected, the sexton hit the priest with a censer, and the red-hot coals scattered. A general melee began in the church 3 .

From the very beginning, the schismatic movement began to take on a social tone, although at first it was mainly manifested as open opposition among the lower clergy. Protestant fanatical priests, speaking out against government aspirations, were often a torch that ignited the masses. The government understood this. And that is why the bonfires of the Orthodox Inquisition were burning in Russia. The recognized leader of the Old Believers, Archpriest Avvakum, wrote about Nikon: "Bishop Paul of Kolomna, tormenting, and in the Novgorod borders burned with fire; Daniel, the archpriest of Kostroma, tormenting a lot, in Astrakhan in an earthen prison, he killed; Gabriel, the priest in Nizhny, ordered to cut off his head; Michael, the priest, was killed without a trace: transferred to prison two priests, Vologda citizens, are unknown and where to do; he took 60 people with me at the vigil, tormenting and beating and cursing, kept them in prison, found Malia alive, and exiled me to the Daurian land... My wife, protopopitsa Nastasya, is sitting in the ground with her children... On the Mezen of my house, two people were strangled by Nikonians on the gallows. In Moscow, elder Avramiy, my spiritual son Isaiah Saltykov, was burned at the stake. In Borovsk Polyekt priest and with him 14 people burned. In Nizhny Novgorod, a man was burned. There are 30 people in Kazan. In Kiev, Sagittarius Illarion was burned " 4 .

To overcome the Old Faith, it was forbidden to choose priests, as it used to be. Priests were only appointed, regardless of the desire of the flock. It is significant that serfs were forbidden to take priestly orders .5 In principle, it was not so much a matter of ritual as of the state-political aspect. After all, Nikon himself in the fight against Old Believers did not see a special sin either in the two-finger addition, or in a special hallelujah. In a conversation with the submissive opponent Ivan Neronov, he admitted:: "Both are good; whatever you want, you serve them." Indeed, the cathedrals cursed the Old Believers not for their faith, but for their disobedience.6 But Nikon also had such a special feature as the features of the peasant, "provost" ideological tendency that it had not overcome. The Patriarch resolutely fought against the noble tendencies towards rapprochement with the West. While strengthening official Orthodoxy in Russia, he sought to get in touch with the Orthodox churches of the East in order to jointly oppose the Latin West. Nikon did not seek to open the gates to the West with his church reform, but, on the contrary, erected a more powerful Orthodox barrier in order to better distinguish itself from the Latin world and thereby strengthen the power of the independent Russian Church. Nikon was close to the features of peasant conservatism in public and state life. It is no coincidence that he demanded the eviction of all foreigners who did not accept Orthodoxy, outside the Moscow city walls, in the German settlement, and ordered the destruction of non-Orthodox churches and mosques. On his orders, a prominent foreign industrialist in Russia, Marselis, was whipped for smoking. Struggling with the penetration of Western European culture, Nikon took five carts of musical instruments from the boyars and burned them. Having learned that the relative of the tsar is a boyar I. N. Romanov introduced European costumes and furnishings into his home life, and Nikon deceptively obtained the clothes of boyar lackeys and ordered them to be cut to pieces .7
3 V. V. Andreev. Schism and its significance in Folk Russian History, St. Petersburg, 1870, p. 67.

4 "The Life of Archpriest Habakkuk", Moscow, 1934, pp. 200-201. For more information, see: V. S. Rumyantsev. Ognepalny Habakkuk. Voprosy Istorii, 1972, No. 11.

