Samizdat in the Archive of Secret Monastic Communities of the Vysoko-Petrovsky Monastery in Moscow (1920–1950s). To the Question of the Phenomenon of Church Samizdat

The article gives an overview of the monuments of church samizdat of the 1920-1950s, preserved in the archive of secret monastic communities of the Moscow Vysoko-Petrovsky Monastery.The chronological framework of the work was not chosen by chance.It was during this period that the Vysoko-Petrovsky communities retained a unified leadership, and the texts circulating in them characterise the reading circle not of individual believers, but of all communities.The author shows that thematically the samizdat component of the Vysoko-Petrovsky archive is divided into two unequal parts: 1) copies of liturgical, prayer texts and services; 2) copies of ascetic works.The archive of the secret communities of the Vysoko-Petrovsky Monastery contains six monuments of liturgical samizdat.The works of ascetic orientation in the Petrovsky archive can also be divided into two blocks: 1) texts copied from printed editions or other manuscript originals, the origin of which is not connected with the Vysoko-Petrovsky communities; 2) texts that appeared within these communities themselves.The second group is the most numerous in terms of both the number of titles and the number of preserved copies.Intra-community samizdat was born in the context of ascetic monastic practices, increased attention to the word of spiritual leaders, and the skill of "revelation of thoughts".These works show the self-reflection of the Zosimov-Petrovsky tradition, expressed in the comprehension of the experience of its founders and bearers.At the same time, there are no monuments of church polemics of the 1920s-1930s in the preserved part of the Vysoko-Petrovsky archive, which most likely indicates the elitist nature of this polemic.In conclusion, the author reflects on the phenomenon of church samizdat.He suggests extending the chronological framework of the concept of samizdat to the entire Soviet period and draws attention to the fact that, apparently, church samizdat is the earliest example of samizdat of the Soviet era.