Encyclopedia of Russian History
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Nijinsky, once the lover of Diagilev, married in 1913 and was dismissed from Diagilev’s company. After itinerant and often unsuccessful performances during World War I, Nijinsky was diagnosed a schizophrenic in 1919. The remaining years of the great dancer’s life were spent mostly in san-itoriums. See also: BALLET; BOLSHOI THEATER; DIAGILEV, SERGEI: PAVLOVICH; PAVLOVA, ANNA MATVEYEVNA
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
Buckle, Richard. (1971). Nijinsky. New York: Simon and Schuster. Nijinsky, Vaslav. (1999). The Diary of Vaslav Nijinsky, tr. Kyril FitzLyon; ed. Joan Acocella. New York: Farrar, Strauss and Giroux. Ostwald, Peter. (1991). Vaslav Nijinsky: A Leap into Madness. New York: Carol.
TIM SCHOLL
NIKITIN, AFANASY
Famed Russian merchant and autobiographer; exact dates of birth and death unknown.
Afanasy Nikitin was a Russian merchant from Tver who left a diary of his travels to Iran and India during a four-year period between 1466 and 1475. The traveler’s own account remains the primary source of information on his personal history and the purpose of his long journey. Under the title The Journey Beyond Three Seas, Afanasy’s travel record is a document of great interest, both to historians studying the interactions of medieval Russians with the Muslim East, and in general as one of the first autobiographical accounts in the literature. It has been repeatedly published in the original Russian with annotations and translated into many languages.
Afanasy’s notes describe how he left Tver, intending to join a trade expedition headed for the Caucasian principality of Shirvan. On the way, his party was robbed of their goods. He was rescued by the Shah of Shirvan, but, despite the high risk, decided to continue his journey to Derbent, a market familiar to him, and then to Baku, rather than return to Tver empty-handed. He went on to cross the Caspian Sea, continued his travels across Iran, and then crossed the Indian Ocean to the Deccan. After surveying the markets, customs, and courts of the Bahmani and Vijayanagar empires, he made his way back to Russia, crossing the Black Sea. Somewhere in the region of Smolensk, he met an untimely death. Merchants brought his notes to Vasily Mamyrev, secretary to Grand Prince Ivan III of Moscow. The L’vov chronicler reports that he received Afanasy’s notes in 1475 and incorporated them into his annalistic record, but was unable to locate any further information on the traveler.
The first historians to study his notes saw Afanasy as a daring explorer and patriot. Looking at the journey in commercial perspective, however, historian Janet Martin concludes that although Afanasy did travel farther than other Russian travelers of his era, and visitied places they did not, his notes reveal him as a cautious, even conservative merchant who made a series of discrete, limited decisions to continue his journey on the basis of information about markets conveyed by merchants that he met. He initially planned to take advantage of a lull in hostilities between Muscovy and the Great Horde to bring furs to the Caucasus and the lower Volga, a venture which had good prospects for high profits. His journey to Iran followed a well-established trade route, with extended stops at towns known for their bazaars. Afanasy indicates that his decision to continue to India was based on information from Muslim merchants whom he met in Iran. His notes on India, a market unfamiliar to Russian merchants, contain the most detailed information on goods and markets, as well as advice on finding shelter and warnings about the high customs fees exacted against Christians and the pressures to convert to Islam. This information would have been of great value to merchants considering such a venture. Only when he concluded that further travel would not bring new opportunities for commerce did he decide to return to Russia.
