In modern evil times, the “shepherds” are filled with love for everyone without exception, including the enemies of Christ. They are ready to merge in prayerful communion with the enemies of Christ and the persecutors of the Orthodox Church, dragging the entire Orthodox people with them into the abyss.

The problem is this: having grabbed the tops, i.e. telling you about the “Hundred-Glavy Council” - at which, allegedly, it was decided to be baptized with two fingers, about Nikon’s reform, according to which the Patriarch reprinted the liturgical books, prayers with errors and with his own corrections... and decided to be baptized with three fingers; telling about how they were persecuted by the authorities (and, for sure, how they burned themselves will be missed, because modern people will not clearly understand this); about the local council of the Russian Orthodox Church in 1971, at which the anathema on all Old Believers was lifted; then the conclusion will be clear: here they are, the true zealots of the pure Orthodox faith and guardians of uncorrupted rituals.
But having dug a little deeper, everything will immediately fall into place - why the councils imposed an anathema on the Old Believers - after all, this is the highest punishment in the church. Why are such authoritative saints as Seraphim of Sarov, John of Kranstadt, Ignatius Brianchaninov, Theophan the Recluse and many other saints who labored in the field of God were against the wisdom of the Old Believer. And why the Russian government was forced to persecute these crazed zealots. To understand all this, we must turn to the origins of the Old Believers.
The origins lead us to the earliest Russian schism, the Kapitonovschina, in the 30s of the 17th century. So, at the head of the schismatics was the rebellious elder, the builder of the monastery, the monk Kapiton. “By natural signs” he predicted the imminent coming of the Antichrist. In order to save himself from the coming misfortune, Kapito proposed to renounce the Holy Sacraments and the Church. Through the strictness of monastic life, the Trinity builder attracted many like-minded people to his side. In 1639 Kapiton was arrested and exiled to Tobolsk, from where he fled in the early 40s. 17th century to their homeland. Among Capiton’s students there was a certain great and wise Vavila, about whom later in one of the schismatic writings it was said: “being a foreigner by birth, of the Luthor faith, he studied verbatim and writing for quite some time in the most glorious academy in Paris, he was skilled in rhetoric, logic, philosophy and theology; knew Latin, Greek, Hebrew and Slavic languages.”

We can only guess in what ways and for what purpose this Frenchman (heretic), a graduate of the Paris Sorbonne, a contemporary of Cardinal Richelieu, who knows not only learned languages, but also Hebrew, and, most surprisingly, Slavic, ended up in the forests near Vyazniki. But it was there that Vavila, “putting heavy chains on himself,” took the views of his teacher Capito to the extreme and began to preach mass self-immolations.

Self-immolation. After the death of Kapiton, a split occurred in the community into the so-called “Yukhra” charter, which did not approve of suicide, and the “Ksharsky” charter, which radically approached the issue of suicide deaths for faith. “At the head of this direction were Vavila the Young (a French heretic) and Elder Leonidas. The facts of their active participation in mass and individual suicides were revealed by the investigative commission of I.S. Prozorovsky in Vyazniki. During the trial, a connection was proven between the Vologda suicides of the “Kapiton” and Vavila Molodoy...”

The leaders of the “Kshara” charter (Vavila the Young, Leonid, etc.) behave like people who have already escaped the Last Judgment. They “saved” other people from him. The elders of this charter burned, drowned, and starved people, but they themselves did not even think of following the example of their victims.

By 1667, the “Kapitonism” had almost completely destroyed itself, since mass self-immolations occurred during the “apocalypse” of 1666. Among the survivors, positions on uniting with other movements of ancient church piety began to strengthen. The connecting link between the Old Believers and the “Kapiton” was the preaching of the main “zealot” of piety, Avvakum, of suicide for the faith. “Those who burned their bodies and betrayed their souls into the hand of God, the self-willed martyrs rejoice with Christ forever and ever.”

Thus, the main authority and ideologist of the schism, Avvakum (among the Old Believers he is canonized as a saint and is commemorated in daily morning and evening prayers), while in captivity in Pustoozersk, already in the 1670s he actually blessed self-immolations and thereby contributed to their spread. Suicide was declared voluntary martyrdom and thereby justified. Among other methods, preference was given to “death by fire,” and to encourage this particular type of self-destruction, along with the motive of martyrdom, another one was invented. Self-immolation began to be interpreted as a second baptism, “baptism by fire.”

Once upon a time, during the era of persecution in the Roman Empire, such “voluntary martyrs” became Gnostic sectarians, condemned for this by the Universal Church; Now they have become Russian Orthodox Christians, from the faithful children of the Church, turned heretics...

Dissenters often say that self-immolations were a response to persecution. But, as we indicated above, this is pure fiction; for the burning began long before the official persecution. Not counting the self-immolation of the “capitons”, which began in the 1660s, the first mass self-immolation, in which 2,000 people became victims, was organized in the Nizhny Novgorod district in 1672 year, that is, self-destruction began 13 years before the start of the persecution.

The law on the execution of the most dangerous dissenters (see “The Twelve Articles of Princess Sophia - a law on adherents of the old faith, which consisted of 12 points, 1685 year.")

In the book by D.I. Sapozhnikov “Self-immolation in the Russian schism from the second half of the 17th century.” detailed information about 117 self-immolations is provided, and the appendix contains their “List by year for the period 1667.” to 1784”, as well as “List of the leaders of the schism and their associates found in the description of self-immolations”. Let us cite just one case of self-immolation out of many.

In 1682-1684. burning began in Pomorie, in the town of Dory, where a certain priestless Andronik settled. He managed to organize a whole series of self-immolations and at the same time remain alive. The priest Euphrosynus writes about these burning areas in his “Reflective Scripture.” The first time, 70 people were burned, the second time - 17, the third - 350, and in total 437 people died, among whom, as always, the majority were old women and children. In 1684, in the same Dora, Andronik prepared about 200 more people for self-immolation, but the authorities found out about this, and archers were sent there to prevent the atrocity. Andronik and his victims locked themselves in the refectory, defended themselves, and then set the house on fire. The archers, having cut down the doors, rushed in, whoever they managed to grab, pulled out of the fire: 47 people burned, of the 153 rescued, 59 soon died from wounds and burns. 82 people saved from death by the archers brought repentance for blaspheming the four-pointed cross and opposing the Church. Andronik did not repent and according to the verdict of the Boyar Duma of April 8, 1684. was burned. The royal decree reads: “That monk Andronicus for his actions against the holy and life-giving cross of Christ and the Church of His holy repulsiveness should be executed and burned.”

Since the archers saved people from the fire and did not burn them, one can think that they were sent to Dory, where 437 people had already been burned, not for a “mass punitive operation,” but to prevent another burning. They did everything they could to save people. But modern priests consider the hero the possessed Andronicus, who persuaded more than 500 people to go to a terrible death, and they call the Streltsy, who saved 153 people, “the servants of Satan” and “the hands of the Antichrist.”

Habakkuk. Avvakum is the main spiritual figure of the Old Believers. As we already mentioned above: Avvakum was canonized as a saint by the Old Believers. The best person to help us figure out what kind of person he was was Habakkuk himself, or rather his letters addressed to the king and his followers.

In the Fifth Petition, Avvakum tells Alexei Mikhailovich a vision he had while during Lent he was lying on his bed, not eating for ten days, reproaching himself for the fact that on such great days he does without “rules” and only reads prayers according to rosary. In the second week, his body grew greatly and spread widely. First the tongue grew, then the teeth, then the arms and legs, and finally it became wide and spacious and spread over the entire earth, and then God included heaven and earth and all creation in it. “You see, Autocratic? - he continues, “You own Russian land in freedom, but the Son of God conquered both heaven and earth for me for being in prison.” It is not surprising that, realizing such enormous power of his, Habakkuk was not averse to entering into an argument and bickering with the Son of God himself. After he was severely beaten by order of Pashkov for his intercession on behalf of two widows, he, according to him, came to mind: “Why did you, son of God, allow him to kill me in such a painful way? I became your widow! Who will judge between me and you? - he asked in the words of Job. “When I was stealing, you didn’t insult me ​​like that, but now we don’t know that I sinned.” Having finally lost hope that Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich would support the old faith, Avvakum began to bully him in the same way as he bullied Nikonians in general. Maliciously depicting the fate in hell of the wicked Tsar Maximian and clearly hinting at the fate of Alexei Mikhailovich himself, he exclaims: “Poor, poor, crazy king! What have you done to yourself?... Well, disappear into the ground, son of a whore! It’s enough to torture Christians!”

Obscene interpretation of holy texts is found throughout Habakkuk’s correspondence. So in the letter to Simeon we read:

“Is there a Maximian under you, a feather bed and a head? And the eunuchs fan your health so that the flies do not bite the great sovereign? How the hell are you walking around there, are the sleeping bags being timid, are they wiping the shit in your fiery bogeyman? The Holy Spirit said to me: no, those people there are already timid with you - they all stayed here, but you don’t even gray the food, the worms themselves are eating the great sovereign. Poor, poor king! What have you done to yourself?

Here there is already obvious blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, who, according to Habakkuk, simply speaks obscenities.

“God willing, before Christ’s judgment, I will smash Nikon’s snout. The son of a whore, the dog, has embarrassed our land. Yes, I’ll gouge out his eyes, and I’ll push him behind his back: well, go into the darkness, it’s not fitting for you to appear to Christ in my light. And I will order Tsar Alexei to be appointed by Christ at the trial. I need to soar with whispers.”

“Nicholas the miracle worker endures, but we are weak: at least he turned his head back and turned his face around Moscow, let him walk around Moscow like that.”

“This is what you, Fyodor, wrote in your damn letters, God gave them into my hands, and you wanted to send them away, a servant of God, to turmoil and destruction... Just give me time, in Christ I will have Nikonian, your beloved, in the hands of the same as you, whore’s children, I’ll hang you all around the oak tree.

Well, to hell with you, you are not needed by the Holy Trinity, you bastards, you are good for nothing.”

In this tone, as can be seen quite often and with obscenities, all his proud and pompous letters to all those who do not agree with the opinion, during his lifetime, of “saint” Habakkuk.

“The Trinity is an ineffable being, three names, three persons, triholy, tripartite ( This is an obvious mistake, since it contradicts the second member of the creed about consubstantiality: “... born, and not created, of one essence with the Father, by whom all things were.”), tripartite, triune, tripartinal. One being in three parts.

But from written notebooks and from Nikonian whore books you will not understand the truth about the Holy Trinity.”

Venerable John of Damascus: “The hypostases of the Holy Deity are consubstantial. It is impossible to say that the Father is of one essence, and the Son is different, but (both) are one and the same. In the same way, we believe in one Holy Spirit, as consubstantial and coeternal. For it is only by their hypostatic properties that the three holy hypostases differ from each other, inseparably distinguished not by essence, but by the distinctive property of each hypostasis...”

From this consideration it is very clear that Habakkuk fell into a destructive heresy. From a historical point of view, this heresy repeats the teaching of the Arians, who reproached the Council of Nicaea precisely for the fact that it included in its Confession the words: essence, consubstantial. It is also noteworthy that the Arians were marked with two fingers, although for a slightly different reason.

