Starocherkassk Efremovsky Convent as a Component of Cossack Identity: Features of the Formation of the Monastery

Based on archival sources - the records of the Don Spiritual Consistory - the features of the formation of the Starocherkassk Efremovsky Convent over the first thirty years, which were characterized by the process of formation of all aspects of the life of the convent, are traced. It was this convent that was one of the basic components of the identity of the Don Cossacks during the 19th - early 20th centuries. This was determined by the fact that the convent was founded at the request of the heirs of the military atamans of the Efremovs with the condition of transferring to the convent the farmstead, house and house church that belonged to them, in which precious gifts were collected not only from the Efremovs, but also from other representatives of the Cossack elite. It was revealed that in this convent only unmarried girls of Cossack origin were to become nuns and novices. However, already at the beginning of the formation of the convent, Archbishop Afanasy (Telyatev) of Novocherkassk and Georgievsk and the abbess abandoned this idea - the first inhabitants came from different classes, a considerable part of them were widows of Don Cossacks.