Brits impersonating Bacchus in Saint Petersburg under Peter the Great

The article presents a reconstruction experience of the "Bung College, or the British Monastery", which was a buffoonish organization established by Peter I by analogy with the "Most Clownish, Most Drunken and Madcap Congregation" (the "Most Clownish Sobor") specifically for natives of the British Isles. The aim of the article is to systematize the biographical information available in historical sources and literature about the participants of the Bung College, their social status and occupation, as well as to specify the structural and functional specifics of the British Monastery, interpreted as a special cultural institution of the "Peter-the-Great" Russia. Based on new materials, the article reveals in detail the personal composition of the Bung College, also called the Brotherhood in Bacchus Law, fixes some features of daily behavior and everyday culture of St. Petersburg Englishmen and Scots in the first quarter of the 18th century. For the first time, the authors identify many participants of the College, considered as a social and cultural phenomenon characteristic of the Petrine era, opposing the traditions of the "Holy Orthodox" Russia. Among the identified members of the Bung College are Jacob Hewitt, a businessman from Scotland ("Bishop Yakov Khuit"); his colleague Henry Sterling ("Chevalier Sterlin"); the Dutch merchant Hendrik Rasch ("treasurer Endrik Rash"); the merchant David Salmon, a native of London ("inspector and supervisor David Solomon"); the merchant Joseph Daikins ("adviser Osip Dekins"), etc. On the basis of the St. Petersburg non-Orthodox church registers (the Anglican Congregation, the Dutch Reformed Church and the Roman Catholic Church of St. Catherine), the article analyzes the kinship and social ties of the "monastic brethren". The methodology of this research is based on a cultural-semiotic approach using the method of structural and functional analysis (when clarifying the structure of the Bung College and its social significance), as well as the method of continuous name-by-name study of registers (when working with the church documents). The members of the College were mainly experienced merchants, educated people and highly respected in the business environment. However, the authors suggested that with the help of the Bung College, the tsar deliberately belittled the social status of Russian Brits and mocked their cultural mission. The analysis of the social status of the identified persons and the circle of their relatives and acquaintances confirms the conclusions made by Academician Sergey Platonov about the social specifics of the Bung College: it was part of a new (and still alien to Russia) burgher (bourgeois) world, separated from the upper and service classes. Besides, the article reveals that among the famous British natives in Russia, indeed, there were a few drunkards who could give the tsar the idea of a "drinking monastery". The authors declare no conflicts of interests.

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