Editing books. After the above example, when Habakkuk swallows an elephant, when he does not interpret dogma correctly, and stubbornly clings to the rearrangement of “Az” “I” and other phrases and letters in the books. From here it becomes clearer how right the Old Believers are in their beliefs. So, for example, in the Sunday Canon of the 6th tone we read: “The Trinity that rules all, the three-component nature... bring back the singing with a cry...” (7 Canto. Trinity). The same is true in the canon of the All-Merciful Savior: “A three-part nature, a being inseparable, uncreated, without beginning, and essential” (7 Canto. Trinity).

It also becomes clear here that the old service books definitely needed serious editing. It was not Habakkuk himself who invented this heresy about the three compositions of God; After all, he himself testifies that it was taken from the Trinity hymns. And this once again shows that the Russian Church is on the verge of heresy.

Finger addition. In their doctrine of double-fingering, the Old Believers rely on Stoglav, for this is the only book where, as it seems to them, the doctrine of double-fingered addition is deduced.

Well, let's turn to this book. Although the original of Stoglav has not survived, and under the remaining manuscripts there is no signature of the king or even the bishops anywhere, and the remaining copies are replete with discrepancies and obviously apocryphal inserts, however, we will try to select the very essence, discarding contradictory and unclear points.

Chapter 31 talks about the sign of the cross: “as is proper, the bishop and the priest bless with the hand, and signify other Orthodox Christians and worship.” Already from the very title of this chapter it is clear that there are two parts in it: about the blessing of the saint and about the simple sign of the cross. “The thumb and the two lower fingers joined together, and the upper finger united with the middle one, stretched out slightly, so as to bless the saint and the priest.” This is a blessing by Jesus Christ or the name of the Lord, which is appropriate only for clergy, as those who have taken upon themselves the image of Christ.

Reference: The shepherds of the Orthodox Church give the believers a blessing in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and for this they fold the fingers of their right hand so that they represent the first and last letters of the blessed name ICXC, i.e. I Jesus Christ, in particular, the second and third fingers, otherwise the index and middle, copulate, so that the second, extended, represents the letter I, and the third, extended and slightly inclined, the letter C, the first, or thumb, finger copulates with two the last ones so that, crossing the fourth finger, it represents the letter X, and the fifth finger, or little finger, extended and slightly inclined, represents the letter C with them - this finger formation is called nominal.

Distortion of dogmas. But is this opinion correct?

From the “Word against the Unholy and Unsanctified Apostate”

In the second part of the chapter, at the very end, we literally read the following: “I have three fingers together, in the trinity image, God the Father, the Son, God the Holy Spirit, not three gods, but One. God in the Trinity of names is divided, but the Divinity is one, the Father is not begotten, but the Son is begotten, and not created, the Spirit proceeds, three in one Divinity. One strength, one
Honor to the Deity, one bow from all creation, from angels and from people, such is the decree with that three finger.

Having two fingers is inclined, and not extended, and the decree thus imagines two natures - Divinity and humanity, God according to Divinity, and man according to humanity, and in both is perfect, the upper finger forms Divinity, and the lower one humanity, having previously descended from the highest our salvation, the same death will be interpreted: for the heavens have bowed down for our salvation.”

Here it is very clearly visible that we are not talking about the sign that in the first part “he stretched out his fingers slightly bending”, but about the other “having two fingers inclined, and not stretched out.” And this phrase clearly indicates that there should be three fingers outstretched (i.e., facing upward), and two “inclined, not outstretched” I.e. here we are clearly talking about the familiar three-fingeredness. Let us further assume that the Old Believer is right, and three fingers are at the bottom, and two at the top, in an inclined position as stated.

Then the question arises: if both fingers are bent, then which of them forms the Divinity, and which humanity (you can even do the experiment yourself)? – The answer seems insoluble. But if we bend the two outer fingers, as it should be, then it will immediately become clear that the ring finger (and not by chance, for the Divine is incomprehensible) forms the Divinity, and the little finger, as the smallest of all fingers, humanity. Yes, and it is surprising if humanity was higher than the Divinity, higher than the Holy Trinity.

However, the Old Believers themselves sometimes strongly oppose Stoglav, for in chapter 27 he commands: “Which holy books will be... the essence will be found to be incorrect, described, and you would correct all those holy books from good translations together”...

Hence the dislike of the Old Believers for the blessed Tsar John, as well as for all kings and royal power in general.

Holy relics. The holy relics of the ascetics of the 11th-12th centuries, resting incorruptibly in the Kyiv caves, and namely the Monk Elijah of Murom and Joseph the Much-Sick, whose first three fingers of the right hand are connected, although unequally, but together, and the last two, the ring and little fingers, are bent to the palm , and St. Spyridon, whose three first fingers are even connected completely equally.

And in vain do the Old Believers try to interpret that the right hand of Ilya Muromets and Joseph the Many-Sick (whose three fingers are connected unequally) as a two-fingered addition.

After all, if you make the sign of the cross as the Old Believers understand it, referring to Stoglav, (“The thumb and the two lower fingers are joined together in one, and the upper finger is united with the middle finger, stretched out slightly bent...”), then the lower two fingers will not be bent to the palms, as is undeniably noticeable on the relics of St. ascetics.

Also, the incorruptible right hand of John Chrysostom clearly shows a three-fingered constitution.

1. right hand of John Chrysostom

2. Hand of John the Baptist

Cancellation of vows to old rituals.

Metropolitans Sergius of Starogorodsky and Anthony Khrapovetsky. The participation of these church leaders in the history of the revival of the Old Believers can be traced very clearly. So back in 1912. The All-Russian Edinoverie Congress took place in St. Petersburg. The center of the movement at this time was the Edinoverie community of St. Petersburg, based in the St. Nicholas Church, where Andrei Ukhtomsky’s brother was the headman. Two prominent figures of the Synodal Church actively participated in the work of the congress - Archbishop Sergius (Starogorodsky), the future Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus', and Metropolitan Anthony (Khrapovitsky) of Volyn, the future Metropolitan of Kiev, Chairman of the ROCOR.

Subsequently, when these bishops received much-coveted power, their Old Believer sympathies were expressed as follows. So April 10 (23), 1929 a Resolution of the Patriarchal Holy Synod was issued under the chairmanship of Sergius of Starogorodsky, called “Acts of the Archpastors,” on the abolition of the oaths of the Moscow Council of 1656 and the Great Moscow Council of 1667, which they imposed on the old church rites. This decree also abolished other conciliar oaths of the 17th century . This document openly declared the legitimacy of the old liturgical rites, including two-fingered fingers, in accordance with the books of the pre-Nikon press (containing heretical dogmas). And, as a consequence of this, the conclusion is the illegality of the oaths imposed by the councils in the 17th century, both on the rituals themselves and on the believers who adhered to them.

According to the testimony of Archbishop of Geneva and Western Europe (ROCOR) Anthony (Bartoshevich, 1911-1996), Metropolitan Anthony (Khrapovitsky) did the same: When Metropolitan Anthony found himself abroad, he wrote an appeal to the Old Believers. And he wrote heartily and with love: until now you have been persecuted, and we are, as it were, in the position of persecutors, the official Church, and now, he says, we are persecuted just like you.

Nikodim Rotov. In 1971, at the Local Council, the initiator of the abolition of the “oaths of 1667” was Metropolitan Nikodim Rotov (First Mentor of the current Patriarch Kirill Gundyaev), known for his ecumenical activities. He proposed, as a Council resolution, to repeat in a modified form the Resolution of the Holy Synod of 1929. It was based on his report that the Council adopted a resolution on the “abolishing of oaths.” The Acts of the Local Council “On the abolition of oaths on its old rites and on those who adhere to them” dated June 2, 1971 stated: We, who constitute the Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church, are equal in dignity and significance to the Moscow Council of 1656 and the Great Moscow Council of 1667 g., having considered the issue of the oaths imposed by these councils from the theological, liturgical, canonical and historical sides, we solemnly determine in the glory of the All-Holy Name of our Lord Jesus Christ:
1) Approve the resolution of the Patriarchal Holy Synod of April 23 (10), 1929 on the recognition of old Russian rites as salutary, like new rites, and equal to them.
2) Approve the resolution of the Patriarchal Holy Synod of April 23 (10), 1929 on the rejected and supposedly not former derogatory expressions relating to the old rites, and in particular, to double-fingered, wherever they were found and whoever were uttered.
3) To approve the resolution of the Patriarchal Holy Synod of April 23 (10), 1929 on the abolition of the oaths of the Moscow Council of 1656 and the Great Moscow Council of 1667, imposed by them on the old Russian rituals and on the Orthodox Christians who adhere to them, and consider these oaths as not exes."

(Ep. Kirill (Gundyaev), now Patriarch, M. Nikodim (Rotov) - ecumenist, A.I. Osipov. - ecumenist, develops heresies already condemned by the Ecumenical Councils, and now already a schismatic - m. Filaret (Denisenko),)

Bishops' Council of the ROCOR. Also in 2000, the Council of Bishops of the ROCOR, on behalf of the Russian Church, brought repentance to the Old Believers: “We deeply regret the cruelties that were inflicted on the adherents of the Old Rite, about those persecutions by civil authorities, which were inspired by some of our predecessors in the hierarchy of the Russian Church..."
Reverend Paisiy Velichkovsky on the abolition of vows.

“An oath or anathema against those who oppose the Catholic Church, i.e. on those who are baptized with two fingers or who resist anything else, having been collectively imposed by the Eastern Patriarchs, the grace of Christ will remain firm, unshakable and insoluble until the end of the age.

You also ask: was the imposed anathema subsequently resolved by some Eastern Council or not?

I answer: could there be such a Council, with the exception of some one contrary to God and the Holy Church, which would gather to refute the truth and confirm lies? There will never be such an evil Council in the Church of Christ.

You also ask: can any bishops, apart from the Council and the consent and will of the Eastern Patriarchs, authorize such an oath?

I answer: it is impossible; There is no disorder from God, but peace. Know for sure that all bishops at their ordination receive the same grace of the Holy Spirit and are obliged, like the apple of their eye, to preserve the purity and integrity of the Orthodox faith, as well as all the apostolic traditions and rules of the holy apostles, Ecumenical and Local Councils, and God-bearing fathers , which the Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church contains.

From the same Holy Spirit they received the power to bind and decide according to the order that the Holy Spirit established through the holy apostles in the holy Church. To destroy the apostolic traditions and church rules - the bishops did not receive such power from the Holy Spirit, therefore, it is impossible for either the bishops or the Eastern patriarchs to resolve the above-mentioned anathema on the opponents of the Conciliar Church, as correctly and in accordance with the Holy Council. , then it would be contrary to God and the holy Church. You also ask: if none of the bishops can resolve this anathema without the Eastern patriarchs, then was it not resolved by the Eastern patriarchs?
I answer: not only is it impossible for any bishop without the Eastern Patriarchs, but also for the Eastern Patriarchs themselves to resolve this oath, as has already been said enough, for such an anathema is eternally insoluble...”

Fragmentation of the Old Believers. From the time of the schism to the present day, the Old Believers have divided themselves into many parts - rumors, agreements that are in no way inferior to each other in “truth”. Here are some of them: Kerzhen “elders”, Beglopopovsky consent, Belakrinitsky hierarchy, Novozybkovsky hierarchy, Pomeranian consent, Filippov consent, Fedoseev consent, Spasov consent. I wonder which Old Believers the Russian and foreign hierarchs blame? Old Believers of what agreement or sense? If they repent and ask for forgiveness from the Old Believers-bezpopovtsy Pomeranian consent, then they must agree to recognize themselves as followers of the Antichrist.

