“THE SIBERIAN CHRONICLE” BY THE COACHMAN IVAN CHEREPANOV AS A SOURCE ON THE HISTORY OF ORTHODOX SHRINES IN SIBERIA OF 17TH CENTURY

The Siberian Chronicle, created by the Tobolsk coachman Ivan Cherepanov in the second half of the 18th century, is an example of late Siberian chronicle writing. Researchers paid attention to it back in the 19th century, but it has not yet been published. L. A. Sitnikov identified ten copies of this chronicle, three of which were made in the 18th century. The Mazurin copy (RGADA) is of the greatest interest. It reflects the author’s late revision of the text. The Cherepanov Chronicle contains a large volume of information on regional history, astronomy, ethnography, etc., so it seems productive to analyze this source by thematic blocks. The article examines the Chronicle’s description of the history of Orthodox shrines of 17th century Siberia. It is established that, in writing his text, Cherepanov drew upon the handwritten Tales of the Discovery of the Miraculous Abalatskaya Icon of the Sign of the Mother of God, of the Appearance of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God in Tobolsk, of the Glorification of the Image of the All-Merciful Savior in the St. Sophia Cathedral, the story of Simeon of Verkhoturye and, possibly, the story of Basil of Mangazeya, and the legend of the revered icon of the Dormition of the Mother of God of the Dalmatovsky Monastery as well. Relying on the texts of these literary works, the chronicler pursued the goal of reporting only the history of the appearance of a particular shrine. It is shown that he developed an original approach to the presentation of information from the sources used, which involved excluding lengthy prefaces, moralizing digressions and descriptions of numerous miracles, and constructing the event line in accordance with the principles inherent in chronicle texts, modernizing the vocabulary and syntax as well. Cherepanov’s thorough editorial work on adapting literary works to the chronicle genre should not be assessed as a simple compilation.