MICHAEL I. ZELENEV (1843–1907), A PRIEST AND COLLECTOR OF FOLKLORE AND ETHNOGRAPHIC INFORMATION (ON MATERIALS OF THE “TAMBOV DIOCESAN JOURNAL”)

This article is devoted to the activities of the priest of the Tambov diocese M. I. Zelenev (1843–1907), who was a preacher, an active missionary and a permanent correspondent of the magazine “Tambov diocesan journal”. Amidst the variety of folklore and ethnographic publications of the journal, many notable items belonged to M. I. Zelenev. His published sermons, addressed to rural parishioners, are of special interest. Zelenev clearly explained the essence of the Orthodox faith and Church —  folk festivals; described and denounced the various remnants of paganism, common among peasants. He also published materials about the moral and spiritual life of the Russian village in the second half of the 19th century, which reflected the uniqueness of the perception of the peasants of Orthodoxy and described the methods of education of his parishioners. In his opinion, the religiosity of ordinary people in villages and cities was formal, without internal religious and moral mood.

Special attention in his articles is paid to missionary activity: detailed historical and statistical data on old believers and sectarians, the history of their origin and the reasons for this phenomenon in the life of peasants.

Materials on educational activities of M. I. Zelenev were not included in the dictionary “Russian folklorists of the 18th —  the 19th centuries”. Due to their depth and scientific approach to the description of the spiritual and moral life of the Russian village, they are undoubtedly of value to researchers on folk culture. Problems reflected in more than a hundred publications of M. I. Zelenev are relevant for us nowadays: it is the superficial and external faith of people who consider themselves Orthodox, their lack of understanding of the spiritual essence of Christianity; and active promotion of sectarianism —  a characteristic phenomenon of the present time.