Subversive activities of Old Believers in Russian statehood. Since the beginning of the schism, for the Old Believers there is not only no true hierarchy, but also no statehood, but the fact that there are either Antichrists or Antichrist servants or Antichrist hands or forerunners of the Antichrist. With such speculation, of course, there was no talk of any patriotism. When it is not the Tsar, but the Antichrist, not the minister, but the Antichrist’s servant.

So, for example, writes the hierarch of the Belokrinitsky consent T. Seredinov: “as a result of the Time of Troubles, the most unprincipled and greedy group came to power, relying on the oprichnina noble rags and rallying around the Romanov boyar clan. This clan, without any dynastic rights, went to power without choosing any means... The strong church began to interfere with the Romanovs... They decided to blow it up from the inside, for which they found Nikon, a simple man from the national outskirts."

Knowing the attitude of the Old Believers to Russian statehood, other countries willingly took advantage of this. When they could not crush from the outside, with the support of the peasants of the “old faith” they tried from within.
Here is a list of centuries-old riots and riots with the participation of Old Believers:

1670-1671. Razinism. Revolt of the Cossacks - “Old Believers” led by Stepan Razin.

1668-1676. Capture of the Solovetsky Monastery by the Kapitons and the Razins.

1681. Mutiny of the Streltsy in Moscow under the leadership of schismatics.

1708-1710. Bulavinsky revolt and the departure of the “Old Believers” Cossacks to Turkey. (Subsequently, these Cossacks fought on the side of Turkey and its European allies).

1765. “This year, a crowd of schismatics, numbering 23 people, captured the Zelensky Monastery, drove out the monks from there and locked themselves in its high walls. This disaster destroyed a lot of church property, especially books and manuscripts” (St. Ignatius).

1771. “Plague riot” in Moscow. Murder of Archbishop Ambrose.

1773-1774. Pugachevshchina. Revolt of the Yak Cossacks - “Old Believers”

These riots led by schismatics, as a rule, arose not in the central regions of Russia with the original Orthodox population, but on the outskirts populated by the Golytba and foreigners, where, in addition to the Old Believers, the population traditionally harbored some kind of dissatisfaction with the Orthodox Church and the Muscovite kingdom.

A characteristic feature of the riots was imposture. The impostor king always promised to restore the “old faith.” Razin's rebellion was accompanied by the promotion of the false Tsarevich Alexei, who had died shortly before.

Pugachev declared himself Emperor Peter III.

That is why all those people who followed the impostors could not be stopped even by the church, which anathematized all the rebels and those who help them, because they were not children of this church, but established their own faith and their own state. But in fact, they were only a weapon of Western countries to destroy Russia.

It also happened during the revolution of 1917. Foreign freemason agents had all the same popular support in the person of the “Old Believers” who happily helped to overthrow the Antichrist from the Russian throne and restore the “old faith” and “people’s” power.

Holy Fathers about the Old Believers.

St. Seraphim of Sarov. Stop your nonsense! How can you escape without a helmsman? (Words of St. Seraphim spoken to a schismatic.)
One day, 4 people from the zealots of the Old Believers, residents of the village of Pavlova, Gorbatovsky district, came to the monk to ask about the double-fingered addition with confirmation of the truth of the old believer's answer by some miracle or sign.

They had just crossed the threshold of the cell, and did not have time to say their thoughts, when the elder approached them, took the first of them by the right hand, folded his fingers into a three-finger formation according to the rite of the Orthodox Church, and thus baptized him. gave the following speech: “This is the Christian folding of the cross! So pray and tell others. This composition was handed down from St. apostles, and the double-fingered habit is contrary to the holy statutes. I ask and pray you: go to the Greek-Russian Church: it is in all the glory and power of God! Like a ship with many riggings, sails and a great helm, she is guided by the Holy Spirit. Its good helmsmen are the teachers of the Church, the archpastors are the successors of the apostles. And your chapel is like a small boat without a helm or oars; she is moored with a rope to the ship of our Church, floats behind her, flooded by the waves, and would certainly drown if she were not tied to the ship.”

At another time, one Old Believer came to him and asked:

- Tell me, Elder of God, which faith is better: the current church faith or the old one?

“Leave your nonsense,” answered Father Seraphim, “our life is the sea, St. Our Orthodox Church is a ship, and the helmsman is the Savior Himself. If, with such a helmsman, people, due to their sinful weakness, have difficulty crossing the sea of ​​life and not everyone is saved from drowning, then where are you striving with your little boat and on what do you base your hope of being saved without a helmsman?

One winter, a sick woman was brought on a sleigh to the monastery cell of Fr. Seraphim and this was reported to him. Despite the multitude of people crowding in the hallway, Fr. Seraphim asked to bring her to him. The patient was all hunched over, her knees were brought to her chest. They carried her into the elder’s home and laid her on the floor. O. Seraphim locked the door and asked her:

-Where are you from, mother?

- From the Vladimir province.

- How long have you been sick?

- Three years and a half.

– What is the cause of your illness?

“I was previously, father, of the Orthodox faith, but they gave me in marriage to an Old Believer.” For a long time I did not lean towards their faith - and I was still healthy. Finally, they persuaded me: I changed the cross to two fingers and did not go to church. After that, in the evening, I went out into the yard to do some household chores; there one animal seemed fiery to me, and even scorched me; I fell in fright and began to break and writhe. Quite a bit of time passed, my family missed me, looked for me, went out into the yard and found me lying there. They carried me into the room. I've been sick ever since.

“I understand...” answered the elder. “Do you believe in St. again?” Orthodox Church?

“Now I believe again, father,” answered the patient.

Then Fr. Seraphim folded his fingers in the Orthodox manner, put a cross on himself and said: “Cross yourself like this in the name of the Holy Trinity.”

“Father, I would be glad,” the patient answered, “but I can’t use my hands.”

O. Seraphim took oil from the lamp of the Mother of God of Tenderness and anointed the sick woman’s chest and hands. Suddenly she began to straighten out, even her joints began to crack, and immediately she received perfect health. The people standing in the vestibule, having seen the miracle, spread throughout the monastery, and especially in the hotel, that Fr. Seraphim healed the sick woman.

When this event ended, she came to Fr. Seraphim, one of the Diveyevo sisters, Fr. Seraphim told her:

“It was not the poor Seraphim, mother, who healed her, but the Queen of Heaven.” “Then he asked: “Mother, don’t you have anyone in your family who doesn’t go to church?”

“There are no such people, father,” answered the sister. “And my parents and relatives all pray with the double-fingered cross.”

“Ask them on my behalf,” said Fr. Seraphim - so that they fold their fingers in the name of the Holy Trinity.

“I told them about this many times, father, but they didn’t listen.”

- Listen, ask on my behalf. Start with your brother, who loves me, he will be the first to agree.

– Did you have any deceased relatives who prayed with a two-fingered cross?

“Unfortunately, everyone in our family prayed like that.”

“Even though they were virtuous people,” Fr. Seraphim thought for a moment. – And they will be bound: the Holy Orthodox Church does not accept this cross... Do you know their graves?

The sister named the graves of those she knew and where they were buried.

- Go, mother, to their graves, make three bows and pray to the Lord that He will resolve them in eternity.

My sister did just that. She also told the living that they should accept the Orthodox folding of their fingers in the name of the Holy Trinity, and they definitely obeyed the voice of Fr. Seraphim, for they knew that he was a saint of God and understood the mysteries of St. Christ's faith." (“Soulful Reading” 1867)

Similar examples from the holy life of St. There are a great many Seraphim of Sarov. You can bring and bring...

Now listen and be inspired by the words of St. Demetrius, Metropolitan of Rostov, miracle worker, who he said about the same “Old Believers” — schismatics:

“Ole of the damned, our last times! - exclaims the saint. - For now the holy Church is greatly oppressed, diminished, both from external persecutors, and from internal schismatics, like, according to the Apostle, departed from us: but did not rage from us(1 John 2:19). And just because of the schism, the very true Catholic Apostolic Church has diminished, as if the true son of the Church can hardly be found anywhere: almost in every city some kind of special faith is invented, and already about faith, simple men and women, who are very ignorant of the true path, dogmatize and They teach, as they say about the addition of three fingers, that there is a wrong and a new cross, and in their stubbornness they stand in reproach, having despised and rejected the true teachers of the church...” (“The Life of St. Demetrius”).

Holy Dimitri Rostovsky is a great Orthodox writer, the author of “The Lives of the Saints,” and also wrote a wonderful, extensive work, “The Search for the Bryn Faith,” which revealed the pernicious spirit of schism. In this work, he clearly and convincingly proved that the faith of the schismatic Old Believers is wrong, their teaching is harmful to the soul, and their deeds are not pleasing to God.

“The Search for the Bryn Faith” is divided into three parts. In the first part, the saint resolves two questions: “is the faith of the schismatics right”? And “is their faith old”? Answering the first question, St. Demetrius easily proves that the schismatics do not have true faith, for their faith is limited to old books and icons, the eight-pointed cross, their own finger in the sign of the cross and the sevenfold number of prosphoras at the Liturgy - which does not constitute faith. Solving the second question, St. Demetrius says approximately the same thing as St. Theophan the Recluse in his sermons, that the faith of the schismatics is new or has renewed old heresies and errors. In the second part In the essay, the author points out that the teaching of the schismatic Old Believers, originating from impostor teachers, is 1) false, 2) heretical and 3) blasphemous. In the third part - about the deeds of the schismatics - it is proven that their apparently good deeds are spoiled by arrogance, vanity and hypocrisy, and then the evil and clearly lawless deeds of the schismatics are listed.

Re-reading our Holy Fathers of the Church, you never cease to be amazed and admire their inexhaustible power of faith and wisdom from the Holy Spirit. You never cease to be amazed at their simplicity and insight. And most of all, what evokes joy and admiration is their unshakable standing on the field of spiritual battle, guarding the purity of the Orthodox Faith. They give us spiritual and impenetrable protection from the attacks of schismatic Old Believers and various kinds of heretics. What other authorities do we need in order to stand in the Truth today and not succumb to demonic temptation, including demonic temptation from the apologists of the “Old Belief”? Or which of them can compare with Rev. Seraphim of Sarov; Holy Theophan the Recluse or St. Dimitri Rostovsky???

