Вестник Екатеринбургской духовной семинарии (Dec 2024)
Archives of Orthodox Monasteries of the Middle Urals of the Synodal Period: Composition and Preservation
Abstract
The article analyzes the composition of the monasteries archives of the Synod period preserved in the Middle Urals, and the circumstances that determined this composition, and, also, identifies the dynamics and reasons for the loss of non-preserved funds. Based on the study of legislation and management practices of monasteries, it is shown that the normative provisions regarding the order of record keeping and storage of files in archives for state offices developed in the Synodal period, were adapted by Orthodox monasteries to the specifics of their management practices. This adaptation was manifested in simplification and rejection of outdated forms of registration of office work. The transfer of documentation from the monastery office to the archive could also occur with deviations from existing rules. The monasteries began to carry out descriptions of archives as soon as the clerical need to systematize documents became evident, the staffing was ensured and the tendency to publish “historical descriptions” of monasteries during the 19th century gained popularity. Among the monasteries of the Middle Urals, only the Dalmatovo Assumption Monastery had been in operation since the beginning of the 19th century. It had inventories of archival materials and structured cases according to the thematic principle. The loss of the archives of many monasteries of the Synodal period was reasoned by a number of reforms of the 18th century (closure of minor monasteries, reduction in the number of monastics due to restrictions and prohibitions on tonsure, staff reform of 1764). On the part of the secular and ecclesiastical authorities, no attempts were made to preserve these archives, since a purely utilitarian attitude to archival documents as to the reference component of current management practices prevailed. The archives of monasteries that appeared in the Middle Urals in the late 18th — early 20th centuries remained underestimated by members of scientific commissions and church archaeological societies, as well as historical societies in the 19th — early 20th centuries, directing their efforts to identify and describe more ancient documents. The political system that changed in 1917, displayed ideologically active anti-religious position, which led to the closure of all monasteries in the Middle Urals, as it was in the vast majority of other regions. The archives of closed monasteries, especially those that existed relatively recently, were not considered of historical value and were destroyed. The archives of the monasteries with much older history in the Middle Urals were transferred to state custody. As a result, of the 47 archives of monasteries that existed in the region during the Synodal period, only 4 have been preserved.
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