Sitting In order to work with such a unit as a “plug”, we cannot do without a stable, and therefore large enough, seat. A platform with a tackle box mounted on it is best. Read more about this in the chapter

"Solovki seat"

Church Cathedral 1666-1667 became a turning point in the history of the split. As a result of the council's decisions, the gap between the ruling church and the schismatics became final and irreversible. After the council, the movement of schism acquired a mass character. It is far from accidental that this stage coincided with mass popular uprisings on the Don, in the Volga region and in the North. The question of whether the schism had an anti-feudal orientation is difficult to resolve unambiguously. On the side of the split, mostly people from the lower clergy, hard-working townspeople and peasants stood up. For these segments of the population, the official church was the embodiment of an unjust social order, and "ancient piety" was the banner of struggle. It is no coincidence that the leaders of the split gradually moved to the position of justifying their actions against royal power. Raskolnikov could also be found in the army of Stepan Razin in 1670-71. and among the rebellious archers in 1682.

At the same time, the element of conservatism and inertia was strong in the Old Believers. "It has been laid down before us: lie it like this forever and ever!" Archpriest Avvakum taught, "God bless: suffer for folding your fingers, don't argue too much!" Part of the conservative nobility also joined the schism. The spiritual daughters of Archpriest Avvakum were the boyars Theodosya Morozova and Princess Evdokia Urusova. They were sisters. Feodosya Morozova, having become a widow, became the owner of the richest estates. Avvakum wrote about the noblewoman with admiration and surprise: “How so! There were about 10,000 Christians, there were more than 200 thousand brownies in the factory…” Theodosya Morozova was close to the court, she performed the duties of a “visiting noblewoman” to the queen. But her house became a haven for the Old Believers. After Theodosia took secret tonsure and became the nun Theodora, she openly began to confess the old faith. She defiantly refused to appear at the wedding of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich and Natalya Naryshkina, despite the fact that the tsar sent his carriage for her. Morozova and Urusova were taken into custody. The patriarch interceded for the noblewoman, asking her to release her, but Alexei Mikhailovich answered, “I would have done this for a long time, but you don’t know the ferocity of this woman. How can I tell you how much Morozova quarreled and now swears! if you don’t believe my words, feel free to test it yourself; call her to you, ask, and you yourself will recognize her firmness, you will start torturing her and taste her pleasantness.

The sisters were admonished by the highest church hierarchs, but Morozova answered the demand to take communion according to the new service books: "The enemy of God Nikon vomited with his heresies, and now you are licking that desecration of him; it is obvious that you are like him." Theodosya Morozova and Evdokia Urusova were tortured, but they could not get the renunciation of the old faith. Then they were sent to Borovsk, where they were put in a dungeon. Avvakum encouraged the women as much as he could, but their fate was sad - the sisters were starved to death.

Some of the monasteries took the side of the Old Believers, in particular, one of the most revered Orthodox monasteries - the Solovetsky Monastery. The monks of the monastery, in which Nikon could not get along when he was a simple monk, did not accept church reforms when he was a patriarch. When newly printed books were sent to the monastery, they were hidden, without binding, in the state chamber, and then on general meeting decided by no means to accept the current servicemen. The then Archimandrite Elijah spoke with tears to the pilgrims who made a pilgrimage to the famous monastery: “You see, brothers, lately: new teachers have risen, they turn us away from the Orthodox faith and patristic tradition and order us to serve on the Lyatsk roofs according to new service books.” Several monks hesitated and did not want to sign the verdict on the rejection of the newly printed missals - "so the archimandrite shouted at us with his advisers, like wild animals: "Do you want to serve a heretical Latin service! We will not let the living out of the meal!" We got scared and put our hands on it."

N. M. Nikolsky, the author of The History of the Russian Church, believed that the reluctance to accept new service books was explained by the fact that the majority of the clergy simply could not relearn: “The rural clergy, illiterate, who studied services by ear, had to either refuse new books, or give way to new priests, for it was unthinkable for him to retrain.

