IN Russian Federation There is a law according to which the storage period for metrics and civil status records by civil registry offices is about one hundred years, after which all documents are redirected to permanent storage to state archives. To find or find out where the church registers that interest you are kept, you need to determine the year and place of birth of a relative, calculate the type of institution where it should be based on the age of the document, and then send the appropriate requests to territorial organizations. We draw the attention of readers to the fact that most of the metric books have survived to this day, but part of the fund has sunk into oblivion due to numerous fires and other reasons, which certainly makes it difficult to find relatives. Some of the records are not possible to find, since metric books simply no longer exist in our time. We recommend not to despair after the first unsuccessful searches and try to find the storage locations for the second copies of the registers of parishes.
Confessional paintings
A confessional list, also called a spiritual or confessional list, is a church book with a list of parishioners who lived in nearby areas, but among local residents there could also be newcomers. The basis was made up of representatives of the main classes: the clergy (priests and other members of the clergy), the military, civilians, merchants and townspeople, peasants, servants (until the early 60s of the 19th century) and others. IN confessional painting included an annual report on the parish, certified by the clergy of the church, who also kept the registers of parishes.
The state document of the period of the 18th - early 20th centuries, containing information about the confessions of the Orthodox population, was divided into three fundamental parts:
1. “Who attended Confession and Holy Communion.”
This part of the painting indicated a list of family members with a note on their presence or absence during Lent (from March 23 to April 3). “Was” or “was not” the parishioner a participant in the ritual was recorded in the confessional sheet. Thanks to such information from statements today, genealogy researchers can extract additional information, draw certain conclusions about the spirituality of an ancestor from the dynasty and connect family chains.
2. “Who confessed only and did not receive communion, and for what kind of wine-making.”
The second column was extremely rarely present in the confessional list. At the discretion of the priest, those who had not been present at communion for more than a year were included in it. If the period of absence was more than three years and the parishioner did not provide documents explaining his absence, then the clergyman noted this in the confessional sheet and reported such a person to his diocesan authorities, who in turn could classify the person as a schismatic (Old Believers or other people who adhered to an unconventional religion).
3. “Which were not at confession.”
The confessional list (spiritual statement) in the third part usually contained a list of schismatics and the reasons why residents could not come to the ceremonies in Orthodox Church.
The reasons for absences were most often indicated as “absence” or “negligence”, however, in rare cases, researchers from the site livemem.ru identify entries “due to laziness” and similar ones, characterizing a person’s personality accordingly. For Orthodox Christians included in this list, secular authorities could impose a fine “three times their income,” and payment of the fine did not free the person from going to confession.
Example (sample) of confessional painting:
“Confessional paintings of the Starodub diocese of the city of Starodub of the Church of the Ascension of the Lord, 1829.
About the lower ones of every rank found in the parish of this church, with an explanation against each name, who was at Confession and Holy Communion on Lent, who only confessed and did not receive communion, and who did not confess and did not receive communion, and why.
Priest Tikhon Protsenko,
Deacon Ilya Diakovsky,
Sexton Andrei Diakovsky.
Bourgeois and their households
No. 77. Alexey Andreev Karpov, 27 years old, his wife Ekaterina Timofeeva, 25 years old, their sons Semyon, 3 years old, Anton, 2 years old, Peter, 1 year old.
No. 394. Ioann Druzhnikov, 67 years old, his wife Ekaterina, 59 years old, their children Lyubovia, 20 years old, Stepan, 22 years old, Andrey, 36 years old, married, his wife Juliania, 32 years old, children Sofia, 6 years old, Daria, 4 years, Maria, 2 years.”
The first instructions for compiling and maintaining confessional records appeared with a decree of the Moscow Patriarchate of 1697. However, the mass dissemination and introduction of the practice of submitting reporting lists on the conscientiousness of parishioners regarding church rituals came a little later, closer to the beginning of the 20s of the 18th century. In 1722 it was published decree of the Synod on confessional paintings, obliging residents, starting from the age of seven, to confess every year, if not during Lent, then at least on Petrov (June 15 - July 12), Assumption (August 14 - August 27) or Nativity (November 28 - January 6) fasts .
The first versions of spiritual paintings were designed in the form of notebooks with manually drawn tables for data entry. Printed versions of confessional statements began to appear only mid-19th centuries, while the content has remained virtually unchanged throughout the existence of the document. Strict control of the higher spiritual government disciplined the clergy, who tried to fill out the books responsibly, because otherwise they were threatened with punishment, up to and including defrocking. The state's official refusal to keep confessional lists occurred after the 1917 revolution, but individual priests continued to keep lists for several subsequent years.
Example (sample) of a confessional statement:
“Confessional paintings of the Saratov diocese of the city of Sable of the Church of the Nativity of the Virgin, 1863.
About the lower-ranked people of every rank found in the parish of this church, with an explanation against each name, who was at Confession and Holy Communion on Lent, who only confessed and did not receive communion, and who did not confess and did not receive communion, and why.
Priest John of Transfiguration,
Deacon Vasily Lykov,
Sexton Andrey Lykov.
Bourgeois and their households
No. 5. Paraskeva Markovna Karpikha, 57 years old, her daughter Ekaterina, 16 years old.
No. 17. Maria Ivanovna Karpova, 41 years old, her son Kirill, 20 years old.
No. 58. Vasily Mikhailovich Karpin, 44 years old, his wife Evdokia Kornilievna, 38 years old, their children Lavrenty, 18 years old, Evdokia, 11 years old.
No. 149. Ivan Timofeevich Karpin, 51 years old, his wife Matrona Onisyevna, 37 years old, their children Semyon, 12 years old, Peter, 3 years old, Timofey, 2 years old, Maria, 6 years old.”
In the absence of metric books, confessional paintings had legal force and were used in resolving marriage and land conflicts. The rector of the church gave the immigrants a certificate of confession, without which it was impossible to perform the wedding ceremony in the new place. As for the description, the confessional book is similar to other church documents. The first was indicated serial number family or courtyard, then there was a direct list of parishioners, where male representatives were initially entered, and only after that the wife or other relative of the father of the family could be recorded. The next columns of the confessional list included age, class or ownership. Sometimes it was indicated directly on this list locality, if the parish included several villages. Presence or absence at confession was immediately noted. All sheets had to be signed by each member of the clergy, but since this instruction was advisory in nature, in practice certification took place only on the final pages of the blocks.
