Брань, борода и немецкое платье (по материалам урало-сибирских «видений» XVII—XVIII вв.)

Abstract

The genre of visions was very popular in the literature of the Middle Ages. They were most frequently referred to in the periods of social and religious cataclysms. A dramatic evidence to the fact are visions of the Troubled Times as well as those of the «nestroeniya» period in the religious life of Russian society both before and after the Schism. In the context of those visions a specific part is assigned to the image of the Virgin who primarily blames foul language. In the reign of Peter the Great similar stories enriched with new characteristic traits (the beard-shaving and the fashion for foreign clothes), often became the property of the oral tradition of Urals and Siberian peasants in the late 17—18th centuries This was reflected in the corresponding documents. Along with the Virgin whose image underwent transformations under the influence of popular ideas, the visioners also saw in their dreams St. Nicolas and some local saints, i. e. Simeon Verkhotursky. The spread of those visions was conditioned by the overall negative assessment of Peter’s activities in the field of reformation of Russian mode of life.