The majority of the city clergy and even monasteries were in the same position. The monks of the Solovetsky Monastery expressed this in their verdict bluntly, without any reservations: "We have learned to divine liturgies to serve according to the old service books, according to which we first learned and got used to, but now we, old priests, will not be able to keep our weekly queues according to those service books, and we will not be able to learn from the new service books for our old age ... ". And again and again the words were repeated in this verdict as a refrain: “we priests and deacons are of little power and are unaccustomed to reading and writing, and inert in teaching”, according to new books “we are inert and intransigent chernets, no matter how many teachers, and not get used to ...”

On the church cathedral 1666-1667 one of the leaders of the Solovetsky schismatics, Nikandr, chose a line of conduct other than Avvakum. He pretended to agree with the decisions of the council and received permission to return to the monastery, but upon his return he threw off the Greek hood, put on the Russian one again and became the head of the monastery brethren. The famous "Solovki Petition" was sent to the tsar, outlining the credo of the old faith. In another petition, the monks threw down a direct challenge to the secular authorities: "Command, sovereign, to send us your royal sword and from this rebellious life, relocate us to this serene and eternal life." S. M. Solovyov wrote: “The monks challenged the worldly authorities to a difficult struggle, presenting themselves as defenseless victims, bowing their heads under the royal sword without resistance. under the sword was met with shots. Such an insignificant detachment as Volokhov had could not defeat the besieged, who had strong walls, plenty of supplies, 90 guns. "

The siege - "Solovki seat" dragged on for eight years from 1668 to 1676. At first, the authorities could not send large forces to the White Sea because of the movement of Stenka Razin. After the rebellion was suppressed, a large detachment of archers appeared under the walls of the Solovetsky Monastery, and the shelling of the monastery began. The besieged responded with well-aimed shots, and Abbot Nikandr sprinkled the cannons with holy water and said: “My mother Galanochki! We have hope for you, you will defend us!” But in the besieged monastery, disagreements began between moderates and supporters of decisive action. Most of the monks hoped for reconciliation with the royal power,

The minority, led by Nikandr, and the laity - "Baltsy", led by centurions Voronin and Samko, demanded "for the great sovereign to put aside piety", and such words were said about the tsar himself that "not only to write, but also to think is terrible." In the monastery they stopped confessing, taking communion, they refused to recognize priests. These disagreements predetermined the fall of the Solovetsky Monastery. The archers could not manage to take it by storm, but the defector monk Theoktist showed them a hole in the wall, blocked with stones. On the night of January 22, 1676, in a heavy snowstorm, the archers dismantled the stones and entered the monastery. The defenders of the monastery died in an unequal battle. Some instigators of the uprising were executed, others were sent into exile.

This is how the events of those distant times appeared before us, this is how today's historians and historiographers see them, but, of course, there are still many mysteries and white spots, and therefore interest neither in Patriarch Nikon, nor in his reforms does not dry out.

Patriarch Nikon Cathedral church reform

Natalia LYASKOVSKAYA

SOLOVETSKY SEAT

It is generally accepted that the sprouts of a schism appeared in the Solovetsky Monastery in 1636, when Patriarch Nikon sent corrected liturgical books to the monastery. The monks, without even looking at the books, sealed them in chests and placed them in the monastery armory. However, it all started much earlier, and the reasons for the Solovetsky rebellion were not only religious, but also economic and political.
The Primorsky North of Russia is the possession of old Novgorod, since ancient times inclined to disobey orders from Moscow. The center of northern monasticism is Solovki. Even before Nikon left the patriarchate, the Solovetsky monastic cathedral, headed by abbot Elijah, drew up a verdict (June 8, 1658) on the non-acceptance of new books, to which Moscow did not react in any way. The successor of the deceased abbot Elijah, Bartholomew, was appointed hegumen in Moscow in 1660, and Moscow made it clear to the Solovki abbot that his monastic brethren were on a dangerous path.
In 1661, Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich made a mistake: he sent large parties of schismatics and fugitive Moscow archers to Solovki, who intensified the rebellious mood among the monks.
In 1663, before Bartholomew's trip to Moscow, the brethren bound their hegumen with a verdict: not to receive any "new rites" in Moscow. In 1666, Bartholomew arrived at the Great Moscow Cathedral with a new petition from the monks. The cathedral could no longer hush up the revolt of the Solovetsky Monastery and took a number of administrative measures to eliminate it. Some monks were summoned to Moscow for personal interrogation, and Archimandrite Sergius of the Yaroslavl Monastery of the Savior was sent to Solovki with an order on behalf of the Cathedral to obedience, and if they did not submit, they would be anathematized and "cruelly punished" by the tsar. The monks did not accept Archimandrite Sergius, and responded to threats that they would leave the monastery and go into the desert, but would not submit.
In 1667, Moscow replaced Bartholomew with a new abbot, Joseph, but he was also not accepted, and a new petition “On Faith” was sent to the name of the tsar - an ultimatum: “Do not send teachers to us, sir, in vain, but better, if you please, books to change, send your sword upon us, that we may be resettled into eternal life." Treasurer Gerontius wrote and sent in September 1667 a lengthy study of the motives of the Old Believer uprising, this text became the manifesto of the schism. Gerontius prophesied: the end of the world is approaching, everywhere in the Christian world there is retreat after retreat, and the main apostates are the Greeks, you can’t follow them, etc. Gerontius and Archimandrite Savvin of the Zvenigorod Monastery, Nikanor, who lived in retirement, a man of books and a solid character, a cellarer Azarius and servant Thaddeus stood at the head of the turmoil.
The king wrote an exhortation letter, but it was all in vain. The riot flared up, as the Old Believer song of the 17th century tells. "Siege of the Solovetsky Monastery":

