The Pseudo-Athanasian Homily on the Man Born Blind: A Slavonic Sermon Translated from an Unknown Greek Original

The article provides a textual analysis and a publication of the Old Slavonic text of the Homily on the Man Born Blind along with a Russian translation. The homily is preserved in 14th-century re-translated triodion miscellanies (the so-called новоизводные триодные Панигирики), where it is ascribed to Athanasius of Alexandria. The original Greek text of the homily is unknown. This study considers the textual peculiarities of the homily and the relationship of its Slavonic manuscripts. Moreover, the article analyzes the composition of the homily and presents a list of texts that were examined in search of the Greek original. The edition of the Slavonic text, along with the Russian translation, is placed in the Appendix.

In Memory of the Field Researcher Konstantin Kuzmich Loginov

The article analyzes the field work of the renowned ethnographer Konstantin Kuzmich Loginov (1952–2020), an expert in ethno-local history and the culture of Karelia, the Russian North and, in particular, the Zaonezhye Region. The contents of Loginov’s voluminous monographs and articles allow us to identify his strategy in field communications and his relations with specific informants. Loginov’s position inside the ethnic community under research was complex: he was simultaneously a collector, interpreter, supporter, and custodian of the fading collective memory peculiar to a certain ethnic community of the Russian North and Karelia. Loginov’s research prioritized the study of local groups of Russians and partly of Karelians and their leaders. From this point of view, the article considers materials collected by Loginov during two field seasons, which took place in 2011 and 2012, when he conducted a series of in-depth interviews with N. V. Likhacheva (1916–2016), a representative of the elder generations of one of the local groups of the Tver Karelians — Vesiegonskie. The results of those in-depth interviews were the recordings of autobiographical narratives that reveal the informant’s evaluation of her personal life, show her religious views, their depth and peculiar properties, as well as her reading experience and knowledge of local folk traditions. These aspects constitute the worldview of the bearer of the traditional culture in the second half of the 20th — early 21st century.

From the Epistolary Heritage of the Poet Ivan A. Kostin: Correspondence with V. I. Malyshev and I. N. Zavoloko

The article presents a study and publication of the correspondence of the poet Ivan Alekseevich Kostin (1931–2015) from Petrozavodsk with the archaeographer Vladimir Ivanovich Malyshev (1910–1976), who held a Doctor of Sciences degree in Philology, and the Old Believer writer and educator Ivan Nikiforovich Zavoloko (1897–1984). The correspondence includes letters and greeting cards (30 in total) from the 1970s to the early 1980s. They are currently stored in the Manuscript Division of the Institute of Russian Literature (Pushkinskij Dom) of the Russian Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg, the Archive of the Grebenshchikov Old Believer Congregation in Riga, the National Museum of the Republic of Karelia in Petrozavodsk, and the National Archive of the Republic of Karelia, also in Petrozavodsk. Kostin’s letters to Malyshev reveal how the Petrozavodsk poet aided Malyshev in collecting manuscripts for the Ancient Manuscripts Repository (Drevlekhranilishe) in the Institute of Russian Literature (Pushkinskij Dom). The correspondence between Kostin and Zavoloko concerns the history and culture of the Old Believers, the Vygoleksinsky monastery, and the Zaonezhye, and issues pertaining to literary activity and academic studies. The letters make a valuable addition to Kostin’s memoirs about Malyshev and Zavoloko. The article also covers the history of Kostin’s poem dedicated to Archpriest Avvakum. The letters, published in the appendix to the article, are accompanied by comments.

Traditional Cattle Grazing in the Tambov Region (The Practical Aspect)

The study of the practical aspect of traditional cattle grazing in the Tambov region is based on materials collected in the mid-1990s during field practices carried out by students of the Department of Ethnography and Anthropology of St. Petersburg State University under the supervision of the author of the article. It is quite justified to call the recorded practices “traditional” since breeding and grazing of private livestock by collective farmers did not change significantly even after collectivization. This is confirmed by the pre-revolutionary materials on the tradition of cattle grazing in the Kirsanovsky District (uezd) of Tambov Province cited in the article. This study employs the methods of comparative historical analysis but also take into account the unique features of the natural environment of various parts of the Tambov region. To graze its herd, a community hired a shepherd, made a written contract with him and confirmed it with a drink treat (magarych). The shepherds were usually local or from nearby villages. Each type of animal had its own shepherds. Depending on the size, a herd could have one or two shepherds, who were sometimes assisted by a shepherd boy. Grazing continued from the appearance of fresh grass in spring until the appearance of a permanent snow cover. Over time, the remuneration of shepherds changed from a combination of food and money to a mainly monetary one and shifted from a seasonal to a monthly schedule. Additionally, on certain days, the shepherd had the right to visit the cattle owners in order to get food from them. The shepherd was equipped with a whip and sometimes also had a horn. No information of any other features of his equipment and clothing was gathered. The article presents data on local peculiarities of cattle grazing. The collected materials show that to a certain extent, local differences were determined by the characteristics of the environment. When grazing in the forest, the size of the herd was smaller than on open pastures, sheep and goats were not grazed in the forest, and the shepherd used a horn there to gather animals.

