Avvakum Petrov or Avvakum Petrovich (born November 25 (December 5) 1620 - death April 14 (24), 1682) - a prominent Russian church and public figure of the 17th century, priest, archpriest.
Protopop Avvakum is one of the most outstanding personalities in the history of Russia. He was a man of great fortitude, which was fully manifested during the times of persecution against him. From childhood he was accustomed to asceticism. Aversion from everything worldly and the striving for holiness, he considered to such an extent natural for a person that he could not get along in any parish because of his relentless pursuit of worldly pleasures and deviation from the customs of the faith. Many revered him as a saint and miracle worker.
An important fact of Russian history in the 17th century was the church schism resulting from the church reform of Patriarch Nikon. The reform was supposed to eliminate discrepancies in church books and differences in the conduct of rituals that undermined the authority of the church. Everyone agreed with the need for reform: Nikon and his future adversary, Archpriest Avvakum. It was only unclear what to take as a basis - translations into Old Slavonic of Byzantine liturgical books made before the fall of Constantinople in 1453, or the Greek texts themselves, including those that were corrected after the fall of Constantinople.
By Nikon's decree, Greek books were taken as samples, while in the new translations there were discrepancies with the ancients. This served as the formal basis for the split. The more significant of the innovations adopted by Patriarch Nikon and the church council in 1654 was the replacement of baptism with two fingers with three fingers, pronouncing the praise of God "Allujah" not twice, but three times, movement around the analogue in the church not in the direction of the Sun, but against it.
All of them were related to the purely ritual side, and did not relate to the essence of Orthodoxy. But under the slogan of returning to the old faith, people united who did not want to come to terms with the growth of state and landlord exploitation, with the growing role of foreigners, with everything that seemed to them inappropriate to the traditional ideal of "truth." The schism began with the fact that Patriarch Nikon banned double-fingering in all Moscow churches. In addition, he invited learned monks from Kiev to “correct” church books. Epiphany Stavinetsky, Arseny Satanovsky and Damaskin Ptitsky arrived in Moscow and immediately took over the monastic libraries. Everything habitual collapsed at once - not only the church, but also society found itself in a deep and tragic split.
First of all, the "God-lovers" or "zealots of piety," headed by Stephen Bonifatiev, took up arms against Nikon. In addition, Ivan Neronov, the rector of the Kazan Church on Red Square, and the protopopes - Daniel of Kostroma, Loggin of Murom, Daniel of Temnikov, and Avvakum of Yuryev, stood out with great activity. Nikon was also a member of this circle, because the "zealots" supported his election to the patriarch.
"God-lovers" believed that it was necessary to restore order in the church, to eradicate the indifferent attitude of the laity to church services and rituals, to introduce sermons. In their opinion, the correction of the liturgical books should have been done not according to Greek, but according to old Russian manuscripts. They were very wary of everything foreign, and hostile to the penetration of elements of Western culture into Russia.
Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich partly agreed with them, although he had a different idea of the essence of church reforms.
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The very first actions of the new patriarch convinced the "zealots" that they were deeply mistaken about Nikon's old beliefs. The abolition of two-fingered fingers instantly sparked widespread outrage. They began to talk about Nikon as a "Latin", the forerunner of the Antichrist.
Nikon prudently and quickly removed the restless adherents from his path. Stefan Vonifatiev was the first to be disgraced. He was tonsured a monk, and soon he died in Nikon's Iversky monastery. Following him, Nero was convicted, who was charged with insulting the personality of the patriarch. He ended his life as an archimandrite of the monastery in Pereyaslavl-Zalessky.
Of all the teachers of schism, the fate of Archpriest Avvakum was the most severe. Back in September 1653, he was sent into exile in Tobolsk, from where, 3 years later, he was transferred to Eastern Siberia.
Avvakum vividly, figuratively tells about his long stay in Dauria, about the torments that fell to the lot of his family in his "Life". Here is just one episode from this book:
“The country is barbaric, the foreigners are not peaceful, we dare not lag behind the horses, and we will not keep up with the horses, hungry and languid people. At other times, the poor protopopessa wandered, wandered, and fell down and could not get up. And the other languid immediately heaved: both scramble, but could not get up. Afterwards, the poor one blames me: "How long, Archpriest, will this torment be?" And I said to her: "Markovna, until the very end." She is against: "Good, Petrovich, and we will still wander in the future."
At the beginning of 1661, Alexei Mikhailovich allowed Avvakum to return to Moscow. Avvakum perked up, believing that the sovereign had turned his back on the Nikonians and would now obey the Old Believers in everything. In fact, the situation was much more complicated.