Yes, the Lord God was angry, the sovereign-king was inflamed,
Our sovereign-tsar chose the big boyar,
From the largest of the breed, from the Saltykov breed,
Destroy the monastery, destroy the old faith,
Rip up old books
Tear up old books, drown in the blue sea,
And Zosima and Savatia of the Nightingales
ruin the monastery of miracle workers
And kill all the elders.

It was a difficult time, the sovereign was not at ease with the almond: "... it is enough to list the rebellions of Alekseev's time to see this force of popular discontent: in 1648, rebellions in Moscow, Ustyug, Kozlov, Solvychegodsk, Tomsk and other cities; in 1649, preparations to a new mutiny in Moscow, warned in time, in 1650 riots in Pskov and Novgorod, in 1662 a new mutiny in Moscow because of copper money, and finally, in 1670-1671 a huge rebellion by Razin in the Volga south-east , which originated among the Don Cossacks, but acquired a purely social character," wrote Vasily Klyuchevsky. However, it was hard for the Moscow government to use weapons against the sacred walls of the monastery. It was decided to wage a siege, to starve out the rebels.
At this time, the Moscow government made another, much more serious mistake, which ruled out the possibility of a peaceful settlement of the conflict: it ordered the confiscation of the patrimonial lands and lands of the monastery.
And the monastery was rich! Although the elders insisted that the “Solovki Monastery was not a patrimonial place” (monasteries were then called cloisters that sowed bread for themselves and for sale) and had no “orama” (that is, arable) land (which was true), the monastery had something to lose. “It is impossible to start arable farming outside the icy climate on Solovetsky Island, because even garden vegetables (except for one turnip) will not be born; cabbage, onions, garlic, cucumbers and other vegetables are bought in the city of Arkhangelsk imported from Vologda,” the monks became depressed.
However, it is known that the Solovetsky Monastery was the most powerful circumpolar industrialist. Georgy Georgievich Frumenkov in the book "The Solovetsky Monastery and the Defense of the White Sea" writes: "Rarely and reluctantly, the monks reported that the monastery located" in the father of the ocean-sea "has" sea harvest ", and on the shore "the smallest" rye and rye are sown, as then they called barley. At the beginning of the 18th century, grains were sown in ten meadows and in three monastic services, but not a single Solovetsky farm could really live without imported bread. But in its vast possessions, the monastery produced a large amount of salt, fish, seal fat, mica, organized the smelting of iron, started leather huts, potash factories, all kinds of workshops, including weapons, which made edged weapons.
But the main occupation of the monastery in the XVI-XVII centuries. there was salt-making, which was widespread in the North from the 12th century. In some years, more than 800 permanent workers and 300 temporary workers were employed at 50 monastery salt pans. IN late XVI in. the monastery annually sold about 100 thousand pounds of salt, and in the first half of the 17th century. exported to domestic markets 130-140 thousand pounds of salt per year. In the first half of the XVII century. the monastery received 10-11 kopecks for a pood of salt, and from the end of the 17th-beginning of the 18th centuries. in connection with the introduction of the salt duty, the average price of a pood of salt rose to 15-16 kopecks." The Solovetsky abbots proudly declared that the monastery "feeds on salt mines." At that time, the Solovetsky monastery had 5430 peasant, bobyl and ladder male souls. Only in the Kola and Dvina districts (Sumsky and Kemsky prisons with their surroundings and the Shueretskaya volost) the monastery owned 3648 male souls.
