Anthony the Wanderer was closely acquainted with a number of prominent government officials, deputies and some representatives of the higher clergy.

Candidate of historical sciences Andrei Tereshchuk found close similarities in the personality, appearance, outlook and biography of the Anthony the Wanderer and Grigory Rasputin.

[6][2] Candidates of historical sciences Andrei Tereshchuk and Sergei Firsov wrote that in his childhood years, having barely learned to read, Anthony preferred religious literature, especially hagiographies of saints.

Sergei Firsov and Andrey Tereshchuk noted that his conversion did not happen in his youth, but in his mature years, and the reason for it was the healing of a serious illness.

A few years later the parish received a request "whether the village community has any objections to the transfer of the peasant Anton Isaevich Petrov to the citizens of Biysk".

[6][7] Later it turned out that it was a resident of the Perm province Anna Efimovna Koshkina, who was not a nun and put on the cowl at the request of Petrov[8][9] Firsov wrote that up to twenty women lived with Anthony, who, in his words, "found no satisfaction in their surroundings".

On March 20, 1898 the observer of the Tobolsk diocesan school board wrote in his report: "The premises of this school, built at the expense of the Tobolsk citizen Anton Isaevich Petrov, who calls himself the wanderer Anthony, were given a more dignified form this year by the efforts of the headmaster, Father Alexander Sedachev: the teacher's apartment was moved to the lower floor, and the upper floor, except for the dressing room, was turned into a classroom".

[6][7] Anthony's companion during his travels in Siberia and Palestine in the 1890s was a well-known philanthropist among the merchants of Kronshtadt, Vladimir Dmitrievich Nikitin.

[8] A contemporary described two days of the wanderer's stay in Kronstadt: "On April 3 and 4, a huge crowd stood in front of one of these houses, which did not disperse until late at night.

In 1894 the political, social and literary newspaper Petersburgsky Listok reported: "The wanderer Anthony has workshops and factories which work only for him bells, iconostases, church utensils.

[Notes 1][13] In March 1894, a copper bell weighing 550 poods was cast for the donations of 11,000 roubles collected by Anthony for St. Andrew's Cathedral in Kronstadt.

[7] Andrei Tereshchuk wrote that after Anthony became an object of veneration in Moscow, St. Petersburg and other regions of Russia, he no longer went on foot and preferred to take a carriage.

A. in the monthly socio-political, literary and scientific journal Russkoye Bogatstvo characterized the wanderer Anthony as "once a happy rival of John of Kronstadt".

He mentioned some articles written by Anthony, in which "the tyranny and trash of the almost prehistoric times use all the power of the printing press and all the comforts of state patronage".

[14] On the contrary, the anonymous author of an article in the magazine Strannik for 1894 argues that Anthony did not address people with any kind of teaching or preaching.

[15]Vladimir Korolenko wrote that from 1894 the fame of the wanderer began to decline rapidly, and by the beginning of the 20th century Anthony had lost his popularity among the general public.

[9] However, the great-nephew of Anthony, the candidate of medicine, the surgeon Sergey Zyryanov in his memoirs wrote that the grave of the wanderer was actually destroyed during the Soviet rule, but "his compatriots still remember him as a saint and a Christian", so after 100 years they restored the place of his rest.

Apollinarius Lvov, the director of the Archives and Library of the Holy Synod, made an entry in his diary on April 14, 1894:[17]Everyone in the city is talking and writing in the newspapers about Anthony the Wanderer who came to St. Petersburg barefoot and in chains.

We are still treading the ground or turning back, and we want to assure ourselves and others that we are working and moving forward.An extremely negative opinion on Anthony was given by the chief procurator of the Holy Synod, Konstantin Pobedonostsev, in a letter to the head of the main press department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Evgeny Feoktistov, dated March 21, 1894.

[19] In the first edition of the book of the Russian socio-political figure, deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Empire of the first convocation from Kaluga Governorate and one of the leaders of the Constitutional Democratic Party Viktor Obninsky The Last Autocrat: Materials for the Nicholas II characterization, published in 1912 in Berlin, there was a large reproduction of the photo, under which there was a signature: "Anthony the Wanderer, a favorite of the Black Hundreds.

[10][21] In Soviet times, Anthony was commonly referred to as one of the "numerous domestic and imported miracle workers, seers, fortune tellers, and clichés", which included the occultist Papius, the praying mantis Daria Osipova, the wanderer Vasily Barefoot, the soothsayer Grippa, the fools as Pasha Sarovskaya and Mitya Kozelsky.

It was believed that they "performed the function of the most trusted persons and advisors of Nicholas II and Alexandra Feodorovna" in the period after the expulsion of the Frenchman Philip and before the appearance at the court of Grigory Rasputin.

Doctor of Philosophy Alexander Grigorenko, citing the testimony of Sergei Trufanov, claimed that the tsar had a rule: "First he listens to the 'elders' and 'blessed', and then to the ministers".

[22] For the first time in modern Russia, the attention of historical studies to the figure of the wanderer was drawn by Doctor of Histiry Sergei Firsov in the process of publishing the diary of Apollinarius Lvov.

[Notes 2][23][6][24] Andrei Tereshchuk found surprising similarities in the personality, appearance, outlook, and biography of the traveler Anthony and Grigory Rasputin.

In the future, I ask you not to associate my name with the activities of the wanderer Anthony, who is completely unknown to me, and not to include in your articles any of my conversations about him, which are transmitted inaccurately and can mislead those who read them”.

[8] The local historian Fyodor Kurakin described the arrival of Anthony from Kronstadt to consecrate the site for the construction of a church in the village of Starye Gorki in the modern Zubtsovsky district of the Tver region in 1894.

[25] The Russian writer and publicist Mikhail Shevlyakov described his encounter with Anthony in 1895 during his own pilgrimage to the Holy Trinity-Saint Sergius Lavra.

He walks barefoot, with two-pound weights on his back and chest, a shabby cassock, calico, and the wind ruffles his curls, a biblical old man.

[29] Davydov describes the appearance of the wanderer: "his face is a baked apple, his beard is scrubbed, his hair is unkempt and bushy, his cassock is patchy, his boots are begging for porridge".