Early Modern · c. 1672–1675
The Life Written by Himself
Avvakum Petrov · 1620/21–1682
What it is
An Old Believer priest's account of exile in Siberia, his wife stumbling in the mud and asking how long it will go on, and his refusal to accept Nikon's corrected books.
Why it lasted
The first Russian autobiography and the birth of Russian literary prose, written in an earth prison by a man burned alive eight years later.
Where to read it
This work is in the public domain and can be read in full, free, at the archives below. The Library catalogues it; it does not host the text.
These open a search on each archive rather than a direct link, which is the honest way to point at an edition nobody here has checked line by line.
Read next