At the end of the confessional statement there were statistical general information about the parish in the form of a table divided into estates.
The form of writing was relatively free, and confessional paintings even from neighboring counties could differ greatly in design and alternation of entries, for which the researcher must be mentally prepared in advance. For the one who is looking, the location of the surnames, which, as a rule, came at the beginning, is of primary importance, which makes it possible to more or less quickly find the desired parishioner (as far as possible, examining the huge volumes, an example of which is shown in the photograph in the Appendix). However, the genealogist search engine must keep in mind that at the end of the 20s of the 20th century, during the existence of the RSFSR, confessional statements, starting from 1865 and moving to our time, were recognized as having no historical value, and therefore most funds were destroyed.
Where to look for confessional statements of church parishioners
Information contained in confessional registers of the population Russian Empire, is of particular value also because these documents recorded the residents’ belonging to a certain property, their social status, age, place of residence, family composition, and rarely occupation.
Confessional paintings belong to the funds of ecclesiastical consistories and boards, as well as diocesan administrations. Currently, confessional statements are stored in the state archives of a certain region. It would be worth noting that in rare cases, paintings of confession and communion can be found in the archives of individual churches. To find a specific case where a spiritual painting is fixed, the researcher needs to know the approximate place and time of residence of the person in question. Having such initial data, it is already possible to conduct a total or “pointed” search for a relative by dates for his period of life. It must be borne in mind that priests were obliged to keep confessional statements in two identical copies, one of which was sent for safekeeping to the spiritual consistory, often combined with the work of neighboring parishes, and the neighborhood was determined depending on territorial division one region or another. The second copy of the confessional painting remained in the funds of the church itself.
Genealogical researchers, due to inexperience, may end their search after learning from a government agency that the original book has not survived to this day. A competent specialist must also check the presence of a confessional painting in a specific church, the parishioners of which were the individuals in question. Since in the 19th century there was special control spirituality of the population of the Russian Empire, business as usual there was an additional non-church record of communion and confession of residents (mostly peasants). While searching, we meet various kinds orders and instructions from secular superiors, which state that their subordinates are required to present a certificate from the rector of the church about attending confession and Holy Communion. Based on such documents, valuable information about relatives can also be obtained, along with confessional statements, metric books, revision tales and other major genealogical sources. Many enthusiasts publish the materials they find on the Internet, you can conduct a superficial search and see what is on the Web.
In different churches, confessional paintings were called confessional sheets, or spiritual books.
Revision tales
Revision tales, skasks, as well as similar sources on genealogy, such as parish books and confessional paintings, are indispensable search tools that help genealogy researchers. Thanks to skill use revision lists correctly When combined with other documents, archivists or those studying the history of their dynasty can establish chains of kinship between generations. Experts and recognized professionals recommend using a set of measures, rather than just one source, because with this approach the effectiveness will be significantly higher. Information obtained from a study of population audits is the most valuable data both for specific families and for Russia as a whole.
On November 26, 1718, by decree of Peter I, an audit-census of the population was started (more early period original censuses were also carried out, but in a much simplified form). The reason for the introduction of revision lists was the need to determine “how many, where, in what volost, village and hamlet of peasants, peasants, householders and business people, everyone from the oldest to the smallest, with their years.” This decree marks the transition of Russian taxation from household taxation to per capita taxation, where the “auditing soul” was a male person. Only during later population censuses were “female souls” entered into the census tales. Knowing the nuances, archive users will not waste time searching for something that cannot be found in principle.
From 1718 to 1858, 10 revisions were carried out in the Russian Empire:
1: 1718–1727 (female gender was not taken into account);
2: 1743–1747 (excluding “female souls”);
3: 1761–1767;
4: 1781–1782;
5: 1794–1795;
6: 1811 (female gender not included);
10: 1857–1858
Census audit reports could be compiled over a period of five or more years. On some resources you can find the designation either several years or one, and if a specific year is assigned to the audit-census stage, such a record means that it was during this period of time that the most units of per capita taxation were taken into account. The result of the population audit was compiled general time sheets and salary books, where the collected data was presented in a format convenient for researchers and statisticians.
Where is information about population audits stored?
The process of searching for ancestors through the study of historical documents is quite complicated even for specialists with specialized education, and for novice researchers it is also made more difficult by a lack of experience. Define, where to find revision tales, not everyone can do it, since a comparison of administrative divisions is also required modern Russia and the territory of the Russian Empire.
Before you find out where to look for revision tales, you should know which population groups were subject to taxation, and also whether representatives of the desired dynasty belonged to them. This is necessary primarily in order not to conduct a meaningless search. For example, if you are looking for the father of your great-grandfather - a retired soldier, then there is no point in spending time analyzing revision tales due to the fact that the composition active army and the navy, along with retirees, did not participate in the audits. During the censuses of the 18th and 19th centuries, more than a hundred names were listed, conventionally indicating the division of the population. Some class groups were not subject to taxes and were exempted from registration in the audit lists at certain stages of the census:
1) hereditary and personal nobles;
2) civil servants;
3) representatives of the clergy and their children;
4) honorary citizens;
5) teachers at home;
6) holders of academic, scientific and medical degrees;
7) merchants of the 1st guild;
8) respected workers and masters of state-owned factories.
However, it is worth taking into account that the audits were extended not only to peasants (both domestic and privately owned), but also to single-lords, townspeople, all kinds of rural inhabitants, as well as other tax-paying classes. The revision tales had to take into account persons who “returned to the tax lists,” for example, monks who had lost their ranks. It is noteworthy that the first audit was carried out by the guards of Peter I, who revealed the concealment by the landowners of a million peasants, who were soon taken out of serfdom by the brilliant emperor and transferred to a new class - state, state-owned, personally free peasants. The most presumptuous thieves and landowners were mercilessly executed, and the rest were fined. Subsequently, audits of the population census were carried out by the Military and Revision Boards, but things went very slowly. The latest audits were carried out by officials of provinces and districts, landowners, elders, and state chambers. Officials, trying to please their superiors and gain their favor, meticulously checked the registry books and compared the data from them with the audit tales, while looking for everything hidden.
