Poetic Experiments of East Siberian Orthodox Clergy in the 18th - Early 20th Centuries (Based on the Materials of the Eparchial Press)

The article presents the results of a study of the poetic writings of the East Siberian Orthodox clergy in the 18th - early 20th centuries. Currently, the object of the study is more than 100 original texts composed during this period and collected from publications in the Irkutsk and Trans-Baikal “eparchial journals”. Most of the writings, as well as the names of their authors, are first introduced into scientific discourse. In subsequent studies, the number of texts may significantly increase, but it is already obvious that the poetry of the East Siberian clergy is a serious, on the scale of pre-revolutionary regional literature, layer of works that requires a special study. The study has established that the first original poetic texts were composed between 1727 and 1731. The chances are high that they belong to the pen of the first Irkutsk bishop, St. Innocent (Kulchitsky). Archimandrite Modest (Strelbitsky) found and described the poetic details in St. Innocent’s sermons in his “Tale about St. Innocent’s Preaching” (Irkutsk, 1873). However, the poetic texts dating back to the 18th -early 19th centuries, are few. The absolute majority of the original poems were written and published in the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries. It must be admitted that many texts were naive and imitative poetry. It was occasional poetry: congratulations, epitaphs, poetic retellings, and reports in verse. These writings are important as a reflection of the historical and cultural facts of the eparchial life and as an example of the influence on the authors of a seminary poetry course. Authorial compositions of a higher degree of originality and artistic level are represented by genres of spiritual poetry: poetic retellings of biblical scenes; translations of psalms, liturgical texts and prayers in verse; lyrics of religious-philosophical content. These writings are the main object of the study. The material is grouped as essays on the life and work of four most significant poets distinguished by the number and quality of their works: Alexey Romanov, Vasiliy Kornakov, Stepan Popov, and Vasiliy Nikchemnyy (pen name). The essays include brief biographical notes about the poets based on the archival documents, bibliographies of their writings, and a literary analysis of selected poems. The “eparchial journals” themselves set the literary context for reading: the local poets’ works were published on their pages next to the outstanding samples of Russian spiritual poetry (poems by Derzhavin, Lomonosov, Pushkin, by Russian religious philosophers Solovyov and Khomyakov). The study of the poetic writings of the clergy is conducted within a project on the creation of a bio-bibliographic dictionary Orthodox Spiritual Writers of Eastern Siberia of the Second Half of the 19th - the Beginning of the 20th Centuries. The authors of the article also plan to publish an anthology of East Siberian spiritual poetry.

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