As expected, the power-hungry Nikon did not want to be satisfied with the second role in the state. Relying on the principle of "priesthood above the kingdom," he tried to completely get out of subjection to secular authority and to assert his supreme dominion not only over the church people, but also over the laity. Extremely concerned about this turn of affairs, the boyars and the higher clergy began to oppose church reforms more and more, despite the fact that Alexei Mikhailovich directly advocated their implementation.
Gradually, a chill was brewing between the tsar and the patriarch. Nikon, who had little insight into the essence of the behind-the-scenes intrigues, could not even think of a change in the sovereign's attitude towards himself. On the contrary, he was confident in the inviolability of his position. When Alexei Mikhailovich expressed his displeasure with the powerful actions of the Patriarch, Nikon on July 11, 1658, after serving in the Assumption Cathedral, announced to the people that he was leaving his patriarchal throne, and withdrew to the Resurrection Monastery. By this, he hoped to finally break the weak-willed tsar, but did not take into account the growing influence of the Old Believer-minded boyars on him.
Noticing his mistake, Nikon tried to go back, but this further complicated the matter. With the established dependence of the Russian Church on secular power, the way out of this situation depended entirely on the will of the tsar, but Alexei Mikhailovich hesitated and, not wanting to give in to the claims of his recent "sobny friend," hit. But his new entourage managed to arrange the return of Archpriest Avvakum and other members of the former circle of "God-lovers" to Moscow. Knowing nothing in Dauria about these circumstances, Avvakum linked his challenge with the victory of the Old Belief.
Avvakum's journey across Siberia
For almost two years he traveled to Moscow, tirelessly preaching his teachings along the way. Imagine his disappointment when he saw that Nikonianism had taken root everywhere in church life, and Aleksey Mikhailovich, having grown cold to Nikon, nevertheless was not going to abandon his reforms. A passionate readiness to fight for his convictions aroused in him with the same strength, and he, taking advantage of the sovereign's favor, gave him a lengthy petition.
“I hoped, - wrote Avvakum, - tenacious in the east in the deaths of many, silence here in Moscow to be, and now I saw the church more and more confused before”. He threw petitions against the tsar in protest against Nikonianism and Patriarch Alexei Mikhailovich himself wanted to win over the fearless "devotee of piety" to his side, as this would radically drown out the growing popular opposition.
That is why, without directly showing his attitude to the petitions of Avvakum, he tried to persuade him to comply with the promise of first the place of the tsar's confessor, then, which much more attracted Avvakum, the director and the Printing House., at least until the cathedral, which will discuss the question of Nikon.
Touched by the attention of the sovereign and hoping that he would be entrusted with correcting the books, Habakkuk was really at peace for some time. This turn of events was not to the liking of the Old Believers, and they rushed from all sides to persuade the archpriest not to abandon the "paternal traditions." Avvakum renewed his denunciations of the Nikonian clergy, calling them renegades and Uniates in his sermons and writings. "They," he argued, "are not church children, but the devil." The sovereign saw how groundless his hopes for the reconciliation of Avvakum with the church were and, yielding to the persuasion of the clergy, on August 29, 1664 signed a decree on the expulsion of Avvakum to the Pustozersky prison.
1666, February - in connection with the opening of the church cathedral, Avvakum was brought to Moscow. They again tried to persuade him to recognize the church reforms, but the archpriest "did not bring repentance and obedience, but persisted in everything, he also reproached the consecrated council and called it non-Orthodox." As a result, on May 13, Habakkuk was stripped of his hair and cursed as a heretic.
After the trial, Avvakum, along with other schismatics, was sent to prison in the Ugreshsky monastery, from where he was later transferred to Pafnutyev-Borovsky. In a special instruction sent to the abbot of that monastery, it was ordered to Avvakum "to take good care of him with great fear, so that he does not leave the prison and do not make a bad nikakov over himself, and do not give him ink and paper, and tell no one to come to him."
They still hoped to break him with the help of the ecumenical patriarchs, who were expected at the council for the deposition of Nikon.
The patriarchs arrived in Moscow in April 1667.
Because with Nikon everything had already been decided and he was deposed from the patriarchate on December 12, 1666, they had no choice but to thoroughly deal with Habakkuk. Protopop was delivered to them on July 17. For a long time they persuaded him, advising him to humble himself and accept church innovations.
“Why are you so stubborn? - said the patriarchs. - All our Palestine, and Serbia, and Albania, and the Volokhs, and the Romans, and the Poles - all cross with three fingers, you alone persist in dual faith.
“Universal teachers! Rome fell long ago and lies unyielding, and the Poles died with it, until the end of the enemies were Christians. And your Orthodoxy has become motley from the violence of the Turksky Makhmet - and you can't be astonished at you: weaknesses have become natural. And henceforth come to us teacher: we, by the grace of God, have autocracy. Before Nikon the apostate in our Russia, the pious princes and tsars had all Orthodoxy pure and immaculate, and the Church was not mutinous."
