History of the Creation of the Tobolsk Diocese in the Official Correspondence of the 17th century

Abstract

This article studies the correspondence of the 17th century on the creation of the Tobolsk diocese in Siberia. The documentary complex has been preserved in the book of the Siberian Prikaz, published in 1994. It consists of two types of documents (letters by tsar, patriarch and archbishop, as well as the replies of the voivodes), which allow determining the mechanism for making managerial decisions and the circumstances of their implementation. Based on the historical and anthropological approach, the author considers the process of creating diocese from the perspective of its participants, focuses on interpersonal interaction, a behavioral culture that has been consolidated in documents. The embodiment of the tsarist plan into reality is a challenge that each of the participants overcomes independently, setting priorities between state interests and personal ones. The dating of the letters allows identifying three stages of documenting the tsar’s decisions on the creation of the Tobolsk bishopric, which allowed revealing the specifics of the communication channels of the center and periphery in the Russian state in the 17th century. Based on the sources, the author tries to answer question: what could be the reason that prompted the first archbishop of Cyprian to agree with the tsar’s decision and to head the new diocese created (according to the documents) in September 1620? Analyzing the correspondence, the author draws attention to the difficulties that the head of the new diocese faced on his way to Siberia and upon arriving in Tobolsk, as well as the details of the ceremonial that the Tobolsk voivodes had to observe during the construction of the bishop’s house and the organization of the meeting of the Siberian archbishop.