"Epistolar" anthology of old believers and formation peculiarities of Cyrillic compilations at the turn of the 19th century

The article deals with the topical issue of modern archeography i.e. the problem of structural «arrangement» of compilations composed by Priestless Old Believers. The research on how old believers compiled their books has been done since the middle of the 19th century. Despite this fact there are still no comprehensive works that would precisely describe the «organisation» rules of compilations; the alternation of individual chapters as well as their interrelationship within the composition as a whole. An attempt is being made to establish links between the «architectonics» of the compilations and the time they were formed as well as the religious affiliation of their compilers. For this purpose a Cyrillic manuscript with unclear dating and attribution was chosen for analysis from the collection of the National Library of Russia. The article shows that the book comes from the communities of Old Believer pilgrims and appeared in 1910-1917. The book was intended for internal use within the communities of Old Believers and, instead of the doctrine debate with other factions, its aim was to encourage religious enthusiasm in «runaway» Old Believers...