In turn, there were officials who extorted bribes so that “ dead souls", increasing taxes. It would be fair to note that the landowners themselves often provoked government officials to receive bribes for hiding a certain number of peasants in audit tales. At all times, in all states without exception and under any rulers, there was a layer of the population who wanted to avoid taxes, so this state of affairs in those times does not seem special. History knows cases when entire villages went into hiding, so the absence of records about representatives of the clan under study in the revision tales of any village or district does not 100 percent prove the absence of dynasty links in this place.
When talking about storage locations for notebooks with audit records, we recommend taking into account the region in which the search is taking place. As a rule, revision tales of 1781–1858 are stored in the federal archives. specific subject Russian Federation. Tales from the first three revisions can be found by visiting RGADA (Russian State Archive of Ancient Acts). In rare cases, copies of revision lists can be found in the funds of dumas, councils, district treasuries, petty bourgeois elders, vicegerent boards, as well as RGIA (Russian State historical archive). Keep in mind that in order to determine the location of documents, it is necessary to check with maps or with the employees of the institution which province or district the village belonged to at the time the person in question lived there. We draw the attention of researchers to the fact that the institution has the right not to even issue audit reports for review due to their poor condition.
Since the work on inventories (entering population revisions into lists indicating that the book is in this archive) documents, due to their colossal volumes, continue to this day; information about the existence of some fairy tales is unknown even to department employees. Take into account the information received from this part of the article, and the search for genealogical sources will be for you interesting hobby, and not a burdensome pastime.
Approximately until mid-18th century centuries, there was no clear form for compiling audit reports, and those responsible for the census entered data on the population only guided by the recommendations of the authorities, and not strictly dependent on them. Starting from the third revision, a printed form was introduced, before the appearance of which the form of the lists was drawn manually. From the 3rd to the 7th revision, the table was replenished with new columns, and only since 1815 the structure of the revision tale takes on its final form. The form contained the following information: the date of submission of the tale, the location of the population census, down to the indication of the village or hamlet. The family number, its composition before and during the audit, the age of each individual person, and more were also indicated. In the final part of the audit tale, the final figures were calculated and the signature of the person who was responsible for the census in the administrative unit was signed.
A complicating factor when reading the lists is the illegible handwriting of the persons filling out (as you can see by looking at the photo in the Appendix), which in most cases is difficult to read. Some records are completely impossible to make out even with a magnifying glass and a couple of decades of experience in the field of genealogy. However, the importance of the recorded data forces researchers to sit over revision tales for hours and days, since by reading the text one can find out class affiliation, occupation, property status, place of service and other key information about the sought relatives from the past. Regarding the arrangement of elements in the table, it would be useful to note that entries in the notebook were made as follows: on the left side of the audit tale, a list of male persons in each family was entered by name, age was indicated, and it was also indicated “how many such persons were in the family during the previous audit , how many people dropped out, when exactly and for what reason, and how many are present.” On right side The audit list included “female souls” indicating their age.
“Revision tale of the Assumption province of Staroustinsky district of the city of Novopetrovsk under the landowner Alexei Davydov for 1817.
No. 14. Ioann Vasilyev Drunichev, peasant, 59 years old, transferred from the village of Kryuchkino in 1804.
John Drunichev's sons:
Peter, 34 years old;
Dmitry, 31 years old.
Ioann Drunichev's grandson, son of Peter Ioannov:
Mikhail, 6 years old.
Ioanna Drunicheva wife Agripina Yakovleva, 57 years old;
Petra Ioannova, wife of Paraskev Fedotov, 29 years old;
His daughter, Tatyana, is 4 years old.”
As you can see, in the given example of a revision tale, the degree of relationship is indicated. Having studied the record, you can build a family tree for several generations deep into the dynasty and obtain initial data to continue the search for ancestors. Analyzing the age and place of residence of a particular person will help determine genealogical sources for the next stage of pedigree research, becoming familiar with the family history.
Census
Censuses - a continuous mass census of the population according to a specific program, is one of the oldest methods of its statistical study.
Confessional statements or paintings, being some kind of diptychs or lists of penitents of ancient christian church, in my own way historical beginning in the Russian Church they go back to 1718, when by a personal decree of Peter I (Feb. 17) priests were ordered to annually submit a “report of those who have not confessed” in order to collect a fine from them (Poln. Sobr. Zak. No. 3169); the same order was confirmed in the decree of February 28. 1722, which prescribed: “in all dioceses, in all city and district parishes, the priest should make all kinds of books for his parishioners, male and female, writing in them exactly Orthodox and schismatics, meaning clearly by house, in which books under the writing of each house from now on, leave a place to record those who arrived in that house, and sign those who left who went where in those books exactly.” The initial form of these statements was the simplest; Each church clergy was obliged to keep three personal lists: the 1st included all parishioners who were at confession, the 2nd - those who were not, and the 3rd - schismatics. These lists were presented by the parish priests to the priestly elders, customers or tithes, and these latter to the bishops' houses, from where only general extracts from the lists were sent to the Holy Synod, with testimony total number those who were and were not at confession for each diocese. But in 1737, at a conference between the Senate and the Synod, more complex shape these lists of 49 columns with 22 headings, and by decree of April 16. of the same year, it was commanded: “in all dioceses, the city and district priests of all parish churches, each with his own clergy, compose for their parishioners every rite of the male and female sex, from the elderly to the real baby, named, by rank and house, faithful with indications for each age from birth, painting." The current form of confession sheets or lists was approved by the Holy Synod on October 15. 1846 and at the same time it was put into use by churches. According to the current Charter of the spiritual consistory (Article 16), confessional records must be kept in all parish churches in two copies, of which one, through the dean, is annually submitted to the consistory by October 1st, where a special list is drawn up, presented to the Synod when the bishop reports on the state of the diocese. Confessional paintings have a very important both in the church and in civil relations. So, the event of marriage, in case of doubt, is certified, among other things, by a certificate with confessional signatures (Constitutional Spiritual Cons. Articles 260, 266 and Law. Civil. Article 35 Consolidated Law. Vol. X, Part 1 , ed. 1900); for the inability to obtain a metric certificate, due to lack of a meter. books, or if the circumstances that are recorded in them are dubious, confessional signatures may be accepted as proof of birth from a legal marriage (Constitution of Spiritual Cons. Art. 265; Constitution of Civil Court. Art. 1356); in case of doubt about the legal age of the spouses, certificates are also made with confessional signatures (Instrument. pious art. 18, note 2). Due to this significance of the application. The dean is entrusted with the duty of overseeing the timely and correct compilation of them by the parish priests (ibid., Art. 40) and, in particular, ensuring that the latter, with special care, show as spouses such persons who, although they enter permanent residence in their parishes , but they were not married, and they do not provide any evidence to confirm their marriage (ibid., Art. 42). For faulty maintenance of paintings, clergy and clerics are punished with a reprimand or a monetary penalty, and for obvious negligence or ill-intention in the conduct of this matter, priests can be subject to removal from their place and relegated to clerics (Ust. Spiritual Cons. Articles 192 and 193).
