Законодательное регулирование числа раскольников и документационное оформление борьбы с раскольницами в XVIII - начале XX вв. (по материалам государственного архива в г. Тобольске)

Abstract

The article examines normative legal acts regulating the number of schismatics in the Russian Empire in the 18th - early 20th centuries, as well as the practical application of the legislative framework in Tobolsk Eparchy. The aim of the study was to identify the reasons for the transition of women to schism and to analyze the methods of combating female schismatics in Tobolsk Eparchy in the 18th - early 20th centuries. To reach this aim, published and unpublished sources were studied. At the first stage of the study, the legislative regulation of the number of schismatics was analyzed using the Complete Collection of Laws of the Russian Empire. At the second stage, the practice of identifying and punishing schismatics in Tobolsk Eparchy was examined using the materials of the State Archive in Tobolsk stored in Fund I156 “Tobolsk Spiritual Consistory”. In the archive, 674 cases related to the fight against the schism of 1750-1914 were found. A separate category of cases is on identifying and searching for female schismatics, and converting (or attempting to co nvert) them to the Orthodox faith. These materials allow tracing how proceedings on the cases of female schismatics were organized in Tobolsk Spiritual Consistory. The problem was analyzed at the intersection of documentary, historical, source study, and historical legal research spheres. The methodological basis of the research is general scientific, historical, and specific methods of document science. As a result of studying the documents of the State Archive in Tobolsk, possible reasons for the departure of women to schism have been identified. The main reasons for a woman to become a schismatic could be her own desire, marriage to a schismatic, widowhood and survival in difficult conditions, social origin, birth into an Old Believer family (at least the presence of a schismatic mother), etc. The main method of combating female schismatics was “exhortation”, for which the schismatics were sent to Tobolsk Spiritual Consistory; the only exception was pregnant women. The features of proceedings on the struggle against female schismatics have been clarified: proceedings were secret ; the proceedings on the case could be prolonged for several months due to the correspondence of the eparchy's authorities with the spiritual boards and Tobolsk provincial government; To provide better statistics, priests could hide female schismatics who married Orthodox men from their parish and record the former as Orthodox and attending all the necessary church procedures.