The statement contains and complete list monetary and in-kind duties of "monastic orphans". "According to the monastic definitions of old," the peasants were charged a cash quitrent, lifting and other taxes, amounting to a total of about 500 rubles. in year. In addition to taxes, the peasants supplied "to correct various works"in the summer (summer lasted from March 1 to October 1) carpenters and helpers, in winter (from October 1 to March 1) laborers for hay, firewood, etc. The following figures give an idea of ​​the severity of such a duty: the peasants gave in the summer 22 carpenters and 66 helpers, and in the winter months - 38 working people. They received nothing but food. In addition, the peasants had to work for free on the monastery's seaworthy boats and bring "grain and grub supplies for the monastics and laborers to feed." and also to deliver food to the salts and services. It was their duty to "raise the boats for the winter and load them with forest in the spring." With their equipment on their horses, the peasants cultivated the monastery arable land in the ascribed Muezerskaya hermitage, cleaned and threshed bread, prepared firewood, and mowed hay".
And so, at the time of the highest economic prosperity of the Solovetsky Monastery, the government dealt a painful blow to the economy of the owner of Pomorie. In 1667, "for disobedience" of the elders and unwillingness to recognize political and church centralization, the patrimonial villages and villages, and salt and all kinds of crafts, located on the coast, were confiscated and transferred to the state of the Solovetsky Monastery "for disobedience" and unwillingness to recognize political and church centralization.
In 1668, the tsarist regiments arrived on Solovki. At first, the siege of the monastery was sluggish, intermittent - the government hoped to settle the conflict peacefully. In the summer months, archers landed on the Solovetsky Islands, blocking them, interrupting the connection of the monastery with the mainland, and for the winter they moved ashore to rest. And the residents of Dvinsk and Kholmogory generally went home: their native huts are nearby. Yes, and it was beneficial for the state - no need to feed extra mouths all winter.
The sovereign guaranteed forgiveness to every participant in the uprising who voluntarily turned himself in. The first of the commanders, Volokhov in 1668, and then Ievlev in 1672, were given instructions: "to push", but not to storm and "not to shoot at the fence." In fact, it was not a siege, but a blockade, the food supply of the monastery was cut, but not completely blocked. Moreover, the monks stocked up well in advance, all the barns were full of bread. And the monastery also had 90 cannons, 900 pounds of gunpowder and many cannonballs. In 1670, the rebels were the first to fire on the tsarist troops. Archimandrite Nikanor walked along the walls and towers, sprinkled holy water and censed cannons, saying: "Mother golanochki, we have all our hope in you. You will defend us!"
Not all of the brethren were ready to rush into battle, including Gerontius. But in 1672 the monastery became a refuge for the surviving soldiers of the defeated detachments of Stepan Razin, including the atamans Fyodor Kozhevnikov and Ivan Sarafanov, who practically captured the monastery. They were shooting. Not a single return shot was fired from the tsarist troops.
Only in 1674 did the governor Ivan Meshcherinov receive instructions to start active hostilities:

As by God's will, by the king's command
The weather rose from the midday country,
Raised thin sails, ran across the blue sea,
They ran to the monastery.
They dropped anchors, ships all stood,
They taught to shoot at the bakery and at the monastery,
They shot a wonderful image on the throne.
Already all the elders were frightened, they fled to one place ...