5 V. V. Andreev. Op. ed., p. 10.

6 V. O. Klyuchevsky, Soch. Vol. 3, Moscow, 1957, p. 307.'

7 V. V. Andreev. Op. ed., pp. 50-52.

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But at the same time, a royal-patriarchal conflict broke out over the supreme power. After the removal of Nikon from the post of patriarch, when no one was elected to replace him for eight years, doubts flared up again among the people, which strengthened the abolished Old Faith, as evidenced by the then Nikonian archpastors .8 Schismatics were given a new anathema in 1666, after which they were already deprived of the right and opportunity to hope for any deal with the church authorities and "became irreconcilable enemies of the existing church system, and at the same time of state power"9 . It was the year 1666. " 666 "is the" animal " number in the "Apocalypse" full of mystical allegories, a symbol of the Antichrist. There was talk among the schismatics that the Antichrist had come to Earth. This means that the prophecy is coming true: in two and a half years, the end of the world must come, the last judgment is coming, and only those who do not give their soul to the Antichrist will inherit the kingdom of heaven. And the next year, 1667, the Don Cossacks, who held on to the Old Faith, became agitated. To the Don army ataman K. A royal decree was sent to Yakovlev: "It is the work of God and our great sovereign that you should take care of those apostates and thieves, giving them fear, and bring them to conversion with the help of soldiers and reasonable God-fearing people." 10 But the Cossacks firmly clung to the old faith, "disobedient to the sovereign's decree," and in 1668 they replaced the military ataman in Cherkassk.

At the same time, major events occurred near the distant White Sea: the Solovetsky Monastery also did not recognize the New Faith. A petition was sent to Moscow to allow the service to be held according to old books. In response, the monks received a royal threat: if they persevered, they would take away their patrimony from the Solovetsky Monastery and not allow any supplies to enter it. The inhabitants of the Solovetsky Islands, in turn, replied: we are ready to accept the royal sword! 11 . Preparations for defense have begun. The monastery was surrounded by impregnable stone walls, they were located 90 cannons. The supplies could last for a number of years. Subsequently, help came up: up to 500 people of the rebellious people, including those from the Cossack Don. The siege of the monastery by the tsar's troops began in 1668. "Nikon and the tsar are the two horns of the Antichrist," said the defenders. The leader of the rebel brotherhood, Nicanor, sprinkling holy water on the cannon, said:: "Our mothers, gollanochki, our hope is in you, you will protect us!" The battles lasted about ten years. In 1676, a traitor was found who pointed out to the besiegers a hole in the impregnable wall, laid with stones. This "Solovetsky Iliad" began two years before the Peasant War under the leadership of S. T. Razin, and ended five years later. The researcher was right when he noted: "The Solovetsky Uprising showed very clearly that the Old Believers' movement was not only a movement against the ruling church, but also against the government. " 12
Was the schismatics ' movement connected with the Peasant War that broke out at that time? Some chronology: 1654-1656-split of the Russian Orthodox Church; 1666-removal of Nikon from the patriarchal throne and at the same time anathema to the Old Believers; 1668-beginning of the religious uprising in Solovki; 1670-1671-Peasant War; 1676-suppression of the Solovetsky uprising. What is the connection between these events? V. I. Lebedev, comparing the Razin movement with the Peasant War of 1525 in Germany, stated: "The ideology of the German peasants is characterized by its religious coloring; the ideology of the rebellious peasantry of the Russian state is characterized by a tsarist orientation" 13 . The same idea is developed by N. P. Dolinin: Razin's movement is characterized by religious indifference, and this "made up the majority of its members."

8 " Supplements to Historical Acts collected and published by the Archeographic Commission)", vol. 5, St. Petersburg, 1853, p. 483; Makarii. History of the Russian Schism, St. Petersburg, 1855, pp. 172-174.

9 N. Kostomarov. Russian History in the biographies of its most important figures. Vol. II. SPB. 1895, p. 215.

10 "The Peasant War under the leadership of S. Razin". Collection of Documents, vol. 1, Moscow, 1954, pp. 93-94.

11 Ibid., p. 120.

12 " Essays on the history of the USSR. The period of feudalism. XVII century.", Moscow, 1955, p. 323.

13 V. I. Lebedev. Peasant War under the leadership of S. Razin, Moscow, 1955, p. 163.

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a characteristic feature of anti-feudal demonstrations in Russia", and "ideas of schism began to spread among the masses" only "after unsuccessful open mass popular demonstrations" 14 . According to I. Z. Kadson, " attempts to link peasant wars with heretical movements look unpromising... Particularly revealing in this sense is the synchronicity of such major social movements as the schism and S. Razin's uprising. Both had an anti-feudal orientation, but at the same time they practically did not touch either organizationally or ideologically."15
Probably based on the same considerations, A. G. Mankov, in his work on the history of the Peasant War, did not note the fact that the popular movement in its last stages reached its greatest mass scale in the indigenous areas of religious schism-Nizhny Novgorod region, and generally ignored the role of the schism as an ideological banner of the anti-feudal struggle in the Solovetsky Uprising . Other experts on the history of schism have been constantly writing about the Old Believers in Russia since the second half of the 17th century, especially since the 1990s .17 But it is overlooked that until the 1650s, the so-called Old Believers were generally the unified religion of Russia as a whole and, therefore, it did not "spread among the people", as these authors say, but on the contrary, the old faith was outlived by the official church, and for a very long time.

