[1] In its original version (the one published in Otechestvennye Zapiski), the novel dealt more with the life of Stargorod in general, focusing on its starovery community, but also describing in detail the ordinary, non-religious people's spiritual leanings.

[3] Archpriest (protopope) Savely Tuberozov is a spiritual leader of a Sobor (cathedral) in a provincial town of Stargorod, supported by Father Zakharia Benefaktov and the deacon Akhilla Desnitsyn.

He firmly believes in his spiritual and social mission, and, unwilling to make compromises, comes into conflict with his church seniors, as well as the local authorities.

The comic escapades and unconscious mischief – making of this enormous, exuberant, very unspiritual, and quite childlike deacon and the constant reprimands his behaviour draws from Father Tuberozov are familiar to every Russian reader, and Akhila himself is a universal favourite.

The very idea of a comparison with Trollope would be ridiculous in reference to one of his more typical tales.The novel is also notable for the skaz techniques of Tuberozov's diary, for its "vigorous and distinctive style", bookish turn of phrases, Slavonicisms and biblical quotations.

However, some critics, who judge the Russian novel by the criteria of Dostoevskian or Tolstoian novel of ideas, complain about the triviliazation of issues such as the struggle of materialism and religion in The Cathedral Folk and the novel's comic tone.

The name of Stargorod literally translates as "Old Town", and it symbolic significance is evoked through a series of parallels with early Russian literature and folklore.

Tuberozov is modelled on Archpriest Avvakum, Father Zakharia is in the tradition of saints, who believed in non-resistance to evil, while Akhilla is presented as one of the heroes of Russian folk epic, characters and episodes with them may be folklorized.

But although portraits of the ex-nihilist Termosesov and his employer Bornovolokov are unrelievedly black, all the positive characters of the novel have clear failings (although treated indulgently), and Leskov criticises not only the foreigners and left radicals (nihilists), but also the Russian Orthodox Church for its bureaucratic consistory system and too close relations with the State.