russian history 44 (2017) 260-297 brill.com/ruhi Monuments of Church Architecture in Belozersk: Late Sixteenth to the Early Nineteenth Centuries William Craft Brumfield Professor of Slavic Studies and Sizeler Professor of Jewish Studies, Department of Germanic and Slavic Studies, Tulane University, New Orleans [email protected] Abstract The history of the community associated with the White Lake (Beloe Ozero) is a rich one. This article covers a brief overview of the developing community from medieval through modern times, and then focuses the majority of its attention on the church ar- chitecture of Belozersk. This rich tradition of material culture increases our knowledge about medieval and early modern Rus’ and Russia. Keywords Beloozero – Belozersk – Russian Architecture – Church Architecture The origins and early location of Belozersk (now a regional town in the center of Vologda oblast’) are subject to discussion, but it is uncontestably one of the oldest recorded settlements among the eastern Slavs. “Beloozero” is mentioned in the Primary Chronicle (or Chronicle of Bygone Years; Povest’ vremennykh let) under the year 862 as one of the five towns granted to the Varangian brothers Riurik, Sineus and Truvor, invited (according to the chronicle) to rule over the eastern Slavs in what was then called Rus’.1 1 The Chronicle text in contemporary Russian translation is as follows: “B гoд 6370 (862). И изгнaли вapягoв зa мope, и нe дaли им дaни, и нaчaли caми coбoй влaдeть, и нe былo cpeди ниx пpaвды, и вcтaл poд нa poд, и былa у ниx уcoбицa, и cтaли вoeвaть дpуг c дpугoм. И cкaзaли: «Пoищeм caми ceбe князя, кoтopый бы влaдeл нaми и pядил пo pяду и пo зaкoну». Пoшли зa мope к вapягaм, к pуcи. Te вapяги нaзывaлиcь pуcью, кaк дpугиe нaзывaютcя швeды, a иныe—нopмaнны и aнглы, a eщe иныe гoты—вoт тaк и эти. © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2017 | doi 10.1163/18763316-04402001Downloaded from Brill.com10/09/2021 08:17:16AM via free access <UN> Monuments of Church Architecture in Belozersk 261 Whatever the details of its origins and development, it is clear from the name itself that the town was always closely connected with White Lake (Beloe Ozero), a large, strategically important body of fresh water in north- western Russia. Although much smaller than Lakes Ladoga and Onega, White Lake is a pivotal link between those two lakes and the Russian heartland. At its northwestern end the lake was fed by the short Kovzha River, from the lake of the same name. On the southeast end White Lake drains into the Sheksna, a left tributary of the Volga. Furthermore, White Like is relatively close to Lake Vozhe to the northeast, which flows due north into Lake Lacha and the Onega River.2 That river, in turn, provided a direct route to the White Sea and the So- lovetskii Archipelago. It must be emphasized that the Beloozero briefly ruled by Sineus and sub- sequently by Riurik occupied a very different location from the present town of Belozersk. Some accounts placed the original settlement on the north shore of Beloe Ozero (White Lake) near the later Kisnema village, also known as Troitskoe.3 According to this version the original settlement mentioned in the Cкaзaли pуcи чудь, cлaвянe, кpивичи и вecь: «Зeмля нaшa вeликa и oбильнa, a пopядкa в нeй нeт. Пpиxoдитe княжить и влaдeть нaми». И избpaлиcь тpoe бpaтьeв co cвoими poдaми, и взяли c coбoй вcю pуcь, и пpишли пpeждe вceгo к cлaвянaм. И пocтaвили гopoд Лaдoгу. И ceл cтapший, Pюpик, в Лaдoгe, a дpугoй—Cинeуc,—нa Бeлoм oзepe, a тpeтий, Tpувop,—в Избopcкe. И oт тex вapягoв пpoзвaлacь Pуccкaя зeмля. Чepeз двa гoдa умepли Cинeуc и бpaт eгo Tpувop. И пpинял вcю влacть oдин Pюpик и пpишeл к Ильмeню, и пocтaвил гopoд нaд Boлxoвoм, и нaзвaл eгo Hoвгopoд, и ceл тут княжить, и cтaл paздaвaть мужaм cвoим вoлocти и гopoдa cтaвить—тoму Пoлoцк, этoму Pocтoв, дpугoму Бeлooзepo. Bapяги в этиx гopoдax—нaxoдники, a кopeнныe житeли в Hoвгopoдe—cлaвянe, в Пoлoцкe—кpивичи, в Pocтoвe—мepя, в Бeлooзepe—вecь, в Mуpoмe—муpoмa, и нaд тeми вceми влacтвoвaл Pюpик. Povest’ vremennykh let,—See also Polnyi svod russkikh letopisei, vol. 1, second edition (Leningrad, 1926), 19–20. It should be noted that the historical existence of Sineus and Truvor is doubted by a number of scholars. See B.A. Rybakov, Kievskaia Rus’ i russkie kniazhestva xii–xiii vv. (Moscow: Nauka, 1982), 298. 2 A description of early water routes, with particular emphasis on access to the White Sea, is presented in Pamiatniki Otechestva, 30 (1993), 41–43. 