Letters of patriarch Nikon to boyar N. A. Zyuzin. (a study and publication of the text)
Abstract
Patriarch Nikon’s letters of 1659?1662 to Boyar N. A. Zyuzun, his comrade and prot?g?, have not been a topic for a specicialised study. Historical science continues to be interested in Patriarch Nikon’s activities, which requires the publication, historical and philological commentary and an integrated study of these letters. The relevance of study of these letters is strengthened by a clearly manifested tendency in the development of the present-day humanities towards interdisciplinary studies and making an anthropologically oriented history. The novel character of the study is due to the examination of the newly-discovered texts as part of the complex of the “case” of Patriarch Boyar Zyuzin which reveal one of the key events in Patriarch Nikon’s biography, i.e. his attempt to return to the Patriarch’s see. The epistolary texts concerning Zyuzin’s “case” are examined in the light of the scientifi c objectiveness and in line with the historical and philological approach. The introductory article provides a brief outline of the specialist opinions about Nikon’s deed and Zyuzin’s participation in it. It presents an analysis of content-related and literary features of Patriarch Nikon’s and Boyar Zyzin’s letters. Judging by the topic range and character of the letters, Patriarch and his boyar had friendly and confi dential relations due to which Patriarch Nikon in accordance with God’s will decided to return to Moscow, while Zyuzin attempted to conciliate the Patriarch and the Tsar. An integrated evaluation of the newly-discovered letters allows us to broaden the existing ideas about Patriarch Nikon’s and Boyar N. A. Zyuzin’s personalities and comprehend Tsar Alexey Mikhailovich’s participation in the event.
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