The religious and political movement of the 17th century, as a result of which a part of the believers who did not accept the reforms of Patriarch Nikon, separated from the Russian Orthodox Church, was called a schism.
Also at the divine service, instead of singing "Alleluia" twice, it was ordered to sing three times. Instead of circumambulating the temple during baptism and weddings in the sun, circumambulation against the sun was introduced. Instead of seven prosphora, five prosphora were served at the liturgy. Instead of an eight-pointed cross, they began to use four-pointed and six-pointed. By analogy with the Greek texts, instead of the name of Christ, Jesus, the patriarch ordered Jesus to be written in newly printed books. In the eighth member of the Creed ("In the Holy Spirit of the true Lord") removed the word "true".
Innovations were approved by church councils of 1654-1655. During 1653-1656, corrected or newly translated liturgical books were published at the Printing Yard.
The dissatisfaction of the population was caused by violent measures, with the help of which Patriarch Nikon introduced new books and rituals into use. Some members of the Circle of Zealots of Piety were the first to speak out for the "old faith", against the reforms and actions of the patriarch. Archpriests Avvakum and Daniil submitted a note to the tsar in defense of double-fingering and about prostrations during divine services and prayers. Then they began to argue that the introduction of corrections according to Greek models defiles the true faith, since the Greek Church has departed from the "ancient piety", and its books are printed in Catholic printing houses. Ivan Neronov spoke out against the strengthening of the power of the patriarch and for the democratization of church administration. The clash between Nikon and the defenders of the "old faith" took on sharp forms. Avvakum, Ivan Neronov and other opponents of the reforms were severely persecuted. The speeches of the defenders of the "old faith" received support in various strata of Russian society, ranging from individual representatives of the highest secular nobility to the peasants. Among the masses, a lively response was found by the sermons of the schismatics about the onset of the "end time", about the accession of the Antichrist, to whom the tsar, the patriarch and all the authorities allegedly already bowed down and carry out his will.
The Great Moscow Cathedral of 1667 anathematized (excommunicated) those who, after repeated exhortations, refused to accept new rites and newly printed books, and also continued to scold the church, accusing it of heresy. The cathedral also deprived Nikon of his patriarchal rank. The deposed patriarch was sent to prison - first to Ferapontov, and then to Kirillo Belozersky Monastery.
Carried away by the preaching of schismatics, many townspeople, especially peasants, fled to the dense forests of the Volga region and the North, to the southern outskirts of the Russian state and abroad, founded their communities there.
From 1667 to 1676, the country was engulfed in riots in the capital and on the outskirts. Then, in 1682, the Streltsy riots began, in which the schismatics played an important role. The schismatics attacked monasteries, robbed monks, and seized churches.
A terrible consequence of the split was burning - mass self-immolation. The earliest report of them dates back to 1672, when 2,700 people set themselves on fire in the Paleostrovsky Monastery. From 1676 to 1685, according to documented information, about 20,000 people died. Self-immolations continued into the 18th century, and in some cases at the end of the 19th century.
The main result of the split was a church division with the formation of a special branch of Orthodoxy - the Old Believers. By the end of the 17th - beginning of the 18th centuries, there were various currents of the Old Believers, which received the names of "talks" and "consent". The Old Believers were divided into clergy and non-priests. The priests recognized the need for the clergy and all church sacraments, they were settled in the Kerzhensky forests (now the territory of the Nizhny Novgorod region), the regions of Starodubye (now the Chernigov region, Ukraine), the Kuban (Krasnodar Territory), the Don River.
Bespopovtsy lived in the north of the state. After the death of the priests of the pre-schism ordination, they rejected the priests of the new appointment, therefore they began to be called priestless. The sacraments of baptism and repentance and all church services, except for the liturgy, were performed by elected laity.
Patriarch Nikon had nothing to do with the persecution of the Old Believers - from 1658 until his death in 1681, he was first in voluntary, and then in forced exile.
At the end of the 18th century, the schismatics themselves began to make attempts to get closer to the church. On October 27, 1800, Edinoverie was established in Russia by decree of Emperor Paul as a form of reunification of the Old Believers with the Orthodox Church.
The Old Believers were allowed to serve according to the old books and observe the old rites, among which the greatest importance was attached to double-fingeredness, but Orthodox clergymen performed worship and rites.
In July 1856, by decree of Emperor Alexander II, the police sealed the altars of the Pokrovsky and Nativity Cathedrals of the Old Believer Rogozhsky cemetery in Moscow. The reason was denunciations that liturgies were solemnly celebrated in churches, "tempting" the faithful of the synodal church. Divine services were held in private prayer houses, in the houses of the capital's merchants and manufacturers.
On April 16, 1905, on the eve of Easter, a telegram from Nicholas II arrived in Moscow, allowing "to print the altars of the Old Believer chapels of the Rogozhsky cemetery." The next day, April 17, the imperial "Decree on Religious Tolerance" was promulgated, which guaranteed freedom of religion to the Old Believers.
In 1929, the Patriarchal Holy Synod formulated three resolutions:
- "On the recognition of the old Russian rites as saving, like the new rites, and equal to them";
- "On the rejection and imputation, as if not the former, of reprehensible expressions relating to the old rites, and especially to the two-finger";
- "On the abolition of the oaths of the Moscow Cathedral of 1656 and the Great Moscow Council of 1667, imposed by them on the old Russian rites and on Orthodox Christians adhering to them, and to consider these oaths as if they had not been."
The Local Council of 1971 approved three resolutions of the Synod of 1929.
On January 12, 2013, in the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin, with the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill, the first liturgy after the schism according to the ancient rite was celebrated.
The material was prepared on the basis of information from open sources in
During wars and revolutions, the religious factor plays an exceptional role, because religious motivation penetrates the very depths of the human soul. And the more biased her followers are in their beliefs, the bloodier the consequences. The revolutions in Russia in 1905 and 1917 were no exception. What do Orthodox Old Believers have to do with revolutions and the murder of Russia? Isn't it loud?
My first acquaintances with the Old Believers and their shrines made positive, indelible impressions on me: piety, strictness, asceticism, many hours of worship, humble obeisances, attractive antiquity, diligence, scrupulousness, accuracy, a certain mysticism. I hope that all this applies to the majority of modern Old Believers. But what was the position of the Old Believers in the period 1905-1917? and how was their participation in the revolution expressed?
Modern Old Believer Bishops
It turns out that participation was the most direct. About the Old Believers, about fellow believers - those who joined the Russian Orthodox Church - the article will not go. You will have to take a fresh look at our history, so I will sign reproductions and paintings on behalf of the Old Believers.
What was the Old Believer society in the Russian Empire like?
We can definitely say about them that it was the religion of the merchants.
In pre-revolutionary Russia, the richest and most enterprising people were the Old Believers. Being oppressed and persecuted by the authorities for several centuries, having a strong communal way of life, high morality and asceticism, they created their own, internal financial religious-collective empire. The famous Russian community has become the best tool that allows them to maximize the concentration of both economic and spiritual resources; community-collectivist (rather than private-property) relations served as the foundation on which the social life of the Old Believers was built.
At the turn of the 20th century, there were only three financially wealthy groups of people in Russia: Old Believers (merchants and industrialists), foreign businessmen, and noble landowners. Think about it, the share of the Old Believers accounted for more than 60% of all private capital of the Empire! And this means that financially they influenced the entire economy and the political palette of the country. At the same time, according to various estimates, the number of Old Believers themselves of all the existing sects at that time was no more than 2% of the total population and 10-15% of the number of Russians in the Empire.