More correct is A. Dmitriev, who wrote: "The main mass of schismatics were enslaved peasants. They did not understand either the special or treguboy hallelujah, or other dogmatic subtleties of the rite and cult. They didn't need priests, either. They needed a different life, a better one than the one that the Moscow faith brought with it, along with unbearable taxes and enslavement. And under the reactionary slogan of the "old faith" they expressed their protest against the rule of the serfs. This explains the extraordinary persistence of the schism at that time and the fierce and bloody campaign that the church launched against it, relying on the full sympathy and support of the Moscow autocracy. " 18 (in this statement, we find only the phrase about the reactionary slogan of the "old faith" unfortunate, which gives reason to believe that the slogan of the "new faith" was progressive). N. S. Chaev formulated the same idea more clearly: the split was strongly influenced by the townspeople and the peasantry, and it "reflected the deep social discontent of the oppressed strata of the population. The masses of the people, taking the side of the "old faith", expressed their protest against feudal oppression, which is covered up and sanctified by the church. " 19 In the History of the USSR from Ancient Times to the Present Day, an even more precise statement is put forward: "The Old Believers fought against the noble state, and this was enough to arouse sympathy from outside." 20 Unfortunately, this idea was not reflected in the specific material about the Peasant War of 1670-1671 presented in this multi-volume publication.

Thus, a cursory glance at the historiography of the issue under consideration is enough to recognize the problem of the relationship between the Peasant War and the religious schism, which simultaneously flared up anti-feudal popular movements, which found expression both in ideology and in active forms of class struggle.

First of all, let us see whether Stepan Razin was a stranger to religious questions. No. Otherwise, why did he maintain contact with the Solovetsky Monastery, a stronghold of the schismatic movement, for a number of years? He went there "on a pilgrimage", after the death of his father, in 1652, just in the year of Nikon's accession to the patriarchal throne, a time of heated disputes among zealots of piety. Secondary (unknown,

14 Voprosy Istorii, 1957, N2, p. 129.

15 I. Z. Kadson. The anti-Church struggle of the masses in Russia in the works of Soviet historians. Voprosy Istorii, 1969, No. 3, p. 152.

16 "Peasant Wars in Russia of the XVII-XVIII centuries", Moscow, 1966, ch. 2.

17 A. I. Rogov. Popular Masses and Religious Movement in Russia in the second half of the XVII century. Voprosy Istorii, 1973, N 4.

18 A. Dmitriev. Inquisition in Russia, Moscow, 1937, p. 49.

19 " Essays on the history of the USSR. The period of feudalism. XVII century", p. 317.

20 "History of the USSR from ancient times to the present day", vol. 3, Moscow, 1966, p. 105.

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Razin visited the same monastery in 1661, when the schism had already occurred, and mass persecution of schismatics began, and Nikon was in disgrace. You can imagine how the Nightingales were seething. Razin did not stand aside from sharp schismatic attacks against the order that prevailed in feudal Russia at that time. The schism, with its anti-feudal popular tendencies, opposed the authorities, including the patriarch, but the same patriarch, for some reasons unclear to the people, was removed from office. And in 1666, everything was mixed up: Nikon was already in open opposition to the authorities, having been deposed from the church throne with the help of foreign patriarchs and imprisoned in a remote monastery. People were perplexed. The Old Believers said to Novovertsy: "If Nikon, your mentor, showed you the right path, then why are you expelling him? When do students argue against their teacher? But if Nikon is an enemy to God and the Theotokos, and to his saints and to you, then why do you keep his motley laws?"21 . For centuries, the words "king" and "god" that had been organically merged in the minds of the people came into a certain contradiction. There was a conflict in folk psychology.

