Old believers’ collection of spiritual songs and church books extracts from the village of Troitsa, Kargopol district: composition, structure, ideology

The article introduces a manuscript collection discovered in the village of Troitsa (Kargopol District, Arkhangelsk Region) in 1998. The collection consists of spiritual songs and extracts from various church books: teaching, polemical, and lectionary ones - as well as from books on the history of the Old Belief. The content of the verses and extracts, some peculiarities of the verses’ texts, the character of the extracts’ sources, the place where the book was found, and a number of other features indicate that it belongs to the Old Believers’ literary tradition, specifically to the beguny (runaways) denomination, whose supporters lived in the northern part of the modern Kargopol District until the mid-twentieth century. The poems and extracts are not just polemical and reflect the ideology of the beguny (runaways) denomination, but are also structured in a special way to reflect the history of the schism and substantiate the positions of the beguny (runaways) towards the world outside their communities. The excerpts create a sequence: the reason for the schism - the rejection of Peter the Great’s reforms by the Old Believers - persecution of the Old Believers - the world’s sinking into sin - escape from the world - salvation in repentance, hermitage, and celibacy - arrival of the Second Advent - salvation only of those who repent and renounce worldly predilections - the saved entering the Kingdom of Heaven. The number of the spiritual songs is considerably less than that of the extracts, and while they generally follow the same logic, the songs elaborate it in less detail.