JATS XML:

XML

BibTEX:

BIB

Research Information Systems Citation Format:

RIS

Download:

PDF

For citation:

Kovaleva, G. N. “ʽBehold, the Bridegroom Is Coming’: Historical  Sources  of  Leo  Tolstoy’s  Writings  on  Feofan  Prokopovich in the Materials for <A Novel from the Time of Peter the Great>.” Dva veka russkoi klassiki, vol. 7, no. 4, 2025, pp. 374–395. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.22455/2686-7494-2025-7-4-374-395

Abstract:

This article examines Leo Tolstoy’s notes about Feofan Prokopovich, which are the part of the preparatory materials for his unfinished <Novel from the Time of Peter the Great>, and the historical sources for these notes, as established by P. S. Popov. The identified historical sources for these notes allow us to clarify the meaning of Tolstoy’s excerpts about Feofan Prokopovich from fundamental historical works, enrich and expand our understanding of the conception of Petrine’s unfinished novel, its historical basis, and the cast of characters, and elucidate the specific events from the bishop’s life and work that the writer intended to incorporate into the novel’s action. The discovered sources make it possible to speculate about the ways and means by which Tolstoy transformed real facts from Feofan Prokopovich’s life into fiction. Comparison of Tolstoy’s notes with the texts of factual sources reveals traces of the writer’s creative work with documentary materials.

Keywords: L. N. Tolstoy, A Novel from the Time of Peter the Great, preparatory materials, summary notes, historical sources, Feofan Prokopovich, D. N. Bantysh-Kamensky, S. M. Solovyov, P. S. Popov.
Author: Galina N. Kovaleva
Information about the author:

Galina N. Kovaleva, Senior Researcher, A. M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Povarskaya St., 25A, bld. 1, 121069 Moscow, Russia.

ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0009-0004-9179-2417

E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Received: August 12, 2025
Approved after reviewing: October 21, 2025
Published: December 25, 2025
Issue: 2025 Volume 7 No. 4
Department: Textual Criticism. Source Study
Pages: 374-395
DOI: https://doi.org/10.22455/2686-7494-2025-7-4-374-395
EDN:

https://elibrary.ru/OWHWQG

UDK: 821.161.1.09"19"
Publication Type: Research Article

References

Viduetskaia, I. P. “<Roman iz vremeni Petra I>” [“A Novel from the Time of Peter the Great”]. Tolstoi, L. N. Polnoe sobranie sochinenii: v 100 t. [Complete Works: in 100 vols.], vol. 9. Moscow, Nauka Publ., 2014, pp. 429–461, 471–481. (In Russ.)
Gudzii, N. K. “Feofan Prokopovich” [“Feofan Prokopovich”]. Istoriia russkoi literatury: v 10 t. [History of Russian Literature: in 10 vols.], vol. 3: Literatura XVIII veka [Literature of the 18th Century], part 1. Moscow, Nauka Publ., 1941, pp. 157–175. (In Russ.)
Gulin, A. V. “Roman iz vremeni Petra I v dukhovnom i tvorcheskom dvizhenii L. N. Tolstogo” [“A Novel from the Time of Peter the Great in the Spiritual and Creative Movement of L. N. Tolstoy”]. Gulin, A. V., editor. L. N. Tolstoi: nravstvennyi poisk i tvorcheskaia laboratoriia [L. N. Tolstoy: Moral Search and Creative Laboratory]. Moscow, IWL RAS Publ., 2021, pp. 209–232. (In Russ.)
Kovaleva, G. N. “ʽLevochka vse chitaet iz vremen Petra Velikogo istoricheskie knigi i ochen’ interesuetsia’ (neizvestnye istochniki konspektivnykh zapisei L. N. Tolstogo iz vremen Petra Velikogo)” [“ʽLevochka Keeps Reading History Books from the Time of Peter the Great and Is Very Interested’ (Unknown Sources of L. N. Tolstoy’s Notes from the Time of Peter the Great)”]. Filologicheskie nauki. Voprosy teorii i praktiki, vol. 13, issue 10, 2020, pp. 25–32. (In Russ.)
Kovaleva, G. N. “ʽ…Nikon vstal i opiat’ poshel peshkom cherez Krasnuiu ploshchad’ na Il’inku’: istoricheskie istochniki zapisei L. N. Tolstogo o Patriarkhe Nikone v materialakh k <Romanu iz vremeni Petra I>” [“ʽ…Nikon Got Up and Again Walked Across Red Square to Ilyinka’: Historical Sources of L. N. Tolstoy’s Notes on Patriarch Nikon in the Materials for ʽA Novel from the Time of Peter I’.”] Dva veka russkoi klassiki, vol. 6, no. 4, 2024, pp. 202–217. https://doi.org/10.22455/2686-7494-2024-6-4-202-217 (In Russ.)
Krasheninnikova, O. A. “Sinodal’nye reformy petrovskogo vremeni i krizis traditsionnykh predstavlenii o sviatosti. Ch. 1” [“Synodal Reforms of the Peter the Great Era and the Crisis of Traditional Ideas about Holiness. Part 1”]. Kul’turnoe nasledie Rossii, no. 4 (11), October – December, 2015, pp. 49–55. (In Russ.)
Krasheninnikova, O. A. “Sinodal’nye reformy petrovskogo vremeni i krizis traditsionnykh predstavlenii o sviatosti. Ch. 2” [“Synodal Reforms of the Peter the Great Era and the Crisis of Traditional Ideas about Holiness. Part 2”]. Kul’turnoe nasledie Rossii, no. 1, January – March, 2016, pp. 50–56. (In Russ.)
Krasheninnikova, O. A. “ʽDukhovnyi reglament’ (1721) Feofana Prokopovicha kak polemicheskoe sochinenie” [“ʽThe Spiritual Regulations’ (1721) by Feofan Prokopovich as a Polemical Work”]. Ocherki istorii russkoi publitsistiki XVIII veka [Essays on the History of Russian Journalism of the 18th Century]. Moscow, IWL RAS Publ., 2017, pp. 171–194. (In Russ.)
Popov, P. S. “Romany iz epokhi kontsa XVII – nachala XIX v.” [“Novels from the Era of the Late 17th – Early 19th Centuries”]. Tolstoi, L. N. Polnoe sobranie sochinenii: v 90 t. [Complete Works: in 90 vols.], vol. 17. Moscow, Khudozhestvennaia literatura Publ., 1936, pp. 624–656. (In Russ.)
Popov, P. S. “Primechaniia k materialam romana vremen Petra I” [“Notes on the Materials of the Novel from the Time of Peter the Great”]. Tolstoi, L. N. Polnoe sobranie sochinenii: v 90 t. [Complete Works: in 90 vols.], vol. 17. Moscow, Khudozhestvennaia literatura Publ., 1936, pp. 664–683. (In Russ.)
Fedotov, V. E. “Kievo-Mogilianskaia akademiia posle Petra Mogily” [“Kiev-Mohyla Academy after Peter Mogila”]. Vestnik Kostromskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta im. N. A. Nekrasova, vol. 22, no. 2, 2016, pp. 25–28. (In Russ.)