It was at this time that the uprising led by Razin began. In 1668, Stepan Timofeyevich sent his men to the Ferapontov Monastery, where Nikon was imprisoned. The Cossacks negotiated with the deposed patriarch and urged him to go over to their side. Nikon refused. Subsequently, he himself confirmed this in his testimony. A "rasprosnye rechi" about the mood of the Cossacks reported: "Thieves' Cossacks... They praise the former patriarch Nikon: in vain, de, the boyars drove him out of Moscow, and he, de, Nikon, was their father. "How can Stenka Razin be in Kazan or Nizhny Novgorod, and he, Nikon, will still be in Moscow", after which the informers summed up: "And why should he, Nikon, be expelled from Moscow? there was no"22 . The idea that the hated boyars and cursed heretics were to blame for everything was firmly established among the people. They both muddied the faith and eliminated the patriarch, who was appointed by God. Surely the tsar couldn't be in league with them? Razin's early proclamations were written in the name of God and the sovereign: "Who wants to serve God and the sovereign... yes, and Stepan Timofeyevich", so "bring out traitors" 23 . But you can't hide an awl in a bag. It soon became apparent that the suppressors of the peasants and Cossacks were acting at the behest of the tsar. At that time, the phenomenon of "two kings" and "two patriarchs" that had flickered 60 years earlier (the old people still remembered the "Time of Troubles") was revived in the people's memory.

Here in Moscow, Tsarevich Alexey Alekseevich accidentally died. Here is a name suitable for a" good " king. "Nechai" was the nickname given by the rebels to the mythical prince in their camp. And the patriarch? He, persecuted by the boyar tsar, exists in reality, only refused to "straighten out" the people. But you can also use his name. Whether it's good or bad, it's made a lot of noise, and everyone knows it. And then the news quickly spread: "There is Nechai - Tsarevich Alexey Alekseevich and Nikon-the patriarch... and people put everything in the truth... and that, sire, is a great calamity and confusion, " reported the Kerensky voivode at the end of September 1670 .24 Now Razin called on the black people to kiss the cross "to the sovereign Tsarevich Alexey Alekseevich and our father", the persecuted Nikon, that is, the people's head of the church .25 The very fact that the masses adopted the name of Nikon as the banner of the peasant anti-feudal struggle shows that there was great confusion among the people regarding the split of the church. One thing was clear: there are priests who go with the authorities, boyars, and nobles, and this is the new state church; and there are priests, but they are close to the people, they denounce the bar, and whether it is the old church or the new one, the peasant does not care. Razintsy equipped two barges. One was lined with red baize. On it sailed in the role of Nechai Tsarevich some captured Caucasian prince. The other was removed with black velvet, for the Nikon 26 . Among the Cossacks, there was a rumor that Nikon wrote to Razin on the Don, "so that he, Stenka, could get out of the city."-

21 S. M. Solovyov. The history of Russia since ancient times. Book VII. Moscow, 1962, p. 123.

22 "The Peasant War under the leadership of S. Razin". Collection of Documents, vol. II, part 1, Moscow, 1957, p. 44.

23 Ibid., p. 65.

24 Ibid., p. 109.

25 Ibid.

26 "Notes of foreigners on the uprising of S. Razin". L. 1968, p. 111.

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having parted with the thieves 'Cossacks, he went to the boyars to Moscow, and he, de Nikon, was driven out of Moscow by the boyars in vain." 27
Some authors, rejecting the religious element in the popular movement, present Razin as almost an atheist or a person who is completely indifferent to religion. But Razin and his associates were people of their time. Razin personally had his own confessor, Pope Theodosius. In the rebel army, too, there were priests" who served services for the dead. " 28
Another question arises: did Razin belong to the Old Believers? If so, how do you explain his desire to attract Nikon to the side of the rebels? Apparently, there is nothing unnatural here either. The church Council laid down the patriarchal rank from Nikon. Consequently, the Orthodox Catholic Church itself has turned its back on the former patriarch. He was oppressed and persecuted by the authorities and the state church. Hence the desire to find support and support in the person of Nikon was born. At the same time, Razin, like many people of that time, kept to the "old days" and opposed the state church, which relied on the council that judged the former patriarch. This is evidenced by the comparison of the wording of church doctrines in Razin's proclamations, on the one hand, and on the other - in government letters, in the appeals of Joasaph, Nikon's successor on the patriarchal throne. Those in power were called upon to stand up "for the Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church and the Orthodox Christian faith." 29 The opposing formula from the "charming letters" of the rebels is different: to become "for the house of the Most Holy Theotokos and for all the saints, ... for the entire Orthodox Christian faith" 30 . Both sides "claimed to stand for Orthodoxy. But the "catholic and apostolic church" approved by the Council of patriarchs is one thing; the "house of the Most Holy Theotokos and all saints", the center of ancient, specifically Russian Orthodoxy, is another: Cathedral of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary - the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin, the tomb of Russian metropolitans, the keeper of the relics of St. Philip and other founders of the old faith.

