‘Patriarch Nikon ad His Opponents in the Affair of Reforming Ecclesiastic Rites. The Time of Patriarch Joseph’ by N.F. Kapterev was published in 1887. According to the author’s plan, it would be the first part of the larger research work. But the initial aims were achieved much later, in another book by the author: ‘Patriarch Nikon and Tsar Alexey Mikhailovich’. The main aim of the first book was “to estimate correctly and to understand” the significance of “Nikon as a reformer”; K. wrote that a necessary condition was “to establish a correct attitude to the time” before the reforms, and to clear the “natural link” between the activity of Nikon and Joseph, as his predecessor not only in time, but also in the type of activity. As a result of his research, K. concluded that the reforms ascribed to Nikon, in fact, had been started in the time of Patriarch Joseph and had been prepared with the work of Greek and Ukrainian monks. K. stressed the influence of Kievan printed books and educated people from Kiev, as well as Greeks, at the process of growing authority  of the Greek Church in Russia, the acceptance of the idea of mistakes in old books and the necessity of their check and correction, and obvious longing for the improvement of ecclesiastic life of Russia. From that point of view, Nikon was an ‘enthusiastic follower’ of the reforms planned by Joseph.