СВЯЩЕННОСЛУЖИТЕЛИ - ПЕРВЫЕ ИССЛЕДОВАТЕЛИ УРАЛЬСКОГО СТАРООБРЯДЧЕСТВА

The author attempts to compare the first published works on the Ural Old Believers, one of which was written in 1863 by archimandrite Pallady (Pyankov, 1813-1882), the other in 1866-1867 - by the priest of the Byngy church N. M. Varushkin (1831-1903). It is noted that although the works turned out to be very different (in the scale of the issues raised, level of analysis, breadth of coverage, etc.), each of them is essential for the study of the Ural Old Believers in our days. At the same time, the work of Pallady is known to researchers much better, whereas the work of N. Varushkin has not often attracted the attention of scientists. In the study of Pallady for the first time a grouping of the Old Believer communities of the Urals is presented according to a territorial feature. He first defined the main structural elements of the Ural Old Believers’ organization of Beglopopovtsy. Another merit of this author is his special attention to the activities of the Old Believers’ mentors and confessors. The priest Varushkin’s work is devoted to the local history of Old Belief and Common Belief only in the Nizhny Tagil factory district. However, it should be remembered that Nizhny Tagil was one of the three largest centers of Old Belief in the Middle Urals, known throughout Russia from the 1740-s to the end of the 19th century. In addition to the story about the Trinity community of Tagil’s Beglopopovtsy, N. Varushkin published unique information about 20 more communities belonging to the Tagil Old Believers Association. He was the first researcher among those who paid close attention to the leaders of the Ural Old Believers of the 18th century - the runaway priest Job and monk Maxim, and in sufficient detail wrote about them. In conclusion, the author notes that N. M. Varushkin continued to deal with issues related to the history of the Ural Old Believers. In the second half of the 1860-s he was carrying out a new research on Old Belief in the Nevyansk plant. Unfortunately, it was not published, although the probability of finding at least preparatory materials still exists.