Patriarch Joasaph and the tsarist authorities charged S. Razin with the following religious crimes: he is an "asp", "thief", "perjurer", "a serpent who devours faithful Christians from his bed", " having forgotten the Lord God and the holy Catholic Apostolic Church and the Orthodox Christian faith, he stole to him, the great sovereign ... and direct the old Don Cossacks, who are for the holy Catholic and Apostolic Church and for him, the great sovereign... without sparing their heads, they fought... killed many, ruined and disgraced...". From these general provisions, the authorities move on to more specific, private ones: "And that thief and traitor Stenka Razin and his comrades" are accused of the following: "forgetting the fear of God... the holy catholic and apostolic churches have departed" (that is, they have fallen into schism), "and he, Stenka, speaks all sorts of blasphemous words about our Savior Jesus Christ" (that is, he considers the renaming of Jesus to Jesus to be heresy)31 . Based on these accusations against Razin, some historians are inclined to attribute atheistic beliefs to the Cossack ataman. It's hard to agree with that.

Sometimes in the literature, the reason for the justification of Razinsky's free-thinking is the following facts, blamed on Stepan Timofeevich in the same source "Punishing memory of Voivode P. Urusov": "I did not order to put churches of God on the Don and sing no singing... and he sold priests from the Don, ... and he did not order the Don Cossacks to get married at the churches, but ordered them to get married near a willow tree." But what are we talking about here? All of this is connected with the same episode: several churches were burned down in Cherkassk, and they wanted to restore them. Razin, having come to the Don foreman's capital, forbade doing this, and drove out the priests of the new faith. As for the fact that he "did not order any singing", this is not about everyday singing, but about church polyphony, which was condemned as heretical from the standpoint of Old Believers. Natural-

27 " The Peasant War...", vol. P. 1, p. 31.

28 N. N. Firsov. Razin - razinschina; Pugachev-pugachevschina. Kazan. 1930, p. 17.

29 " The Peasant War...", vol. I, doc. NN 111, 141, 143; vol. II, part 1, doc. NN 2, 67, 93 327

30 Ibid., vol. I, doc. No. 184; vol. II, part 1, doc. NN 78, 207; vol. II, part 2. Moscow, 1959, doc. N 60, pp. 74-75.

31 Ibid., vol. I, pp. 196-197.

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but that with the closure of churches, the question of how to get married also arose. It was here that the angry chieftain spoke of indifference as to where to get married, whether in a heretical church or near a willow tree. This interpretation of the text can be confirmed by the Astrakhan material, which clearly states: Razin "did not order priests to marry according to the archbishop's blessing" 32, that is, to circle those who marry in accordance with the new dogma around the lectern against the movement of the Sun, and not "according to solon", as was the case in the old divine service.