This is what St. writes about the schismatic Old Believers. Theophan the Recluse Vyshensky:

“...they (Old Believers - M.D.) keep saying that their rumors are the essence of ancient fatherly tradition. What ancient fatherly? These are all new inventions. The Ancient Tradition is contained by the Orthodox Church. We borrowed St. teaching from St. The Greek Orthodox Church, and all the holy books came to us from it. In ancient times these books contained everything as we do now. But 100 or 150 years before the blessed Patriarch Nikon and the most pious sovereign Alexei Mikhailovich, inexperienced scribes began to spoil them, and during that time they spoiled and spoiled everything and, finally, they spoiled everything so much that it was no longer possible to tolerate it. These damages included in the books were all new without exception. When they were later abolished and the books were put in the same form as they had been since ancient times, did that mean that something new had been introduced into the books?! They did not introduce new things, but returned them to the old ones. In our books now everything is the same as it is in the Greek and as in our ancient ones, after Equal-to-the-Apostles Prince Vladimir. Anyone who wants to, go and look at the old books in the Patriarchal Library in Moscow, and see for yourself. It became that we have the old books, and not the schismatics, and the ancient Tradition is also with us, and not with them. They have all new things, new books and new traditions. Let me explain this to you with an example: St. Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv - the oldest cathedral - was originally painted on the walls. Sometime later, no one remembers, they plastered over this painting and painted the temple again on new plaster. The old painting remained underneath. But recently, this new plaster and schedule were knocked off and the schedule that was under it, the oldest, was restored. What is it - did they introduce something new into the St. Sophia Church or put it in its ancient form? Of course, they put it in its ancient form. Now the St. Sophia Church is in the same form as it was in ancient times, and not as it was 20 years ago. That’s how it was with books. When they threw out everything that was newly introduced, they did not update them, but returned them to the ancient ones, and our corrected books are truly ancient, and not schismatic - damaged.

So reflect back when one of the schismatics begins to explain to you that they have ancient books. Their books are no more than two, many three hundred years old; and our 1000 have more. And when they begin to assure that they have an ancient fatherly tradition, ask them where you have the ancient fatherly tradition - among the priests or the non-popovites, among the Filippovites or Fedoseevites, among the Spasov consent, or among the re-baptized people, or among the new Austrian rogues? Are there 10 ancient legends? After all, it is one. When they have more than one, it became, it is not ancient fatherly, but all human inventions. We have one, and it is completely in agreement with our most ancient Tradition, in agreement with the Greeks and all Orthodox Christians existing throughout the entire earth. We have agreement everywhere, but they have disagreement everywhere. In another village, three or four conversations, or even in one house, also happen - and they do not communicate with each other. Where is the united Church of Christ here? What kind of body of the Church is this when all the members disintegrated and went in different directions? Where is this one herd? and how can one say that the one, true, Divine Shepherd is their shepherd?

Judging by this, it is clear as day that they have no truth, no following of Christ, no Church. And when there is no Church, there is no salvation: for only in the Church is salvation, as in Noah’s ark. The Church of Christ has a priesthood. They have no priesthood; became, there is no Church. The Church of Christ has the Sacraments. They have no one to perform the Sacraments; therefore, they do not have a Church. How dare they still open their mouths and approach the Orthodox and seduce them! They say we want to save. How can we save when we ourselves are dying?! They themselves perish and drag others into destruction, rather than save them. Note to yourself, salvation without grace is impossible; grace is not given without the Sacraments; The sacraments are not performed without the priesthood. No priesthood, no Sacraments; no Sacraments, no grace; no grace, no salvation.

Some of them say: now we have found the priesthood, or have planted the root of the priesthood. They planted a root, but it was rotten and barren. Judge for yourself: Ambrose, whom they lured to themselves, was bound by prohibition - bound by legal authority. The Lord promised this legal power: if you bind anyone on earth, they will be bound in heaven (Matthew 18:18). Therefore, Ambrose was also bound in heaven. If he is bound in heaven, then how could he, bound in heaven, communicate heavenly grace? Where did he get it?! He could not communicate it, and did not communicate it; and all those who were appointed to them, just as they were laymen, remained laymen, even though they are called priests and bishops. These are just names, like when children play and give themselves different titles - colonels, generals, commanders-in-chief.

Let them say it was banned. The elders allowed it. Wonderful thing! Ordinary laity allow the bishop and return to him the power to episcopate. Don’t you know that only the one who has the power to ordain can authorize. The old men did not have their deacon consecration; how could they return episcopal power to the bishop when this is the same as ordaining? They didn’t return it, and Ambrose remained banned, despite the ridiculous rituals performed on him. If it is prohibited, then grace is stopped in him; if it is stopped, then it could not be poured out on others. When, for example, water flows through a gutter, it overflows from it onto other bells and vessels; and when the gutter is locked, water will not flow through it and will not overflow to other places and things. So Ambrose, until he was banned, was like a trench overflowing water; and when he fell under the ban, he became like a dry trench, closed, and could no longer communicate to others the blessed water that he himself did not have. Thus, it is in vain that some of the schismatics deceive themselves and others, thinking that they have obtained the priesthood. They got names, but there was no case.

That's right, Orthodox Christians! Don't listen to these flattering words! There is no truth in them, but only lies and deception. They deceive themselves and plunge others into the same deception, but the truth of God is clear. She does not hide, but goes openly and presents all the evidence of her truth. We stand on solid rock, built on the foundation of the Apostle and Prophet, which is the cornerstone of Jesus Christ Himself (Eph. 2:20). With this in mind, stand courageously in the faith and boldly testify to its truth, and not only do not give in to schismatics, but, on the contrary, try to win them over to your side, sincerely convincing them that they have fallen into lies and delusions and are on the path of destruction, holding on to new things, which, through deception, are considered antiquated. Amen".

There are other wonderful sermons by St. Theophan the Recluse on the same topic about schismatic Old Believers. They complement the above words, seem to echo them and denounce the schismatic lies even more powerfully and completely.

The article is based on the book by A. Petrov (creator of the film about Ivan the Terrible “His Name is Ivan”), and his friend, A. Pavlov, “WHO ARE THE OLD BELIEVERS?”

In recent years, our country has been growing interest in the Old Believers. Many both secular and ecclesiastical authors publish materials devoted to the spiritual and cultural heritage, history and modern day of the Old Believers.

Old Believers are the general name of the Russian Orthodox clergy and laity who strive to preserve the church institutions and traditions of the ancient Russian Orthodox Church and refused to accept the reform undertaken in the 17th century by Patriarch Nikon and continued by his followers, up to and including Peter I.

The term itself Old Believers" arose forcedly. The fact is that the Synodal Church, its missionaries and theologians called the supporters of pre-schism, pre-Nikon Orthodoxy nothing more than schismatics and heretics.

This was done because the ancient Russian Old Believer church traditions, which existed in Rus' for almost 700 years, were recognized as non-Orthodox, schismatic and heretical at the New Believer councils of 1656, 1666-1667.

History of the Old Believers

The Old Believers arose in the second half of the 17th century. as a result of a schism in the Russian Orthodox Church, when part of the clergy and laity refused to accept the reform of Patriarch Nikon (1652-1666), carried out with the support of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich (1645-1676). The reform consisted of correcting liturgical books and some changes in rituals according to the Greek model and was based on the desire to unite the rituals of the Russian and Greek Orthodox churches. In 1653, before the start of Lent, Nikon announced the abolition of the two-finger sign of the cross, which was prescribed by the resolution of the Council of the Hundred Heads in 1551, and the introduction of the “Greek” three-finger sign. The open indignation of a number of clergy by this decision served as the reason for the beginning of repressions against the church opposition.

A continuation of the reforms was the decision of the church council in 1654 to bring a number of church books into full compliance with the texts of ancient Slavic and Greek books. The indignation of the people was caused by the fact that, contrary to the decision of the council, corrections were made not according to ancient, but according to newly printed Kyiv and Greek books.

Since the differences between the state church and the Old Believers concerned only some rituals and inaccuracies in the translation of liturgical books, there are practically no dogmatic differences between the Old Believers and the Russian Orthodox Church. The early Old Believers were characterized by eschatological ideas, but gradually they ceased to occupy a large place in the worldview of the Old Believers.

The Old Believers retained the two-fingered sign of the cross; only the eight-pointed cross is recognized. At the proskomedia, seven prosphoras are used, and not five, as in official Orthodoxy. During the service, only prostrations are given. During church rituals, Old Believers walk in the direction of the sun, while Orthodox Christians walk against the sun. At the end of the prayer, hallelujah is said twice, not three. The word "Jesus" in the Old Believers is written and pronounced as "Iesus".

The early Old Believers are characterized by the denial of the “world” - a serfdom state dominated by the Antichrist. The Old Believers refused any communication with the “worldly” and adhered to strict asceticism and a regulated lifestyle.

At the Moscow Council of 1666 - 1667, opponents of Nikon's reforms were anathematized. Some of them, including Avvakum Petrovich and Lazar, were exiled and later executed. Others fled to remote areas to escape persecution. Nikon’s opponents believed that after the reforms, official Orthodoxy ceased to exist, and began to call the state church “Nikonianism.”

In 1667, the Solovetsky riot began - a protest of the monks of the Solovetsky monastery against Nikon's reforms. In response, Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich took away the estates of the monastery and besieged it with troops. The siege lasted 8 years, and only after the betrayal of one of the monks the monastery was taken.

After the death of Avvakum, the head of the schism became Nikita Dobrynin (Pustosvyat), who in July 1682 held a church dispute in the presence of the tsar, but was arrested and executed for insulting the tsar’s honor.

In 1685, the boyar Duma officially prohibited the schism. Unrepentant schismatics were subject to various punishments, including the death penalty.

At the end of the 17th century, the Old Believers were divided into two large movements, depending on the presence or absence of the priesthood - priests and non-priests. The priests recognized the need for priests during services and rituals; the non-priests denied any possibility of the existence of a true clergy due to its extermination by the Antichrist.

Not long before, two noble women close to the royal court, sisters from the boyar family of the Sokovnins - noblewoman Feodosia Morozova and princess Evdokia Urusova - accepted death for their beliefs. They were exiled to a monastery, where in 1675 they died of hunger. Quite a few less noble confessors of the “old faith” were also tortured.

Extraordinary people have gone into schism. The leaders of the "Old Believers" - archpriests Avvakum, Lazar, Suzdal priest Nikita Pustosvyat, Deacon Fyodor, monk Epiphanius and others - were talented preachers, people of exceptional courage. They began by opposing the violence of earthly power over the human spirit and conscience, but in this confrontation both sides turned out to be equally biased.

The "Old Believers" were committed to the idea of ​​a "third Rome" no less than the reformers. However, for them, the acceptance of “damaged” Greek samples was evidence of betrayal of this idea. “The Third Rome” is the last, “there will never be a fourth”; This means that the Antichrist is destined to destroy it shortly before the Last Judgment. If the “corruption of faith” comes from the heights of power of the “third Rome,” then this clearly speaks of the advent of the kingdom of the Antichrist. The horror of him forced me to see differences in faith where there were essentially none.

The break with the Church, which the “Old Believers,” or Old Believers, hastened to declare the refuge of the Antichrist, affected the leaders of the schism no less than their opponents - servility to the authorities. Mutual bitterness had a destructive effect on Christian consciousness. At the beginning of his struggle, Archpriest Avvakum rightly accused the authorities of violating the Savior’s covenants: “They want to establish the faith with fire, the whip, and the gallows. Which apostles taught this way, I don’t know. My Christ did not order our apostles to teach this way.” The letter to the young Tsar Fyodor Alekseevich speaks about how dramatically his worldview changed in the last years of his life. Habakkuk wrote about his enemies: “If you had given me freedom, I would have chopped them, the vile stallions like Elijah the prophet, like dogs in one day.” The appeal to the Old Testament image of the prophet Elijah does not seem accidental.

In the Old Testament, the description of cruel acts is a true reflection of the cruelty of the fallen world, which permeates the consciousness and worldview of all people, including those who created the texts of Holy Scripture and acted in Holy history.