The Old Believers were not a monolithic religious entity, they were divided into two groups: “priests” and “non-priests”. Already these names themselves speak of the existence or absence of clergy in these groups. In addition, divisions also occurred within the groups and various rumors were created, which were intertwined with different sects. Over the past centuries, no less than seventy such rumors, with terrible perversions of the Gospel truths, have arisen.
Beliefs and attitudes towards rituals within groups were often even mutually exclusive. But all the Old Believers were united, at the level of dogma and cult, by a fierce hatred of the Russian Orthodox Church and the authorities, in particular, the house of the Romanovs, as the rulers of the Antichrist. There were objective historical reasons for this hatred - persecution for the faith, social oppression, a ban on preaching and spreading one's religion. Under far-fetched pretexts, the Old Believers were punished and their property was taken away from them, they were sent into exile, their churches were closed and destroyed. They were allowed to register marriages (get married) only in the churches of the Russian Orthodox Church, which meant a forced inclination to the "faith of the Antichrist."
The economic and managerial model formed by the split was challenged in the 1950s. The main blow was directed at the merchant class. From now on, only those who belonged to the Synodal Church (ROC) or Edinoverie could get into the merchant guilds; all Russian merchants were obliged to provide evidence of this from Orthodox clergy. In case of refusal, entrepreneurs were transferred to temporary guild law for a period of one year. As a result, all the Old Believer merchants faced a tough choice: to lose everything or change their faith. There was an alternative - to join the co-religion, while maintaining the old rites; the majority leaned towards the latter option.
At that time, Old Believer riots took place in Russia, which later, during the Soviet era, were presented as a manifestation of the class struggle, silent about their religious motivation.
The Old Believers hated P.A. with fierce hatred. Stolypin for his reform activities, so they rejoiced at his murder. Despite the success of his reforms, new civilizational challenges of urbanization, such as, for example, the resettlement of peasants in Siberia, destroyed the established communal way of life of the Old Believers. In addition, the peasant settlers competed with the enterprises and banks of the Old Believers in that they were paid loans and allowances from the state treasury, were allocated free land plots, and they successfully developed their economy.
P.A. Stolypin kept under personal control the issue of transferring the Old Believers - schismatics to the co-religion and achieved success in this: the vast majority of the Cossacks - the Old Believers switched to the Russian Orthodox Church or the co-religion.
Murder of P.A. Stolypin
But then the long-awaited freedom came - effective measures were taken “to eliminate constraints in the field of religion”: by his Decree of April 17, 1905 “On strengthening the principles of religious tolerance”, Emperor Nicholas II equalized the rights of the Old Believers and Orthodox Christians. Since then, they have ceased to be called schismatics. It was a flash of prosperity and development of the Old Believers until the end of the 20s.
Organization of the Revolution of 1905 by the Old Believers
In August 1905, a closed "private meeting of the Old Believers" was held in Nizhny Novgorod, which decided that the freedoms granted to the Old Believers could be taken away from them. It was decided to continue the struggle until the appearance in the State Duma of the faction of Old Believers with a decisive vote. The millionaire Ryabushinsky suggested creating a system of "traveling propagandists" for this.
Old Believer millionaire Vladimir Pavlovich Ryabushinsky trained revolutionary agitators
More than 120 people, funded by the Old Believers, dispersed to all corners of the Russian Empire with calls for revolution and social justice. Their main slogan was: “Freedom has come! You can take the land from the landowners by force.” At the same time, of course, there were no calls for the expropriation of factories and plants, 60% owned by the Old Believers. This was explained by the fact that they were not driven at all by the desire to fight for social justice, but by the fact that the landowners were competitors for them. Religious motivation also mattered: after all, the landowners and government officials were Orthodox, that is, in the eyes of the Old Believers, heretics - Nikonians, New Believers - "servants of the Antichrist."
The ground for the revolution of 1905 had been prepared by the Old Believers for a long time. So, in 1897, in Zamoskvorechye, they founded the "Prechistensky Courses", at which lectures were given to everyone on socialism and Marxism. By 1905, 1,500 people were enrolled in the courses. Naturally, these professional revolutionary agitators were schismatics by religion - Old Believers of various kinds, dissatisfied with the "power of the Antichrist." More people could have studied at the courses, but the size of the premises did not allow. However, it turned out to be fixable. The famous clan of Old Believers Morozov contributed 85 thousand rubles for the construction of a three-story Marxist school, the land for which was allocated by the City Duma in the person of its leader, Old Believer Guchkov. With the money of the same Old Believer Savva Morozov, the revolutionaries bought weapons in 1905.
Old Believer merchant Savva Morozov, whose money was used to purchase weapons for fratricide
It would seem that there is a contradiction: how could deeply religious people help the opponents of any religion? But in fact there was no contradiction! The Old Believers fought not against private property, but only against the Antichrist, from their point of view, power, using the Marxists for their own purposes, thereby nurturing the beast that devoured them.
Revolution is profitable!
A series of strikes and riots swept across the country. A classic example is the legendary Lena execution. Before the riots, the Lenzoloto company was owned by the British, Old Believer merchants and Baron Gunzburg. The company's shares were traded on the London, Paris and Moscow stock exchanges. The protests, which began after the sale of rotten meat in a factory store, ended, as usual, with a popular riot. This was followed by the execution of workers by soldiers, a massive campaign in the press, as well as a number of angry reports in the Duma, initiated by all the same Old Believers. The British were forced to leave, but the shares were bought for a penny by the millionaire Old Believer Zakhary Zhdanov, one of the former owners of Lenzoloto, who successfully sold his stake shortly before the riots began. On the deal, he won 1.5 million gold rubles. Similar, one might say raider, seizures carried out with a good purpose - to deprive foreigners of the right to own assets in the Russian Empire - took place everywhere.
The February Revolution completed the work begun in 1905: the Old Believers received full power. More than half of the 25 most influential merchant families in Moscow were Old Believers: Avksentievs, Buryshkins, Guchkovs, Konovalovs, Morozovs, Prokhorovs, Ryabushinskys, Soldatenkovs, Tretyakovs, Khludovs. The power in the city belonged to the Old Believers. They were members of the Moscow City Duma, members of public committees, dominated the Moscow Stock Exchange. The leadership of the largest opposition bourgeois parties - the Cadets, Octobrists and Progressives - was still carried out by the same people. N.D. Avksentiev, A.I. Guchkov, A.I. Konovalov, S.N. Tretyakov was also in charge in the Provisional Government.
Old Believer socialism
Already by the beginning of the 20th century, the Old Believers introduced high social standards at their enterprises: a 9-hour working day, free dormitories for workers, medical rooms, a nursery garden for children, and libraries. Interest-free loans were issued to build their own stone houses. Own free hospital was equipped with an operating room, an outpatient clinic, a pharmacy and a maternity hospital. There was a sanatorium and an almshouse for the elderly. There were vocational schools for young people. A pension was also assigned in the amount of 25-50% of the average wage. So the high social standards in the USSR were not an invention of the Communists, but of the Old Believers.
It is not surprising that the workers of the enterprises owned by the Old Believers supported their masters in everything. During the barricades, strikes, strikes, the workers were still paid a working day. Barricades during the revolution of 1905 in Moscow were located according to belonging to the enterprises of the Old Believers. The barricades of the Sokolniki and Rogozhsko-Simonovsky districts were in the zone of influence of the Preobrazhenskaya and Rogozhskaya Old Believer communities. Large forces were sent to the revolutionary struggle by the factory of the Old Believer Mamontov and the furniture factory of the Old Believer Shmit. Representatives of the Rakhmanov Old Believer community stood on Butyrsky Val.