After that Habakkuk went to the door and lay down on the floor with the words: "Sit you down, and I will lie down."
He no longer listened to ridicule or exhortation. 1667, August - Avvakum was taken to Pustozersk. His family and many other Old Believers languished there. During the empty lake period, Avvakum fully developed his schismatic doctrine. He advocated the antiquity, not at all thinking to neglect the present: it was just that his vision of modern reality contradicted the dominant tendencies of the era. Muscovite Rus was rebuilt on a different spiritual basis, in every possible way bringing its cultural and ideological orientations closer to the common Christian and Western European traditions.
The ideology of Avvakum bore the imprint of the views of that part of the Russian peasantry, which, under the influence of increasing serfdom, essentially turned into complete slaves and slaves. They advocated the preservation of their former privileges, rejected all church reforms, spontaneously realizing their connection with the new political system. The peasants in droves removed from their homes, went into the deep forests of the North and the Trans-Urals, not fearing either government persecution or anathemas of spiritual shepherds.
The number of mass self-immolations increased annually. In the fire, people often died in hundreds and thousands. For example, at the beginning of 1687 more than 2,000 people were burnt to death in the Paleostrovsky Monastery. On August 9, the same year, there were more than 1000 in Berezovo, Olonets district. And there were many similar facts.
Burning of Archpriest Avvakum
Avvakum was well aware of all this and in every possible way encouraged the Old Believers to self-immolate. In the "Epistle to a certain Sergius" he wrote: "Most of all, at the present time in our Russia they themselves go into the fire from great grief, jealous of piety, like the apostles of old: they do not pity themselves, but for Christ and the Mother of God they go to death." In the same message, Avvakum talked about one of such mass self-immolations: “Brother, brother, it's a dear business that they will put them in the fire: do you remember in the Nizhny Novgorod region, where I was born, two thousand and two, and the dear ones themselves from those crafty spirits ran into the fire: they did it wisely, they found warmth for themselves, by this temptation they flowed away with the temptation of the local temptation.
Protopop advised Sergius: “What are you thinking about? Do not think, do not think too much, go into the fire - God bless. They did the good, and they ran into the fire … Their eternal memory. In the years 1675-1695 alone, 37 “burns” (that is, self-immolations) were registered, during which at least 20,000 people died.
So Habakkuk became the first and almost the only preacher of mass suicides in the world's religious teachings. And therefore, giving him his due as a brilliant preacher; orator and writer, we find it logical that he eventually shared the fate of all heresiarchs.
Meanwhile, Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich rested in the Bose, and his son Fyodor ascended the throne. It seemed to Avvakum that he was simply forgotten. He was getting old, it became unbearable to endure melancholy and loneliness in the wilderness. And he took a step towards his death. 1681 - Habakkuk sent a message to Tsar Fedor, in which he fanatically and recklessly poured out all the irritation that had accumulated over the years against the church and the clergy.
“And what, tsar-sovereign,” he wrote, “how would you give me freedom, I would have them, like Elijah the prophet, overturned everyone in one day. I would not defile my hands, but I would also sanctify tea."
Perhaps the tsar would not have attached importance to this letter if the monk had not mentioned below about his deceased father: “God judges between me and Tsar Alexei. He sits in agony, - I heard from the Savior; then to him for his truth. Foreigners who know what was told to them did so. They betrayed their Tsar Constantine, having lost by unbelief, they betrayed the Turk, and they also supported my Alexei in madness."
Tsar Fyodor did not have any sympathy for the Old Believers and perceived Avvakum's message as a threat to the existing government, personally to himself. There was no one to bother for Avvakum: at the Moscow court there was no longer one of his former well-wishers; they were ousted by the "Kiev nehai" - learned monks headed by Simeon of Polotsk. And Habakkuk "for the great blasphemy against the king's house" was ordered to burn together with his three co-religionists.
1682, April 14 - the life of this fearless man, who remained an unsolved legend of ancient Russian spirituality, ended at the stake. Very scant details of this execution have come down to us. It is known that it took place with a large crowd of people. The prisoners were taken out from behind the prison tyna to the place of execution. Avvakum disposed of his property in advance, distributed books, and clean white shirts were found for the hour of death. And all the same the sight was painful - festering eyes, severed dry hands. Now Avvakum, Fedor, Lazarus and Epiphanius were not persuaded to renounce.
The executioners tied the convicts to the four corners of the log house, filled them with wood, birch bark and set them on fire.
The people took off their hats …
L. Zdanovich