The Old Russian Chronograph of the Third Redaction in 182 Chap ters. Part 1: The Chronograph of the 1680s from the Patriarchal Scriptorium

The article deals with the special version of the third redaction of the Old Russian Chronograph from the collection of V. M. Undolsky. It is quite different from other copies of this text. The compiler of the manuscript not only revised the traditional structure of the third redaction of the Chronograph by increasing the number of its chapters from 169 to 182 but also fundamentally changed its historical meaning. The vast majority of manuscripts of the third redaction of the Chronograph brought its narrative up to the end of the Time of Troubles in 1618, thereby emphasizing the end of the “rebellious” period in Russian history and the relative “unimportance” of the following years of quiet rule of the first Romanovs. The Chronograph in 182 chapters continues its narrative of Russian history up to the Eternal Peace Treaty of 1686 and pays much attention to the military events and rebellions of the early Romanov era. This codex was written in the patriarchal scriptorium between 1686 and 1696 (most likely in 1686–1689). The paper on which it is written was actively used in other textually related manuscripts from the patriarchal scriptorium in the late 1680s– 1690s. The Undolsky’s copy of the third redaction of the Old Russian Chronograph is not the only version enlarged by additional chapters. More chapters than in the “classical” version can be found in Rumyantsev’s second copy of the Chronograph. Both Undolsky’s and Rumyantsev’s manuscripts derive from a common protograph — a special form of the third redaction of the Chronograph in 179 chapters. The Undolsky manuscript, however, is continued by the Patriarchal Chronicle for the years 1619–1686. Accordingly, the number of chapters is increased to 182. In contrast, the Rumyantsev manuscript is augmented by the Tale of Mosokh and retains the original 179 chapters. Both manuscripts are supplemented by various excerpts from the Book of Royal Degrees. Simultaneously with them, there also appeared other variants of the Chronograph that expressed the patriarchal bookmen’s thoughts about Russian and world history in the 1680s and 1690s: the Fokhtov Chronograph in 187 chapters and its revised version – the Vologodsky Chronograph in 189 chapters, and also the Tikhonravov Chronograph in 184 chapters. The changes that became fixed in some codices from the last quarter of the 17th century were the results of editorial work of patriarchal and other scribes, who compiled new chronographs and their brief redactions (“chronographets”) in the 1680s – 1690s

Hagiographer Archpriest Nikolai Alekseevich Konoplev: A Biographical Investigation

This article attempts to investigate details regarding the life of Archpriest Nikolai Alekseevich Konoplev (early 1865 – 1937), a Vologda ethnographer, historian, hagiographer. His writings about the saints of the Vologda region contain unique historical information and still possess significant scholarly value. This study is based on historical data found in pre-revolutionary periodicals, archival documents and recently published articles. It corrects some inaccurate statements about the final years of Archpriest Nikolai’s life found in scholarly literature.

“Dream of the Virgin” – “Sogno di Maria” in the Context of Italian Literary and Folk Texts about the Passion of Christ

The “Dream of the Virgin” is an apocryphon about the Passion of Christ, revealed to the Mother of God in a visionary dream. It circulated among many European nations in the form of a spiritual verse, a narrative, a prayer, or an incantation. Starting with the fundamental work of A. N. Veselovsky, this story has been an important subject of comparative research up to the present day. The oldest manuscripts with texts related to it are of Italian origin and date back to the 14th and 15th centuries. The article presents features of the Italian tradition of the apocryphon in texts preserved in these early manuscripts and in more recent folklore recordings. In Italy, the “Dream of the Virgin” existed in the context of various poetic texts about the Passion of Christ and the Lament of the Virgin Mary. The development of Italian volgare literature on the theme of the Passion is associated with the cult of the Passion of Christ, which was extremely widespread in the 13th and 14th centuries. Some details in the Italian texts suggest that the motif of the Virgin Mary’s dream about the Passion possibly originated in the tradition of the Holy Land related to the Mount of Olives and Gethsemane

History of the Family and Native Place in the Projection of the Life Path of a Professional Folklorist and Ethnographer