The Old Believers organized strikes to fight the "anti-Christ" authorities
The merchant elite resolutely said goodbye to the Slavophile ideas about the possibility of development on a monarchical basis. The merchants turned to the radical elements, which were concentrated in circles of social democrats and social revolutionaries. It was from such a circle that Dmitry Bogrov, the murderer of Stolypin, came. It was a betrayal of Holy Russia!
Beginning in 1905, a wave of assassinations of officials, governors, and heads of cities swept across the country. The revolutionaries did their job - they shook the country.
Professional revolutionaries and terrorists were hired by Old Believer industrialists. They were rarely seen in the shops, but they received their salaries regularly. The salary of revolutionary locksmiths ranged from 80 to 150 rubles (quite large money for those times). Those workers who were indignant were declared police agents, henchmen of tsarism and fired, because the enterprises were private.
Old Believer aiding terrorists
So, historical facts confirm that in 1905 the Old Believers and their capital took the most active part in the revolution.
Joy of the Old Believers: The Provisional Government and the Bolsheviks of 1917
The arrival of the Provisional Government and the abdication of the Tsar were greeted with furious enthusiasm by all the Old Believers of various kinds, especially the "Old Orthodox priests."
The Old Believers of Yegoryevsk, at their meeting on April 17, 1917, adopted a resolution where they noted that “they rejoice sincerely at the overthrow of the painful oppression of the despotic power of the irresponsible government, alien to the Russian spirit — the oppression that fettered the development of the spiritual and material forces of the country; they also rejoice in all the proclaimed freedoms: speech, press, personality.
In April 1917, an extraordinary congress of the Old Believers of the Belokrinitsky hierarchy was held. Its resolution stated: "The complete separation of the Church from the state and the freedom of religious groups located in Russia will serve only for the good, greatness and prosperity of free Russia."
The interim government announced its intention to remove all restrictions on the activities of religious associations. On July 14, 1917, a corresponding decree “On freedom of conscience” appeared. It caused great joy in all the Old Believers' concords; meetings of communities and dioceses expressed their support to the Provisional Government.
In the fall of 1917, the Provisional Government fell, the Bolsheviks came to power, dispersed the Constituent Assembly and established the dictatorship of the proletariat.
The Old Believers liked the word "Bolshevik" very much. In the communal way of life of the Old Believers, there was a position-position "bolshak", which meant the elder in the family, in the house, in rural and church communities. Bolshaks solved important community issues. Bolshaks were especially revered by the bespopovtsy, for whom they played the role of religious leaders, instead of priests. It is hard to imagine that such consonance could be just a coincidence; most likely, it was a well-thought-out religious manipulation of behind-the-scenes revolutionaries.
Bolshevik Bolshak-Old Believer, artist B. Kustodiev
Now the Old Believers do not want to admit their mistake - conscious participation in the bloody revolution, but it was on the arrival of the Bolsheviks that they placed their hope for a new era of Christ after the reign of the “power of the Antichrist”.
If you look at the statistical data on where in central Russia the Bolsheviks were most supported, then these are Vladimir (which included the city of Ivanovo), Kostroma and Nizhny Novgorod provinces - regions in which both priests and non-priests of various persuasions settled very densely.
The portraits of the German leaders of the Bolsheviks aroused confidence among the Old Believers - after all, they had big beards! For the Old Believers, this was important. The red color of the banner was associated with Red Easter, and they quite seriously wrote on revolutionary posters: "Communist Easter."
The participants in the revolution were religiously motivated. Easter card of the revolutionary period.
The Old Believers took an active part in the revolution of 1917 and supported the Bolsheviks and Lenin personally. Both sides were united by their hatred of the Romanovs. It is enough to look at paintings and posters of a revolutionary theme, where the characters are bearded Old Believer men: Vladimir Serov's "Walkers at Lenin's", Boris Kustodiev's "Bolshevik", his poster "Freedom Loan", etc.
Walkers-Old Believers near Lenin, artist V. Serov
Most of the Old Believers in Russia were non-priest talk. The Bespopovites enjoyed moral authority among the people. By the end of the 19th century, the proletarian lower classes were approximately 80% of the Old Believers-bespriests: the emerging factories and factories absorbed streams of Old Believers from the Center, from the Volga and Urals, from the northern regions. The channels of the Old Believers' concords (fellowships) acted as a kind of "personnel services". After the revolution of 1917, it was from among these “conscious workers” that the recruitment of new people’s party cadres, the “Leninist call”, “the second conquest of the soul of the working class”, etc., took place. It was the bespopovtsy who formed the basis of the first Soviet generation of managers, party workers and commissars.
Lenin and the Freemasons behind him were well aware of the religious ins and outs of Russia and manipulated public consciousness, playing off and killing the people. Lenin needed those who hated tsarism and Orthodoxy, and these were sectarians, Old Believers.
The Soviet government invited everyone who fled from the previous regime to return to the country: “The workers' and peasants' revolution has done its job. All those who struggled with the old world, who suffered from its hardships, sectarians and Old Believers among them, must all be participants in the creation of new forms of life. And we say to sectarians and Old Believers, wherever they live on the whole earth: welcome!”
Bolshevik-Bolshevik Bonch-Bruevich, he is also an Old Believer Semyon Gvozd, a personal friend of Lenin
In 1921, the Old Believers signed the Act of Loyalty with the Soviet authorities. A characteristic example of the interaction between the Old Believers and revolutionaries can serve as the fate of the famous Bolshevik Bonch-Bruevich, a personal friend of Lenin. In the late 1890s, Pryanishnikov, a millionaire Old Believer, helped Bonch-Bruevich move to the West under the pseudonym Uncle Tom. One of the tasks of the revolutionary agent was the transfer of Doukhobors and Molokans from Russia to England and the USA. In 1904, the indefatigable Uncle Tom began to publish a number of magazines abroad and the periodical Dawn, in which he spoke under the pseudonym Old Believer Semyon Gvozd. The most interesting thing is that immediately after the 1917 revolution, Bonch-Bruevich actively helped many sectarians to return to their homeland, whom he had previously helped to leave Russia, because Orthodox Russia had to be destroyed.
Cossack-Old Believer who accepted Bolshevik ideas
Old Believer Red Terror
But how could it happen that deeply religious people, ascetics, zealots of antiquity, who wanted justice and truth, arose such hatred, expressed in homicide, destruction and explosions of Orthodox (not Old Believer) churches, burning icons, shooting clergy, denunciations?
Old Believers and sectarians formed the backbone of Soviet power. Therefore, they borrowed the whole complex of anti-religious measures from the Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church, which was engaged in the fight against schismatics, which was expressed in the destruction of their churches, the deprivation of legal rights and the right to register marriages, denunciations and executions, exiles, including hard labor, and etc. But, in addition to a sense of revenge, they were also driven by religious motives.
All priests and bespopovtsy considered the official state Church deprived of grace and a servant of the Antichrist, just like the ruling Tsarist dynasty. Therefore, hatred towards them was at the level of doctrinal truths. I will briefly touch on some of them.
The abuse of the "servants" of the Antichrist
Bespopovtsy are Old Believers who rejected the new priests after the reforms of Patriarch Nikon. They decided that it was impossible to accept not only the priesthood, but also baptism from the followers of Nikon, so everyone who came to them from the New Rite church was baptized anew. The sacraments of baptism and repentance began to be performed by ordinary laity; they conducted all church services, except for the liturgy. Over time, the Bespriests formed a special rank of mentors - lay people elected by society to perform spiritual services and deeds.