* Nikolai Fedorovich Markov,
Candidate Candidate rights St. Petersburg university,
Assistant Manager of the Office of the Holy Synod.
Text source: Orthodox theological encyclopedia. Volume 5, column. 1119. Petrograd edition. Supplement to the spiritual magazine "Wanderer" for 1904. Modern spelling.
Confessional painting (Confessional sheet, Spiritual painting, Lenten painting)- an annual reporting document compiled for each parish of the Orthodox Church in the Russian Empire in the 18th - early 20th centuries. and representing a family list of all people living on its territory (with the exception of infants), indicating for each person whether he was this year during Great Lent (on the Holy Great Pentecost), or during the other three fasts, at confession and did you receive communion from your priest, and if not, for what reason (for example, due to childhood).
One copy of the painting remained in storage in the church, the other was sent to the consistory, where, as a rule, it was filed along with reports on neighboring parishes (for example, parishes of the same spiritual board). Currently, confessional paintings are stored in regional archives in the funds of spiritual consistories, spiritual boards, diocesan administrations, and individual churches. In the RGIA - in the funds “Spiritual government under the protopresbyter of the military and maritime clergy Synod" and "Office of the Head of the Court Clergy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs".
Since the confessional lists recorded social status, ownership (for example, for peasants and courtyard people), place of residence, age, and family composition of parishioners, these documents, along with metric books, are one of the most important sources in genealogical research. The value of confessional paintings is especially significant in those territories in which population censuses were carried out irregularly (for example, Left Bank Ukraine), or their materials have not survived to this day.
From history
The oldest instructions for drawing up confessional lists were adopted by His Holiness Patriarch Adrian of Moscow on December 26, 1697. Its appearance was associated with the fight against the Old Believers and the identification of schismatics. The confessional paintings were supposed to consist of three lists. The first listed parishioners who went to confession, the second listed those who did not go to confession, and the third listed schismatics. However, this reporting was not put into practice at that time. In 1716, Peter I issued a decree “On going to confession every day, on a fine for failure to comply with this rule, and on the provision of double salary for schismatics”; the same decree ordered confessors to submit to the secular authorities personalized lists of those who had not confessed. However, this decree continued not to be implemented for the first years; Only in 1718 did the first murals begin to be drawn up. On March 7, 1722, the Synod adopted a decree that obligated all parishioners “to attend confession and communion, starting from the age of 7, with their priest.” Missing more than a year in their parish they could confess and receive communion from another clergyman, but after that they had to present a certificate about this to the church at their place of residence. In the same year, 1722, on July 16, a joint Senate and Synod order established the mandatory conduct of confessional registrations. The final form of confessional paintings, which existed almost unchanged until their abolition, was determined by a decree of Empress Anna Ioannovna in 1737. The need for confessional registration was abolished only in 1917. However, in individual parishes they continued to be compiled for some time after. According to the bulletin of the Central Archive of the RSFSR dated May 25, 1927, all confessional paintings, starting from 1865 and later, were subject to destruction in the archives as having no historical value (Data from Wikipedia)
Confessional painting (Confessional statement, Spiritual painting, Lenten painting) - an annual reporting document compiled for each parish of the Orthodox Church in the Russian Empire in the 18th - early 20th centuries. and representing a family list of all parishioners living on its territory (as a rule, with the exception of infants under 1 year of age), indicating for each person whether he was this year during Lent (on the Holy Great Pentecost), or during the other three fasts, at confession and whether he received communion from his priest, and if not, then for what reason (for example, due to childhood).
One copy of the painting remained in storage in the church, the other was sent to the consistory, where, as a rule, it was filed along with reports on neighboring parishes (for example, parishes of the same spiritual board). Currently, confessional paintings are stored in regional archives in the funds of spiritual consistories, spiritual boards, diocesan administrations, and individual churches. In the RGIA - in the funds “Spiritual Board under the Protopresbyter of the Military and Naval Clergy of the Synod” and “Office of the Head of the Court Clergy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs”.
Since the confessional lists recorded social status, ownership (for example, for peasants and courtyard people), place of residence, age, family composition of parishioners, these documents, along with metric books, are one of the most important sources in genealogical research. The value of confessional paintings is especially significant in those territories in which population censuses were carried out irregularly (for example, Left Bank Ukraine), or their materials have not survived to this day.
