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The article reviews the research papers devoted to Old Believer hectographed publications, the study of which began, in fact, only in the late 1980s. With all the variety of descriptive analysis, the basic principles for describing Old Believer hectographed publications have now been developed and tested. The catalog prepared by N. Yu. Bubnov (2012) became an important milestone in the study of Old Believer hectographs. Archaeographers describe collections of Old Believer hectographed publications, studying the activities of different Old Believer publishing centers, which helps to draw conclusions both about the characteristics of publications of a particular hectograph-making workshop, and about the peculiarities of the typographers’ publishing policy. Archaeography researchers also study hectographed musical publications, as well as individual works printed with a hectograph. This paper is the first in a series of articles devoted to the description and study of Old Believer hectographed publications, located in the Book and Manuscript Collection of the Sverdlovsk Regional Museum of Local Lore named after O. E. Cler. The basic principles that guided the author when describing hectographs from the Museum’s collection are outlined. The author provides a description of the collection published on a hectograph “A Collection of Divine Scriptures Serving for the Justification of Orthodox Christians” (“Flower Garden Ruzh’e”). Published by the Old Believers-Wanderers, the collection contains a selection of extracts on the issues important for this Stranniki community. The table of contents of the Collection is published in the appendix to the article. Other copies of the publication are currently unknown.

The article describes four storage units from the collection of rare handwritten and old-printed books of the Ekaterinburg Seminary library, containing hectographed editions. In total, presented are nine hectographed editions, six of which are included in a pamphlet volume. Almost all the editions (eight of the nine) belong to the Old Believers and date back to the early 20th century. And one edition, dated 1965, was produced by the Baptists. Eight out of nine editions are unique and currently known in a single copy. Six Old Believer hectographed editions were made in Ekaterinburg by the Old Believers of the Belokrinitsky (“Austrian”) Agreement. Publishing activities were carried out under the leadership of V. G. Usov, at the expense and in the house of the Ekaterinburg merchant G. N. Grachev. The described hectographed Old Believer publications contain important material both for the history of Old Belief in general and for the history of the Old Believers in the Urals. Printed on a hectograph in 1965, the “Collection of Spiritual Songs of Evangelical Christian Baptists” is an interesting example of religious “samizdat” of the Soviet epoch. The hectographed publications are described according to the methodology adopted in the Laboratory of Archeographic Research of the Ural Federal University (LAI UrFU). The description is followed by an index of fifth lines.