The house of bishop of Velikiy Ustyug and Totma in the early 18th century (historiographical and source study aspects)

The paper provides a brief survey of the historiography of the inventory books of the bishop's houses, compiled following the decree of Peter the Great of January 31, 1701. It emphasizes the need for further identification and study of these sources. All existing information on the House of the Bishops of Veliky Ustyug and Totma in the early 18th century, including scholarly publications, can be traced back to N.I. Suvorov's sketch in the “Pamyatnaya knizhka of the Vologda gubernia for the year 1864”. The study introduces the authentic inventory books of Veliky Ustyug and Totma diocese by stolnik A.M. Veshnyakov for research purposes. The inventory of the Bishops' houses is dated by indirect indicators to the autumn of 1701, while the inventory of their lands in Ustyug and Usolye uezds was compiled between November 26, 1702, and the beginning of February, 1703. This “chronological asynchrony” should be taken into consideration when analyzing the inventory of both archdiocesan houses and monasteries with votchinas. The currently accepted division of the inventory books of the Bishops' houses into “inventory of buildings and property” and “inventory books of votchinas” does not fully reflect the reality of the early 18th century. Given the satisfactory preservation of both inventories, a more complex study is recommended. By increasing the number of the Bishops' houses with full descriptions from 1701-1703, new sources offer a perspective for investigating the extent to which “control over the material resources of the bishop's government” acquired by Peter the Great during the initial stage of the Church reform served as an “instrument of influence on the bishops who disobeyed him”.