Известия Уральского федерального университета. Серия 2: Гуманитарные науки (Apr 2015)
A Letter of the Zauralye Mentor of Chasovennye Old Believers on the Times, Morals and Repentance in the Late 1920s
Abstract
The article considers the power religious leaders had in influencing their parish by creating moralizing messages on certain occasions during the period that saw attacks on the system of spiritual leaders and weakening of the traditional values in the first years of the Soviet rule. The analysis is based on the original work of 1929, a letter of the mentor of Chasovennye Old Believers in Kamyshlov District, Sverdlovsk Region that is kept in the Archive of the Laboratory of Archaeographic Studies (Ural Federal University). The author concludes that the message combines features of a private letter in which the traditional Old Believer theme of repentance is viewed upon in the light of one personal situation. The letter is ready for academic publication that will for the first time introduce a source that is essential for the understanding of the functioning of traditional culture in the Soviet times.
