Personal biography examples
by Archpriest Avvakum
Translated by Kenneth N. Brostrom
Moscow in the middle of the seventeenth century had a distinctly apocalyptic feel. An outbreak of the plague killed half the population. A solar eclipse and comet appeared in the sky, causing panic. And a religious reform movement intended to purify spiritual life and provide for the needy had become a violent political project that cleaved Russian society and the Orthodox Church in two.
The autobiography of Archpriest Avvakum provides a vivid account of these cataclysmic events from a figure at their center.
Written in the s and ’70s from a cell in an Arctic village where the archpriest had been imprisoned by the tsar, Avvakum’s autobiography is a record of his life, ecclesiastical career, painful exile, religious persecution, and imprisonment.
Avvakum biography examples in hindi He became a leader in the Old Believers movement. He wrote the earliest version of his biography between and while imprisoned in Pustozersk, and was burned as a heretic in Kenneth N. Brostrom is associate professor of Russian at Wayne State University. Prince Dmitry Svyatopolk Mirsky, A History of Russian Literature : The daring originality of Avvakum's venture cannot be overestimated, and the use he made of his Russian places him in the very first rank of Russian writers: no one has since excelled him in vigor and raciness and in the skillful command of all the expressive means of everyday language for the most striking literary effects.It is also a salvo in a contest about whether to follow the old Russian Orthodox liturgy or import Greek rites and practices. These concerns touched every stratum of Russian society—and for Avvakum, represented an urgent struggle between good and evil.
Avvakum’s autobiography has been a cornerstone of Russian literature since it first circulated among religious dissidents.
Its language and style served as a model for writers such as Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, and Gorky. The Life Written by Himself is not only an important historical document but also an emotionally charged and surprisingly conversational self-portrait of a crucial figure in a tumultuous time.
Short biography examples His autobiography and letters to the tsar and other Old Believers such as Feodosia Morozova are considered masterpieces of 17th-century Russian literature. He was born in Grigorovo [ ru ] , in present-day Nizhny Novgorod. Starting in Nikon, as the patriarch of the Russian Church, initiated a wide range of reforms in Russian liturgy and theology. Avvakum and others strongly rejected these changes. They saw them as a corruption of the Russian Church, which they considered to be the true Church of God.About the Author
Avvakum Petrovich (/1–) was born near Nizhny Novgorod to a priest and a nun. He became a leader in the Old Believers movement. He wrote the earliest version of his biography between and while imprisoned in Pustozersk, and was burned as a heretic in
About the Translator
Kenneth N.
Brostrom is associate professor of Russian at Wayne State University.
Reviews
[Brostrom’s] translation is exceptionally well done, recreating…the rhythms, stylistic alternations, and vernacular intonations of the original.
Avvakum's combination of ecclesiastical and colloquial language transposed into writing the pathos of his oral rhetoric, and has remained a source of inspiration to modern Russian literature ever since the Life was published.
The daring originality of Avvakum's venture cannot be overestimated, and the use he made of his Russian places him in the very first rank of Russian writers: no one has since excelled him in vigor and raciness and in the skillful command of all the expressive means of everyday language for the most striking literary effects.
Archpriest Avvakum on Wikipedia