“That They from Drunken Revelry Painstakingly Abstain”: Documentation on Procedure for Punishment for Drunkenness of Persons of the Department of Religious Affairs in the Tobolsk Diocese in the Second Half of the 18th – First Half of the 19th Century

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УДК 94(47)+94(571.12)

DOI 10.28995/2073-0101-2019-1-11-27

Alexandra V. Spichak

Nizhnevartovsk State University, Nizhnevartovsk, Russian Federation

“That They from Drunken Revelry Painstakingly Abstain”: Documentation on Procedure for Punishment for Drunkenness of Persons of the Department of Religious Affairs in the Tobolsk Diocese in the Second Half of the 18th – First Half of the 19th Century

Abstract

The article strives to identify paperwork stages and timescales for the Tobolsk Spiritual Consistory punishing its subordinates for drunkenness. The Russian Orthodox Church was the first to turn its attention to the problem of alcoholism and began fighting drunkenness of its cleric in mid-18th century, long before anti-alcohol campaigns of late 19th century. This is confirmed by the author’s discovery of archival materials. The Synod's concern for the preservation of documentary heritage of the Russian Orthodox Church allows to study methods of combating excessive drinking among ecclesiastics of the Tobolsk diocese, as well as various aspects of paperwork involved. The study examines stages and timing of the investigation of clerics by the Tobolsk Spiritual Consistory and their punishment for addiction to alcohol. Scientific novelty of this work lies in the fact that the matter has not yet been investigated and is now studied on the basis of recently identified archival sources. The author has studied the files of the Tobolsk Spiritual Consistory from the State Archive in Tobolsk. The article reveals the content of these files, examines the documents on investigation and punishment of clerics for drunkenness and related offenses: petitioning documents (petitions, reports, denunciations) from parishioners, colleagues, authorities; certificates drawn up by order of the Bishop; extracts from the minutes of the Tobolsk Spiritual Consistory meetings; its decrees containing decisions on particular cases; reports of the accused and their immediate superiors. The author has inquired into what determined timing and stages of the paperwork, identified the plaintiff’s documents in the investigatory files. Archives show that excessive consumption of alcoholic beverages caused other misfortunes. The analysis of documents of the Tobolsk Spiritual Consistory proves that severity of punishment and increased timescale of the proceedings correlated with gravity of concurrent offences.

Keywords

Sources, Russian Orthodox Church, Tobolsk diocese, Tobolsk Spiritual Consistory, clergymen, fight against alcoholism, punishment, record keeping.

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References

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AFANAS'EV, A. L. Obshhestva trezvosti v Tobol'skoi gubernii i Akmolinskoi oblasti Rossii (1890-e – nachalo 1910-h gg.) [Sobriety Societies in the Tobolsk gubernia and Akmola region of Russia (1890s - early 1910s). In Russ.]. IN: Vestnik Tomskogo gos. un-ta, 2011, no. 1 (13), pp. 31?37.

BYKOVA, A. G. Sotsial'naya anomaliya v istorii bol'shikh gorodov Zapadnoi Sibiri 1880-e – 1914 gg. [Social anomaly in the history of big cities of Western Siberia in 1880-1914. In Russ.]. Omsk, Omskii yuridicheskii institute publ., 2004, 96 p.

About author

Spichak Alexandra Vladimirovna, PhD I History, Nizhnevartovsk state University, senior lecturer, +7-912-530-50-23, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Grant information

The article has been prepared with financial support of the grant of the President of the Russian Federation for state support of young Russian scientists – candidates of sciences (Contest – MK-2018) (project № MK-3701.2018.6).

Submitted 4.05.2018, published (for citation):

SPICHAK, A. V. “Chtob oni ot p'yanstvennoi i soblaznitel'noi strasti vsemerno vozderzhivalis'”. Dokumentirovanie protsessa nakazaniya lits dukhovnogo vedomstva za p'yanstvo v Tobol'skoi eparkhii vo vtoroi polovine XVIII – pervoi polovine XIX v. [“That They from Drunken Revelry Painstakingly Abstain”: Documentation on Procedure for Punishment for Drunkenness of Persons of the Department of Religious Affairs in the Tobolsk Diocese in the Second Half of the 18th – First Half of the 19th Century. In Russ.]. IN: Vestnik arhivista / Herald of an Archivist, 2019, no. 1, pp. 11-27. doi 10.28995/2073-0101-2019-1-11-27

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