The fullness of divine revelation in Christ showed the alienness of this cruelty to Christianity. The loss of Christian mercy by the leaders of the schism testified to their wrongness, although it did not in the least justify the tormentors of the schismatics.

In April 1682, according to the royal verdict, Avvakum and his associates were given a terrible execution - they were burned. That year saw the final turn of the authorities towards a policy of suppressing schismatics by force.

After the death of Tsar Fyodor Alekseevich (1676-1682), his brothers Ivan I and Peter were proclaimed kings. A revolt of the Streltsy broke out in Moscow, whose leaders were “zealots of antiquity.” They remained unpunished, since the supreme power in the country was practically absent. This situation allowed the leaders of the schism to obtain Patriarch Joachim’s consent to a public competition between the “Old Believers” and the supporters of the “New Rite.” It took place shortly after the coronation of the young kings. Preparations for the debate were accompanied by unrest among the people. During the competition, the priest - "Old Believer" Nikita Pustosvyat, in the presence of the reigning family, attacked Bishop Afanasy of Kholmogory with beatings. The delegation of Old Believers was removed from the royal chambers. Soon the arrests and executions of the Old Believer leaders of the Streltsy uprisings began. The Council of 1682, convened by Patriarch Joachim, outlined a whole system of repressions against the Old Believers. And in 1685, 12 decrees were issued ordering the confiscation of the property of the “Old Believers”, whipping and exiling them themselves, and the death penalty was imposed for “rebaptism into the old faith” of those who were baptized after the introduction of reforms.

In the second half of the 17th - early 18th centuries. The Old Believers were brutally persecuted, as a result of which they were forced out into the remote places of Pomerania, Siberia, the Don and beyond Russia. The cruelty of the persecution aroused among the Old Believers the belief that the Antichrist would reign in Moscow, which led to ideas about the imminence of the end of the world and the second coming of Christ. During this period, an extreme form of protest appeared among the fugitive Old Believers in the form of self-immolations (burnings, or baptisms by fire). Self-immolations received a doctrinal explanation in the form of a mystical cleansing of the soul from the filth of the world. The first case of mass self-immolation occurred in 1679 in Tyumen, where 1,700 people committed suicide as a result of a sermon. In total, before 1690, about 20 thousand people died as a result of self-immolations.

On February 28, 1716, Tsar Peter I issued a decree collecting double state taxes from the Old Believers. As a means of finding those hiding from “double salary,” the decree ordered all Russians to confess annually. From that moment until the death of Peter I in 1725, the relatively liberal domestic policy in religious terms was replaced by a policy of widespread search and persecution of Old Believers.

At the end of the 18th - beginning of the 19th centuries. persecution ceased to be massive and took on a more civilized character.

In the 19th century, with the crisis of the Orthodox Church, the weakening of repression, and the legislative establishment of freedom of religion, the Old Believers received a new development. In 1863, the number of priests was 5 million people, Pomeranians - 2 million, Fedoseevites, Filippovites and Runners - 1 million.

In 1971, the Council of the Moscow Patriarchate lifted the anathema from the Old Believers.

The total number of Old Believers at the end of the 20th century was more than 3 million people. Over 2 million of them live in Russia.

Officially, the term “Old Believers” began to be used in 1906. The Old Believers themselves have a negative attitude towards the term “schismatics” used, considering themselves adherents of the true church.

First, I want to explain why I was interested in the Old Believers, or, as they are also called, Old Believers or schismatics. Matters, as they say, are things of the past, which are poorly connected with the turbulent modernity. There are few Old Believers left in Russia. Wikipedia says - about 2 million out of more than 143 million Russians. Most of them live in remote Siberian corners. A certain number are outside Russia: in Romania, Bulgaria, America, Canada, Latin America and even Australia. They live in closed communities and communicate with the outside world to a minimum. For the average Russian, the Old Believers are of the same interest as the Amish are for the average American: read the article, be surprised, groan and forget. The Old Believers themselves do not want to participate in heated political and social discussions, and seem to prefer to be left alone.

But the more I read about the schismatics, the more I realized that the Old Believers are not at all like the Amish. The interest in them is not only zoological - to gaze at them as if at a strange animal in a cage and continue to live as usual. They write about the Old Believers with a feeling of nostalgia and regret. For many, the Old Believers are a miraculously preserved type of Russian peasant, economical, sober, prudent, strong and family-oriented. An Old Believer is the embodiment of a real man, as he is described by authors nostalgic for Tsarist Russia, the master of the land and his destiny. This is the bearer of those very traditional values ​​that the media shout about and which the government strives with all its might to instill and protect.

In modern Russia, this type has died out like a mammoth, being driven out by the authorities due to ideological differences. And in general, the Old Believers were too independent and stubborn for any authority, as we will see later. I noticed another curious thing that makes the history of the Old Believers relevant. The Old Believers resisted to the last the imposition of Western ideas and the Western way of life. They seemed to be preserved and, in an almost unchanged form, conveyed to us the cultural code of the Russians of the 17th century. In modern times, when there is a McDonald's on every corner, TV shows about the machinations of the State Department mixed with American blockbusters, a law on foreign agents is being passed and people are boasting about new iPhones, the history of the Old Believers can be instructive.

Wrong Orthodox and fiery oppositionists

It all started in the 17th century. On the Russian throne sat Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, nicknamed the Quietest. Together with the seventh Moscow Patriarch Nikon, the tsar carried out the church reform of 1650-1660. The purpose of the reform was, in general, good: to bring the ritual tradition of the Russian Church in line with the Greek one, which was considered more advanced. Some historians believe that Nikon thus wanted to make Russia the “Third Rome”, elevate Alexei Mikhailovich to the throne of the Byzantine emperors, and himself become the Ecumenical Patriarch. Externally, the reform looked like this: one had to be baptized with three fingers, not two, the name of Christ should be written with two “Is” at the beginning, the procession of the cross should be made against the sun, and during the service, “Hallelujah” should be proclaimed three times, not twice (a three-part Hallelujah instead of a special one). Minor changes were made to the sacred texts and bowing ritual. In the opinion of a modern person, far from ecclesiastical quarrels, the harmless reform was essentially an attempt to impose a Western model in Russia. As the priests themselves say, an attempt to forcefully westernize Russia. The people perceived this as an encroachment on traditional, naturally established values ​​and refused to accept the new liturgical tradition. There was a split. This is how correct and incorrect Orthodox Christians appeared in Russia. Since dissent, especially mass dissent, undermines the foundations of the state, the fight against the schismatic opposition began.

(Patriarch Nikon)

The laws at that time were harsh, unlike modern liberal ones. In general, there were problems with tolerance in Russia at that time. At first, any deviation from correct Nikonian Orthodoxy was punishable by death with confiscation of property, in some cases, eternal imprisonment in an earthen prison, and then by imprisonment, hard labor or exile. As a sign of protest, the schismatics, unlike modern oppositionists, did not hold rallies or write long articles on the Internet. They protested on a grand scale, radically: despite the church’s severe condemnation of suicide, schismatics voluntarily went to martyrdom and burned themselves. Whole families, with children and old people, mind you. The Old Believers especially suffered in the times of Peter the Great, when Westernization was carried out super-actively. Oppositionists were banned from wearing traditional clothing, growing beards, and were ordered to smoke tobacco and drink coffee. To this day, Old Believers remember the great sovereign-transformer with an unkind word. In the 17th and 18th centuries, more than 20 thousand Old Believers voluntarily burned themselves. Many more were burned involuntarily.

Despite severe repression, the Old Believers continued to persist. In the 19th century, according to some estimates, up to a third of Russians were Old Believers. At the same time, significant relaxations occurred in the attitude of the authorities and the official church towards the Old Believers. A modern liberal law was adopted: direct persecution was abolished, but any propaganda was prohibited. It was forbidden to build churches, publish books, and hold leadership positions. Also, the state did not recognize the marriage of Old Believers, and until 1874 all children of Old Believers were considered illegitimate. In 1905, the government went even further in its tolerance and issued the Highest Decree “On strengthening the principles of religious tolerance.” The decree allowed the organization of communities and religious processions.

During the respite, the Old Believers became something like Russian Protestants. The Old Believers are related to the latter by the cult of labor and modesty in everyday life. These were, as I said above, strong and sober business executives. In the 19th century, Old Believers formed the backbone of the wealthy merchants and peasantry. 60% of all bank accounts in the country belonged to Old Believers merchants.

The Bolsheviks did not delve into the subtleties of faith. Old Believers were persecuted in the same way as ordinary Orthodox Christians. Many Old Believers suffered during dispossession and collectivization, because the Old Believers were wealthy and did not want to join collective farms. During Stalin's time, thousands of Old Believers received prison sentences for anti-Soviet agitation. The accusation is at least strange, because the Old Believers have always strived to live in closed communities, on their own.

Some Old Believers, instead of martyrdom, the royal fire and the Soviet camp, chose voluntary exile and emigration. They fled to Siberia, where the long tentacles of the Tsarist secret police and the NKVD could hardly reach. She fled to China, and from there to Latin America. This is how Old Believer communities were formed outside of Russia.

Downshifters

Old Believer communities are tin cans that have preserved the traditions, way of life and thinking of the Russian peasantry of the 16th century in almost unchanged form. These people deliberately reject modern civilization. Old Believers live according to the house-building system, relationships in the community are built along the traditional vertical: children, women, then men, and above all is God. The man is the undisputed head and breadwinner of the family. A woman is a mother and keeper of the home, or, as feminists would say, the work of women is kinder, küche, kirche (children, kitchen, church). You can get married at the age of 13. Abortion and contraception are prohibited. Old Believer families usually have 6-10 children. Unconditional respect and submission to elders. Old Believers of the old school do not shave their beards, women do not wear trousers and always cover their heads with a scarf, even at night. Alcohol and tobacco are either prohibited completely, or homemade mash is allowed. Controversial achievements of civilization, such as television and the Internet, are not welcomed by Old Believers. However, there is no strict prohibition: many have cars, fields are cultivated with tractors, girls download embroidery patterns and culinary recipes from the Internet. They feed themselves mainly from their own farms; many Old Believers in the United States have become successful farmers. Old Believers prefer to encounter official medicine as rarely as possible, except in serious cases; are treated with herbs, prayers and gelstat. It is believed that most diseases come from bad thoughts and information garbage in the head.

In a word, Old Believers lead a healthy lifestyle: instead of working in a stuffy office and relaxing with a bottle of beer in front of the TV - physical labor in the fresh air, instead of semi-finished products with preservatives and imported bananas - organic products grown with their own hands, instead of American blockbusters and watching news with murders and political quarrels - soul-saving prayers. Therefore, Old Believers are mostly very healthy people; old people over 90 look at most 60. But women fade early from frequent childbirth. We can say that the Old Believers are kind of downshifters for religious reasons. In this sense, Old Believers are in trend: fleeing the dubious blessings of civilization, top managers settle in abandoned villages, and hipsters nest en masse in Goa. Both would have something to learn from the Old Believers.