Long passages in creolized Arabic containing prayers and expression of fears about the traveler’s inability to practice Christianity in India have inspired a variety of hypotheses. Nikolai Trubetskoy characterized Afanasy’s notes as a lyrical tale of a committed Orthodox Christian who suffered from his religious isolation, but kept the faith of his homeland; the foreign terms and phrases added local color to the narrative, shaping its unique artistic structure, while concealing the traveler’s most intimate thoughts from all but a handful of readers. Others questioned Afanasy’s faith. Yuri Zavadovsky noted Afanasy’s extensive knowledge of Muslim prayers and of the requirements for conversion to Islam. Afanasy’s reports of his own behavior suggested to historian Gail Lenhoff that he was a social convert to Islam. This decision to convert appears to have been initially dictated by commercial interests, since Muslims did not have to pay taxes or customs duties and could trade more freely in the Deccan markets. His conversion obligated him to pray in Arabic and to observe Muslim customs in public. The increasing proportion of Arabic prayers in the autobiography and the existence of a final prayer of thanks to Allah for surviving a storm, uttered as he approached Christian soil and duly recorded in his diary, could
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indicate that by the end of his journey Afanasy had assimilated the Muslim faith. See also: FOREIGN TRADE; ISLAM; MERCHANTS
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Lenhoff, Gail and Martin, Janet. (1989). “The Commercial and Cultural Context of Afanasij Nikitin’s Journey Beyond Three Seas.” Jahrb?cher f?r Geschichte Osteuropas 37 (3):321-344. Major, Richard H., ed. (1857). “The Travels of Athana-sius Nikitin,” tr. Mikhail M. Wielhorsky. In India in the Fifteenth Century. Hakluyt Society, ser. 1. volume 22. London: Hakluyt Society. Martin, Janet. (1985). “Muscovite Travelling Merchants: The Trade with the Muslim East (Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries).” Central Asian Studies 4 (3):21-38. Trubetskoy, Nikolay S. (1978). “Afanasij Nikitin’s Journey Beyond Three Seas as a Work of Literature.” In Readings in Russian Poetics: Formalist and Structuralist Views, ed. Ladislav Matejka and Krystyna Po-morska. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Slavic Publications.
GAIL LENHOFF
NIKON, PATRIARCH
(1605-1681), patriarch of Moscow and all Russia; implemented a program of church reform that inspired vociferous opposition, ultimately culminating in the schism and the emergence of Old Belief.
Nikita Minich or Minov (as a monk, Nikon) was born to a peasant couple in the village of Velde-manov near Nizhny Novgorod. His mother died shortly after his birth, and the child was sent to a local tutor who taught him to read. As a youth, he continued his studies at the Makariev Zhel-tovodsky monastery, not far from Nizhny Novgorod. The author of Nikon’s Life reports that the young man was an avid student and attracted to the monastic life. Nonetheless, in 1625 he obeyed his dying father’s request to return home. He married a year later and obtained a position as a deacon at a nearby village church. Soon he was ordained a priest, and he and his wife moved to Moscow.
In 1636 Minich persuaded his wife to enter a convent. He himself departed for the Anzersky skete in the far north. Upon arrival he took monastic vows and the name Nikon. In 1649 a disagreement with the elder Eliazar prompted Nikon to transfer to the Kozheozersky monastery. Within three years he was made abbot. In 1646 Nikon traveled to Moscow on monastery business. There he attracted the attention of the young Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. The tsar ordered him to remain in Moscow and made him abbot of the New Savior monastery. Energetic and talented, Nikon soon became a confidant and spiritual advisor of the tsar. He also became an important figure in the Zealots of Piety, the circle of reformers gathered around the tsar’s confessor, Stefan Vonifatiev.
In March 1649, Nikon was named metropolitan of the important of see of Novgorod. He maintained contact with the reformers in Moscow and sought to implement their program in Novgorod. Mnogoglasie, the practice of simultaneously performing different parts of the liturgy in order to complete it more quickly, was abolished. Greek and Kievan chants replaced the traditional style of singing. Metropolitan Nikon’s sermons at the episcopal cathedral attracted great crowds. In 1650 severe grain shortages caused famine and inflation in Novgorod. The people responded with violence, and Nikon played an important role in bringing the situation under control without bloodshed.
In the spring of 1652, Metropolitan Nikon was entrusted with the task of traveling to the Solovet-sky monastery, collecting the relics of St. Philip, and returning with them to Moscow. The translation of St. Philip’s relics exemplified the views of the Zealots of Piety. As metropolitan of Moscow, St. Philip had died a martyr’s death for publicly rebuking the cruel and unchristian acts of Tsar Ivan IV (“the Terrible”). St. Philip’s example highlighted the duty of the clergy to remind the laity, including tsars, of their Christian duties. The translation of his relics emphasized the dignity and importance of the church. Nikon was on the return path to Moscow when he received a letter from Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, informing him that Patriarch Joasif had died and assuring him that he would be selected as the next patriarch. A church council convened and duly elected Nikon. On July 25, 1652, Nikon was consecrated patriarch of Moscow and all Russia.
