Архивы духовного ведомства

Archives of the ecclesiastical department and others, containing materials on the history of the Russian church. Archive (Latin “Archium”, “Archivium” from the Greek άρχεῖον, άρχή) in a broad sense means everything old, preserved, and in a narrow sense an institution where written documents and affairs are stored. It is known from history that all the peoples of antiquity, who had reached a certain degree of education, took care of preserving their writing, which was of a legal or historical nature. In this regard, we have undoubted evidence of the archives that existed among the Medes, Assyrians, Babylonians, and Phoenicians. Greek historians were familiar with the archives of the Egyptians. The archive of the Jews, located in the church, burned down along with it. Among the Greeks, historical and legal acts (Λημυσι’αι Κα’ρταν χαρταφυλακι’ον) were kept in άρχεῖον, which each state body had, and the most important ones were kept in churches. In Rome, during the Republic, quaestors protected the most important legislative acts (cura tabularum publicarum), stored in the aerarium. The most important archives of the priests, aediles and the Senate were kept in the churches and the Capitol. In Rome, each family treasured its documents and kept them in a special room tablinum, next to the atrium. In the Byzantine Empire, the most important documents were kept in the Scrinia sacri palatii palace. In the Middle Ages, the richest archives were formed in Europe: state (suzerain and vassal), city communal and church-monastic archives. Medieval archives, preserved to a greater or lesser extent to the present day, constitute the historical heritage of Western European states, which carefully analyze and study them. In Russian legislation, the word “archive” first appeared under Peter the Great. But it goes without saying that the storage of written acts and the creation of different methods of this storage are contemporary with the very appearance of writing in Russia. Initially, legal transactions were noted on boards. From the Pskov court charter it is clear that in the 15th century. Instead of boards, they began to use “written acts.” Those of them that were brought “into the chest of St. Trinity”, i.e., the books kept in the Trinity Church, were considered indisputable. So, Trinity Church. for Pskov it served as a notarial archive. Later, in the 16th century, when it came into use to set out legal transactions in writing, the most important acts drawn up by area clerks, in order to make them “strong,” had to be entered into the Order Books (“deeds of sale and other fortresses.” Nevolin, Ist. Russian Law.). In the 16th century There was already a royal archive in Moscow, or the Moscow State Archive, the inventory of which was published in 1 volume of Acts of the Archaeographic Expedition (No. 289, pp. 335–355). From the inventory it is clear that the written acts were in boxes, of which there were more than 231. They contained a wide variety of documents and, moreover, without any order. Diplomatic correspondence with Lithuania and Denmark was mixed with letters of sale and exchange; ambassadorial books, a code of law with “sacrifice hands”; decree on the guardsman, detective cases accusing various persons of insulting the sovereign (“unbecoming speeches against the sovereign”), memory of Elder Alexandra, recording of metropolitan duties, with a tale from a Lithuanian messenger about Prince. A. Kurbsky, etc. But the main center for storing written materials of various types in ancient Rus' were monasteries and churches, which were the main representatives of spiritual education among the illiterate population of appanage Rus', and which at the same time maintained greater stability and security amid the then constant political changes and enemy invasions. “Churches and monasteries, said M. M. Filaret, by the nature and constancy of their existence, should be the primary sources and reliable custodians of antiquities.” Unfortunately, due to our lack of specific legislation that corresponds to the interests of archival affairs, most of the ancient acts and, in general, written monuments of Russian historical, legal, everyday and church-religious life have completely perished. Not only were they not preserved by various civil institutions, but they were lost, and to our shame, those still preserved in churches and monasteries continue to be lost. The culprit here is negligence, lack of understanding of the matter, ignorance and, most importantly, the complete lack of expedient methods for the protection and development of written monuments concentrated in the institutions of the ecclesiastical department. The old books, papers and manuscripts found in churches and monasteries are neither interesting nor important for the majority, especially since, with rare exceptions, no one can read them on the spot. Thanks to all this, the majority of monastic and church archives, as well as former spiritual institutions, such as bishops' ranks, spiritual dicasteries, boards, old religious educational institutions, have either disappeared without a trace, or are rotting somewhere in bell towers, towers, basements, barns, etc. As proof of this, one could present a lot of sad facts of the death of the most interesting