He was then allowed to return to Moscow again for the Church Council of 1666–67, but due to his continued opposition to the reforms, he was exiled to Pustozyorsk, above the Arctic Circle, in 1667.

Avvakum's autobiography recounts hardships of his imprisonment and exile to the Russian Far East, the story of his friendship and fallout with Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, his practice of exorcising demons and devils, and his boundless admiration for nature and other works of God.

The text discusses Avvakum's struggle against Patriarch Nikon's reforms during the Schism of the Russian Church and extensively details the trials he experienced during various exiles in Siberia.

The text is remarkable for its style, which blends high Old Church Slavonic with low Russian vernacular and profanity.

[4] The Life is considered "one of medieval Russia's finest literary works" and was regarded highly by both Leo Tolstoy and Fyodor Dostoevsky.

[5][6][7][8] In the 17th century, the Russian Church underwent significant reforms spearheaded by Patriarch Nikon and supported by Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich.

Historian Georg Bernhard Michels writes that "the Russian Orthodox Church became a significant target of popular hostility during the second half of the seventeenth century.

[9] As the Time of Troubles was seen as a punishment for impiety, the Church was "intensely conservative" and "aspired to restore the 'ancient piety' in its fullness.

In the late 1640s, Nikon and Avvakum were members of the Zealots of Piety (known also as bogolyubtsy, i.e. "lovers of God"), a circle of ecclesiastical and secular figures who aimed to improve religious and civilian life and to purify and strengthen the influence of the Russian Orthodox Church.

[12] Gradually, a split appeared in this circle: while certain Zealots echoed the sentiments of the Ruthenian revival, others, most notably Avvakum, "felt that homespun truths were sufficient and suspected foreigners of [cunning], which would adulterate the simple, strong native faith."

"[9] This exacerbated tensions with and among the Zealots, who "wanted to create a church which was morally pure and close to the ordinary Russian people".

Nikon's vision of ecclesiastical restoration assumed the "continued dominance of the church over state" and stretched beyond Muscovy to the "entire Eastern Christian ecumene.

"[13] Nikon's ambitions were further strengthened by his "contact with Greek and Ukrainian churchmen" and by Russian territorial gains in the Russo-Polish War of 1654–1667.

Russian linguist Alexander Komchatnov further emphasizes that that goal was in line with Muscovy's newly developed imperial aims, allowing Russia to position itself at the center of the whole Orthodox world instead of remaining a marginal religious entity.

[17] A trial of the Zealots was held and leading Old Believers, Avvakum among them, were exiled beyond the Arctic Circle to Pustozersk on the Pechora River, in today's Nenets-Autonomous Okrug, 27 km from Naryan-Mar.

Scholars such as Alan Wood consider The Life a prototype of Siberian prison literature, a tradition that would most famously be continued by Fyodor Dostoevsky (Notes from the House of the Dead) in the 19th century and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (The Gulag Archipelago) in the 20th.

He was born circa 1620 in Grigorevo in present-day Nizhny Novgorod Oblast to an alcoholic priest named Pyotr, who died while Avvakum was a child, and a nun, Maria.

The two are initially friends, but Nikon begins his reforms soon thereafter, forcing several dissenting members of the clergy to undergo shearings, markings, and exile.

Avvakum extensively describes his first exile to Tobolsk and his experience on the forced expedition to Dauria, led by Afanasy Pashkov.

In one episode, Pashkov sends his son Eremej to battle in Mongolian territory, but first asks a shaman to predict the outcome of the war.

Though Avvakum's fellows in Pustozersk are physically mutilated by their guards and their tongues, fingers, or hands cut off, God grants them all supernatural healing.

Then Neronov spoke, and he told the tsar the three pestilences that come of the schism in the Church: the plague, the sword, and division.

In response to his doubt, the Archpriestess Nastasya Markova hardens his resolve:"Now stand up and preach the Word of God like you used to and don't grieve over us.... Now go on, get to the church, Petrovič, unmask the whoredom of heresy!"

Well, sir, I bowed low to her for that, and shaking off the blindness of a heavy heart, I began to preach and teach the Word of God about the tows and everywhere, and yet again did I unmask the Nikonian heresy with boldness.

"[37] An episode with Avvakum's wife Nastasya Markovna further emphasizes the theme of endurance:The poor Archpriestess tottered and trudged along, and then she'd fall in a heap — fearful slippery it was!

"[38]Avvakum frequently relies on prayer and God's grace to survive the many trials he is put through and to conquer the forces he encounters.

Then he started galloping around and dancing and summoning devils, and after considerable shouting he slammed himself against the ground and foam ran out of his mouth.

In his response to his prayer for water, God splintered and parted the ice, leaving him a small hole from which to drink.

[21] In The Life, the horrific struggle against vast Siberian distances, the harsh cold and the ensuing hunger and thirst — which prompt hellish instances of eating infant foals and carrion — are interposed with rhapsodies waxing poetic about the beautiful Siberian landscape and the God-given bountiful excess it keeps as its treasure.