However, in October, colds unprecedented for this time of the year struck and forced Meshcherinov to retreat. The siege was lifted, the troops left for the winter. By the way, there is a hypothesis that Russian military leaders and servicemen, allegedly under various pretexts, evaded the attack of the Solovetsky Monastery and instead of them, foreign recruits were transferred under the leadership of Meshcherinov. Deacon Ignatius Solovetsky, well-known in those days, claimed that the army that besieged the monastery consisted of "Germans and Poles, true Latins." This version, although pleasant to many who still blame all the troubles of the State of the Russian tsars and their "satraps", who allegedly constantly spread rot on the Russian people with the help of foreign mercenaries, has no documentary evidence.
On January 7, 1675 (December 28, 1674, old style), at a meeting of the participants in the uprising in the Solovetsky Monastery, it was decided not to pray for the tsar. Among the instigators of the "innovation" were mainly "dashing people" from Razintsy and other vagabonds. The monks themselves were not happy that they had given shelter and shelter to such a riotous public, but it was too late. All those who disagreed were expelled or imprisoned by the "new leadership" of the monastery.
In the summer of 1675, hostilities intensified: from June 4 to October 22, the losses of only well-armed and trained besiegers amounted to 32 people killed and 80 people wounded. At the end of May 1676, Meshcherinov appeared under the monastery with 185 archers. They built 13 earthen towns (batteries) around the walls, began to dig tunnels under the towers. In August, a reinforcement arrived consisting of 800 Dvina and Kholmogory archers. On January 2 (December 23, old style), 1677, Meshcherinov made an unsuccessful attack on the monastery, was repulsed and suffered losses. The governor, angry with the failures, decided to conduct a year-round blockade.
It is difficult to imagine how much longer the siege would have lasted (which had already dragged on for eight years) and how it would have ended if the monks themselves had not wished for its end in favor of the authorities. After all, the Solovetsky rebels and even the monks knew how to fight, they had extensive food supplies. "Originality geographic location The Solovkov monks substantiated the need for militarization of the monastery and the creation of permanent stocks of weapons, fodder and food in it. The monastery must "be sure to have grain supplies for ten years, or at least five years," argued one of its archimandrites. The Solovetsky Monastery, which grew up, according to the figurative expression of a certain monk-scribe of the 16th century, "in the Russian Land in the Severnaya country, at the ends of the universe" in the immediate vicinity of the Swedish-Danish border, was periodically subjected to aggression from the "district languages" - the northwestern neighbors Russia. The fight against the "Kayan Germans" (as the inhabitants of modern Finland were called in the old days - after the city of Kayan) was an invariable companion of the Solovetsky history until the beginning of the 18th century. As a "Ukrainian" and "frontier" point, the monastery was forced, simultaneously with the conquest of the harsh nature, to repel the attacks of external enemies encroaching on Pomorie, who haunted the Russian people, prevented them from living and working peacefully here, wanted to take away our state's access to the Frozen Sea Frumenkov writes. - The tense situation on the border made the Solovetsky Monastery worry, first of all, about their personal safety. In addition, the monastery had to take measures to protect the White Sea region, since it began in the middle of the 15th century. colonization by the monastery of the western Pomeranian coast was completed by the end of the next century.
However, the monks no longer wanted to fight the sovereign's army. Having lost power over the situation, powerless before the Razintsy and Streltsy who flooded the monastery, the monks decided to fight not with the besiegers, but with those who seized the monastery from the inside. As early as the end of 1673, when the rebels decided "to leave the pilgrimage for the great sovereign," the hieromonks and priests refused to do so. They were thrown into prison on a hunger strike. Disagreements began, defectors stretched across the ice to the royal camp.
In addition, scurvy came to the monastery. They died in multitudes, without communion, were buried without a solemn funeral service.
The decisive moment has come. On January 18, 1677, the monk-defector Feoktist revealed to Meshcherinov how to get into the monastery from the moat of the Onufrievskaya church, and undertook to lead the archers through a window located under the dryer near the white tower. Feoktist appeared to Meshcherinov as an ambassador of goodwill, but later the Old Believers found an excuse for his act - they say, not of his own will, he "surrendered" the secret of the monastery:

I wanted to, after all, a piece of wood,
In the holy lake he bathes,
Go down the ropes through that wall;
Seeking fell this sinner
He is on the damp ground,
He broke his right hand
Sprained his left leg.
Then the governor came to him

(By the way, in the song the voivode is called not by Meshcherinov, but by Peshchersky, apparently, Meshcherinov turned in the legends first into Meshchersky, and then into Peshchersky - N. L.):

You tell us the truth.

