Execution of Documents for Awarding Employees of Spiritual Consistories: A Case-Study of the Tobolsk Diocese in the Second Half of the 19th – Early 20th Century

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УДК 94(47)+930.253

DOI 10.28995/2073-0101-2017-4-48-62

Spichak A. V.

Nizhnevartovsk State University, Nizhnevartovsk, Russian Federation

Execution of Documents for Awarding Employees of Spiritual Consistories: A Case-Study of the Tobolsk Diocese in the Second Half of the 19th – Early 20th Century

Abstract

Church records preserve memory of individuals, families, parishes, dioceses, and also of the nation itself. Identification of factors that determined changes in documents composition, content and design, and analysis of the document collections development in connection with the development of administrative functions of Church institutions contributes to a better understanding of trends in Church paperwork development. In the studied period the Church record management was regulated legislatively within general system of paperwork management. Studying development of documents and document complexes historically is a major task for researchers in the field of document support of the institutions activities, for instance, those of the parish churches in the Tobolsk diocese. The article details the ins and outs of the award system of the Russian Orthodox Church in a case-study of awarding spiritual consistories employees. Major ways of awarding clerical officers in the Synodal period were by order, rank or money. The article reviews documents accompanying the awarding of the Tobolsk spiritual consistory employees that are stored in the State Archive in Tobolsk. These materials allow to trace the procedure from decision logged in a consistory journal to a personalized request filed by diocesan authorities to the General-Prosecutor, and finally to a receipt of a fee for the issued award. Analysis of archival materials shows that employees of the Tobolsk spiritual consistory of the second half of the 19th – early 20th century were awarded by promotion, money, and orders: those St. Anne or St. Vladimir, and, most often, that of St. Stanislaus. Procedure took over a year due to remoteness of the Tobolsk spiritual consistory and excessive paperwork. And yet there were such good points as unification of documents accompanying the procedure and use of stencils. Tobolsk diocesan bishops attended to orderly paperwork maintenance, corrected papers of theirs subordinates and often demanded that they be rewritten.

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Keywords

Historical sources, paperwork, archive, Russian Orthodox Church, award system, Tobolsk diocese, Tobolsk spiritual consistory, the ranks, orders.

About author

Spichak Alexandra Vladimirovna, PhD in history, Nizhnevartovsk State University, researcher, Nizhnevartovsk, Russian Federation, +7-912-530-50-23, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Submitted 7.03.2017, published:

SPICHAK, A. V. Dokumentatsionnoe oformlenie nagrazhdenii sluzhashchikh dukhovnykh konsistorii. Po materialam Tobol'skoi eparkhii vtoroi poloviny XIX – nachala XX v. [Execution of documents for awarding employees of spiritual consistories: A case-study of the Tobolsk diocese in the second half of the 19th – early 20th century. In Russ.]. IN: Vestnik arhivista / Herald of an Archivist, 2017, no. 4, pp. 48-62.

You can read completely article in the russian historic-archival magazine “The Herald of an Archivist”. Read more about terms of subscription here.

Полностью материал публикуется в российском историко-архивоведческом журнале ВЕСТНИК АРХИВИСТА. Ознакомьтесь с условиями подписки здесь.