The life of Protopop Avvakum, written by himself, and his other works

Protopop Avvakum (1620–1682) - an incredibly bright and peculiar phenomenon in the history of Russian literature. The inspirer of the church split and one of the leading ideologists of the Old Believers for the past fifteen years of his tireless ascetic life spent in an earthen prison in the Zapolyarny city of Pustozersk. Here, in conclusion, he continued the struggle for the “right faith” by literary means, writing more than sixteen works that have become unique monuments of medieval Russian literature.

The main among them is his “Life” - a preaching of the faithful, rebuke to the Nikonians, the history of persecution of faith, the first Russian autobiography and a masterpiece of psychological prose, which was admired by I. S. Turgenev, L. N. Tolstoy, D S. Merezhkovsky, M. Voloshin and other writers and poets. However, the theological writings of Avvakum and his epistolary prose, reflecting the genre and linguistic innovation of the author, have no less artistic virtues.

the preparation of this publication is the merit of an outstanding researcher of ancient Russian literature N. S. Demkova. Equipped with an extensive reference apparatus, the book is addressed to both specialists and the widest circle of readers.