archives of the spiritual department, but for the sake of brevity Let us limit ourselves to pointing out the following outstanding ones. In the Moscow archive. Spirit. The dicasteries, and then the consistories, undoubtedly contained, as can be seen from the files of the synodal and consistory archives, all the files of the times of the patriarchs and between the patriarchates, except for the files of the orders of the state, palace and monastery. Meanwhile, all these cases disappeared without a trace. There was an assumption that they died during the Great Moscow. fire in 1737, but from the files of the consistory it is clear that all of them existed in the archive thereof back in 1749 and they were even mentioned in 1768. In 1882, two large boxes with hundreds of columns relating to Ch. arr. before the history of the Krutitsa bishop. XVII century The contents of one of these boxes, due to the fact that it fell under a leaky roof, completely rotted. In 1857, in Novgorod, quite by accident, in the choirs of the St. Sophia Cathedral, where there were ancient hiding places, two rooms sealed with bricks were discovered, in which, along with garbage, were found authentic royal and patriarchal letters, columns, books and various documents and affairs of the 16th and 17th centuries related to the history of the Novgorod bishop. At the same time, the cathedral rector and the cleric officially testified that they knew about this, since the said papers were dumped and sealed with them during the renovation of the cathedral in 1832–33, and that until that time they were in the bishop’s possession. home. From the letters of M. Evgeniy Bolkhovitinov to Anastasevich, Rumyantsev and Keppen, as well as from the correspondence of Stroev and Berednikov, it is clear that in Novgorod, Vologda, Pskov and Kyiv in the 20s and 30s. “there were whole heaps of books and papers rotting in damp stone cellars, which were difficult to enter.” “In addition to books, a great pile of rotting archival papers was under the roof of the Novgorod. St. Sophia Cathedral; But those papers, as I learned from experience, said M. Evgeniy, because of the rotten stench and dust, cannot be unrolled even for two hours.” “When I arrived in Novgorod in 1804, I found an old archive scattered around the yard near the bishop’s house.” It is known that, when going to inspect Novg. Yuriev Mon., Evgeniy met a cart on the bank of the Volkhov, in which, according to the monk-driver, there was various old rubbish destined for the river. According to the analysis etc. Eugene turned out that there were even documents from the 11th century, from which they tried to clear the monastery book depositories for the sake of the bishop’s visit. In N. Novgorod, the old bishop. the archive is rotting in a damp tower. In Kharkov, in a damp basement, a bishop. The archive of the spiritual administrations of Khark is rotting at home. Ep. Even the current consistory archives, which are under the responsibility of certain officials, cannot boast not only of the correct structure and order in them, but even of their safety. It cannot be otherwise. Many consistories have existed since the first half of the last century. Over such a long period of time, they naturally accumulated an amazing amount of paper material. The consistories do not, and cannot have, to understand it, bring it in order and maintain it in order, neither the material resources nor the competent persons for this purpose. Consistories are difficult even in the premises of their archives. Every year their clerical activities are increasing. The increase in the volume of books is especially noticeable: metric, confessional and clergy records. Consistories, as operating institutions, are most of all, of course, interested in having recent affairs on hand in greater order and safety, constantly necessary for references on current office work, and least of all may be interested in one way or another in the affairs of the past, which constitute historical material, which is rarely required for current office work. Because of this, the latter, due to the urgent need for free space in the consistory archive, previously disappeared under the pretext of “destruction of unnecessary files,” and now, as a result of the circular of the Holy Synod of 1869, which prohibited such destruction, it disappears due to the placement of “old files” in “appropriate premises,” which often means damp basements, bell towers, etc. In view of such a sad state of archival affairs in Russia, its radical reform is required. But the spiritual department, for many reasons, should take care of the protection and development of its written and material monuments and without waiting for this general, state reform. Otherwise, it may happen that all the archaeological wealth, still concentrated in various institutions of the ecclesiastical department, will come to the disposal of persons alien to the interests of the church and clergy. From existing archives spirit. department takes first place both in terms of the number of materials and their historical significance - the Archive of the Holy Synod. It contains all the affairs and documents of the Holy Synod itself, as well as all the existing and former institutions under it at different times. In addition, it