Alternative Russians

For centuries, the Old Believers unwittingly turned out to be inconvenient to any government - both tsarist and Soviet. The modern government and the modern church have finally decided to make peace with the Old Believers. In 1971, the Russian Orthodox Church abolished the harsh laws against Old Believers and decreed that the oaths of 1667 should be considered “as if they had not been”. In 2000, the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia repented to the Old Believers. Now in Russia, along with the well-known Russian Orthodox Church, there is the Russian Orthodox Church (Russian Orthodox Old Believer Church) and the DOC (Old Orthodox Pomeranian Church). In general, the Old Believers are divided into several branches, but I will not delve into these subtleties. Relations with the official church still remain tense, mainly due to the reluctance of Old Believers to join the collective.

(The head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Korniliy, gives Patriarch Kirill an Old Believer rosary - a lestovka)

In 2006, a state program began to operate to assist the voluntary resettlement of compatriots living abroad to the Russian Federation. In 2012, Putin made it permanent. Magadan, Sakhalin, Kamchatka, and Buryatia were declared priority areas for settlement. And the Old Believers - bearded men in jeans and loose shirts and women in sundresses and scarves, speaking Russian with a foreign accent - stretched from warm Latin America and Australia to the harsh and poorly developed Siberia and the Far East. The Russian government promised to pay for the move, provide housing, provide allowances (up to 120 thousand rubles for each family member) and pay unemployment benefits for the first 6 months. True, with a condition: you can’t leave until the money allocated for resettlement has been spent. This is serfdom in a modern way.

The blessed return of the former oppositionists did not work out.

Firstly, the Old Believers were faced with a clumsy bureaucratic machine. Good intentions are good intentions, and paperwork must be completed according to all the rules. Bearers of Russian traditions were equated with migrants. Of course, the Old Believers, unlike ordinary migrant workers, received concessions, but still, the procedure for naturalization of the descendants of primordially Russians turned out to be difficult and long. Some unwittingly turned into illegal immigrants and again, like centuries ago, fled deeper into the taiga, into the forests, hiding from the authorities. Again, the Old Believers found themselves in opposition against their own will, again in confrontation with the state. History repeats itself.

Secondly, Russia turned out to be completely different from the quiet country of birches and churches that grandparents told modern Old Believers about. The Russian village is on the verge of destruction: only old people and alcoholics remain in the villages, collective farms have collapsed, hired workers are working in the fields. The morals of modern Russians are strikingly different from those accepted among the Old Believers. In order to avoid being “interfered” with the laity and to preserve themselves, the Old Believers again strive to hide, to get away from people and civilization. The authorities' hopes that the Old Believers would help the spiritual revival of Russia did not materialize. Many Russians themselves do not want to be spiritually reborn, and the Old Believers were not ready to take on this most difficult task. The Old Believers do not need modern Russia.

The phenomenon of the Old Believers is that they represent, as it were, an alternative version of Russians. Russians who were not changed by the revolution of 17, the years of Soviet indoctrination, the apocalypse of the 90s and the capitalism of the 2000s. Which our disputes about the fate of Russia and the national Russian idea do not concern. They found their idea back in the 16th century and carried it almost untouched to this day. On the one hand, an example of enviable spiritual fortitude, the famous Russian character. The “pernicious” influence of the West had almost no effect on the Old Believers. Traditional values, as the example of Old Believers families shows, work. Who knows whether there would be a demographic crisis in Russia now if the family according to the Old Believer model had survived to this day. From a government point of view, our politicians who zealously promote traditional values ​​are probably right.

On the other hand, such stubborn conservatism and rejection of civilization hinders development. Old Believers are undoubtedly fanatics. Progress always means going beyond the established system, breaking traditions. And I can hardly imagine how to squeeze a modern person into the tight confines of a patriarchal family.

On the third hand, while we are talking about the fate of Russia, the Old Believers are working silently. Without wasting time on doubts and reflections. They already have the answers.

For most contemporaries, the concept of “Old Believer” is associated with something very ancient, dense, and far in the past. The Old Believers best known to us are the Lykov family, who at the beginning of the last century went to live in the deep Siberian forests. Vasily Peskov spoke about them several years ago in a series of essays “Taiga Dead End” on the pages of Komsomolskaya Pravda. My school years were spent in Naryan-Mar, a city founded in 1935 just 10 km from Pustozersk - the site of the burning of the “main Old Believer” of Russia, Archpriest Avvakum. All along the Pechora River, from the headwaters to the mouth, Old Believers lived; there were villages where they made up the bulk of the inhabitants, for example Ust-Tsilma. They also lived in Naryan-Mar, next to us, secretly gathering in houses for prayer meetings, and we knew nothing about them. Having already become a student, I learned that my school friend, with whom I sat at the same desk for three years, had a mother who was a true Old Believer, almost the most important one in their community. And my friend had to cry a lot so that she would be allowed to join the Pioneers, and then the Komsomol.

Here they are, typical adherents of the old faith

I learned more about the Old Believers when I came to live in Klaipeda. There was a large community there - Old Believers had settled in Lithuania since the 17th and 18th centuries, and there was a prayer house in the city. Long-bearded men and women wearing long skirts and headscarves tied under their chins walked along our street. As it turned out, my husband’s parents were Old Believers! The father-in-law, of course, did not go to the house of worship, did not wear a beard, considered himself an atheist, smoked and drank, like most men who went through the war. And the mother-in-law considered herself a believer, although she also violated the prescriptions of the old faith. True Old Believers are forbidden to shave their beards, smoke, they must abstain from alcohol, especially vodka, everyone must have their own mug, bowl, spoon, there must be separate dishes for outsiders, etc.

Later, I read the wonderful novel by P.I. Melnikov-Pechersky “In the Forests” and “On the Mountains,” dedicated to a description of the life of the Old Believers in the Cis-Ural region. I learned so many new things about myself, the book simply shocked me!

What is the difference between the old Orthodoxy and the new, Nikonian? Why did the champions of the old faith endure so much persecution, suffering and execution?

The schism occurred under Patriarch Nikon, who undertook church reform in 1653. As is known, an integral part of Nikon’s “reforms”, supported by the “quiet” Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich Romanov, was the correction of liturgical books according to Greek models and the conduct of church rituals according to the canons of the Greek Orthodox Church, which led to a church schism. People began to call those who followed Nikon “Nikonians”, New Believers. The Nikonians, using state power and force, proclaimed their church the only Orthodox, dominant one, and called those who disagreed with the offensive nickname “schismatics.” In fact, Nikon’s opponents remained faithful to the ancient church rites, without changing in any way the Orthodox Church that came with the baptism of Rus'. Therefore, they call themselves Orthodox Old Believers, Old Believers or Old Orthodox Christians.

There are no differences in doctrine between the old and the new, Nikonian faith, but only purely external, ceremonial ones. Thus, Old Believers continue to be baptized with two fingers, and New Believers - with three fingers. On old icons the name of Christ is written with one letter “and” - “Jesus”, on new ones “Jesus”. Old Believers respond to the priest’s prayer in honor of the Holy Trinity with a double “Hallelujah” (extra hallelujah), and not three times, as in the new Orthodoxy. The Old Believers perform the religious procession clockwise, but Nikon ordered it counterclockwise. The Old Believers consider the eight-pointed form of the cross to be the perfect form, while the four-pointed one, as borrowed from the Latin Church, is not used during worship. There is a difference in bowing...

Of course, the goal that Nikon pursued when starting the reform was not only to change the external attributes of divine services. V. Petrushko in his article “Patriarch Nikon. To the 400th anniversary of his birth. Liturgical Reform” writes: The church reform of Patriarch Nikon, which led to the emergence of the Old Believer schism, is often perceived as the main goal of his activities. In fact, it was more of a means. Firstly, through the reform the Patriarch pleased the tsar, who aspired to become an ecumenical Orthodox sovereign - this is where Nikon’s rise began. Secondly, thanks to the transformations, Nikon strengthened his position and could hope, over time, to become the same ecumenical Patriarch,” and there: “On the organizational side, he wanted to correct the church, but not by establishing a conciliar principle in it, but by carrying out the strict autocracy of the patriarch, independent of the king, and through the elevation of the priesthood over the kingdom.”

Nikon failed to rise above the Tsar; he headed the Church for only six years, then lived for eight years in the New Jerusalem Monastery near Moscow, in fact in a disgraced position, and spent another 15 years in exile in the Ferapontov and Kirillov-Belozersky monasteries.

After the split, several branches arose in the Old Believers. One of them is priesthood, which differs least in dogmatics from the new Orthodoxy, although ancient rituals and traditions are observed. According to some data, there are about 1.5 million people in the post-Soviet space, and they form two communities: the Russian Orthodox Old Believer Church (ROC) and the Russian Old Orthodox Church (RDC). The second branch of the Old Believers - priestlessism, arose in the 17th century after the death of priests of the old ordination, and they did not want to accept new priests, since there was not a single bishop left who supported the old faith. They began to be called “Old Orthodox Christians who did not accept the priesthood.” Initially, they sought salvation from persecution in wild, uninhabited places on the White Sea coast, and therefore began to be called Pomors. The Bespopovtsy are united in the Ancient Orthodox Pomeranian Church (DOC). There are many supporters of the DOC in the Nizhny Novgorod region and Karelia, and they are also found in other places.

Centuries of persecution by the official religion and authorities have developed a special, strong character among the Old Believers. After all, defending their rightness, their entire families went into the fire, exposing themselves to self-immolation. According to archival data, in the 17th-18th centuries, more than 20 thousand Old Believers self-immolated, especially during the reign of Peter I. Under Peter, by decree of 1716, Old Believers were allowed to live in villages and cities, subject to payment of double taxes; Old Believers did not have the right to occupy public positions and be witnesses in court against the Orthodox. They were forbidden to wear traditional Russian clothes, they were charged a tax for wearing beards, etc. Under Catherine II, Old Believers were allowed to settle in the capital, but a decree was issued to collect double taxes from Old Believers merchants. Apparently, the obligation to pay extra taxes helped to instill in the Old Believers the habit of hard work, and the Old Believers had a noticeable influence on the business and cultural life of Russia. Old Believers always tried to stick together, supporting each other. Some of them became successful merchants, industrialists, philanthropists - the Morozov, Soldatenkov, Mamontov, Shchukin, Kuznetsov, Tretyakov families are well known to most Russians. The famous master inventor I. Kulibin also came from a family of Old Believers.

Old Believers in St. Petersburg

On the streets of St. Petersburg you don’t often see men with a full beard and a special “bowl” haircut, as it can be called, and you’re unlikely to see women in long skirts with scarves tied under the chin. Modernity naturally left its mark on the appearance of the Old Believers. But there are adherents of the old faith in St. Petersburg, and there are many of them.

The first official mentions of the Old Believers of St. Petersburg appeared in 1723. Tsar Peter, having founded the new capital, demanded craftsmen from everywhere, and the Old Believers - carpenters, blacksmiths and other artisans, fulfilling the royal decree, went to build a new city, and settled mainly outside the city, on the Okhta River.