Story
The oldest instructions for drawing up confessional lists were adopted by His Holiness Patriarch Adrian of Moscow on December 26, 1697. Its appearance was associated with the fight against the Old Believers and the identification of schismatics. The confessional paintings were supposed to consist of three lists. The first listed parishioners who went to confession, the second listed those who did not go to confession, and the third listed schismatics. However, this reporting was not put into practice at that time. In 1716, Peter I issued a decree “On going to confession every day, on a fine for failure to comply with this rule, and on the provision of double salary for schismatics”; the same decree ordered confessors to submit to the secular authorities personalized lists of those who had not confessed. However, this decree continued not to be implemented for the first years; Only in 1718 did the first murals begin to be drawn up. On March 7, 1722, the Synod adopted a decree that obligated all parishioners “to attend confession and communion, starting from the age of 7, with their priest.” Those absent from their parish for more than a year could confess and receive communion from another clergyman, but after that they had to present a certificate about this to the church at their place of residence. In the same year, 1722, on July 16, a joint Senate and Synod order established the mandatory conduct of confessional registrations. The final form of confessional paintings, which existed virtually unchanged until their abolition, was determined by a decree of Empress Anna Ioannovna in 1737. The need for confessional registration was abolished only in 1917. However, in individual parishes they continued to be compiled for some time after. According to the bulletin of the Central Archive of the RSFSR dated May 25, 1927, all confessional paintings, starting from 1865 and later, were subject to destruction in the archives as having no historical value.
Contents of confessional paintings
The content, reliability, and completeness of the descriptions in the confessional paintings varied and depended on several reasons - on the year the document was written, on the area in which the parish was located, on the diligence of the copyist, on the presence of a priest or priest in the parish incoming. Usually the text of the painting was rewritten from last year’s document with changes made to it past period, correcting old errors and creating new errors. In some cases, the order of description and texts of two paintings adjacent by year are not very similar to each other, which may indicate some kind of local church census.
At the beginning of the document there was a title with approximately the following content.
"Painting[the name of the diocese, the name of the spiritual government, could be mentioned secular administrative division(province, district)] villages[name of village, exhibition, churchyard, etc.] churches[church name] priest[priest's first name and last name] from the clerics found at this church in the parish of the following ranks of people with a statement against each name about their existence in the Holy and Great Pentecost, as well as in other fasts, at confession and holy communion for this[the year was written in numbers] year."
In columns , , , the serial number of the yard (house, family), male person and female person was recorded, respectively.
In columns and - the number of years of a male or female person (as a rule, age was indicated approximately).
The column contained a list of parishioners. The heading of this column usually recorded the social group to which the people listed in it on this page belonged: spiritual and their household(usually the church clergyman himself was first on the lists), military and their families, nobles and their households, courtyards and their households, peasants and their households(or just - villagers) and so on. Sometimes the name of the village where the specified parishioners lived was also given here (usually the names of the villages were written directly on the list). If a settlement belonged to several owners (landowners), then the painting contained descriptions of it for each owner separately, and these descriptions were not necessarily located next to each other. In some cases, at the end of the painting there could also be an addition to the village with those residents who, for some reason, were not mentioned in the main text. Sometimes at the end of the confessionals there was a list of church clerks of neighboring parishes, for whom the local priest was the confessor.
In total, in the confessional lists, in addition to schismatics, from 1713 to 1842, seven social groups were officially divided, from 1843 to 1860 - six, starting from 1861 - five: spiritual, military, civil, urban camps and peasants.
In villages, the description went by courtyards (houses, families). First, its head was recorded with the surname (if any), first name, patronymic; then his wife with her name and patronymic (if the census taker did not forget to indicate it), or widowhood was noted; after - their children with names, their spouses and children; more distant relatives: nephews, neighbors, neighbors, and so on.
And the columns were intended to mark confession and the passing of the sacrament. In some confessionals, instead of three columns, they made do with two, or even just one. So, in front of the parishioner who confessed and received communion, they wrote was, was, but more often they combined some group with a bracket and noted everyone was there. More detailed records can be found in the names of church clergy. Here they sometimes mentioned how many times a year a priest, for example, confessed and received communion, and occasionally with whom and where. Opposite the unconfessed and non-communion persons, a dash was placed in this column, and the reason was indicated in the column: due to childhood, due to negligence, for the Old Believers and so on. The column was used for its intended purpose extremely rarely, and most often as free space for out-of-place text in .
The priest of the church put his signature (signature) on the front sheets of the confessional, for example: (l.1) The priest (l.4) […] had a hand in this (l.2) spiritual (l.3) painting (l.3). Other members of the church clergy usually did not sign their names. In addition to the priest, the sheets of painting may also contain a seal from a representative of the spiritual government.
After this table there was a second one - a summary statement of receipts or report card. It gave a general summary: how many households, how many souls of this or that social group, male and female in the parish.
At the end of the document there was a certification that everything was written in it correctly, without concealment or additions, and for lies revealed in the event that the compilers were ready to bear responsibility in the form of fines. Afterwards, there were signatures (staples) of all male church clergy.
If schismatics lived on the territory of the parish, then after the final summary a list of them was given.
Non-church accounting of confessions and communions
Control over the annual confession and communion of the population lay not only with the priests, but also with some secular leaders. For example, in the instructions to Sotsky dated December 19, 1874, such control was prescribed for peasants. As an example of this, we can cite the following order for the postal department.
"Order.
For the Lyubynsky postal and telegraph district. No. 30. March 10, 1892.
Clerk /Signature./"
I propose to the Heads of the Institutions to order and ensure that on the coming Lent, all the ranks under their jurisdiction will have confession and Holy Communion. Sacraments, upon fulfillment of which provide me with lists of employees certified by the relevant Rectors of the parishes.
ID of the District Head/Signature./
When ordering, a form was also presented list of persons who attended confession and St. communion of such and such institution, somewhat different from the standard form of church confessional paintings.
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Notes
Literature
- Pogodaeva I. A.