The charges mentioned in the sources were then summed up in the verdict read out at Razin's execution on June 6, 1671.33 It is clear that without taking into account the real situation that developed then, in the context of the church schism, many unexpected turns in the minds of people of that era will be incomprehensible. For example, on the basis of a few cursory comments from the source we have just analyzed, without taking into account the complexity of the ideological struggle during the Peasant War, one of the historians concluded that "among the rebels it has become common practice to "play" around the "willow", as their distant ancestors once did, and not to commit the usual crime." church wedding ceremony " 34 . Or again: N. I. Kostomarov wrote about Razin as a man who "once went on a pilgrimage to a remote Solovetsky monastery, and later blasphemed the name of Christ and his saints." 35 In the light of the facts of religious schism, these circumstances are easily explained. In addition, we have direct evidence from a contemporary who spoke of Razin's interest in church affairs: the author of the "Report on the details of the mutiny recently committed in Muscovy by Stepan Razin" referred to the leader of the Peasant War as "the Cossack pope" and explicitly noted that Razin "interfered in church affairs" and drove out "many priests."36
The facts show that Razin and a significant part of his Cossacks belong to the Old Faith. So, the tsarist authorities, when the Cossacks were passing from the Caspian Sea near Astrakhan, ordered "to bring them all to the faith in the church, and when they were brought to the faith, they should all be distributed in Astrakhan according to the Moscow Streltsy orders." But the local authorities could not comply with these instructions, the Cossacks had to be placed outside the city, and "they did not dare to bring them, the thieves 'Cossacks, to the faith", since they "brought their guilt to the great sovereign in Astrakhan, but were not attached to the faith" 37 .

The reviewed material proves that Razin was a true son of his time and class. He was not particularly well versed in the wilds of theological discord. he boldly opposed feudal oppression, the ever-increasing state policy of enslaving the masses, and at the same time, together with the people, with the conservatism inherent in the peasantry, kept to the old days: without putting forward any positive program for the future, he idealized the past with its communal orders and liberties in a Peasant - Cossack way. In the new church, he saw a desire for religious sanctification of impending evil, and in the old church, a protest against it and sanctification of the old order. This is not at all hindered by the fact that Razin was not particularly devout. According to sources, he did not adhere to fasts and was never a saint.

This raises a new question: did the schismatics participate in the Peasant War (in addition to the Dontsy and the actions on the Solovetsky Islands)? After the anathema of 1666, a flood of schismatics poured into the Don, Tambov, and Nizhny Novgorod regions. Interpreting the vague verses of the Apocalypse in their own way, they expected the end of the world in 1669. Many schismatics made their own coffins and prepared for death by singing their own funeral services. Since autumn, the peasants have left the cultivation of the fields. The abandoned cattle lowed mournfully, echoing the mournful chant of their owners in their coffins. Yasachnaya Mordvins, and along with it, those Russians who did not give in to panic, stole stray animals and sometimes completely plundered villages abandoned by ordinary people .38
32 "Notes of foreigners on the uprising of S. Razin", p. 117.

33 Ibid., pp. 116-119.

34 V. I. Lebedev. Op. ed., p. 174.

35 N. I. Kostomarov. Collected Works, vol. 2, book I. St. Petersburg, 1903, p. 426.

36 "Notes of foreigners on the uprising of S. Razin", p. 108.

37 " The Peasant War...", Vol. I, p. 152.

38 P. I. Melnikov. Complete Works, vol. 13, part 1. St. Petersburg, 1898, pp. 24-26..

page 128

The year 1669 is over, and the Day of Judgment has not come. The schism teachers said: it means that they made a mistake in their calculations. Apparently, to the antichrist number 666, in addition to the two and a half years provided for in the "Apocalypse", another 33 years of Christ's life should be added. If so,the second coming will occur in 1702. By the way, let's get ahead of ourselves: this statement paved the way for the proclamation of Peter I as the Antichrist in the future. In the meantime, following the" deceptive " year of 1669, the schismatic districts where the events described took place became the areas of the fierce Peasant War of 1670 - 1671. In the schismatic Temnikovsky district, which was one of the centers of the Peasant War, the popular movement was inspired by Old Believers: Savva, who directly participated in the battles; Pimen, who came from Moscow, served the church service without the patriarch's blessing and on the orders of the rebel ataman Fyodor Sidorov, "prayed to God for the former Patriarch Nikon and the thieves 'Cossacks"; Father Pimena Pop Danila was hiding even before the outbreak of the uprising, and Moscow detectives were looking for him.