Under Catherine II, the Old Believers received official permission to settle in the capital, however, subject to the payment of double tax. In 1837, the Old Believer Gromovskoe cemetery was even opened in St. Petersburg, the name of which was given by the surname of the Gromov brothers - Old Believers and major timber merchants. This allows us to conclude that there were many Old Believers in St. Petersburg by that time. In 1844, the first Old Believer Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary was consecrated in this cemetery. The rapid growth of the Old Believers began after 1905, when the Decree on Freedom of Conscience was adopted. Nicholas II allowed the Old Believers to practice their faith, gave them the right to build new churches and officially register their communities. Before the revolution of 1917, there were 8 Old Believer churches in St. Petersburg, and there were many indoor closed prayer houses created during the times of persecution.
And after the revolution, persecution began again. From 1932 to 1937 all communities were liquidated by the authorities, their buildings were nationalized. They blew up the Intercession Cathedral at the Gromovskoye Cemetery, which was built and consecrated only in 1912. In 1937, the last Old Believer church at the Volkov cemetery was closed. After this, the Old Believers went underground: not a single priest and not a single temple remained.

The Old Believers managed to come out of the “underground” in the wake of the signing of the Helsinki Accords by the Soviet Union. In 1982, after five years of difficult correspondence with the authorities, an initiative group of believers led by hereditary Old Believer Boris Aleksandrovich Dmitriev managed to achieve registration of the community of the Russian Orthodox Old Believer Church (ROC) Belokrinitsky Consent. In the spring of 1983, the community was given an abandoned church on the outskirts of the city, to the cemetery “Victims of January 9th”. The transferred building was in a dilapidated state and required major repairs. Many people responded to the call to help restore the temple. Thanks to the concerted efforts of both St. Petersburg Christians and those from other parishes, the temple was restored from ruins in just 9 months.

On December 25, 1983, the solemn consecration of the temple in honor of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos took place, in memory of the Intercession Cathedral of the Gromovsky cemetery destroyed by the Bolsheviks. This is the only church of the Russian Orthodox Church in St. Petersburg and the region in which services are constantly held on Saturday evenings and Sunday mornings.
True, getting to it is not very convenient; it is located on Aleksandrovskaya Fermy Avenue, closer to its intersection with Sofiyskaya Street. There is a children's Sunday school at the church, operating since 1995, classes are held every Sunday after the service. Here they teach reading and writing in Old Church Slavonic, prayers, znamenny singing, and talk about worship and church sacraments.

The largest community of Old Believers in St. Petersburg is the community of the Pomeranian Concord, which is part of the Old Orthodox Pomeranian Church (DOC). Now this community has two operating churches. The first is the Cathedral Church of the Sign of the Blessed Virgin Mary (architect D.A. Kryzhanovsky) on Tverskaya Street, building 8, not far from the Tauride Garden. It was built and consecrated on December 22, 1907, and is highly revered and visited by Pomor Old Believers. But in 1933 the temple was closed, and production premises were located within its walls. Only 70 years later the temple was returned to the believers, and in 2005 restoration work began in the temple on Tverskaya. The builders spent days and nights there, doing their best in order to have time to prepare it for the patronal feast of the Sign of the Most Holy Theotokos. The craftsmen managed to restore the church as close as possible to the original. On December 10, 2007, on the day of the celebration of the Sign of the Most Holy Theotokos, a hundred years after the initial opening, parishioners, mentors, and clerics again entered the temple. With surprise, the parishioners looked at the three-tiered chandelier and iconostasis, especially its central gate, recreated from photographs.

And again, like a hundred years ago, the temple was filled with the harmonious singing of the Old Believers. After the prayer service, a religious procession took place. Old Believers Christians solemnly walked around the temple, carrying banners. This temple is easy to get to, by metro to the Chernyshevskaya station, and then on foot through the Tauride Garden.
And on the former outskirts of St. Petersburg, in the modern residential area of ​​Rybatskoye, against the backdrop of multi-story buildings, not far from the metro station, you can see a small three-story building with a turret, looking like a tiny fortress. Behind it is a small cemetery, more precisely, the remains of the oldest Kazan cemetery, and a church. The fortress building seems to cover the cemetery and the church, as if protecting them. The building has a name - “Nevskaya Abode”. After the war, a group of Leningraders who survived the blockade and remembered the closure of pre-war prayer houses began efforts to register the community. In 1947, the authorities agreed to register the Old Believer Pomeranian community in Leningrad. This building – the spiritual and charitable center “Nevskaya Abbey” and the Church of the Sign of the Blessed Virgin Mary belongs to the Nevskaya Ancient Orthodox Pomeranian community. Both the construction of the building and the restoration of the church were carried out by Old Believers parishioners with the financial assistance of trustees.

The building of the Nevskaya Abode has a small church, a refectory, a baptismal room, cells for performing religious services, a greenhouse, a carpentry workshop, and utility rooms. There is a Sunday school, training courses for church officials, a library, an archive, a newspaper and church calendar publishing house, and annual gatherings of ancient Orthodox youth are held here. It was nice to know that young Old Believers from Naryan-Mar took part in the last gathering.

In December 2008, the Russian Museum hosted the exhibition “Images and Symbols of the Old Faith.” At the exhibition, in addition to icons of the old script, many exhibits were exhibited that characterize the way of life, lifestyle, and traditions of the Old Believers. Items more suitable for the Ethnographic Museum were exhibited here: birch bark tueski-buraks, in which berries were collected, spinning wheels painted with horses and birds, Old Believer rosary beads, women's costumes decorated with sewing and embroidery. The exhibition helped to draw the conclusion that although the Old Believers live next to us, speak the same language as us, they are still different from us in some ways. Although they also enjoy all the modern benefits of technological progress, they are more careful about antiquity, their roots, their history.

The Old Believer world and copper-cast plastic

Copper-cast products were very popular in the Old Believer world, since, firstly, they were more functional in the Old Believer wanderings, and secondly, they were made “not with filthy hands”, but underwent baptism of fire. Peter's decrees banning them (Decree of the Synod of 1722 and Decree of Peter I of 1723) added additional popularity to copper icons. After these decrees, artistic castings became a necessary accessory of every Old Believers' house; they were placed in the iconostasis, they were carried with them, they could even be seen on the street gates of the Old Believers' houses.

Copper-cast plastic has become most widespread among representatives of non-popovshchina opinions and agreements (wanderers, Fedoseevites, Netovites), i.e. where the demarcation from the “anti-Christ world” was especially strict, where the importance of individual prayer was great. “Except for especially respected shrines and their home icons, [Old Believers – A.K.] do not pray to any images of anyone,” State Councilor Ivan Sinitsyn wrote in 1862, “and wherever they go, even for a short time and even prayer, they always carry their icons with them and pray only to them. For this reason, their icons and crosses are almost always small, cast from copper, most of them in the form of folding ones."

Old Believer copper-cast crosses and icons usually ranged in size from 4 to 30 cm and were often made of bright yellow copper, the reverse side of the icons and folds was often filed, and the background was filled with blue, yellow, white and green enamel. In addition to the features characteristic of Old Believer art objects (duplicity, title, inscriptions, etc.), floral and geometric patterns were widespread on them.

Copper icons, according to the observations of the hereditary master I.A. Golyshev, are divided into four categories: “Zagarsky (Guslitsky), Nikologorsky (Nikologorsk Pogost), ancient or Pomeranian (for schismatics of the Pomeranian sect) and new ones, intended for the Orthodox... Ofeni are mainly engaged in this trade, taking on a schismatic appearance, i.e. pretending schismatics, ofenya, who trades with schismatics, takes his cup and spoon with him on the road, puts on a schismatic suit and cuts his hair like them." 2. Especially for the Old Believers, copper icons and crosses were aged. To do this, the manufactured product was dipped into salt water for two hours, then taken out and held over ammonia vapor, “which causes the green copper to turn into the color of red copper and the image also takes on a smoky old look.”
In Mstera, the trade in copper images was so great that it supplanted the production of Mstera icon painters - their icons “reduced in price by half compared to the previous one.” In the 60s XIX century In Mstera alone there were about 10 copper foundries. There were also a sufficient number of industries around the center. So, in Nikologorodsky Pogost, which is 25 versts from Mstera, copper foundry production was put into production. “They produce it in the following way: they take Guslitsky icons, which are imprinted in clay, from which they get the so-called form, they melt the copper, pour it into the mold, when the metal hardens, they take it out; then, when the back part comes out rough, they clean it with a file and the icon is ready.” , – wrote the same I.A. Golyshev.
In the first quarter of the 20th century. The artistic casting workshop of Pyotr Yakovlevich Serov (1863-1946) enjoyed great and well-deserved fame in the Old Believer world. The workshop produced quite a variety of products: crosses of various shapes, folding crosses, icons. The most popular product was cross-vests made of brass and silver, of which 6-7 pounds were produced monthly. The owner of the Moscow Old Believer printing house, Seredskaya merchant G.K. Gorbunov (1834 - ca. 1924) ordered from P.Ya. Serov book clasps and squares with images of the Evangelists and centerpieces with the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. The workshop's activities continued until 1924, until the prohibition of the production of all types of jewelry products in Krasnoselsky handicraft workshops. After this, Pyotr Yakovlevich dismissed his craftsmen, buried the equipment, divided the house between his sons, and he himself went to wander around Eastern Siberia. What happened to his future fate is unknown3.
A variety of copper-cast icons are Old Believer folding, three- and four-leaf ones. “The folding iconostasis was indispensable for opponents of the reform, hiding from persecution, moving for missionary and trade purposes over long distances across the endless northern expanses,” 4 wrote researcher L.A. Petrova. A typical criminal case: on July 8, 1857, the mayor of the town of Glushkov, Vasily Efimov, in the village of Sosunov (Yuryevetsky district of Kostroma province), a fugitive man of the wandering sect Trofim Mikhailov was detained, “with him there were items about two boards painted with red paint, in which On one board there are four copper images cut in, and on the other there is a copper image of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, and there are also small panels about three boards with a copper frame, in which there are three images.”5.
The three-leaf folds (the so-called “nines”) carried the image of the Deesis or the crucifixion with those in front. Both stories were widespread in the Old Believer world. There is a version that three-leaf folding doors originated from the Solovetsky folding doors. The classic Solovetsky “nines” looked like this: in the center – Jesus, Mary, John the Baptist; on the left – Metropolitan Philip, Nikola, John the Theologian; on the right is the guardian angel and St. Zosima and Savvaty Solovetsky. The reverse side of the Solovetsky “nines” was smooth.

Four-leaf folds (the so-called “fours”, Large holiday folds) were an image of the twelve holidays, another common type of Pomeranian folds. Due to the similarity of shapes and solid weight, this shape received the unofficial name “iron”.
As for the Old Believer crosses, the Old Believers recognized the cross as “eight-pointed”, “three-part and four-part”. It was understood that the cross on which Christ was crucified was eight-pointed in shape, consisted of three types of wood, and had four parts: the vertical, the “shoulders of the cross,” the foot and the title with the name. According to another interpretation, the three parts of the cross (vertical, horizontal and foot) form the three faces of the Holy Trinity. All other forms of the cross (primarily four- and six-pointed crosses) were categorically rejected by the Old Believers. A four-pointed cross was generally called a kryzh, i.e. Latin cross. The Old Believers-Ryabinovites (Netov’s agreement) developed the doctrine of the cross in their own way. They believed that the cross should not be decorated with carvings, images of the crucifixion and unnecessary words, so they used smooth crosses without inscriptions. The Old Believers-Wanderers preferred a wooden cypress cross lined with tin or tin as a body item. On the back of the cross, words from the Sunday prayer were often carved: “may God rise again and his enemies be scattered.”
In the Orthodox world, there are three main types of crosses: vest crosses, lectern crosses and grave crosses. On the front side of the cross there is usually a scene of the crucifixion (on vest crosses there are attributes of the crucifixion, on lectern crosses there is a crucifixion with those in attendance), on the reverse side there is the text of a prayer to the cross. On Old Believer crosses, instead of Hosts, the image of the Savior not made by hands was often placed at the top, and at the edges of a large crosshair - the sun and the moon.

