The Frenchman Gilbert Sichel-Dulong (1877–1946) was undoubtedly a significant person in Urals history of the early 1920s. He was active in two spheres, very different from each other. On the one hand, he is «one of the first researchers of Urals Old Believer icon-painters» and even «the Discoverer of the Nevyansk Iconography», on the other, a «nonambiguous spy», «a colonel of the French Intelligence Department». Historians of Ural Secret Services are still proud of his exposure. However, the sources indicate, that both the first and second statements are greatly exaggerated. This article is devoted to some aspects of the «research» activities of G. Sichel-Dulong. In August 1922, Sichel-Dulong arrived in the Urals as the head of French Red Cross mission to help the starving population. In January 1923, at the meeting of Ural Society of Naturalists, he presented a paper about the Old Believers iconographic tradition in the Urals. Urals Old Believers were his main consultants, primarily the antiquarian D. Pleshkov and the iconographer G. Romanov. Sichel-Dulong visited the Old Believers chapels, inspected a lot of icons, wrote down the names of some icon painters and described their works. This report was a very interesting attempt to first systematize information about the Ural iconography, although, in the author’s opinion, it was not a «completed work», with many omissions and mistakes. Unfortunately, this report was not published in the 1920s due to the involvement of Sichel-Dulong in the espionage scandal associated with secret data on the work of platinum mines. The report was found in the archive only in the 1980s and it was published only in 1997.

Француз Жильбер Сишель-Дюлонг, несомненно, «вписал» себя в историю Урала начала 1920-х гг. Причем произошло это в двух довольно далеких друг от друга темах. С одной стороны, он — «один из первых исследователей творчества уральских иконописцев-старообрядцев» и даже «первооткрыватель Невьянской школы иконописи», а с другой — «несомненный шпион», «полковник французской разведки», разоблачением которого до сих пор гордятся историки уральских спецслужб. Однако, как по-казало изучение источников, и первое, и второе утверждения сильно преувеличены. В данной статье мы затронем некоторые аспекты «исследовательской» деятельности Ж. Сишель-Дюлонга.

Статья подготовлена в рамках выполнения проекта № 33.2182.2017/ПЧ «Формирование русской культурно-религиозной идентичности: памятники традиционной письменности как символические коды культурной памяти» госзадания Министерства образования РФ.