contains files of some third-party institutions, submitted to the synodal archive according to special determinations of the Holy Synod. As a result, the synod is currently The archive is compiled from the following 19 sections: 1) synodal affairs proper from 1721 to 1896 in an amount of over 260 tons. This also includes 86 files of the 16th, 17th and first two decades of the 18th centuries, sent to the Synod at its opening for reference and completion; 2) original journals and minutes of the Holy Synod for the same period in the amount of 2,755 bound volumes; 3) chief prosecutor's cases from 1742 to 1869 in the amount of 74,402; 4) affairs of the commission of theological schools of 1808-1839 in the amount of 6,104, as well as original journal and treasury books, 233 volumes; 5) affairs of the spiritual and educational administration 1839 1867 in the amount of 20,109 No. No. and accounting books for them 511 tons; 6) affairs of the spiritual and educational committee at St. Synod of 1867 89 in the amount of 902 appendices; 7) affairs of the economic committee and management 1827 1890 in the amount of 16,851; 8) affairs of control under the Holy Synod 1867 1890 in the amount of 7,410; 9) cases of the lawyer-consular unit from 1840 to 1892 in the amount of 4,840; 10) affairs and accounting books of 1839 1888 in the amount of 2,042 tons; 11) affairs of the commission on church estates in the amount of 194 and journals and decrees 19 t.; 12) Greek-Uniate affairs, transferred from the former 2nd department of the Roman Catholic spirit. collegium from 1805 to 1828, Greek-Uniate spirit. collegium from 1828 to 1839, Belarusian-Lithuanian collegium from 1839 to 1843, general meeting of the Roman Catholic spirit. collegiums from 1799 to 1825, inheritance of the Kholmsky Uniates from 1809 to 1875, total Uniate cases 3,982; 13) archive of Greek-Uniate metropolitans from 1470 to 1839 in the amount of 6,000; 14) copies of registry books of the former Brest and Lutsk Uniate dioceses, transferred from the former 2nd department of the Roman Catholic spirit. collegium. The earliest metrics date back to 1697, and most of them belong to the 2nd floor. XVIII century There are 112 volumes, of which 91 volumes are from the Brest Bishopric. and 21 on Lutskaya. Each volume contains copies of registries of 5–20 churches; 15) affairs of the Russian Bible Society from 1812 to 1826 in the amount of 268; 16) cases on the construction of the Kazan Cathedral in St. Petersburg 1800–1826 in the amount of 1,160; 17) affairs of the Novgorod diocesan administration from 1710 to 1770 in the amount of 1,100; 18) files of the former main presence for the affairs of the Orthodox clergy 1859 1881 in the amount of 177; 19) incoming books of various institutions under the jurisdiction of the government Senate, etc. from 1721 to 1894 in the amount of 2,308 books. Thus, in the Synodal Archive, the earliest files date back to 1470 and the latest to 1896. The total number of all files and documents in 19 departments now extends to 400,000 and 7,000 volumes of books, protocols, journals, etc. Hardly much needs to be said about the historical significance of this Archive. Not only materials on Russian church history over the last two centuries are concentrated here, but also a civil historian during this period cannot do his research without the Archive of St. Synod, because the life of the church was comprehensive and penetrated or came into contact with all aspects of state, social, family, and everyday life. In view of this, the Synodal Archive, on the basis of the Regulations on it approved by the Highest on July 31, 1897, is open for use by all persons involved in the development of Russian history. Namely, according to §3 of this Regulation, “the documents and files stored in the Archives of the Holy Synod serve both for reference to the requirements of the central institutions of the department of Orthodox confession, and for the use of persons admitted to the Archive for scientific purposes.” Since 1865, a special, Highly approved commission has been formed at the Archive, which is engaged in scientific descriptions of it and the publication of the said descriptions. To date, the commission has published 8 volumes of “Descriptions of Affairs and Documents of the Archives of the Holy Synod” (2 more volumes have been printed) and 9 volumes of “Complete Collection of Resolutions and Directives for the Department of Orthodox Confession.” Both of these publications can, and indeed serve, as an excellent tool for those involved in the development of historical issues in church, civil and history and who do not have the opportunity to personally study in the Archives. In addition, the commission published the 1st volume of “Description of the Archive of the Greek-Uniate Metropolitans” before 1700 and prepared for publication the 2nd volume, which will include all the documents of the said Archive. For the history of diocesan administration, mainly local, diocesan archives are used, where materials from both local church-historical life and local social, family and everyday life are concentrated. Unfortunately, as stated above, these archives suffered significantly from ignorance, negligence and efforts to destroy, in order to preserve free space in the archive