1665

1665 is a historical date cited in a footnote to explain the religious background of the Old Believers, whose unrest figures in the novel’s account of provincial crisis. The date anchors a brief reference to the Church-book revision associated with Patriarch Nikon; it is not presented as the date of a narrated event in the plot.

Historical Reference

The footnote identifies 1665 as the year of the revised version of the Church Service Books promulgated by Patriarch Nikon. The Old Believers are defined there as dissenters who refused to accept that revision. The reference thus locates their religious identity in a specific dispute over church books rather than treating the group simply as a source of unrest.

Place in the Narrative

The date enters the text through explanatory apparatus, while the related conflict belongs to the story’s later provincial setting. Reports of an Antichrist purchasing the dead provoke the Old Believers to call people to prayer and repentance; under the pretext of capturing him, they attack those they regard as non-Antichrists. This episode is described alongside famine and failures in food distribution, as well as peasant resistance, contributing to the burdens confronting the Governor-General.

Significance

The footnote’s precision contrasts with the rumors and fabricated reports circulating in the plot. It gives the reader a historical point of reference for a religious community whose actions are drawn into the novel’s satirical picture of administrative confusion. The year 1665 therefore functions as contextual information, not as an independently dramatized date or a turning point in the characters’ lives.