Nikon was chosen patriarch to direct a reform program advocated by the Zealots of Piety and supported by the tsar. If all reformers concurred on the need to elevate popular piety and reform popular religious practices, the revision of the liturgical books to bring them into conformity with
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contemporary Greek practice and the exercise of power within the church were more sensitive issues. Consecrated patriarch, Nikon moved decisively to advance the liturgical reform with all possible speed. In February 1653 a revised edition of the Psalter was printed, minus two articles present in earlier editions. An instruction calling for sixteen full prostrations during a Lenten prayer was modified, and a section teaching that the sign of the cross should be made with two fingers was removed. Correctors (spravshchiki) at the government Printing Office, men long associated with the work of the Zealots of Piety, protested the changes. They promptly were removed from their posts and replaced by supporters of Nikon. By the end of the year, Patriarch Nikon assumed direct control of the Printing Office.
In addition, according to later accounts of Nikon’s opponents, shortly after the appearance of the new Psalter, the patriarch sent a communication to Ivan Neronov, archpriest of the Kazan Cathedral, calling attention to the revisions and ordering that they be introduced into the liturgy. Confronted with what he perceived to be an error, Neronov prayed for guidance and then discussed the order with his associates, including Archbishop Paul of Kolomna and the archpriests Avvakum, Daniil, and Login. Avvakum and Daniil gathered evidence against the revisions in the newly printed Psalter and presented a petition to the tsar. The tsar ignored it. By the end of 1653 the archpriests Login and Neronov had been defrocked and exiled. Av-vakum escaped defrocking through the personal intervention of the tsar but was transferred to the distant post of Tobolsk.
Patriarch Nikon’s reform activities were not limited to liturgical reform. During the six years of his active patriarchate, he worked to bring the church under episcopal control, freeing the clergy and church affairs from the interference of secular authorities and creating a hierarchy of authority flowing from the patriarch to the laity. As contemporaries noted, however, Nikon freed the prelates and other clergy from secular powers only to subordinate them to his own. Too often he neglected to consult a church council before he acted, provoking resentment and resistance where he needed support. Nikon also was energetic in the area of monastic reform, sternly punishing those who flouted the monastic rule. Perhaps Nikon’s more important contributions in this area were the three monasteries he founded: the Monastery of the Cross, the Monstery of the Iveron Mother of God, and the Monastery of the Resurrection (or New Jerusalem). Richly endowed, both materially and spiritually, the latter two were centers of learning as well as piety. All were subordinated directly to Nikon. Finally, Nikon did not ignore the shortcomings in the popular practice and celebration of religion. He initiated campaigns against the wandering minstrels and jesters, with their profane music and ribald jokes, and also against icons he deemed painted in an improper manner. Such campaigns manifested his zeal to dignify popular piety and reform popular religious practices, but they often offended the powerful as well as the humble.
Scholars have disagreed as to whether Nikon’s goal was to assert the superiority of church over state, or simply to achieve the symphony between church and state that is the Byzantine ideal. In reality, Nikon’s power depended on the tsar’s favor. As long as Nikon enjoyed the confidence and support of the tsar, those whom he offended in his zeal were powerless against him. By 1658, however, the tsar’s attitude towards Nikon had cooled. On July 10, 1658, feeling snubbed by the tsar’s failure to invite him to an important state reception, Nikon celebrated the liturgy in the Cathedral of the Dormition, donned simple monastic garb, announced to those assembled that he would no longer be patriarch, and walked away.
Nikon’s action was without precedent. After two years, Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich convened a church council to address the situation. All agreed that a new patriarch should be chosen, but no consensus could be achieved on what to do with Nikon. Nikon complicated the matter by asserting that he had renounced the patriarchal throne but not his calling, and that he alone had the power to establish a new patriarch.
