Keyword: «olonets governors»

The scientific literature devoted to the history of the Vygovsky hostel includes dozens of works. However, researchers have always been more interested in the period of its heyday than its decline. However, the period of the liquidation of community life also deserves careful study, when, according to the figurative expression of N.V. Shelgunov, the split “served as an anvil on which measures of intolerance and persecution were honed and tested.” Traditionally, this period is asso-ciated with the era of the reign of Nicholas I, but the persecution of the Old Believers continued under Alexander II. A striking example of such a policy is the litigation discussed in this article be-tween the Vygov Old Believers, headed by the last major of this community, Stepan Ivanov, and the Olonets diocesan authorities, led by Bishop Arkady, regarding the return of the icons seized from Ivanov's house. For the first time, all the vicissitudes of this case, which lasted 15 years, were reconstructed. At the same time, it is shown how the contradictory policy of the Government in relation to the Old Believers in the late 1850s-1860s. influenced the position taken by the Olonets governors in this lawsuit, and how this position, coupled with a subjective factor (personal hostile relations between the Olonets governors and Bishop Arkady) could influence the decision taken by the Olonets Chamber of Criminal and Civil Affairs to return the decorations from the icons seized Ivanov, canceled by the Senate on purely legal grounds.