Ancient Orthodox Pomeranian Church- this is the course of bespopovtsy. In it, the sacraments of baptism and confession are also performed by lay people - spiritual mentors.
Aaronites they did not recognize the wedding performed in the Orthodox Church, demanding in this case a divorce or a new marriage. Like many other schismatics, they shied away from passports, considering them "seals of the Antichrist."
Fedoseevtsy were convinced of the historical corruption of the Russian state. They believed that the kingdom of the Antichrist had come, they denied praying for the Tsar in the name. Subsequently, the teachings of the Fedoseyevites were adopted by the Pomortsy. During the Great Patriotic War, the Fedoseyevites proved to be malicious collaborators who collaborated with Nazi Germany.
defaulters they rejected divine services, the sacraments and the veneration of saints. They did not make the sign of the cross, did not wear a cross, did not recognize fasting. Prayers were replaced by religious home conversations and readings.
"Runners" called those who rejected the new baptism, believed that it was necessary to break all ties with society, to evade all civil duties.
self-baptists- Old Believers baptized themselves, without priests.
middlemen, unlike other self-baptists, did not recognize the days of the week. In their opinion, when during the time of Peter I the celebration of the New Year was moved from September 1 to January 1, the courtiers made a mistake by 8 years and moved the days of the week. Thus, for them, Wednesday is the former Sunday.
Ryabinovtsy they refused to pray on icons where anyone else was present, except for the depicted image. They began to carve eight-pointed crosses made of rowan wood for prayers without images and inscriptions. In addition, the Ryabinovites did not recognize church sacraments.
Dyrniki they did not revere icons, praying for holes.
Shepherd's consent: His followers condemned the use of passports and money with the image of the imperial coat of arms, which they considered the seal of the Antichrist. New supporters of their doctrine were re-baptized.
The fight against the antichrist "seal"
Netov's consent (Spasovites): the main idea of this doctrine is that the Antichrist has reigned in the world, grace has been taken to heaven, the Church is no more, the sacraments have been destroyed. The Spasovites descended from the Strigolniks, who rejected the church hierarchy. The followers of this agreement are divided into Starospasovtsy and Novospassovtsy, who, in turn, are divided into small and large.
Aristov's sense: created by the St. Petersburg merchant Aristov, who believed that all relations with the secular authorities, as, in his opinion, heretical and serving the Antichrist, are illegal. As a consequence, a true Christian must avoid the orders of authority and not relate to it in any way.
Unbaptized Old Believers are the most radical branch of the Old Believers, created in the Vasilsursky and Makaryevsky districts of the Nizhny Novgorod province. His followers went so far as to deny the possibility of performing the sacrament of baptism even by a layman (that is, a priestless rank), therefore, representatives of this consent remained without baptism at all, replacing it by putting on a newborn cross when reading the 50th psalm.
Neokruzhniki (protivokruzhniki, discordants) are part of the adherents of the Belokrinitsky consent (priests) who did not accept the “District Message of the Russian Archpastors of the Belokrinitskaya Hierarchy” of 1862. The most indignant among the radical members of the Belokrinitsky consent were the assertions of the “District Message” that “the Church now ruling in Russia, likewise the Greek Church, believes not in another God, but in one with us”, that under the name “Jesus” the Russian Church confesses the same "Jesus" and therefore calls "Jesus" another God, Antichrist, etc. there is a blasphemer. Opponents, on the contrary, argued that the Antichrist reigns in the Russian and Greek churches. They insisted on the eight-pointed shape of the cross and the spelling of the name "Jesus" on the grounds that Jesus Christ was born eight years later than Jesus. At its core, this was an extreme manifestation of the bespopov’s teaching that penetrated the environment of the Old Believers-priests, against whom the “District Message” was directed.
The destruction of the temples of the "antichrist"
So, summing up the doctrinal truths of the Old Believers of various persuasions, we can come to the conclusion that they were convinced: for the sake of the reign of the era of freedom - the era of Christ, to report on priests - Nikonian heretics, shoot them, blow up Orthodox churches and burn icons - a holy and charitable deed, and not a sin. And the more the servants of the Antichrist will be destroyed, the more the “seal of the Antichrist” (royal symbols) will be destroyed and overthrown, the better!
I want to make a reservation that, of course, not all Old Believers accepted Bolshevik power, but there were a minority of them, they were mainly Cossacks-Old Believers of Siberia, the Urals, the Far East, the Don, the Terek. For them, it was precisely the power of the Bolsheviks that was the power of the Antichrist.
Benefits from Soviet power and the further fate of the Old Believers
For active participation in the cause of the revolution, the Old Believers had some temporary benefits. If the Red Terror immediately touched the Russian Orthodox Church, executions and destruction of its churches began, then the Old Believers, even before the end of the 1920s, could freely open and build their churches, have their own printed publications. But the "honeymoon" did not last long, they were also destroyed, like the Russian Orthodox Church, although some managed to leave. Millionaire Old Believers, who were savvy, were allowed by the Soviet authorities to withdraw their capital abroad.
In the top leadership of the USSR there were many Old Believers (in their origin). There is convincing evidence that they included Kalinin, Voroshilov, Nogin, Shvernik (real name - Shvernikov), Moskvin, Yezhov, Kosarev, Postyshev, Evdokimov, Zverev, Malenkov, Bulganin, Ustinov, Suslov, Pervukhin, Gromyko, Patolichev and many others. other. Many heroes of the Great Patriotic War were also from the Old Believers.
After passing through fratricide, the nature of man becomes different; so many Old Believers have nothing left of faith in God, only one ideology. Former Old Believers began to build a Soviet person, a Soviet society, a Soviet country. But at the same time, the famous Soviet scientist and science fiction writer, an Old Believer by origin, Ivan Efremov, described in The Nebula of Andromeda, The Hour of the Bull, the ideal of a highly moral Soviet person. These ideal ideas, of course, were drawn from Christianity.
Interesting Facts. It turns out that Rome was well aware of the religious situation in Russia, they had attempts on the basis of a common hatred for the Russian Orthodox Church and the House of Romanov to conclude a friendship-uniy with the Old Believers. But, for the Old Believers, dealing with shaven-bearded heretics is nonsense. But, nevertheless, the popes of Rome expressed their unspeakable joy in connection with the fratricidal revolution, they said: "the iron broom of God with the hands of the atheists swept Orthodoxy from Russia for the Catholic mission in the future."
Another interesting topic has been revealed; intra-party cleansings in the leadership of the USSR, when active revolutionaries were shot, also had a religious ideological connotation. It was a struggle between the two parties of Leninists-Masons and post-Orthodox. The former seminarian, comrade I.V. Stalin, put an end to this discord by saying: “As Moses led the Jews out of the desert, so I will take them out of the Communist Party apparatus.”
Moral-theological conclusion
The Fall is the first schism, it is the tragedy of all mankind, and later in history schisms, deviations from the truths of God, take on various perverted forms.
The Old Believers strove to preserve the ancient truthful faith, ancient piety (the Pharisees had similar postulates, and there is nothing wrong with this desire), but turned into the same hypocrisy and legalism that crucified Christ. History repeated itself: "they sifted a mosquito", "they saw a twig in someone else's eye", and they crucified Russia.