The crippled "wooden" - de and was forced to point out the laz ...
It was necessary to go an hour before dawn: at this time the changing of the guard took place, there was only one person left on the tower and the wall. On a dark snowy night on February 1, fifty archers, led by Meshcherinov, followed Feoktist to a window designated for carrying water and lightly sealed with bricks. The manhole was broken, the archers entered the drying chamber, reached the monastery gates and opened them. The defenders of the monastery woke up too late. About thirty people resisted: they rushed with weapons to the archers, but died in an unequal battle, injuring only four opponents. The monastery was taken. The inhabitants, imprisoned by the rebels in the monastery prison, were released without harming them.
Although the rebellion of the Solovetsky monastery was started by monks who did not agree with Nikon's reform, by the end of the siege, the essence of the "Solovki seat" had completely changed: by the time the monastery was captured by the tsarist troops, there were almost no monks left in it. Most of the brethren left the walls of the monastery, some were expelled by the rebels or imprisoned in the monastery prison.
After a short trial on the spot, the leaders of the rebels Nikanor and Sashko, as well as 26 other active participants in the rebellion, were executed, while the rest were sent to the Kola and Pustozersky prisons.
The fact of the resistance of the Solovetsky Monastery to the authorities was not slow to take advantage of the Old Believers for their own purposes. The most famous work of Old Believer literature on this topic is Semyon Denisov's "The Story of the Fathers and Sufferers of the Solovetskys, who at the present time have generously suffered for piety and holy church laws and traditions," created in the 18th century. Of course, the author presented the facts in the light in which it was beneficial for him: the unfortunate "fathers" endure cruel torments from the royal satraps:

All the monks were slaughtered
In the blue sea they swept
They scolded the abbot:
His tongue will be cut off;
Through the night it was such a miracle -
After all, he became completely healthy;
They took him and killed him -
How the Kingdom of Heaven was bought.

And other "sufferers" (this is how Denisov veiled the fugitive convicts) die heroically: "And having experienced various things, having found firm and not perverse in ancient church piety, having boiled with green fury, having prepared various deaths and executions: hang this testament, and cut through the most intercostal spaces with a sharp iron, and with a hook that threaded through it, each on his own hook.
Some later interpreters of those events, distorting the facts, reported hundreds of dead: “A fierce battle took place in the monastery itself. Many were killed. Many were executed, many were exiled to other monasteries and fortresses. rebels with a martyr's crown, as those who suffered for the right faith" (From a historical essay by Anna Gippius). In fact, there were far fewer punished - these far-fetched "horrors of tsarism" are from the same category as the "hundreds of thousands of bloody victims" of Ivan the Terrible.
Reports of hundreds of executed rebels were criticized both in church and historical literature - after all, even in the Old Believer synodics no more than 33 names of the "sufferers of the Solovetsky" are mentioned.

The middle of the 17th century is marked in the life of the Russian Orthodox Church important event- the religious reform of Patriarch Nikon. Its consequences played a significant role in the subsequent history of Russia. Having unified the ceremonial side of worship and thus playing a positive role, it became the cause of a religious split in society. Its most striking manifestation was the uprising of the inhabitants, called the Solovetsky seat.

Reason for reform

By the middle of the 17th century, in the church life of the country, there was a need to make changes to the liturgical books. Those that were in use at that time were lists from translations of ancient Greek books that came to Russia along with the establishment of Christianity. Before the advent of printing, they were copied by hand. Often scribes made mistakes in their work, and over the course of several centuries significant discrepancies with the original sources arose.

As a result of this, the parish and monastery clergy had various manuals services, and everyone conducted them differently. This state of affairs could not continue. As a result, new translations from Greek were made, and then replicated in print. This ensured the uniformity of the church services. All previous books were declared invalid. In addition, the reform also provided for a change in the performance of the former - two-fingered was replaced by three-fingered.

The emergence of a church schism

Thus, the reform touched only the ritual side of church life, without affecting its dogmatic part, but the reaction of many sections of society turned out to be extremely negative. There was a split between those who accepted the reform and its ardent opponents, who argued that the innovations being installed destroy the true faith, and therefore they come from Satan.

As a result, the schismatics cursed, and he, in turn, anathematized them. The matter took an even more serious turn due to the fact that the reforms came not only from the Patriarch, but also personally from (the father and, therefore, opposition to her was a rebellion against state power, and this always had sad consequences in Russia.

