Arkady, Archbishop of Belovodye: On the Initial Stage of His Biography

The legend of Belovodye is widely known and has repeatedly attracted researchers' attention; however, the history of the Old Believers' Belovodye hierarchy is just beginning to be studied in detail. The biography of Arkady, Archbishop of Belovodye, has been partly reconstructed. However, only the late period of his activities has been studied in detail, the early years and the period of the formation of his “legend” are still almost unknown. The aim of this work is to systematize available data on this issue and introduce them into scholarly discourse. The State Archive of Tomsk Oblast (GATO) stores an investigation file started in 1869, when Arkady was arrested in the vicinity of Tomsk, in the Baturino village. During the search incidental to arrest of Arkady and his followers, a book collection was confiscated and partly transferred to the Tomsk Theological Seminary. In 1920 the Seminary's book collection became part of the funds of the Research Library of Tomsk State University Research Library. The data are complemented by a letter that was found between pages of another manuscript, confiscated from the Old Believers who lived in the Tomsk-Chulym taiga in 1874. Thus, there are a number of documents relating to the period of Arkady's life that has remained practically unknown until today. The information from the archival file was studied. It contains materials from the examination of the confiscated books in the Tomsk Theological Consistory; inventories containing indications of their individual characteristics have been preserved. These indications made it possible to identify two of the confiscated books, they are now stored in the Research Library of Tomsk State University. This is Izmaragd (lit. ‘emerald', 16th century) and Kanonnik (lit. ‘canon book', 19th century), with specific notes on the endpapers, made in one handwriting. The notes use the “loud” names of the “owners” (Job the Patriarch); the time of their creation is incorrectly indicated (“Written under Ivan the Terrible”). The text of Arkady's letter is published in this article. His handwriting is similar to that in ordination certificates by Arkady that were published earlier. There is also a similarly between the letter and the ordination certificates in the mentioned titles awarded by Arkady. The newly discovered materials allow reconstructing part of Arkady's biography in the period from 1869 to 1874. They also show that Arkady tested the main techniques that he used during the takeoff of his career in the Ural period while he was in Siberia. It was at this time that he already used forged certificates, confused the investigators, calling himself fictious names. The published letter demonstrates one of the stages of the formation of Arkady's “legend” and shows the transformation of the hierarchy of authorities that he built in his “legend”.

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