premises, the so-called “unnecessary matters”. In the absence of competent persons to define “unnecessary cases” and the complete subjectivity of understanding this term, what happened was that in many consistories almost all old cases were destroyed as unnecessary for current office work. Such indiscriminate destruction of files drew the attention of the Holy Synod, and in 1869 a circular decree was issued, which ordered, in case of cramped space in the consistory archives, not to resort to the destruction of old files, but to find “appropriate” premises for them in cathedrals, churches, monasteries or other diocesan buildings. To put things in order and describe old affairs, it was recommended that the diocesan authorities form special commissions of clergy. Unfortunately, this circular did not lead to positive results. Commissions formed in some dioceses to analyze and describe diocesan archives and composed by appointment of the authorities from persons either occupied with their direct official duties, or completely incompetent in this matter and not at all inclined to it, existed only on paper. There were even cases when members of such commissions, having taken archival files to their homes, lost them. The best, and almost the only description compiled by such a commission, is the description of the archive of the Astrakhan spirit. consistory, published in local diocesan bulletins in the 70s and 80s. Activity report. com., established for the scientific analysis and description of archival affairs of Astra. spirit. Con. since 1871, see “Astrakh. Ep. Ved." 1876 14. Of the diocesan archives containing the largest amount of historical materials, we can point to the following. 1. Archive of the St. Petersburg Spiritual Consistory. It begins in 1721 and until recently represented the only complete archive of diocesan administration materials for the synodal period. Here lies a lot of interesting and, due to the destruction in other departments of archival files, especially for the 18th century, the only materials related to the history of St. Petersburg. When compiling a historical and statistical description of the diocese (10 volumes), its compilers somewhat used materials from this archive, although not entirely, because the archive was not disassembled and described. Several years ago, the archive was in danger of being destroyed “for lack of space.” This shortcoming was discovered back in the 60s, and then categories of cases were drawn up that were subject to destruction “as unnecessary.” The assumptions made were approved in 1865 by the Holy Synod. But then the archive was saved by the proposal of one of the rectors of the capital’s cathedrals to place it in a building belonging to the cathedral. However, for some reason, the transfer of the archive did not take place, and the consistory in the 90s already intended, due to the extreme crampedness of the archive premises, to destroy unnecessary files on the grounds approved by the Holy Synod back in 1865. In the first place, files on the educational activities of the diocesan clergy, on the construction of churches, court cases, etc. were intended to be destroyed. Only due to random circumstances such destruction did not take place. If the said archive is disassembled, described and located in a convenient room, then it can be called a rich treasury, especially on the history of the St. Petersburg diocese. 2. Archive of the Moscow spirit. The consistory, as mentioned above, contained extremely rich material on the history of the patriarchate and the Krutitsa diocese in the 17th century. But due to fires, the invasion of the French in 1812, the fact that “the roof in the archive was in bad times” (from the report of the MD of the Dicastery to the Holy Synod in 1742) and other reasons, all ancient materials were completely lost, as well as materials on the history of the diocese for the 18th and even the last century are quite scattered 2. In the 1980s the archive was in terrible disarray. (See Proceedings of the Moscow Archaeological Congress, vol. III). Interesting information about this archive was placed by N. Rozanov in Reading. Moscow total amateur spirit. education for 1868 3. Archive of the Kyiv spirit. Consistory contains materials starting from the 18th century, not only on the history of the diocese, but also the Orthodox monasteries of those dioceses that were part of the Polish-Lithuanian state and until the end of the eighteenth century were subordinate to the Kyiv Metropolitan. This is a very valuable and the only material about the state of Orthodox monasteries abroad and about the struggle of Orthodoxy with Polish-Latin fanaticism. All files of the archive for the 18th century were selected by prof. Candidate of Academy N. Iv. Petrov and E. Iv. Titov and have to be placed in the museum of the Kyiv Church-Archaeological Society. Due to its darkness, crampedness and inadequacy, the placement of the consistory archive is impossible. Based on materials from the Kyiv Consistor. The archive compiled quite a lot of historical works, for example. “Materials for the history of the Kyiv Metropolis” prot. P. Lebedintseva (“Kiev Ep. Ved.”) 1873; “Protector Kievsk. spirits Academy Rafail Zaborovsky, Metropolitan. To." P. Molchanova (“Kyiv Diocesan Ved.”) 