부산대학교 도서관

The source, revealing manifestation of peasants’ mentality, is published and analyzed in the article by the example of the cave functioning near the village of Malaya Znamenka of Kamenskaya volost in Melitopol parish of Taurida Governorate. This is the case “About peasant Zagvozdkin who dug prayer caves in his garden by desire of a starets seen in his sleepof” conducted from June 27th to September 12th of 1874 by the Synod, and kept in the Russian State Historical Archive. Urgency of the commented article is in the fact that it introduces new materials on the development of cave digging tradition in the Tavricheskaya province in the Synodal period of the Russian Orthodox Church. This allows to extend the timeframe of the cult caves existence in the region concerned and to mark the ways of cave digging folk tradition.