“With the deepest respect and the most perfect devotion”: from the correspondence of merchant M. K. Sidorov with Nikodim (Kazantsev), first bishop of Yeniseysk and Krasnoyarsk (1860s)
Abstract
The publication of two letters of the famous merchant, discoverer of the Northern Sea Route Mikhail Konstantinovich Sidorov to the first Yeniseisk and Krasnoyarsk bishop Nikodim (Kazantsev) is presented. The surviving texts dating back to the 1860s testify to the trusting relationship between these two outstanding contemporaries, emphasize their worldview and range of interests. Among the subjects mentioned in the letters there are M.K. Sidorov's donations in favor of the spiritual educational institutions of the Yeniseisk diocese, his service as an honorary guardian of the Krasnoyarsk Religious School, related with that requests of the archpastor, a conflict around the Yeniseisk Convent. At the same time, their communication was not limited exclusively to issues of church life. The bishop was aware of M.K. Sidorov's plans to search for passage through the northern seas and supported this initiative. As the Yeniseisk archpastor, he was particularly interested in the state of the territory of the diocese entrusted to him in the lower reaches of the Yenisei – the Turukhansk Region. The versatility of Bishop Nikodim's personality is emphasized by the mention of his works on the publication of the biography of the Siberian First Martyr Vasily Mangazeyskiy, as well as the telescope sent to him by M.K. Sidorov – a necessary attribute in long journeys to unfamiliar places. Among other things, the letters contain the names of a number of well-known statesmen, high church hierarchs, and large entrepreneurs, which characterizes the correspondents' acquaintances and connections, their social position.
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