No abstract

This article represents a study of extant business records of the Vologda podvor'e of the Solovotskii Monastery from the Time of Troubles (1598-1613). The archival records show that the monastery continued to take in impressive sums from its salt trade during this period of crisis, and in fact was able to increase its revenue during the first two thirds of the Troubles. The study additionally demonstrates that both prices and sales volume oscillated (rose and fell) in a yearly pattern. However, over the longer term, volume remained constant while prices rose, thus producing the increase in net income. The detailed records of prices also enable a comparison to the late Prof. Hellie's data set in The Ecomomy and Material Culture of Russia. The Solovki salt prices recorded at Vologda manifest distinct price levels and behavior and thus significantly enhance Hellie's charts for the Time of Troubles period. The study as a whole illustrates that the Time of Troubles exerted quite an uneven effect on the population of Muscovy, with the wealthy monasteries often economically unaffected or at least less affected than the general population. It also reveals the extent to which economic profit remained a principal driving force of the monasterial “corporation” at this time.

No abstract

No abstract

Inspired in part by conversations with David Goldfrank, this essay considers aspects of how attitudes toward biblical language contributed to representations of national and religious identity in late medieval and early modern Muscovite Russia. At roughly the same time in history that revived Hebrew and Greek study in Western Europe helped to stimulate the Renaissance and Reformation, bookmen in East Slavia also reconsidered the original languages of sacred writings. Contrary to what is sometimes assumed, such interest was neither unknown nor marginal within Muscovite religious culture. Hebrew-Russian glossaries circulated in leading monasteries from at least the thirteenth century; major infusions of Greek (and other) words and definitions in the sixteenth century transformed these texts into multilingual dictionaries. This mainstream tradition in Russian Orthodoxy can be linked to such important religious figures as Nil Sorskii and Maksim Grek. I argue that by “appropriating” biblical languages and terminology, often via inaccurate translations, Muscovite Russian literati created and defended their distinctive identity vis-à-vis Jews and Greeks, who were considered God’s former chosen peoples. These findings suggest reconsideration of the nature and boundaries of faith in Muscovy in the “age of confessionalism.”