Anonymous Letters of the 18th Сentury as a Fact of Literature

The article is devoted to the analysis of a special genre of «people’s journalism» of the 18th century – a genre of so-called letters placed stealthily that were widely spread in Russia in the fi rst half of the 18th century and have never become the subject of special research. These rare, anonymous, preserved mainly in manuscript form monuments of literature, according to the author, can be rightfully attributed to the genre of fi ction. The article highlights the characteristic genre features of the swept letter, lists various thematic groups of such letters. As the most striking example of works in this genre the author analyses the content of the famous anonymous letter as of 1732, an outstanding work of journalism of the era of Anna Ioannovna, devoted to criticism of the Church heretics and Ernst Johann von Biron. Investigation of the 1732 letter had been conducted in the Secret Chancellery for years and came to nothing. In the text of the letter, heterogeneous in its content, the features of various literary traditions are traced – high book-biblical vocabulary and motifs coming from the traditions of the old believers accusatory and agitation literature. The most likely candidate for authorship of the letter is, according to our hypothesis, the former Director of the fi rst St. Petersburg printing house Mikhail Avramov (1681-1752), a gifted writer and publicist, associate and adherent of Archimandrite Markell Radyshevskiy (†1742), the leader of the conservative Church opposition of the fi rst third of the 18th century.