The old woman Alyona, who commanded Razin's two regiments, also came to Temnikov. After her husband's death, she got her hair cut. That she adhered to the old faith, official sources report: "she was in many places on theft and spoiled people", and when she arrived in Temnikov, she also "taught the Razinsky ataman Fyodor Sidorov witchcraft"; and, apparently, she taught him, since he dismissed the pro-government cathedral protopop Perfilius and put Pimen to serve in the cathedral 39 . Alyona, an active participant in the peasant struggle, attracted the hearts of the oppressed and rallied their detachments. Her enemies (as was the case with Joan of Arc) accused Alain of "winning through magic." With the defeat of the movement, she was taken to Arzamas to Prince Y. Dolgorukov. "When everyone was fighting like me, Prince Yuri would prick up his skis from us," said the national warrior. Before her death, she crossed herself "in the Russian way" and went to the bonfire 40 . It is also no accident that during the war, the persecutors of the masses of the people first of all demanded from the defeated and from the entire population an oath that they knew and remembered "the holy Catholic and Apostolic Church and the kiss of the cross"41 . It happened that after "bringing to faith" people again joined the uprising. When the Tambov Cossacks and soldiers, after their second transfer to the rebels, were sent to persuade the government priests, they were captured .42
At the same time, along with the rebels were a considerable number of clergy who did not obey the official church. So, when Razin approached Saratov, he was met by the townspeople led by the abbot of the Bogoroditsky Monastery; the priest of the Alatyrsky district wrote "thieves ' letters" and went with the rebels; the detachment of the rebellious Kozmodemyans in 3 thousand people, together with the ataman P. Ivanov, was led by the cathedral priest Mikhail Fedorov; in the Vetluzhsky volost of the Galician District, the instigators of the" thieves 'factory" were rural workers. priests and monks; in the Nizhny Novgorod Uyezd, hundreds of patriarchal peasants, as well as the monastery abbot and priest were "in shatosti"; in the Shatsky and Kadomsky uyezds, the deacon from the village of Aldalova was an active participant in the uprising; the widow priest Ivan was the ataman of the "thieves ' Cossacks", and the contact was the deacon Fyodor Popov; in Unzha, the posadsky priest Andronikov called the people read out the "thieves ' letter"; in the fatherland of Prince Odoyevsky, Priest Klim and deacon Fyodor Fedotov "started a riot"; at the head of 15 thousand rebels of Kozmodemyansky district and in a number of other places was Razinsky ataman Ilya Ivanov, son of Ponomarev (aka Popov); abbot of the Trinity Monastery of Tambov district was together with the rebels who gathered in a monastery, etc. 43 .

The villages of Lyskovo, Murashkino, Vorsma, Pavlovo, and Bogoroditskoe became the areas of the greatest intensity of the peasant movement in the Nizhny Novgorod Volga region. Their area was later for two centuries one of the main bases of the split. On the Volga, the outpost of "novoveriya" was the Makaryev-Zheltovodsky Monastery, located at-

39 " The Peasant War...", vol. II, part I, p. 367.

40 "Notes of foreigners on the uprising of S. Razin", p. 113.

41 " The Peasant War...", vol. III, Moscow, 1962, doc. NN 114, 177; vol. II, part 1, doc. NN 123, 147, 176, 193, 273, 327

42 Ibid., vol. II, part 1. doc. NN 164, 167.

43 Ibid., doc. N 32, 91. 202, 215, 242, 244, 264, 270, 285, 288, 348.

page 129

genny is located on the left bank of the river, near the mouth of the Yeerzhentsa River, opposite the village of Lyskovo. Kerzhenets is well known in the history of the split. Its forests served as a shelter for schismatic monasteries, which after the Razinsky uprising turned out to be the All-Russian center of the Old Believer church and remained so until the middle of the XVIII century, when they gave up their role to the Chernihiv Starodub and Vetka, and then to the South Ural Irgiz, associated with the Old Believers-Pugachev. It is not surprising that it was in this region of the Volga region that the rebel detachments found warm support. They were greeted with priests, icons and banners. Just as the government troops besieged the Solovetsky monastery, the Volga peasants, blessed by their clergy, rushed to the impregnable strongholds of the Makaryevsky monastery. When the assault failed, two priests made their way into the monastery with a "thieves ' letter", "thieves ' priests", according to the source. What happened in the monastery, we do not know, but only with their appearance, the archimandrite and the most "loyal" elders of the authorities fled, about which the black priest Lavrenty Gudok informed the Lysk peasants. Here 6 thousand rebels rushed to storm and captured the monastery.