Christ among the Old Believers was replaced by the rite of Christ. Therefore, under pious motivation, countless rumors appeared, claiming to be the ultimate truth. The Old Believers hate each other with a fierce hatred (I mean supporters of different persuasions), because it turns out that the relatives have distorted the faith. Even in ancient times, the Lord warned about such a model of attitude towards faith in God: "beware of the Pharisees' leaven."
In fact, the Old Believers, willingly or unwillingly, became accomplices in the murder of Russia, became its executioners. Religious manipulations were just used in the civil fratricidal war, and they themselves became hostages and victims of these manipulations.
Today, Russia and the Russian Orthodox Church again, under various pretexts, begin to rock, of course, with the most pious intentions. This is the same struggle against antichrist seals and codes, against antichrist power, but at the same time the most important thing is forgotten - the value of the unity of the Church of Christ. Technologies and models of religious manipulations of a century-long range were again successfully applied during the period of modern color, Maidan revolutions to pit people against each other. Isn't it time to draw conclusions?
Now we still need to muster courage, moral strength, spiritual courage to admit our mistakes and ask forgiveness from God and Russia for our crimes. The only way for the Old Believers to overcome the schism is repentance, a return to the bosom of the Church of Christ. This form, in the form of co-religionism, has existed very successfully since 1800.
The local council of the Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate in 1971 recognized the old rites as equally graceful and withdrew the oaths that had been imposed on them. But this was done de jure, and de facto from the very beginning of our dominant Church, she recognized the sanctity of the ancient rites. In 2000, the RZPTs Synod offered repentance to the Old Believers for the persecution they had suffered.
Archpriest Oleg Trofimov, Doctor of Theology,
Master of Religious and Philosophical Sciences
In Russia, as well as in Europe, the period of the early Middle Ages was characterized by the exclusive role of the Christian Church. Real chaos arose on the ruins of the Roman Empire - vast territories were completely unorganized neither state, nor ethnically, nor religiously.
Goths, Vandals, Ostrogoths, Visigoths, Franks, Huns, Angles, Normans traveled, founded their possessions, then lost them and moved to another place. Christian institutions acted as organizers of large state-ethnic formations. The Church had a binding, cementing power. In addition, the monasteries played an important role in the development of new lands - the monks went into the forests and swamps and founded comfortable residential areas from scratch.
In Eastern Europe, the situation was similar. Christianity united Kievan Rus, where the chaos of Slavic and Finnish tribes had previously reigned. Our ancestors defended themselves from the steppe peoples, the Pechenegs, then resisted the Tatar-Mongol invasion. Thanks to the Orthodox Church, the entire unorganized mass was kept in a taut and disciplined state. This was necessary because Russia was constantly attacked. The country either experienced occupation or was in fierce vassal dependence on the Golden Horde and the Crimean Khanate.
anxiety symptoms
There is such a universal law in history: when religious organizations merge with the state, become part of it and use the state's coercive methods in their own interests, this leads to the most difficult consequences for the Church itself. Her self-destruction begins. This is what happened in Europe. When it took shape in a system of large ethnic state organizations, the processes of internal decay began furiously.
And how attempts to overcome them within the framework of a single Church began to arise orders of the Franciscans, Dominicans, etc. Nevertheless, by the XIV-XV centuries, primarily in the top of the Catholic Church, these decay processes reached alarming proportions. They caused Protestant movements that led to a split, the separation of Northern Europe from Rome, and the undermining of the influence of the popes. Even where the Catholic Church held out, as in France, it had to retreat and ceased to be the mistress of the situation.
The same story happened to us. By the middle of the 16th century, the Muscovite state fought off destructive external movements, and a system of autocratic power was formed in it. And under Ivan the Terrible, important processes began in which the Church played a key role.
The head of the Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Philip, resolutely and definitely opposed the insane terrorist policy of the tsar, setting an example of selfless service to his country and faith, and died. Then, during the Time of Troubles, when the state was terribly weakened due to the tsarist terror, the Church, in the person of Metropolitan Hermogenes, embarked on a serious nationwide mission. And in the following decades, the moral and political authority of the Moscow metropolis, its leadership and the church structures themselves was high.
But by the 40s of the 17th century, the situation stabilized, they managed to fight off external enemies, economic growth began within the country, and big money appeared. And then it suddenly became clear that the merging of the Church with the state was beginning to produce negative results. The symptoms of internal decay, both at the top of the Church and at its lowest level, become so serious that groups of fighters, clergymen appear who demand decisive action. From this milieu emerges the most energetic and gifted representative of the clergy of that time, Nikon, Metropolitan of Novgorod. He wins the position of the Primate of the Metropolitan of Moscow and then the Patriarch of Moscow - the head of the Orthodox Church.
Age of change
However, Nikon did not take into account that the situation in the country had changed dramatically. Previously, such prominent figures as Sergius of Radonezh were allowed to have their own point of view on the most pressing state issues (for example, relations between princes), take their stand, and propose rather tough measures.
Out of necessity, the Grand Duke of Moscow put up with this. During the period of overcoming the terrorist defeat that Ivan the Terrible subjected to Russia, Metropolitan Philip, and then, in the Time of Troubles, Metropolitan Hermogenes could raise their voices, denounce the tsar for the most terrible crimes. But Philip paid for this with his life, and then was canonized, Hermogenes died, although he acted as the supreme leader. Later, Patriarch Filaret, the father of the first Romanov, became, perhaps, the ruler of the country under his son, who was inferior to him in intellectual and strong-willed qualities.
But these times were over, the country began to develop rapidly, and the Church had to take its place. And Nikon, who relied on an understanding of the negative phenomena occurring within the Church, strove to become as great a sovereign as a tsar and make his own decisions. And here he faced a formidable opponent in the person of Alexei Mikhailovich.
In order to reorganize the church economy, Nikon resorted to the same measure as later Peter the Great - he decided to put things in order in worship, invited learned Greek monks who began to edit books. He began to revise some of the rites - and then came across a colossal opposition both among believers and in the Church itself. The question was raised that no authority has the right to interfere in the sphere of the spiritual life of the people, and the inner life of the church community should become autonomous and not be subject to change, cleansing. That is, the old problem arose: what is the Church - a part of the state or a public organization? After all, before Constantine, Christianity was a social organization. But different relations developed with the state, there were periods of 30-40 years when it tolerated Christianity. Members of the clergy were not always persecuted and brutally executed. Sometimes their activities were overlooked. And then one of the Roman emperors, afraid of their influence, persecuted them. But in general, before Constantine, Christianity was not part of the state. And on this it has earned colossal prestige.
During the three centuries of severe deprivation and struggle that passed from the day of the death of Jesus Christ to the adoption of Christianity as the state religion by Constantine, and this colossal force appeared, people were selected, traditions were established, organizations were created.
The same thing happened in Russia. In the first centuries after the adoption of Christianity, in times of external and internal wars, faith, temples and rituals united millions of people. And suddenly all this began to change with ease on someone's orders, and a split arose. The church elite submitted to the state. Aleksey Mikhailovich was a rather subtle person and did not think politically primitively. With the help of Nikon, he hit the schismatics, and then removed Nikon himself. In terms of cruelty, the reprisal against Nikon is comparable to that committed against Avvakum. Why did the tsar support Nikon at the very beginning? The state wanted to take the Church into its own hands, and the clergyman turned out to be a very convenient tool for this. However, Nikon also wanted to become the master, co-ruler of Russia, so the tsar subsequently eliminated him along with all his ambitions.