Solovetsky seat. Briefly about his reasons

All of Russia of that period was drawn into religious strife. The rebellion, called the Solovetsky seat, is the answer of the inhabitants of the Solovetsky monastery located on the sea to the attempts of the authorities to forcefully root the installations of a new reform in it. It began in 1668.

To pacify the recalcitrant, on May 3, a detachment of archers landed on the island under the command of the tsarist governor Volokhov, but was met with cannon volleys. It should be noted that this monastery was founded here not only as a center of spiritual life, but also as a powerful defensive structure - an outpost on the path of Swedish expansion.

The Solovetsky seat was a serious problem for the government also because all the inhabitants living within the walls of the monastery, and there were 425 of them, had sufficient military skills. In addition, they had weapons, cannons and a significant amount of ammunition at their disposal. Since in the event of a Swedish blockade, the defenders could be cut off from the outside world, large food supplies were always stored in the cellars of the monastery. In other words, taking such a fortress by force was not an easy task.

The first years of the siege of the monastery

We must pay tribute to the government, for several years it did not take decisive action and counted on a peaceful outcome of events. A complete blockade of the monastery was not established, which allowed the defenders to replenish provisions. In addition, they were joined by many other schismatic peasants and fugitive participants in the uprising of Stepan Razin, which had only recently been suppressed. As a result, the Solovetsky seat from year to year acquired more and more new supporters.

After four years of fruitless attempts to break the resistance of the rebels, the government sent a larger military formation. In the summer of 1672, 725 archers landed on the island under the command of the governor Ievlev. Thus, a numerical superiority appeared on the side of the besiegers of the fortress, but even this did not give any tangible result.

Intensification of hostilities

It couldn't go on like this for long, of course. Despite all the courage of the defenders of the monastery, the Solovetsky seat was doomed, since it is impossible for a separate, even a large group of people, to fight with the entire state machine. In 1673, by decree of the tsar, the voivode Ivan Meshcherinov, a determined and cruel man, arrived to suppress the rebellion. He had the strictest order to take the most active action and put an end to monastic self-will. More reinforcements arrived with him.

With his arrival, the situation of the besieged worsened significantly. The governor established a complete blockade of the fortress, blocking all channels of communication with the outside world. In addition, if in previous years, due to severe frosts in winter, the siege was lifted and the archers went to Sumy jail until spring, now the blockade continued all year round. Thus, the Solovetsky seat was deprived of the conditions of its life support.

Attempts to storm the monastery

Ivan Meshcherinov was an experienced and skillful governor and organized the siege of the fortress according to all the rules of military art. Artillery batteries were installed around the walls of the monastery, and tunnels were made under its towers. They made several attempts to storm the fortress, but they were all repulsed. As a result of active hostilities, both the defenders and the besiegers suffered significant losses. But the trouble is that the government had the opportunity, as necessary, to make up for the losses of its troops, but the defenders of the fortress did not have it, and their number was constantly decreasing.

The betrayal that caused the defeat

At the very beginning of 1676, an offensive against the monastery was once again launched, but it also turned out to be unsuccessful. However, the hour was approaching when this in its own way heroic Solovetsky seat would be finally defeated. The date of January 18 became a black day in his history. A traitor named Feoktist showed the governor Meshcherinov a secret passage that could enter the monastery. He did not miss the opportunity, and took advantage of it. Soon a detachment of archers broke into the territory of the fortress. Taken by surprise, the defenders were unable to offer adequate resistance, and many were killed in a short but fierce battle.

Those who survived met with a sad fate. The governor was a cruel man, and after a short trial, the leaders of the rebellion and its active participants were executed. The rest ended their days in distant jails. This ended the famous Solovetsky sitting. The reasons that prompted him - church reform and a tough state policy aimed at its implementation, are still long years will bring discord into the life of Russia.

Growth and expansion of the Old Believers

During this period, a completely new layer of society appears under the name of the Old Believers, or otherwise - the Old Believers. Pursued by the government, they will go to the Trans-Volga forests, to the Urals and Siberia, and overtaken by their pursuers, they will accept a voluntary death in the fire. Rejecting the power of the king and the authority of the established church, these people will devote their lives to the preservation of what they recognized as "ancient piety." And the monks of the recalcitrant monastery on the White Sea will always be an example for them.

