The Role of the Patriarch Hermogenes Written Applications in Organization of Zemstvo Militia, 1611
Abstract
The article deals with a controversial issue in historical science about what specific role played by the Patriarch Hermogenes in the organization of the zemstvo movement during the Interregnum, at the beginning of the folding of the national militia at the end of December 1610 - January 1611. Researchers have repeatedly addressed this issue, since the first half of the XIX century, offering his vision and interpretation of information from sources, but so far the question of the existence of the patriarch of letters remains open. Unlike many conflicting evidence of narrative sources, the County assembly material correspondence deposited in the archive Solikamsk, gives us a ton more information. Analyzing the correspondence, we can trace what information and documents the city received sequentially from Nizhny Novgorod and then to the North and Siberia, as the correspondence was in XVI - XVII century in Muscovy. The correspondence contains the only mention of the patriarch of the charters, but in any document, we do not find even a brief retelling of their content, as was the case with other documents, which came on the ground during this period. Moreover, there are specific indications that the first two letters of the district from Smolensk and Moscow residents actually called “letters of the patriarch.” Comparison of evidence leads us to date the letter from Smolensk time drawing no earlier than December 29, 1610 and to refute the assumption of its of fake origin. Thus, Hermogenes, obviously, did not write letters on his behalf, but called for a protest against the Polish- Lithuanian interventionists in public speeches, personal contacts with fiduciaries messengers and sent the first two letters of initiative.
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