1876; Askochensky V. “Kyiv with its ancient history. schools and the Academy" 1856 2 hours; interesting historical works of priest. E. Titov and candidates Kievsk. spirit. academy. Equally many separate acts and studies compiled on the basis of this archive were published in “Kyiv Antiquity” and “Proceedings of Kyiv. spirit. acad." 4. Archive of Novgorod spirits. The consistory contained the richest historical materials starting from the 17th century, but, as explained above, most of these ancient materials, due to an ignorant attitude towards them, were not preserved. More ancient documents and letters, found in 1857 in the cache of N. St. Sophia Cathedral, were transferred to the archives of the Archaeographic Commission, where they are still located. Part of the archive from 1710 to 1770 (but not all of the files during this time) is in the archives of the Holy Synod. In the 80s of the last century, the consistory archive contained files from 1700, but most of them during the 18th century were dumped in the choir of the St. Sophia Cathedral, and where they now went is unknown. The rest of the work for the 18th century, due to the cramped conditions and extreme inconvenience of the consistory premises, was transferred to one of the rooms on the lower floor of the bishop's house. 5. Archive of the Vologda spirit. The consistory, judging by the acts and materials published from it, begins in the middle of the 17th century. So, N.I. Suvorov placed in 1860 in “Volog. Lip. Ved." article: “On the illness, burial and death of Marcellus, Archbishop. Vologda, 1663”, “Execution of a man-killer in Vologda in 1659”, “Petition of 1645”, “About robbery in the middle of the city, en masse, with the headman at the head”, ib. 1859, etc. Acts and materials extracted from the Vologda archives of Mr. Zinchenko and published by him in two volumes “Russian. Libraries” indicate that there is still untold archival wealth in this region. The church archaeological commission formed in 1896 in Vologda, among other things, set as its goal an acquaintance with the local archives concentrated in the ecclesiastical department and a description of them (See "Vologda Bishop's Book" 1897 No. 16 and 1898 No. 15). It is highly desirable that these good intentions of the commission be realized before the archives disappear under various pretexts. 6. The archive of the Podolsk Consistory contains an extremely rich collection of acts and materials relating to the union and the history of Orthodoxy in the local region. The Historical and Statistical Diocesan Committee, which has existed since 1875, has already examined several thousand of these acts. Some of these documents were printed in local dioceses. Ved. and in the “Proceedings” of the committee. Similar materials are contained in the archives of the Volyn, Minsk, Vilna, Vitebsk and Mogilev spirit. consistories, where some of them have already been sorted, and some of them lie in disorderly piles and regarding which there is a completely reasonable assumption that, in the end, these unsorted piles of papers will be destroyed under some plausible pretext. There are known facts that not very long ago, in the 60s and 70s, the archives of the southwestern region were subjected to barbaric destruction. So, for example, the rich archive of the Menets Monastery. Vol. Ep. was thrown into the river by its abbot. To the parish priest Bialystok of the same bishop. He didn’t like the fact that almost all the choirs in the church were occupied by archival documents of the Basilian monastery that once existed here, and he burned the entire huge archive in the church graveyard on the night of Easter. From many facts it is clear that the diocesan authorities of the areas where there was previously a union destroyed (burned and drowned in rivers) historical monuments of this time and Uniate liturgical books for falsely understood religious and political reasons. 7. In the archives of the Arkhangelsk, Astrakhan, Tver, Ryazan, Kharkov, Kursk, Chernigov, Yaroslavl, Oryol and Poltava consistories, as shown by various historical studies compiled on the basis of these archives, very valuable historical materials relating to diocesan administration and spiritual education in these areas have been preserved. 8. Archives of spiritual consistories: Simbirsk burned down in the early 60s; Kostroma in the 80s; Kaluzhskaya, under the pretext of destroying “unnecessary matters” in the mid-60s, was completely devastated from its beginning until 1850. From the archives of the Saratov “consistory” it is unknown when and how up to 5,000 files on the split disappeared. Monastic and church archives have disappeared and continue to disappear with even greater ease than the archives of various institutions of the ecclesiastical department, because they are beyond any control and their existence depends solely on the personal opinion of the abbots. So, recently in the Volyn bishop. this fact happened. The Volyn Church Archaeological Society was informed that in the ancient Orthodox Dermansky monastery, founded in the 16th century. book Ostrozhsky and which had such a rector as Meletiy Smotrytsky, there is a fairly rich library and archive, where ancient monastery documents of the 16th–18th centuries. stored in six chests. In 1894, the society