Representatives of various social strata participated: the top of the monastic elders who opposed reform innovations, ordinary monks who fought against the growing power of the tsar and the patriarch, novices and monastic workers, alien dependent people who were dissatisfied with the monastic order and increasing social oppression. The number of participants in the uprising is about 450-500 people.

The first stage of confrontation between the Moscow authorities and the brethren of the Solovetsky Monastery dates back to 1657. The monastery at that time was one of the richest and economically independent, due to its remoteness from the center and the wealth of natural resources.

In the “newly corrected liturgical books” brought to the monastery, the Solovki discovered “ungodly heresies and crafty innovations,” which the monastery theologians refused to accept. From 1663 to 1668, 9 petitions and many letters were composed and sent to the name of the king, concrete examples proving the validity of the old faith. These messages also emphasized the intransigence of the Solovetsky monastic brethren in the struggle against the new faith.

The second stage began on June 22, 1668, when the first detachment of archers was sent to subdue the monks. A passive blockade of the monastery began. In response to the blockade, the monks began an uprising under the slogan of fighting "for the old faith" and took up defense around the fortress. The rebels were helped and sympathized by the peasants, workers and strangers, fugitive archers, and later participants in the flaring up peasant war under the leadership of Stepan Razin. In the early years, the Moscow government could not send significant forces to suppress the uprising due to other peasant unrest. However, the blockade continued, and the leadership of the monastery, as well as a significant part of the monks (monks who accepted the schema) were in favor of negotiations with the royal governors. The laity and outsiders refused to compromise and demanded from the monks "for the great sovereign to put aside pilgrimage." Negotiations that were conducted with the rebels for 4 years did not lead to anything. As a result, in 1674, Alexei Mikhailovich increased the army besieging the fortress, appointed Ivan Meshcherinov as the new governor, and gave him the order "to eradicate the rebellion soon."

At the third stage of the struggle of the besieged with the archery army, numerous attempts were made to storm the fortress, long time ended unsuccessfully. Despite the large number (up to 1 thousand people) of archers thrown to capture the recalcitrant and the presence of firearms in them, the fortress did not give up. During the siege, the idea of ​​"defending the old faith" was replaced by a rejection of royal power and centralized church government. (“We don’t need any decree from the great sovereign and we don’t serve either according to the new or the old, we do it our own way”). In the monastery they stopped confessing, taking communion, recognizing priests, they began to involve all the monastic elders in the work - “in the barn, and in the kitchen, and in the mukoseynya.” Sorties were organized against the troops besieging the monastery. Abbot Nikandr specially sprinkled the cannons of the besieged with holy water. The resulting damage to the fortress wall, formed after continuous shelling, was quickly eliminated by the monks.

The confrontation ended unexpectedly in January 1676, when a defector, the monk Theoktista, probably seduced by some promises, pointed out to the archers a secret underground passage in one of the towers. A small detachment of archers entered the monastery and opened the gates to the besiegers.

The assault was followed by a brutal massacre of the besieged (January 1676), which marked the final stage of the struggle. Of the 500 defenders of the fortress, only 60 survived, but they were soon executed. Only a few were saved life, they were sent to other monasteries. The Solovetsky Monastery was weakened by repressions for many years. Evidence of the "forgiveness" of the disgraced monastery was the visit of the monastery by Peter I almost 20 years after the events described. However, the monastery regained its importance only at the end of the 18th and 19th centuries.

The Solovetsky uprising is one of the most notable protests against attempts to quickly reform religious life during the time of the "quietest tsar" Alexei Mikhailovich. Texts of numerous lists Tales and stories about the fathers and sufferers of the Solovetsky The self-taught writer of the Old Believer Semyon Denisov, who spoke about the cruelties and repressions of the tsarist suppressors, existed throughout Russia. The perseverance in faith and the martyrdom of the "Solovki elders" created an aura of martyrdom around them. Songs were composed about the Solovetsky defenders. There was even a legend among the people that, as punishment for these atrocities, Alexei Mikhailovich was struck terrible disease and died covered with "pus and scabs."

Lev Pushkarev