The classic work of great French Slavist Pierre Pascal (1890-1983), which brought him well-deserved international recognition, first translated into Russian language. For him, the future professor of the department of Russian language and literature at the Sorbonne, was awarded the degree of Doctor of Slavic Studies "with the highest honors." Immediately after its first edition in 1938, the monograph for many decades became a reference book on the history of Russian religious cataclysm of the second half of the XVII century and has not lost its scientific value to the present day. The book, written on the basis of a comparative study of the many original sources, with which the French scientist happened in 1920-1930, to work in the Moscow archives, is the most comprehensive in the world of bio Avvakum, a kind of encyclopedia of early Old Believers. Written an excellent literary style, involving a vast reservoir of documents of the era, the work that can be called a model of scientific prose, in detail and objectively traces the underlying causes of the split of the Russian Church, the tragic consequences of which affected so far.