filed a petition for the transfer of this archive to the diocesan ancient repository. For two and a half years, the necessary formal communications on this matter took place, and when the proper permission for the transfer was received, only the chest was found in the monastery. It is unknown where the other five went. One of the monks, however, suggested that the former rector, who had previously been transferred to another diocese, took these chests for his belongings. If we now look for everything that, during the Archaeographic Expedition, was noted by Stroev and Berednikov as seen by them in the monastic and church archives, then of the historical materials noted by them there will not now be even a hundredth part. Therefore, it is impossible to talk at the present time about the composition of the monastery-church archives. Archives of theological educational institutions are located at each academy, seminary and spirit. school. Cases from the 18th century have hardly been preserved anywhere in the said archives. Moreover, educational institutions before the reform of 1808 were under diocesan jurisdiction and therefore affairs about them were carried out in local consistories and bishops' ranks and offices, where they were preserved in places, for example. in Kharkov, Kursk (See the works of Prof. A. Lebedev, priest E. Titov). Most of these archives begin with the formation of the Spirit Commission. Schools, that is, since 1808. Some of these archives are in exemplary order. In general, more attention is paid to them by their immediate superiors and one can hope that over time they will all be streamlined. In addition to the archives of the ecclesiastical department, it is also necessary to note some archives of other departments, where valuable materials on the history of the Russian church and clergy are concentrated. These are: 1. Archive of the Ministry of Justice in Moscow. Here, by the way, are the files of the patriarchal orders: the palace, the state and the monastery, established in 1649. The first two orders were in charge of the palace economy, the parishes and expenses of the saints. patriarchs, and the latter was in charge of the former monastic, episcopal and patriarchal-synodal estates. Here are also the affairs and boards of economy from 1702 to 1787, sentinel books for the estates of the monastery. and spirits. with 41 city plans; inventories of estates, files on the revision of monasteries and their estates from 1625–1811; All cases and all documents selected from monasteries and clergy on their lands were transferred here. These documents constitute a special category of acts of the 2nd department of the archive. In the files of the Governing Senate, transferred to this archive from various St. Petersburg departments from 1711 to 1797, there are many materials related to the history of church administration in Russia during the synodal period and to issues of property law during the same time. For details, see the State Inventory. arch. old files of Ivanov and Description of the archive min. Justice, 10 volumes. 2. Main archive of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Moscow. By the way, the affairs of the Moscow Embassy Prikaz were transferred here, and therefore all the materials that we have preserved on the relations of the Russian Church with the eastern, southern and heterodox churches are concentrated here. So, here there are matters concerning relations with the Eastern Patriarchs, Serbian monasteries, present. and different spirits. persons, starting from 1567, from Georgian and Imeret. c. from 1586, with popes from 1576, with various Slavs. peoples since 1699. Russian affairs. clergy: about the appointments of patriarchs, about letters of grant, about writings concerning faith and the church, etc., starting from 1581, and non-religious churches and clergy since 1629, monastic affairs since 1676, ceremonial affairs: about coronations, various court ceremonies, religious processions, etc. Finally, there are many files about Orthodox churches, monasteries and the state of Orthodoxy in general in the former Polish-Lithuanian possessions. In particular, here are acts relating to the ceremonies of the crowning of Russian tsars in 1547–1684 and the royal weddings of 1495–1684. Monuments of the 1st category, contained in 21 columns and books, and all these ranks in several editions and lists, and some with even attached portraits of modern kings (Theodore, John and Peter Alekseevich). Wedding and marriage rites, printed. in Ancient Ross. Vivleofike (vols. VII and XIII) require more careful verification. 