Excerpt characterizing the Confessional painting
Pursued by a hundred thousand French army under the command of Bonaparte, met by hostile inhabitants, no longer trusting their allies, experiencing a lack of food and forced to act outside all foreseeable conditions of war, the Russian army of thirty-five thousand, under the command of Kutuzov, hastily retreated down the Danube, stopping where it was overtaken by the enemy, and fighting back with rearguard actions, only as much as was necessary in order to retreat without losing weight. There were cases at Lambach, Amsteten and Melk; but, despite the courage and fortitude, recognized by the enemy himself, with whom the Russians fought, the consequence of these affairs was only an even faster retreat. The Austrian troops, having escaped capture at Ulm and joined Kutuzov at Braunau, now separated from the Russian army, and Kutuzov was left only to his weak, exhausted forces. It was impossible to even think about defending Vienna any longer. Instead of an offensive, deeply thought-out, according to the laws new science- a strategy, a war, the plan of which was transferred to Kutuzov when he was in Vienna as an Austrian gofkriegsrat, the only, almost unattainable goal that now seemed to Kutuzov was to, without destroying the army like Mack at Ulm, unite with the troops coming from Russia.On October 28, Kutuzov and his army crossed to the left bank of the Danube and stopped for the first time, putting the Danube between themselves and the main forces of the French. On the 30th he attacked Mortier’s division located on the left bank of the Danube and defeated it. In this case, trophies were taken for the first time: a banner, guns and two enemy generals. For the first time after a two-week retreat, the Russian troops stopped and, after a struggle, not only held the battlefield, but drove out the French. Despite the fact that the troops were stripped, exhausted, weakened by one third, backward, wounded, killed and sick; despite the fact that the sick and wounded were left on the other side of the Danube with a letter from Kutuzov, entrusting them to the philanthropy of the enemy; despite the fact that the large hospitals and houses in Krems, converted into infirmaries, could no longer accommodate all the sick and wounded, despite all this, the stop at Krems and the victory over Mortier significantly raised the morale of the troops. Throughout the entire army and in the main quarters, the most joyful, although unfair, rumors were circulating about the imaginary approach of columns from Russia, about some kind of victory won by the Austrians, and about the retreat of the frightened Bonaparte.
Prince Andrei was during the battle with the Austrian general Schmitt, who was killed in this case. A horse was wounded under him, and he himself was slightly grazed in the arm by a bullet. As a sign of the special favor of the commander-in-chief, he was sent with news of this victory to the Austrian court, which was no longer in Vienna, which was threatened French troops, and in Brünn. On the night of the battle, excited, but not tired (despite his weak-looking build, Prince Andrei could endure physical fatigue much better than the best strong people), having arrived on horseback with a report from Dokhturov in Krems to Kutuzov, Prince Andrei was sent by courier to Brunn that same night. Sending by courier, in addition to rewards, meant an important step towards promotion.
The night was dark and starry; the road turned black between the white snow that had fallen the day before, on the day of the battle. Either going over the impressions of the past battle, then joyfully imagining the impression that he would make with the news of victory, remembering the farewell of the commander-in-chief and comrades, Prince Andrei galloped in the mail chaise, experiencing the feeling of a man who had waited for a long time and had finally achieved the beginning of the desired happiness. As soon as he closed his eyes, the firing of rifles and cannons was heard in his ears, which merged with the sound of wheels and the impression of victory. Then he began to imagine that the Russians were fleeing, that he himself had been killed; but he quickly woke up, with happiness as if he learned again that none of this had happened, and that, on the contrary, the French had fled. He again remembered all the details of the victory, his calm courage during the battle and, having calmed down, dozed off... After the dark starry night It was a bright, cheerful morning. The snow melted in the sun, the horses galloped quickly, and new and varied forests, fields, and villages passed indifferently to the right and left.
At one of the stations he overtook a convoy of Russian wounded. The Russian officer driving the transport, lounging on the front cart, shouted something, cursing the soldier with rude words. In the long German vans, six or more pale, bandaged and dirty wounded were shaking along the rocky road. Some of them spoke (he heard Russian dialect), others ate bread, the heaviest ones silently, with meek and painful childish sympathy, looked at the courier galloping past them.
Prince Andrei ordered to stop and asked the soldier in what case they were wounded. “The day before yesterday on the Danube,” answered the soldier. Prince Andrei took out his wallet and gave the soldier three gold coins.
“For everyone,” he added, turning to the approaching officer. “Get well, guys,” he addressed the soldiers, “there’s still a lot to do.”
- What, Mr. Adjutant, what news? – the officer asked, apparently wanting to talk.
- Good! “Forward,” he shouted to the driver and galloped on.
It was already completely dark when Prince Andrey entered Brunn and saw himself surrounded tall buildings, lights of shops, windows of houses and lanterns, beautiful carriages rustling along the pavement and all that atmosphere of a big busy city, which is always so attractive to a military man after the camp. Prince Andrey, despite driving fast and sleepless night Approaching the palace, I felt even more animated than the day before. Only the eyes sparkled with a feverish brilliance, and thoughts changed with extreme speed and clarity. All the details of the battle were vividly presented to him again, no longer vaguely, but definitely, in concise presentation, which he did in his imagination to Emperor Franz. He vividly imagined random questions that could be asked of him, and the answers that he would make to them. He believed that he would immediately be presented to the emperor. But at the large entrance of the palace an official ran out to him and, recognizing him as a courier, escorted him to another entrance.
- From the corridor to the right; there, Euer Hochgeboren, [Your Highness,] you will find the adjutant on duty,” the official told him. - He takes you to the Minister of War.
The adjutant on duty in the wing, who met Prince Andrei, asked him to wait and went to the Minister of War. Five minutes later, the aide-de-camp returned and, bending especially politely and letting Prince Andrei go ahead of him, led him through the corridor into the office where the Minister of War was working. The aide-de-camp, with his exquisite politeness, seemed to want to protect himself from the Russian adjutant's attempts at familiarity. Prince Andrei's joyful feeling weakened significantly when he approached the door of the War Minister's office. He felt insulted, and the feeling of insult transformed at that very moment, imperceptibly for him, into a feeling of contempt, based on nothing. His resourceful mind at the same moment suggested to him the point of view from which he had the right to despise both the adjutant and the minister of war. “They must find it very easy to win victories without smelling gunpowder!” he thought. His eyes narrowed contemptuously; He entered the office of the Minister of War especially slowly. This feeling intensified even more when he saw the Minister of War sitting over a large table and for the first two minutes did not pay attention to the newcomer. The Minister of War lowered his bald head with gray temples between two wax candles and read, marking with a pencil, the papers. He finished reading without raising his head, when the door opened and footsteps were heard.
