The Monasteries' Springing Up in Siberia in the XVIIth Century: the Problem of Their Date and Their Number

The aim of the article is to define the criteria for the dating of the foundation and the number of monasteries that have appeared in Siberia in the XVII century. The objectives are to identify existing historiography approaches to determining of the dates of the foundation of the monasteries; on the basis of the documents to prove the new dating of the emergence of some monasteries; to systematize data on the monasteries' springing up in Siberia in the XVII century; to propose a methodology of the counting the number of the monasteries in Siberia in the XVII century. As a result of the research the author came to the following conclusions. In modern historiography there are both generally accepted dates of foundation of many monasteries and the contradictions in determination of the period of the foundation of the same monastery. In many cases the difficulties are caused by the lack of reliable documentary testimonies, as well as a choice of different events as a "starting point" of the history of a monastery. The way out of this situation could be the unification of the monasteries dating base on a one criteria, but it does not seem possible. Firstly because in the XVII century there were no strict regulations of the procedure for founding a monastery. The question, what to consider the date of foundation of the monastery is still open. Secondly, the source base contains some restrictions: in some cases, the necessary information lacks, in other instances, the variation occurs in the designation of similar events. The foundation of monastic community was not recorded in written sources. It was not always called a monastery from the time of its establishing. In some towns initially nuns settled near the parish churches and after some time monastic complex was built for them. In some cases a community was considered to be a monastery long before it moved there. It is possible to systemize the "ways" of foundation of monasteries according to their initiator. In this case the "starting point" of the history of the monastery could be the beginning of the initiator's activity to establish a monastery. We can mark out three variants. The first variant was according to the monk's initiative. If he was going to found a monastery in the city, he had to appeal to the local administration first and then to the church authorities for giving their blessing. Outside towns monasteries began as orthodox deserts of monads, who tried to isolate themselves from the world. After some time monks and common people joined them. They built churches and cells and as a result orthodox deserts appeared. The second variant was according to the local communities' initiative. The third variant was according to Siberian and Tobolsk archibishop's initiatives. The author illustrates the systematization with a great number of examples. On the base of documents the author makes the dates and circumstances of springing up of some monasteries more accurate. In modern works one can see different facts about the number of Siberian monasteries. In the author's opinion the correction of statistics should be done in two directions: 1) to make the dates of foundation and the period of existence of monasteries more accurate; 2) to determine the method of calculation. The author thinks that calculation of the number of monasteries that appeared during the XVII century is not productive because in some cities monasteries appeared, then they stopped their existence and later they appeared again. To understand the dynamics of the process it is necessary to mark out the facts about the number of monasteries both at the beginning and at the end of the defined period. The choice of the period depends on the tasks that the researcher sets. According to the author by the end of the XVII century on the territory of Siberian diocese there were 24 male and 8 female monasteries.

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