The purpose of the article is to determine the value of works like the book Pomni korni svoi (“Remember your roots”) by the Karelian folklorist A.S. Stepanova about the history of her native village for humanitarian research and for the dissemination of historical and ethnographic knowledge. Stepanova’s book is examined in the context of problems concerning the possibilities and ways of reconciling academic and personal everyday knowledge in the situation when a humanities scholar is acting as a first-hand historian or as an ordinary life writer. While Stepanova’s scholarly works on Karelian lamentations are internationally known, the book in question was published both in Russian and Karelian and is addressed to her direct descendants. It is about the North Karelian village of Shombozero, which no longer exists. Most of its inhabitants were related by kinship. The narrative is based on the author's memoirs and autobiography. The book includes the results of genealogical reconstruction, documentary information about the history of the settlement, oral history materials, and the demographic history of households in the late 19th — first half of the 20th centuries. It describes the topography of the area, ways of communication and means of transportation, the traditional household, and economic and everyday life of the Karelians in the 1930s–1950s. The history of the place and the everyday life of its inhabitants are presented in the projection of the formation and life path of a professional philologist and teacher. The author of the book describes and reflects on the activities of rural “national” boarding schools in the 1930s–1940s, teachers and students, life stories of various immigrants from local peasant families, the daily life of university students in the 1950s, twists and turns in the life of her family, the process of becoming a scholar, and episodes from the history of the study of Karelian folklore. As a result, the book notably exceeds its objective to preserve family memory. It is a valuable source for the study of ethnography, ethno-social and ethno-linguistic processes, the circulation of folklore, social history of families and other areas of humanitarian and social studies. It conveys both local and general historical knowledge and can be used by specialists as a professional description of the life of the settler and family-related communities during changes due to chrisis.

Two Expeditions: In Search of the Karsikko Tradition in the Pudozh Region of Karelia with Konstantin Loginov

From 1998 to 2013, the author of this article participated in seven expeditions to the Pudozh region of Karelia and to Lake Vodlozero together with Konstantin Kuzmich Loginov, who studied this area as an ethnographer for many years. The most memorable were the first and the last expeditions, which are discussed in the article. The main objective of both expeditions was to detect and study the Karelian tradition of karsikko (from the Karelian word karsia, which means “to cut branches”). Karsikko are special signs on trees that served both practical and religious mythological purposes. The latter function was most prominent in old cemeteries, of which we also intended to make an inventory. The 1998 expedition, which Loginov organized and guided, turned out to be surprisingly rich in collected material. It opened up a whole region of Eastern Europe for further study. The trip to the river Vodla was much more “intimate”, and our tasks were more modest. First of all, we had to confirm the existence of the karsikko tradition there. Although this tradition was already well studied in the neighboring territories, it could have different features, since each area was special and could surprise with details. As a result, the field research performed at the end of the 20th — beginning of the 21st century covered most of the Pudozh region and the neighboring Kenozero. It confirmed the ubiquitous existence of the karsikko tradition in this region.

Gorgoneia from Suzdal and Przemyśl: The Prayer and the Spell

The hematite Suzdal zmeevik (gorgoneion) belongs to the small group of Byzantine engraved gems (intaglios) with a Gorgon’s head (hystera) and a magic formula, which are usually found on metal medallions and pendants. The Seven Sleepers of Ephesus depicted on the obverse and two-line Slavonic inscriptions on both sides make the Suzdal gorgoneion quite unique even for that group. The Slavonic inscriptions carved on the gorgoneion are an abridged version of the “Prayer when a sick person does not sleep” addressed to the Sleepers. The Prayer is known from the Russian Euchologia of the 15th – 16th centuries. The article argues that, save for the names of the Sleepers, the inscription on the gorgoneion has the closest relationship to the earliest copy of the Prayer found in the fourteenth-century Slavonic Serbian Euchologion in the collection of the Russian National Library (Q. p. I. 24). The reverse of the hematite gorgoneion from Przemyśl bears the image of the Mother of God surrounded by an unusual Greek hystera formula, and the obverse contains a depiction of a Gorgon’s head (hystera) that is almost identical to the one found on the Suzdal gorgoneion. Going beyond V. Zalesskaya’s suggestion that both gorgoneia were made in one Greek workshop, this article argues that the inscriptions on the two objects were carved following the same principles and that both objects can be attributed to the same master, who was likely of South Russian origin. The unique poetics of the Przemyśl Gorgoneion spell was a result of the versatility of the hystera formula, while the Slavonic Euchologia developed a stable text of the “Prayer when a sick person does not sleep”. When the hystera formula was substituted with the Prayer on the Suzdal Gorgoneion, the magic amulet was transformed into a Christian icon.