Abstract

This paper focuses on the investigation of the Khlysty, a Russian religious sect that emerged in the second half of the eighteenth century, that happened in the Tobolsk Eparchy from 1760 to 1765. The Khlysty emerged in the European part of Russia and consisted of several religious communities whose identity was based on the idea that the Holy Spirit would descend upon a person who performed specific rituals, such as gatherings and signing spiritual verses. The emergence of Khlysty adherents in the Urals region was connected to the persecution of this religious group in Moscow in the 1730s and 1740s, which resulted in the exile of more than a hundred convicts. The investigation against the Ural Khlysty was initiated by Tobolsk Metropolitan Pavel in 1760 and targeted 57 workers from the Ekaterinburg metal factories, who were arrested for its duration. Nuancing previous interpretations of this case, that focused on the general context of anti-schism policies in the region (Clay) and problem of religious ecstasy in Khlysty rituals (Konovalov), this paper offers a new perspective on role of Khlysty folklore texts in the persecution process. The paper shows that the texts of spiritual verses were transcribed during the interrogations of the Khlysty, but they were not included in the official investigation file preserved at the Tobolsk Spiritual Consistory. Contrary to standard bureaucratic procedure, clerks were prohibited from working with these texts, which Pavel considered godless (“bogoprotivnye”). Instead, Pavel tried to use these transcriptions to further his own goals, namely, to gain support from the Synod for his anti-schismatic campaign in the region. Although his attempts proved unsuccessful - the investigation ended in 1765 without a final decree on the punishment of those arrested - this case study demonstrates that textual inscriptions of oral sectarian culture acted as material artifacts in the eighteenth-century church hierarchy.