By this time, 100 years had passed since the liquidation of Byzantium. Therefore, the ecumenical patriarchs did not have any support under them, they received serious financial support from Moscow. The capital provided assistance in difficult times, when the clergy gathered here on the orders of the king, resolved issues, condemned the schism and approved the removal of Nikon from all posts. However, an unexpected thing happened. A significant part of the Russian people went into schismatics. Despite the persecution, which was very cruel, millions of people held on to the old Church.
Schism supporters
The top of the church hierarchy first supported Nikon's reform, and then supported the tsar in his opposition to the patriarch. Only one bishop joined the Old Believers, but his traces were quickly lost. The schism was led by Archpriest Avvakum, Ivan Neronov - those who, together with Nikon, demanded the purification of the Church, but they were all destroyed. Aleksey Mikhailovich understood the power of Avvakum's influence, tried many times to negotiate with him, but he turned out to be adamant: he said that all changes were the machinations of Satan, and most seriously denounced the king. Avvakum possessed incredible courage and endurance and gathered followers around him.
Undoubtedly, that was a heroic era in the development of our Old Believers. The schism was supported by protest actions, up to mass self-immolations - however, it is now difficult to determine where the schismatics burned themselves and where they burned them. Alexei Mikhailovich was greatly surprised by this, and the state was forced to admit that, despite the repressions, the split would persist for quite a long time. For example, many people held on to the Solovetsky Monastery. They did not kill anyone (there was no case that they dealt with some kind of punitive expedition), but they themselves accepted death for their faith.
Because of the persecution, the Old Believers left, but they could not completely oust them. Even from Moscow. Although the majority went to the outskirts - to the south, to the Bryansk swamps, or to empty uninhabited places - Karelia, Nizhny Novgorod, the Volga region. The schismatics also reached Eastern Siberia, Turkey, Poland, Bulgaria, and Romania.
They did not have unity. They are divided into three major areas. The Old Believers of priestly consent accepted the priesthood and believed that a hierarchy was needed, but they did not have a bishop. The most extreme branch - the bespopovtsy denied the state in general and its right to regulate relations in particular, including marriage and family (they did not even record their marriages). And the fugitives are priests who served in chapels in sketes according to old books and rituals. Despite numerous strife, all three directions held out until the beginning of the 20th century.
How did the Old Believers endure all this? They went into the faith with their whole families, without stopping their lineage, created their own organizations, primarily economic ones - and here their advantage as a socially organized mass was evident. The main thing among the Old Believers was the principle of voluntariness, which is absent in the state. They could choose between three directions or go to the mainstream church.
In the 19th century, the state creates a compromise church organization. It preserves the Old Believer rites, but its temples are part of the system of the state church. Among the Old Believers, there could be no question of private accumulation, appropriation of church sums, or of representatives of the elite becoming church princes. The state persecuted the leaders of the Old Believer communities.
Leo Tolstoy at the beginning of the 20th century even sought the release of three bishops imprisoned in a church prison in Suzdal. No enrichment or career - on the contrary, people doomed themselves to martyrdom. At the same time, the Old Believers understood that they needed to work, not to play the fool, not to take off, to earn money with which they could live normally and pay off the authorities. Because of this, they survived. The lower priesthood of the state church did not live well, often simply poor. Even Chernyshevsky wrote about this. Therefore, when such a priest was given money to compile an official report on how many Old Believers he had, he testified that there were no Old Believers, although he himself knew very well who adhered to the old faith, and where they pray, and how they live.
Sometimes the Old Believers formed very serious organizations. On the Vyg River in the north-west of Karelia, a whole Old Believer region arose. People mastered the uninhabited territory, conducted agriculture, crafts - and lived very well. In order to destroy the Vygsky monastery and disperse the Old Believers, it was necessary to bring military units there. This monastery has become an example of the fact that you can live even in the most severe conditions. True, not by large associations, but by small teams.
commercial vein
Already Peter looked at the Old Believers differently than in the time of his father. It seems that the phrase belongs to him: "Let them pay a double tax and be baptized with at least a foot." Under Elizabeth, schismatics were persecuted and executed, but Catherine pursued a softer policy in this area. Just as the Christians in the Roman Empire were superior to ordinary Romans in their labor qualities, devotion and discipline, the Old Believers differed from the Russian peasants. And when an opportunity arose (and it appeared because the state was developing) and Catherine allowed the serfs to engage in commerce, that is, to create first their workshops, and then factories, the Old Believers took advantage of it. They were ready for this - their mobilization ability was dozens of times higher than usual. They could gather the right people around the right leader and get the money. Each community had its own means, even the smallest one. The Old Believers created enterprises where there was a very special discipline. The leaders of such a factory were at the same time the leaders of the community itself and, feeling their responsibility, adhered to certain moral rules of behavior: they did not drink, did not smoke, no promiscuity, justice and diligence were welcomed.
Leaders set a moral example. And communities to some extent became incubators of commercial affairs. In this sense, the history of the Ryabushinskys is very interesting.
They were ordinary monastic peasants. They carried out construction and finishing work in the St. Pafnutiev Monastery, on the outskirts of Borovsk. When Catherine freed the monastery peasants, turning them into state peasants, the Ryabushinskys decided to engage in commercial activities and switched to the Old Believers (initially they were of the new faith).
What attracted them? Discipline, morale. In addition, they wanted to get into an environment where it is easier to express themselves and succeed. However, it is unlikely that they did it out of pragmatic considerations. Vladimir Ryabushinsky in the 20th century in exile wrote works about the great power of the Old Believer religion. However, those who converted to this faith were immediately persecuted. They could not be assigned to the merchant guild (only to the ordinary philistine class). Their sons were subject to recruiting kits, and they themselves were subject to corporal punishment. Unlike merchants, they could be beaten with rods.
At the beginning of the 19th century, the state, which felt the power of the Old Believer sub-ethnos, had to open some loopholes for it. So, it allowed to develop the Black Sea coast. And Pavel Mikhailovich Ryabushinsky, together with his brother, came with money to a small village (present-day Yeysk), where they received documents from the merchants of the first guild. Most likely, it was under Alexander, in a period of relative freedom. The state made attempts to eliminate the split, hoping that the Old Believers would then somehow dissolve themselves. But these people contributed so decisively to the economic development of the country that no hand was raised to crush them in the bud.
The formation of the Old Believers as super-successful economic entities took place in the same way as with the Morozovs, whom we have already spoken about. In this environment, of course, there was more rigidity towards young guys, at the age of 14-15 they already had to get on their feet, draw up some kind of business plan. As a rule, they went to the city. For example, the Ryabushinskys - two fourteen-year-old guys - went to Moscow and started petty trade. But they were so well trained in their family that they very quickly rose to the position of merchants of the third guild.
At the forefront of the economy
For security reasons, it was convenient for the Old Believers to live in small communities, scattered groups, but there were no special economic ties between them. They worked with people from different backgrounds, because otherwise it would lead to too severe restrictions. Of course, when the same Fedor Guchkov was just creating his team, he took fellow believers to himself, but later he thought more about how to invite specialists from Europe to dye fabrics and master new types of machine tools. Deeds have become more important than faith.
And the Morozovs in the third generation no longer showed any preference for the Old Believers. The toughest of them, the Vikuloviches, had the most English workers. Sometimes communities helped each other with money, but this was not a system. Representatives of various sketes gathered for Easter in Rogozhskaya Sloboda - the center of priestly consent. They celebrated the Easter week and left with some little money. One of the Old Believers, Bolshakov Tikhon Fedorovich, had his own shop, where he sold leather goods - boots, horse harness. At the same time, he collected Old Believer antiquities - books, icons, texts - and helped fellow believers. The descendants have preserved letters from the convent beyond the Volga, where the nuns thank him for the financial assistance provided in the amount of 3-5 rubles. These are the connections between the Old Believers existed.