“Take this and hand it over,” the Minister of War said to his adjutant, handing over the papers and not yet paying attention to the courier.
Prince Andrei felt that either of all the affairs that occupied the Minister of War, the actions of Kutuzov’s army could least of all interest him, or it was necessary to let the Russian courier feel this. “But I don’t care at all,” he thought. The Minister of War moved the rest of the papers, aligned their edges with the edges and raised his head. He had a smart and characteristic head. But at the same moment as he turned to Prince Andrei, the intelligent and firm expression on the face of the Minister of War, apparently habitually and consciously changed: the stupid, feigned, not hiding his pretense, smile of a man who receives many petitioners one after another stopped on his face .
– From General Field Marshal Kutuzov? – he asked. - Good news, I hope? Was there a collision with Mortier? Victory? It's time!
He took the dispatch, which was addressed to him, and began to read it with a sad expression.
- Oh, my God! My God! Shmit! - he said in German. - What a misfortune, what a misfortune!
Having run through the dispatch, he put it on the table and looked at Prince Andrei, apparently thinking about something.
- Oh, what a misfortune! The matter, you say, is decisive? Mortier was not taken, however. (He thought.) I am very glad that you brought good news, although the death of Shmit is an expensive price to pay for victory. His Majesty will probably wish to see you, but not today. Thank you, rest. Tomorrow be on the way out after the parade. However, I'll let you know.
The stupid smile that had disappeared during the conversation reappeared on the face of the Minister of War.
- Goodbye, thank you very much. The Emperor will probably wish to see you,” he repeated and bowed his head.
When Prince Andrei left the palace, he felt that all the interest and happiness brought to him by the victory had now been abandoned by him and transferred to the indifferent hands of the Minister of War and the courteous adjutant. His whole mindset instantly changed: the battle seemed to him like an old, distant memory.
Prince Andrei stayed in Brünn with his friend, the Russian diplomat Bilibin.
“Ah, dear prince, there is no nicer guest,” said Bilibin, going out to meet Prince Andrei. - Franz, the prince’s things are in my bedroom! - he turned to the servant who was seeing Bolkonsky off. - What, a harbinger of victory? Wonderful. And I’m sitting sick, as you can see.
Prince Andrei, having washed and dressed, went out to the diplomat’s luxurious office and sat down to the prepared dinner. Bilibin calmly sat down by the fireplace.
Prince Andrei, not only after his journey, but also after the entire campaign, during which he was deprived of all the comforts of purity and grace of life, experienced a pleasant feeling of relaxation among those luxurious living conditions to which he had become accustomed since childhood. In addition, after the Austrian reception, he was pleased to talk, at least not in Russian (they spoke French), but with a Russian person who, he assumed, shared the general Russian disgust (now especially vividly felt) for the Austrians.
Bilibin was a man of about thirty-five, single, in the same company as Prince Andrei. They knew each other back in St. Petersburg, but they became even closer on Prince Andrei’s last visit to Vienna together with Kutuzov. Just as Prince Andrei was a young man who promised to go far in the military field, so, and even more, did Bilibin promise in the diplomatic field. He was still a young man, but no longer a young diplomat, since he began serving at the age of sixteen, was in Paris, in Copenhagen, and now occupied a rather significant position in Vienna. Both the Chancellor and our envoy in Vienna knew him and valued him. He wasn't one of those people large quantity diplomats who are required to have only negative advantages, do not do famous things and speak French in order to be very good diplomats; he was one of those diplomats who love and know how to work, and, despite his laziness, he sometimes spent the night at his desk. He worked equally well, no matter what the nature of the work was. He was not interested in the question “why?”, but in the question “how?”. What the diplomatic matter was, he didn’t care; but to draw up a circular, memorandum or report skillfully, accurately and gracefully - he found great pleasure in this. Bilibin's merits were valued, except written works, also by his art of addressing and speaking in higher spheres.
The state document of the period of the 18th - early 20th centuries, containing information about the confessions of the Orthodox population, was divided into 3 fundamental parts:
1) “Who attended Confession and Holy Communion.”
This part of the painting indicated a list of family members with a note on their presence or absence during Lent (from March 23 to April 3). The confession sheet recorded whether the parishioner was or was not a participant in the ceremony. Thanks to such information from the statements, today pedigree researchers can obtain additional information, draw certain conclusions about the spirituality of an ancestor from the dynasty and connect family chains.
2) “Who confessed only and did not receive communion, and for what kind of wine-making?”
The second column was extremely rarely present in the confessional list. At the discretion of the priest, those who had not been present at communion for more than a year were included in it. If the missed time was more than three years and the parishioner did not provide documents explaining his absence, then the clergyman noted this in the confessional sheet and reported such a person to his diocesan authorities, who in turn could classify the person as a schismatic (Old Believers or other people who adhered to a non-traditional religion).
3) “Which were not at confession.”
The confessional list (spiritual statement) in the third part usually contained a list of schismatics and the reasons why residents could not come to the rites in the Orthodox Church. The reasons for absences were most often indicated as “absence” or “due to negligence”, however, in rare cases, site researchers identify entries “due to laziness” and similar ones, characterizing a person’s personality in an appropriate way. The secular authorities could impose a fine on Orthodox Christians included in this list “three times their income,” and payment of the fine did not exempt the person from turning to Confession.
Contents of the confessional, examples of records
We thoroughly study what the documents consist of and add new items in order to approach work with confessional statements and other materials as competently as possible. We also expand our own horizons and knowledge historical facts, similar to those described in this part of the article “Content of the confessional painting”. Our principled personal position allows us to share our accumulated experience with site visitors free of charge and prepare on a commercial basis truly interesting Pedigrees (judging by the reviews of those who applied for consultations), written on the basis of thorough documentary research. We will tell you more about the contents of confessional documents below; before that, we suggest that you familiarize yourself with examples of documents for better performance the essence of the article, plunging into history.
Example (sample) of confessional painting:
"Confessional paintings of the Starodub diocese of the city of Starodub of the Church of the Ascension of the Lord, 1829.
Priest Tikhon Protsenko,
Deacon Ilya Diakovsky,
Sexton Andrei Diakovsky.