3 For a typical account of the early settlements of Beloozero offered by two specialists on the history of the Russian north, see G.N. Bocharov and V.P. Vygolov, Vologda. Kirillov. Fera- pontovo. Belozersk (Moscow: Iskusstvo, 1966), 259. A more detailed archeological account is provided in L.A. Golubeva, Ves’ i slaviane na Belom ozere. x–xiii vv. (Moscow: Nauka, 1973). See also S.D. Zakharov, Drevnerusskii gorod Beloozero (Moscow: Indrik, 2003), 74–85. Further discussion of the riddles involved with the various locations of Beloozero is contained in Mikhail Kudriavtsev, “Poiski severnoi stolitsy,” in Pamiatniki Otechestva, 30 (1993), 30–34. Kudriavtsev’s views are echoed in K.I. Kozlov, Belozersk. Opisanie goroda, ego khramov i dos- topamiatnosti (Moscow: Severnyi palomnik, 2007), 56–62. russian history 44 (2017) 260-297 Downloaded from Brill.com10/09/2021 08:17:16AM via free access <UN> 262 Brumfield Chronicle was eroded by the encroaching waters of the lake and abandoned in search of another site. By the tenth century a new Beloozero was established on the Sheksna River not far from southeast corner of Beloe Ozero, near the subsequent village of Krokhino.4 The inhabitants of this incarnation of Beloozero were apparently a mixture of Slavs and a Finno-Ugric tribe known as Ves’ (predecessors of the Veps), with Slavs predominating by the eleventh century. Although Kiev was the political and religious center of Rus’ during this period, the vast northern territories, including the Beloozero region, were dominated by the commercial center of Novgorod. By the end of the eleventh century, however, Beloozero moved into the orbit of the Rostov-Suzdal’ principality (including the city of Vladimir), which be- came the major power in central Russia during the twelfth century. That power would be greatly eroded by the force of the Mongol invasion of 1237–1238. For- tunately, the Mongol armies did not reach distant Beloozero, and the town was to serve as a haven for those fleeing the devastation and subsequent decades of disorder. Among the first of these was Bishop Kirill ii of Rostov, who briefly took refuge in Beloozero in 1238 before returning to collect for burial the head- less corpse of the Rostov Prince Iurii Vsevolodovich, killed in battle with the Mongols on the River Sit’.5 With the weakening of the Rostov-Suzdal’ principality in the wake of the di- saster on the River Sit’, Beloozero assumed greater autonomy as a principality during the reign of Gleb Vasil’kovich (1237–78), designated prince of Beloozero as an infant in 1238. Despite the relative length and stability of Gleb’s reign (in the final two years of his life he also assumed the title of Prince of Rostov), Beloozero’s very remoteness mitigated against its playing a leading role in the complex and prolonged political struggle for dominance in central Russia.6 4 This site has now been flooded by the construction of the Sheksna River Reservoir in con- nection with the expansion of the Volga-Balt Canal, a project that effectively ended promis- ing archeological research into the settlement founded in the tenth-century. For a survey of archeological work, including that of Golubeva, at the Sheksna site, see N.A. Makarov, S.D. Zakharov, “Drevnosti zatoplennogo Beloozera,” in Iu. S. Vasil’ev, ed., Belozer’e: Istoriko- literaturnyi al’manakh, Vyp. 1 (Vologda: Rus’, 1994), 7–15, with particular reference to 7–8. 5 Krill ii served as bishop of Rostov from 1230 until his death in 1262. See Russkii biograficheskii slovar’, vol. 8 (St. Petersburg: Tipografiia glavnogo upravleniia udelov, 1897), 663–64. 6 Medieval chronicle references to the Beloozero princes, including Prince Gleb Vasil’kovich, are compiled in Iu. S. Vasil’ev, “Russkie letopisi o belozerskikh kniaz’iakh i krae (do xv veka),” in Iu. S. Vasil’ev, ed., Belozer’e: Istoriko-literaturnyi al’manakh, Vyp. 2 (Vologda: Legiia, 1998), 47–73. russian Downloadedhistory from 44 Brill.com10/09/2021 (2017) 260-297 08:17:16AM via free access <UN> Monuments of Church Architecture in Belozersk 263 The extensive Beloozero principality, which covered much of the central area of contemporary Vologda oblast’, was soon fragmented by inheritance. By the fourteenth century it was subsumed by the rapidly expanding Moscow principality, first under the reign of Ivan Kalita (1288–1340; prince of Mos- cow from 1325) and then more firmly in the reign of Grand Prince Dmitrii Donskoi (1350–1389). A major factor in the waning of Beloozero’s autonomy was the death of most of the Belozersk princely line at the epochal battle against the Tatars on Kulikovo [Snipe] Field in 1380. In 1389 Dmitrii bequeathed the territory, as well as Mozhaisk, to his son Andrei (d. 1432), whose son Mikhail (d. 1485) deeded it to Ivan iii (the Great). Ivan received the town into his domains in 1486 and at that point Beloozero formally became a part of the Muscovite principality.7 By the second part of the fourteenth century, Beloozero’s location shifted yet again. The traditional explanation for the shift was the sudden decline of the population of the Sheksna River site following an outbreak of plague in 1352 and 1363–1364.8 However, some specialists have brought persuasive evi- dence for the coexistence of two towns until the fifteenth century: the “Old Town,” located on the Sheksna, and the new town, situated at the present site of Belozersk.9 This theory suggests that the earlier town reached its apo- gee not in the middle of the thirteenth century, but in the second half of the twelfth century.