Now it is impossible for us - Soviet and post-Soviet people - to understand why the Old Believers were not liquidated. As, for example, during the period of Lenin and Stalin, when everyone was liquidated. But statesmen, starting with Peter, were always stopped by one or another consideration. On the one hand, a split is not the point. But on the other hand, the Old Believers were non-resistance, they did not respond with any uprisings. Unless the Solovetsky archers fought back, and the rest never used force, they did not pose any threat. The Old Believers had no connection with the Catholic or Muslim world. They were very clear and firm in their positions, they were good workers and reliable people. Orthodox priests also wanted to live, and they received money from the Old Believers. And the governors turned to them for help - to build a road, to complete some major task from St. Petersburg.
Old Believers can be compared to Christians in the Roman Empire. They also tried all the time to wipe them off the face of the earth, but they saw that the people were strong, valuable, they would have to cut a lot of heads, an incredible amount of blood would be shed ... And they looked at them. They noted moral discipline, unity, cohesion and how they are gradually being introduced into all spheres of life. But in the Roman Empire, Christians were not at the forefront of economic development. Unlike the Old Believers, who began to play a very important role in the development of the economy.
There was a “Banking House of the Ryabushinsky Brothers”. Although he was not among the twenty leaders, he had great reliability and stability. Petersburg banks were considered the best, having a huge advantage: they sat next to the state budget. And the budget was huge - more than 3 trillion rubles. All this went through some financial structures, and St. Petersburg banks received interest. And the Old Believers did not enter the financial elite. Although at some point in society they became legal people. Timofey Morozov, for example, was invited to the tsar's carriage en route from St. Petersburg to Moscow.
community money
Historically, the Old Believers did not win, but they did not lose either. They endured, they held on. Of course, in order to survive in such harsh conditions, they had to almost deify their dogmas. Now their youth, who use mobile phones and other benefits of modern science and technology, can no longer accept these strict rules. Luzhkov nevertheless allocated money to the Old Believers for the restoration of the dilapidated Rogozhsky cemetery.
Once it was the spiritual center of the Old Believers. During the plague of the 1770s, when a third of Moscow died out, the Old Believers turned to the authorities with a request to be given land for the burial of the dead. And Catherine agreed. Popovtsy received territory beyond the Rogozhskaya Zastava, Bespopovtsy - in another place, and cemeteries arose there. And then the struggle began - if people are buried, they must be buried. The authorities could not refuse this to Christians, even if they were “wrong.” And where to sing? A chapel is built, and then a temple is made from it. They write a denunciation against the Old Believers, the Governor-General arrives.
In the end, a lower temple is built, some changes are made, but it still appears. And the Rogozhskoye cemetery is the center of the entire Old Believer Russia.
Wealthy Old Believers bequeath all the money to the community. That's how savings work. And they are no longer lost. No mistress of actresses or models will receive a penny after the death of such a person. All this will remain inside. Unlike what happens in a secular society. The community will help you make money - it will give you an interest-free loan, it will help you create a factory. You will have all this, but when you die, the capital will not go outside, some of it will be invested in your business, and a solid part will go as a donation to the temple.
Timofey Savvich Morozov did not bequeath much to the Church, but his wife built a huge bell tower at the Rogozhsky cemetery, allocated a large amount for the current Moscow State Technical University. N. E. Bauman.
She donated money to Moscow University and other institutions, gave gifts to the Old Believer community, although she was not a very religious person. The Old Believers themselves also gave money for hospitals, educational institutions, shelters, but the community never absorbed anyone's capital. The Old Believers donated substantial sums, but the communities themselves did not engage in any financial transactions. All the accumulated funds went to charitable needs within the community: charity for the old and young, hostels, shelters.
The connections between the members of the community were not so strong, but, of course, they knew their world. I think when one of the Morozovs needed a good businessman, he looked after him among his own. But he could take not an Old Believer. When you have 200 people working at your factory, you will recruit them among fellow believers - this is understandable. And when there are 20 thousand, then it is simply ridiculous to form gigantic teams on a confessional basis. The question is how many English engineers, German or Russian, do you have.
External links
There is a belief that England is one of the insidious and very consistent enemies of Russia and that the Old Believers, in particular the bespopovtsy, for whom the kingdom of the Antichrist has already come, are becoming supporters of the British in the collapse of the Russian state, pumping out economic resources or simply accumulating economic power by the right people. But this is an absolutely ridiculous theory.
The basis of the Old Believer faith is the original ancient Orthodoxy, and its followers could not even allow the thought of cooperation with the Catholics. This was completely ruled out due to ideological incompatibility. After all, the Old Believers broke away because state Orthodoxy made contacts with the Greeks, and the latter were reproached for being infected with papism and Catholicism. The initial positions of the Old Believers are purely Russian, so any foreign policy combinations were excluded. True, they did buy cotton and machinery from England in huge quantities.
Popovtsy in the XVIII-XIX centuries were left without a hierarchy and needed priests. They found some supernumerary bishop in Bosnia, but special procedures were required to install him as a Russian Orthodox metropolitan. The Old Believers transported him to the Austrian part of Poland and recognized him as a bishop over the priestly community of the Rogozhsky cemetery. And in this new capacity, he began to ordain priests. All this was done with the money of Soldatenkov and Rakhmanov, the richest Moscow Old Believers, millionaires. But then Nicholas I demanded that Emperor Franz Joseph liquidate this new center of the Old Believers. Metropolitan Ambrose was arrested and exiled. But he managed to appoint bishops in Russia, and the hierarchy was restored.
Gradually, the legalization of the Old Believers took place, and they recognized the existing reality in Russia. Although they took up all-round defense and insisted on the sign of the cross with two fingers, they no longer put forward any accusatory manifestos. The state de facto allowed their activities, and they also changed their attitude towards it. The authorities carried out a serious reorganization: the patriarchate was removed, the Church was made part of the state apparatus.
What future awaits the Old Believers? In some form, this social movement will continue. They have an advantage over the official Church and have no ambitions - they do not pretend to be the rulers of the spiritual life of the Russian people. The Old Believers have their own world, they only need not to be persecuted. We have many different social groups. And the Old Believers are one of them.
Schism-separation from the Russian Orthodox Church of part of the believers who did not recognize Nikon's church reform of 1653-56. In the second half of the 17-18 centuries. was the ideological banner of anti-feudal and opposition movements.
The Old Believers are a set of religious groups and churches in Russia that did not accept the church reforms of the 17th century and became oppositional or hostile to the official Orthodox Church. Supporters of the Old Believers until 1906 were persecuted by the tsarist government. The Old Believers are divided into a number of currents (priests1, bespopovtsy2, beglopopovtsy3), interpretations and agreements.
Soviet encyclopedic dictionary.
Popovtsy is a current in the Old Believers closest to the official Orthodox Church. Recognizes priests and church hierarchy.
Soviet encyclopedic dictionary.
Bespopovtsy is one of the currents in the Old Believers. Priests and a number of sacraments are rejected.
Soviet encyclopedic dictionary.
Beglopopovtsy - a trend among priests in the Old Believers. It arose at the end of the 17th century. included fugitive priests who had departed from the official Orthodox Church. The basis of the communities were people hiding from the royal authorities.
Soviet encyclopedic dictionary.