Bourgeois and their households
No. 77. Alexey Andreev Karpov, 27 years old, his wife Ekaterina Timofeevna, 25 years old, their sons Semyon, 3 years old, Anton, 2 years old, Peter, 1 year old.
No. 394. Ioann Druzhnikov, 67 years old, his wife Ekaterina, 59 years old, their children Lyubovia, 20 years old, Stepan, 22 years old, Andrey, 36 years old, married, his wife Juliania, 32 years old, children Sofia, 6 years old, Daria, 4 years, Maria, 2 years."
You will be interested to know that the first instructions for compiling and maintaining confessional records appeared with the decree of the Moscow Patriarchate of 1697. However, the mass dissemination and introduction of the practice of submitting reporting lists on the conscientiousness of parishioners regarding church rituals came a little later, closer to the beginning of the 20s of the 18th century. In 1722 it was published decree of the Synod on confessional paintings, obliging residents, starting from the age of 7, to go to confession every year, if not during Lent, then at least on Petrov (June 15 - July 12), Uspensky (August 14 - August 27) or Rozhdestvensky (November 28 - January 6) ) posts.
The first versions of spiritual paintings were designed in the form of notebooks with manually drawn tables for data entry. Printed versions of confessional statements began to appear only in the middle of the 19th century, while the content remained virtually unchanged throughout the existence of the document. Strict control of the higher spiritual government disciplined the clergy, who tried to fill out the books responsibly, because otherwise they were threatened with punishment, up to and including defrocking. The official refusal of the State to maintain confessional lists occurred after the Revolution of 1917, but individual priests continued to maintain lists for several subsequent years.
Example (sample) of a confessional statement:
"Confessional paintings of the Saratov diocese of the city of Sable of the Church of the Nativity of the Virgin, 1863.
About the lower ones of every rank found in the parish of this church, with an explanation against each name, who was at Confession and Holy Communion on Lent, who only confessed and did not receive communion, and who did not confess and did not receive communion, and why.
Priest John of Transfiguration,
Deacon Vasily Lykov,
Sexton Andrey Lykov.
Bourgeois and their households
No. 5. Paraskeva Markovna Karpikha, 57 years old, her daughter Ekaterina, 16 years old.
No. 17. Maria Ivanovna Karpova, 41 years old, her son Kirill, 20 years old.
No. 58. Vasily Mikhailovich Karpin, 44 years old, his wife Evdokia Kornilievna, 38 years old, their children Lavrenty, 18 years old, Evdokia, 11 years old.
No. 149. Ivan Timofeevich Karpin, 51 years old, his wife Matrona Onisyevna, 37 years old, their children Semyon, 12 years old, Peter, 3 years old, Timofey, 2 years old, Maria, 6 years old."
In the absence of metric books, confessional paintings had legal force and were used in resolving marriage and land conflicts. The rector of the church issued a certificate of confession to the immigrants, without which it was impossible to perform the wedding ceremony in the new place. As for the description, the confessional book is similar to other church documents. The serial number of the family or yard was indicated first, followed by the list of parishioners, where male representatives were initially entered, and only after that the wife or other relative of the father of the family could be recorded. The next columns of the confessional list included age, class or ownership. Sometimes a settlement was indicated directly on this list, if several villages belonged to the parish. The presence or absence at Confession was immediately noted. All sheets had to be signed by each member of the clergy, but since this instruction was advisory in nature, in practice, certification took place only on the final pages of the blocks. At the end of the confessional sheet, statistical general information about the parish was given in the form of a table, divided into classes.
The form of writing was relatively free, and confessional paintings even from neighboring counties could differ greatly in design and alternation of entries, for which the researcher must be mentally prepared in advance. For the one who is looking, the location of the surnames, which, as a rule, came at the beginning, is of primary importance, which makes it possible to more or less quickly find the desired parishioner (as far as possible, examining the huge volumes, an example of which is shown in the first photograph of the article). However, the genealogist search engine must keep in mind that at the end of the 20s of the XX century, during the existence of the RSFSR, confessional statements starting from 1865 and moving to our time were recognized as having no historical value, and therefore most of funds were destroyed.
Where to look for confessional statements of church parishioners
Determining the location of confessional statements is not an easy task; it is not surprising that many who are interested in their ancestry order genealogy services, in which archival materials are studied for several years, and sometimes for decades. The information contained in the confessional lists of the population of the Russian Empire is of particular value also because these documents recorded the residents’ belonging to a certain property, their social status, age, place of residence, family composition, and, rarely, occupation.
Confessional paintings belong to the funds of ecclesiastical consistories and boards, as well as diocesan administrations. Currently, confessional statements are kept in State archives a certain region. It would not be amiss to note that in rare cases, paintings of Confession and Communion can be found in the archives of individual churches. To find a specific case where a spiritual painting is fixed, the researcher needs to know the approximate place and time of residence of the person in question. Having such initial data, it is already possible to conduct a total or “spot” search for a relative by dates for his period of life. It must be borne in mind that priests were required to keep confessional records in two identical copies, one of which was sent for safekeeping to the spiritual consistory, often combined with the work of neighboring parishes, and the neighborhood was determined depending on the territorial division of a particular region. The second copy of the confessional painting remained in the funds of the church itself.
Genealogical researchers, due to inexperience, may end their search after finding out Government institution that the original book has not survived to this day. A competent specialist must also check the presence of a confessional painting in a specific church, the parishioners of which were the individuals in question. Since in the 19th century there was special control over the spirituality of the population of the Russian Empire, additional non-church registration of communion and confession of residents (mostly peasants) was commonplace. Carrying out searches, we come across various kinds of orders and instructions from secular superiors, which say that their subordinates are required to present a certificate from the Rector of the temple about their attendance at Confession and Holy Communion. Based on such documents, valuable information about relatives can also be obtained, along with confessional statements, metric books, audit tales and other basic genealogical sources. Many enthusiasts publish the materials they find on the Internet, you can conduct a superficial search and see what is on the Internet.
If you have any additions, please let us know in the comments and we’ll do it useful resource together!
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