During the suppression of the Peasant War, the population of this and adjacent districts suffered especially. Local residents took refuge in the forests, where "thieves' people, having made fortresses for themselves, lived with their wives and children " 44. Their native villages were ordered to be destroyed and burned. Those captured were executed after being tortured with fire. After the defeat of the uprising in the village of Murashkin, for example, 394 yards were burned and only 12 were left. As true schismatics, many Murashkin peasants with their children and wives burned themselves in log cabins. The uprising on the Volga was hotly worried about the imprisoned Habakkuk. Back in the spring of 1670, he wrote to the schismatic Maremyana Fyodorova: "How are our brothers there, are they still alive or are they all burned? Their God, my lights, will bless both the living and the dead... "And, turning to God, he cried:" Gather us under your wing, all of us together! Restrain the devil, and he will not devour our people! " 45 . That is why it was during the days of the most intense struggle against the rebels, on April 14, 1670, that the rebellious protopop was imprisoned in an earthen prison in Pustozersk. But even in the dungeon, rumors of the defeat of the rebels penetrated: "And along the Volga of that city, and in the villages, and in the villages, thousands by thousands are put under the sword of those who do not want to accept the seals of the Antichrist ...rest, O Lord, the souls of your servants, all those who suffered from the Nikonians, " wrote Habakkuk 46 after the suppression of the uprising .

After the defeat of the Peasant War, several hundred Razin residents fled from the Volga and Don to Solovki. Joining the ranks of the defenders of the Solovetsky monastery, they held out with them until 1676. Thus, the Solovetsky epic served as both the prologue and the epilogue of the Peasant War. And in the Don army again took the post of ataman K. Yakovlev. With an expression of submission, he wrote to the tsarist government: "Many, sire, our brothers have come to their senses on the true path, and have fallen from theft... and they brought their guilt to us, your serfs, to the whole Don army. And the life-giving cross with us, Sire, was marked by the fact, sire, that they are with us sopcha for the house of the Most Holy Theotokos and for the Moscow miracle workers and for you, the great sovereign... stand and serve as before... on that, sire, they were marked with the life-giving cross. " 47 We already know that the formula "for the house of the Most Holy Theotokos and for the Moscow miracle workers" is the formula of the Old Believers. Indeed, the Don Cossacks for the most part rejected the Old Believers for a long time.

Razintsy-Astrakhan residents participated in the Moscow uprising of 1682, and in 1688 the Don Cossacks-schismatics " wanted... steal like Stenka Razin " 48 . Later they performed under the Old Believer banner of K. A. Bulavin. Even under Alexander I of the Don, ataman M. I. Platov and the Cossacks professed the old faith. In turn, "brutality in the suppression of the uprising, ruin and prospects for strengthening serfdom favored the spread of the split," they concluded

44 Ibid., pp. 266, 294; "Notes of foreigners on the uprising of S. Razin", p. 112.

45 "The Life of Archpriest Habakkuk", p. 239.

46 Ibid., p. (126.

47 " The Peasant War...", vol. II, part 2, doc. N 74.

48 V. I. Buganov. Stepan Timofeevich Razin. "History of the USSR", 1971, N 2, p. 74.

page 130

A. A. Novoselsky and N. S. Chaev 49 . One cannot but agree with this. Speaking about the anti-feudal medieval movements, F. Engels noted: "If this class struggle then bore a religious imprint, if the interests, needs and demands of individual classes were hidden under a religious guise, then this does not change the situation in the least and is easily explained by the conditions of the time."50 At the same time, we should not idealize peasant uprisings, as if putting the peasants ahead of their struggle. "The peasants fought not so much for as against, not so much for a clear goal as against their enemies."51 . And yet they, while shaking the foundations of the old, objectively contributed to the formation of the new.

49 " Essays on the history of the USSR. The period of feudalism. XVII century", pp. 310-311.

50 F. Engels. Peasant War in Germany, Moscow, 1952, p. 33.

51 B. F. Porshnev. Feudalism and the Popular masses, Moscow, 1964, pp. 313-314.

page 131


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