3. The archive of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in St. Petersburg begins in 1802 and contains many valuable materials on the history of the Russian schism in the 19th century. and Russian sectarianism. Particularly rich materials are concentrated on the split in the affairs and protocols of the former central secret committee for schismatic affairs. Relatively few researchers have used this material (Nadezhdin, Melnikov, Liprandi, Sokolov). See “Collected. government information about the split,” ed. V. Kelsiev, London 1860–62, “Collected. fast. regarding the split of m. ext. affairs"; Melnikov: “Materials for the history of the Khlyst and skoptic heresies” (“Readings of Moscow. General history” 1872–73) and “Old Believer bishops” (“Russian West.” 1863 and Complete collected works. Melnikov). Here is the archive of the Department of Spiritual Affairs of Foreign Confessions, which contains a lot of interesting data about heterodox propaganda in Russia, about the Jesuits and their activities here. Unfortunately, during the fire of the m-va in 1862, many valuable documents of this m-va were burned. But materials relating to the activities of the Jesuits during the reign of Alexander I were published on the basis of archival data back in 1845 in a brochure, ed. in Paris under the title: La Russie et les Jésuites de 1772–1820 d’après des documents la plupart inédits, par Henri Lutteroth.” See also “Jesuits in Russia” by priest. M. Moroshkina. 4. The central archives of Kiev, Vilna and Vitebsk also contain a lot of documents relating to the history of Orthodoxy, churches, monasteries and their various possessions in the present north- and southwestern regions of Russia. Currently, the said archives have special commissions that are engaged in the publication of “Descriptions” of the said archives and the printing of individual ones that have special value in one respect or another. 5. Archive of the Archaeographic Commission in St. Petersburg. He has, among other things, royal and metropolitan charters and other various documents relating to the church history of Novgorod in the 17th-18th centuries. These documents were found in 1857 among the rubbish under the floor of the St. Sophia Cathedral and transferred here by decision of the Holy Synod. 6. The State Archive and the St. Petersburg Archive of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs are under the jurisdiction of the same administration. The beginning of the first archive was laid by the order to separate all the foreign documents stored up to that time in the Archive of the State Collegium. cases of papers relating to the imperial family, as well as investigative and criminal cases of particular importance. The papers found in the office of Catherine II and Alexander I were transferred here; papers relating to the accession to the throne of the Emperor. Nicholas I; cases of the commission of inquiry and the supreme criminal court of 1825; papers about secret Polish societies. Here are also the files of the office of Peter I and subsequent reigns transferred from the winter palace. From the Peter and Paul Fortress, the files of the former secret investigative office of the chancellery moved here. For church history, the cases that came here from other archives are of particular importance: about the election of Joseph and Nikon to patriarchs, about the arrival of the patriarchs of Alexandria and Antioch to Moscow, materials about the trial and the demotion of patriarchs. Nikon; Peter's papers, where there are letters and reports from various bishops about the affairs of the Church and Peter's church reforms. The latest materials have not yet been used at all by our historians. A lot of old drawings and plans are also kept here, only some of which were published under the title: “Collection of drawings of Moscow and its environs and the city of Pskov, XVII century.” (appendix to 2 volumes. Slov. Russian department. St. Petersburg. Archaeological Society. 1861). Most of these materials have not been published, are historical rarities and can serve as the most precious material for studying both the ancient areas of different cities and the churches and monasteries located in them. 7. Archive of the Governing Senate. Although most of this archive for the 18th century was transferred to Moscow. archive min. justice, but it contains many more materials relating to the history of the church in general and in particular to church land holdings, often with plans for them. An important indication for familiarizing yourself with this archive is the “Inventory of the Highest Decrees and Commands from 1704 to 1762.” three volumes, composition. Baranov. From a historical point of view, it is important in that this inventory shows exactly three times more authentic Highest decrees and commands for the indicated time than are found in the Complete Collection. law. This publication is equipped with excellent indexes: personal, subject and geographical. 8. The archive of the Ministry of Agriculture and State Property contains quite a lot of materials on the issue of endowing monasteries and churches in the past. lands, forests and other lands. Finally, the archives of the Governor General, for example. Moskovsky, b. Orenburg, St. Petersburg, Vitebsk, as well as some archives of provincial and government administrations contain very rich materials on the history of Russian. schism and sectarianism, and in the former archives of the Vitebsk General Government (Vitebsk, Mogilev, Smolensk, Kaluga and Minsk provinces) there is information about the construction of Orthodox churches in Uniate and mixed parishes, about Roman Catholic propaganda, etc. The minutes of the Dicastery have been preserved since 1724. Confessional paintings since 1737 and metric books since 1777. Censuses of the clergy of the Moscow bishop. since 1795. Circular decrees of the Holy Synod and affairs of monasteries and churches of the diocese since 1742.