In 1666, after lengthy exchanges, the patriarchs of Alexandria and Antioch agreed to travel to Moscow to participate in a church council to resolve the affair. Before the eastern patriarchs arrived, delegates assembled and reaffirmed the correctness of the reform program itself. Those who opposed the reform were condemned as heretics. Thus officially began the church schism. The eastern patriarchs arrived, and on November 7 another church council convened for the purpose of deciding the case of Nikon. On December 12, 1666, Nikon was found guilty of abandoning the patriarchal throne; of slandering the tsar, the Russian Church, and all the Russian people as heretics; of insulting the eastern patriarchs; and of deposing
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and exiling bishops without a church council. He was removed officially as patriarch, stripped of his priestly functions, demoted to the rank of a simple monk, and exiled to the Ferapontov monastery in the far north. In 1676 he was transferred to the Kirillov monastery, also in the north. In 1681, as a result of the intercession of Tsar Fyodor Alex-eyevich, Nikon was given permission to return to Moscow. He died on the return journey, on August 17, 1681, and was buried in the Monastery of the Resurrection. See also: ALEXEI MIKHAILOVICH; AVVAKUM PETROVICH; OLD BELIEVERS; RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH; ZEALOTS OF PIETY
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Lobachev, S.V. (2001). “Patriarch Nikon’s Rise to Power.” Slavonic and East European Review 79(2):290-307. Lupinin, Nickolas. (1984). Religious Revolt in the Eighteenth Century: The Schism of the Russian Church. Princeton, NJ: Kingston Press. Meyendorff, Paul. (1991). Russia, Ritual, and Reform: The Liturgical Reforms of Nikon in the Seventeenth Century. Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Press.. Michels, Georg B. (1999). At War with the Church: Religious Dissent in Seventeenth-Century Russia. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. Palmer, William. (1871). The Patriarch and the Tsar. 6 vols. London: Tr?bner. Soloviev, Sergei M. (2000). History of Russia, Vol. 21: The Tsar and the Patriarch: Stenka Razin Revolts on the Don, 1662-1675, tr. and ed. T. Allan Smith. Gulf Breeze, FL: Academic International Press.
CATHY J. POTTER
only spiritual alms, he avoided the amassing of goods and dependent labor required for material charity. In 1489, Archbishop Gennady of Novgorod sought out Nil, who helped produce Joseph of Volok’s anti-heretical, theological polemics.
Nil’s disciples included his traveling companion Innokenty Okhlyabinin, founder of another hermitage based on Nil’s precepts; the Kirillov elders Gury Tushin and German Podolny, one a bibliophile, the other an opponent of condemning heretics; the disgraced prince-boyar Vassian Pa-trikeyev, the most strident “Non-possessor” during 1511-1531; and two of Joseph’s leading acolytes.
Nil’s expert book-copying, most notably an authoritative collection of saints lives, was distinguished by use of Greek originals to make corrections. His polished corpus of
well-respected writings include the regulatory Tradition (Predanie) for his hermitage; an eleven-discourse, patristic-based Rule (Ustav) for “spiritual activity”; and didactic epistles to German, Gury, and Vassian. The leitmotifs are nonattachment, stillness with myti-cal prayer, and combating the eight pernicious “thoughts” (the Catholic seven deadly sins plus despondency). Contemporary writings do not show that Nil himself opposed and protested the execution of heretics or advocated confiscation of monastic villages, as later claimed and still widely believed.
Locally venerated, Nil has been seen as Russia’s great elder and as relatively liberal for his day. He was added as a saint to official church calendars only in modern times. See also: CHURCH COUNCIL; KIRILL-BELOOZERO MONASTERY; POSSESSORS AND NON-POSSESSORS; MONASTI-CISM; ORTHODOXY; SAINTS
NIL SORSKY, ST.
(c. 1433-1508), ascetic master and editor-copyist.
Brother of the state secretary Andrei Maykov (active 1450s-1490s), Nil entered the Kirillov-Belozersk monastery in the 1440s or 1450s, went to Mt. Athos at some time for special training, and in 1470 was a leading Kirillov elder. Dissatisfied with materialism and secular interests there, he founded the Sorsky Hermitage on a Kirillov property, where he enforced a strict, self-supporting regimen and taught the Athonite, hesychastic mode of prayer. By favoring monastic dispensation of
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Maloney, George A. (2000). Nil Sorsky. Costa Mesa, CA: Paulist Press. Ostrowski, Donald. (1988). “Toward Establishing the Canon of Nil Sorsky’s Works.” Oxford Slavonic Papers 31:35-50. Ostrowski, Donald. (1995). “Loving Silence and Avoiding Pleasant Conversations. The Political Views of Nil Sorskii.” Harvard Ukrainian Studies 19: 476-96.