The interest in the schism now appears not out of archaeological curiosity, it is beginning to be viewed as an event that can be repeated and therefore requires careful study.
V. Rasputin
Where did the family come from?
Second half of the 18th century. The boundless spaces of the Russian state remained undeveloped and sparsely populated. In Siberia, the issue of colonization of individual regions was so urgent that it had to be addressed immediately: the copper-smelting, silver-smelting, iron-working plants that had arisen by that time in the east of the country needed many workers and specialists who needed to be fed. The regular troops, the Cossacks, who produced little bread, also needed food.
The government of Catherine II saw in the Old Believers excellent colonists who could get bread and other agricultural products where they were scarce. Being primordial farmers, they possessed such traits as enterprise, diligence, were excellent community members, and even on the western borders it would be calmer without them. Therefore, it seemed simply necessary to entrust them with the affairs of Russian agricultural culture.
From Verkhoturye stretched unknown Siberia along the old Moscow highway carts, sledges, carts, carts loaded with the most necessary household belongings, old people, sick people and small children. Babies were carried in birch bark cradles, the carts were escorted by soldiers and Cossacks. The path lay beyond the Baikal-Sea, where the fugitive Old Believers from the limits of the Transdnieper region were sent. The nature of Transbaikalia has always been admired by travelers.
But arable farming in Transbaikalia until the middle of the 18th century developed very slowly and not everywhere successfully. Separate islands of Russian agriculture did not meet the needs of the population in bread. And the number of peasants, Cossacks, servicemen and industrialists increased from year to year. And it should be noted that with the advent of Russian people in Transbaikalia, in addition to the diversity of the natural environment, the patchwork of local landscapes, the diversity of ethnic cultures was added, the anthropological and ethnographic diversity in the region increased, new villages appeared, old villages and settlements were replenished with newly settled people, and around them, the earth took on a well-groomed appearance. Carefully cultivated vegetable gardens, strips of arable land and hayfields occupied more and more space. Two civilizations began to live side by side in the region: pastoral and agricultural. Their mutual influence, cultural exchange began, trade intensified. All this had a positive effect on the development of productive forces in Transbaikalia.
A special color, diversity and brightness in the ethnographic picture of Transbaikalia were brought by the Old Believers settled here, brought out of the Polish borders. With their establishment, a more intensive development of the virgin places of this region began. The Old Believers brought here in a significant number (about 5 thousand people), having great agricultural experience, strong community cohesion and amazing diligence, in a short time worthy of recognition of the best farmers of the region.
Previously, chronicles were kept in rural communities about significant events in the life of the Old Believers of Transbaikalia, but these records have almost all disappeared somewhere. Old handwritten and printed books of the pre-Conian period, which were so valued by the Old Believers, were mostly destroyed during the repressions of the 20-30s. or later due to ignorance, others were buried in the graves with their owners, others fell into the unclean hands of buyers, some of them ended up in the hands of archaeologists who collected rare old books on special expeditions.
The discovered documents testify to some aspects of the inner life of the schismatics of the late 18th–early 19th centuries. They did not lose touch with their former places of residence. From their petitions for the opening of the church, it can be seen that the Trans-Baikal Old Believers wrote off with the Chernihiv dicastery and, with her knowledge, asked for themselves as Old Believer priests “Dmitry Alekseev’s Luzhkovsky churchyard and Mitkovsky Pogost Fyodor Ivanov” in the Chernigov province, and later a certain Petrov. In seeking the opening of the church, the Old Believers acted quite unitedly and amicably. From their societies, they chose two trusted representatives, Fyodor Chernykh and Anufry Gorbatykh, collecting 800 rubles for worldly needs. In 1794, permission was obtained, but the matter was stalled by disputes over the construction site of the church. The trustees, violating the "worldly sentence" on the opening of the Church of the Intercession in the village of Kunaleyskaya, where there was "Vetka's consent", offered their religious center - the village of Sharaldaiskaya. In 1801, the Old Believers requested Antrop Chernykh and the settlers of the Irkutsk district of the Manzur volost Fyodor Razuvaev and Boris Semyonov from the Telma state-owned factory, promising to “regularly pay state taxes” for them. They needed Chernykh to “paint icons, and the last two are chosen by the Old Believers as clerks.” At the request of the spiritual authorities, the elders explained that they wanted to lead the church service according to the books of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, and the Fedoseyevites baptize and marry children in the church, and no longer recognize any rites.
Old belief is a paradoxical phenomenon. Its paradox lies in the preservation of the Russian-Byzantine Orthodox and pagan foundations through fragmentation and concentration. This was begun under Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich and under Patriarch Nikon. Their disunity according to the territories (localities) inhabited by them, and according to the consents and rumors, continues to this day. But on the other hand, there is an amazing concentration of spirit and creative production success on their life path in small communities, settlements or enclaves.
Of course, we cannot turn a blind eye to the negative phenomena in the life and culture of the Old Believers. These include the denial of scientific medicine, in particular the rejection of smallpox vaccination (the sign of the Antichrist was seen in the scar left from vaccination), which led to high infant mortality. The denial of scientific medicine can explain the annoying ban on communicating with the worldly in "eating, drinking and friendship." The ban on eating from the same cup and drinking from the same vessel with a non-Old Believer is a quite understandable phenomenon. It was installed with a purely hygienic purpose - not to adopt the disease from another person. Old Believers in the old days were not allowed to drink tea and coffee. The Old Believers did not recognize secular literacy - only Church Slavonic. Before the revolution, the Old Believers made up a significant part of the Russian people. Their number exceeded 20 million people. And these people were constantly in the position of being persecuted both by the official Russian Orthodox Church and by the state.
Old Believers - who are they?
Old Believers - who are they: The restless spirit of Russia or its ignorance, fanaticism, routine, pioneers in the development of new lands or eternally rushing wanderers looking for their Belovodye !?
In search of an answer to these questions, it should be noted that the Old Believers retained the strong spirit of their teachers: Archpriest Avvakum, the noblewoman Morozova, Bishop Pavel Kolomensky, the spirit of proud resistance to the authorities, the undiminished kerzhatsky stubbornness in preserving their faith, their culture.
The Old Believers in the history of Russia are a striking phenomenon. Supporters of the Old Believers impress with their devotion to the faith, the breadth of settlement on the globe, the preservation of ancient Russian culture and their own face for one third of a millennium. The prudent conservatism of the Old Believers in many ways turned out to be necessary for a new upsurge or revival of national culture, for it extended its existence to the present day and, presumably, will still serve its purpose in various parts of the globe, where the fate of a handful of hefty Russian people, adherents of the old faith and old rituals.
Persecuted by the authorities, the Old Believers became unwitting inhabitants of the new lands. Their economic activity on these lands required entry into the market, which led to the establishment of ties with the natives of the region, to the mutual influence of different cultures. Such mutual influence was observed almost everywhere where the Old Believers settled. The persecution of adherents of the old faith and the old rites began in the reign of Alexei Mikhailovich, called the Quietest, during the time of Nikon's patriarchate (1652-1666) and continued up to the present day. Only in recent years has a turn towards religious tolerance begun.
Tsars changed, authorities and regimes changed, and repressions against the zealots of the old faith and ancient piety did not stop: they either intensified, which happened during the reign of Sophia, Peter I, Anna Ivanovna, Paul I, Nicholas I, in Soviet times, or somewhat faded, weakened under Catherine II, Alexander I, Alexander III, Nicholas II.
As a breakaway recalcitrant part of the people of the Old Believers, they were outlawed, deprived of all rights and persecuted for their faith.