Great controversy in the Old Believer world was caused by the title Pilate - an abbreviated inscription on the Cross of the Lord INCI, i.e. "Jesus the Nazarene King of the Jews." Disputes about whether the Cross should be worshiped if Pilate's inscription is depicted on it began in the Old Believers immediately after the council of 1666-1667. Archdeacon of the Solovetsky Monastery Ignatius came out with the teaching that it is correct to write the title IHTS ("Jesus Christ King of Glory", cf. 1 Cor. 2.8), because Pilate's title is mocking in nature and does not reflect the truth. Objecting to him, other Old Believers argued that not only the title, but also the cross itself on which Christ was crucified was an instrument of shameful death, which in no way prevents Christians from worshiping the Cross. The opinions of the Old Believers were divided. Some movements in the Old Believers (for example, the Titlovites, the interpretation of the Fedoseevsky consent) accepted the Nikonian title “INCI”, the majority did not, preferring the inscription “IХЦС” or “Tsar of Glory IC XC”, “IC XC”. The Popovites historically took little part in this discussion, considering both versions of the title acceptable for themselves, not finding any heresy in any of them. The title of the “ancient church signing” adopted by the Pomeranians has the following form: “THE KING OF THE SLOY OF THE IX SNIJ OF BZHIY NIKA.”

Introduction

The history of the Old Believers is one of the most tragic pages in the history of not only the Russian Church, but also the entire Russian people.

At the time when the Russian Church reached its greatest greatness and prosperity, a schism occurred in it, dividing the Russian people. This sad event happened during the reign of Alexei Mikhailovich and during the patriarchate of Nikon in the second half of the 17th century.

The hasty reform of Patriarch Nikon divided the Russian people into two irreconcilable camps and led to the apostasy of millions of believing compatriots from the Church. The schism divided the Russian people into two classes according to the most important sign of religious faith for a Russian person. For more than two centuries, people who sincerely considered themselves Orthodox experienced distrust and enmity towards each other and did not want any communication.

The unparalleled courage of the Orthodox, who remained devoted to faith and traditions, lasted for more than two and a half centuries. Brief periods of relative freedom for the Old Believers under Catherine II and Alexander I were followed by real persecution.

History of the emergence and development of the Old Believers

The emergence of a schism in the Orthodox Church is associated with the complex political struggle that was going on at that time in the Russian state. The most diverse social strata of Russian society were drawn into this struggle with state power, from high-born boyars and wealthy merchants, dissatisfied with the new measures and economic policies of the tsar, to peasants and the urban poor, who protested against increasing exploitation. In contrast to Western European sects who sought a renewal of religion, Russian schismatics, on the contrary, demanded that the previous forms of cult be left intact. However, one should not conclude from this that the Old Believers, from the very moment of their inception, were only conservative, retrograde in nature. In the schism one could also discern democratic elements, a call to fight against the brutal tsarist regime.

Paradoxically, in Russia the legal status of Old Believers is much worse than Catholics and Protestants. Those who preserved their faith, national life, customs and spirit of their ancestors almost intact were considered by the authorities and the Church to be the worst enemies of the state and society. Two and a half centuries of persecution united the Old Believers, turning them, like, for example, the Cossacks, into a special layer of Russian society with its own special spiritual and material culture, distinctive enterprise, sobriety, common sense, and patience. It is no coincidence that it was the Old Believers that gave Russia its largest industrialists, bankers and public figures. But outwardly the life of the Old Believers was almost invisible. The Old Believers, which were rich on the inside, could not decorate the outside with either a cross or an icon. Old Believers did not have the right to own public property, build churches, join communities, hold concerts, publish books, magazines and newspapers. When on May 13, 1667, the Council of Russian and Middle Eastern Bishops, convened in Moscow by Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, anathematized Russian clergy who refused to accept changes in liturgical books and rituals, no one imagined that this event would lead the Russian Church to the tragedy of schism. But it happened differently, and resistance to the innovations of Patriarch Nikon, introduced in 1653-1657, among adherents of traditional Russian Orthodoxy never ceased, and in the decades that followed the Council, the conflict between them and the official Church grew into a powerful movement, called " Old Believer schism." This movement quickly embraced a significant portion of Orthodox believers: historians agree that in the 18th century alone, more than one million Old Believers left Russia due to persecution by the Church and the state, parting with the land of their ancestors for the sake of freedom of religion. This wave of emigration from Russia was the largest until 1917, and directly testified to the huge number of Russians united by religious “dissent” and rejecting the new orders imposed in the Church by the state and hierarchs. According to statistics from the 19th century, at least a quarter, if not a third, of all Great Russians became adherents of various interpretations of the Old Believers. It is precisely because of this that during the last two and a half centuries of the existence of the Russian monarchy - and long before the emergence of revolutionary political ideology in the 19th century - the first mass and irreconcilable opposition to the ruling church, the state and the Westernized ruling stratum arose and spread in Russia. In the twentieth century, this spiritual rift within Russia, combined with social and cultural tensions, led to the erosion of tsarist power and its prestige, opening up space for revolution.

Although the dissidents, who called themselves Old Believers, formally broke with the official church due to the ritual reforms carried out by Nikon, this break with the top of the church had deeper roots. Even twenty years before Nikon came to power and began editing the liturgical books, there were clear signs of dissatisfaction among the lower clergy - parish priests and monks - with the highest church hierarchy. In the 1630s, numerous members of the white clergy, calling themselves "zealots of piety", or lovers of God, began a movement for liturgical and moral revival. Realizing that their primates, the bishops, were too sluggish to begin the urgently needed reforms of the Church, they themselves enthusiastically began their “crusade,” seeking to both discipline their flock and motivate the inert, sluggish church hierarchy, headed by the elderly and weak-willed patriarch Joasaph, to action. I (1634-1641) and Joseph (1641-1652). At the Church Council of 1649, the lovers of God succeeded in implementing some important liturgical changes aimed at greater zeal and solemnity of worship. The spiritual leaders of the “zealots of piety,” archpriests Stefan Vonifatiev and Ivan Neronov, carried out these transformations despite the resistance of the patriarch and bishops, but thanks to the support of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich and his closest advisers. In subsequent years, the Tsar continued to support this group of reformers, and over time they took “command positions” in Moscow Orthodoxy, tirelessly caring for the prestige of the Church: through increasing the circulation of liturgical and spiritual literature, tightening church discipline, regular sermons and reminding the flock of its moral responsibility.

The sale of strong drinks was limited, gambling was prohibited, as were the performances of buffoons - folk buffoonery plays, usually anticlerical and obscene at the same time. Zealots of piety looked with disapproval at the rapidly growing specularization of Russian culture and were opposed to new trends coming from the West. These priests believed in Moscow's utopian idea of ​​the "Third Rome" and that Russia, the last independent Orthodox state, was destined by God to preserve the "true Orthodox Christian faith." They sought to turn the country into a theocracy, into a “truly Orthodox power,” and in the Orthodox liturgy itself they saw the visible embodiment of the Kingdom of God on earth, imagining this coming Kingdom as an eternal, uninterrupted, joyful, solemn and most beautiful Eucharist, in which worthy Christian souls would dwell in eternal communion with his Creator.

As this group's position on power strengthened, church attendance increased, fasts became stricter, and confession and communion were strictly observed.

Foreign diplomats observing Russia in the late 1640s and early 1650s reported that the “Moscow Reformation” had achieved undoubted success, and the Middle Eastern Orthodox clergy did not hide their shock and awe at such devout Russian piety and the long, solemn Moscow church services and strict fasts - believing that the Russians intended to become saints.

The death of the weak-willed Patriarch Joseph in 1652 completely unexpectedly changed the course of the “Russian Reformation”. The leading “zealot,” the confessor of the Tsar himself, Stefan Vonifatiev, humbly refused the honor of becoming the head of the Russian Church. And then, by the personal choice of the tsar, the arrogant and power-hungry Nikon, Archbishop of Novgorod, found himself on the patriarchal throne. Theoretically, Nikon's views on the role of the Church in the life of the people differed little from the point of view of the God-lovers. Like them, Nikon wanted to strengthen the Church and strengthen its role in the country; like them, he was a supporter of the Russian theocratic utopia; like them, he approved of the widespread spread of church piety. But, unlike the lovers of God, who set the goal of an organic spiritual revival of Russia, in which all layers of the clergy and society would be involved, Nikon focused on strengthening the Russian patriarchate in order to make it capable of leading Orthodoxy, both in Russia and throughout Eastern Christianity world. He sought to carry out the reform autocratically, from the position of the growing power of the patriarchal throne. Nikon's views were in many respects close to those of Pope Innocent III, who considered the authority of the pope to be supreme and unquestioning, and in his messages Nikon often used Innocent's arguments to defend his patriarchal authoritarianism. Nikon also clearly hoped that Russia would liberate the entire Orthodox Christian world from both the Poles and the Turks, and then he, as the head of the Russian Church, would become the universal leader of all Orthodoxy. On the other hand, the reform programs of the archpriests and the “fierce doctor” Franciscan William of Occam or Marsilius of Padua, who already in the 11th century taught that not just the pope and bishops, but only the entire Church, as the council of all “true believers,” have the highest, are quite comparable. authority in all church matters. The first clash between the archpriests-reformers and Patriarch Nikon arose, however, not from a dispute about powers, but on purely liturgical, ritual grounds. Seeing some difference between Russian and contemporary Greek rites and liturgical texts, the Patriarch, without convening a Church Council and without consulting any of the Russian church authorities, ordered that Russian rites and books be brought into line with the Greek ones. Since research on the history of liturgical texts was almost non-existent at that time, no one could explain to him that these differences were by no means the result of voluntary or involuntary errors of Russian copyists, but arose from changes introduced by the Greeks into their books over the previous centuries.

Thus, Russian texts and rituals were in fact much closer to the early Byzantine ones than their contemporary Greek ones. The archpriests-reformers, deeply devoted to liturgical traditions, not only refused to support Nikon’s manipulations with liturgical books and rituals, but immediately declared him a most dangerous renovationist, whose projects must be firmly blocked. Moreover, the archpriests expressed their open dissatisfaction with Nikon's despotism and his cruel treatment of the clergy. Nikon, in response, resorted to strict disciplinary measures. His enemies were removed from their pulpits and parishes, stripped of their hair, sent to prison or exile, or even simply physically destroyed.

This is exactly how, by terrorizing the remaining bishops, taking advantage of false rumors, falsifying information and falsifying decisions of church councils, Nikon carried out his “right” of church books and rituals. And although a few years later the tsar quarreled with Nikon and expelled him from the patriarchal throne, the sovereign himself, his entourage and the church hierarchy continued to firmly follow all innovations. The most important changes and innovations were the following:

Instead of the two-fingered sign of the cross, which was adopted in Rus' from the Greek Orthodox Church along with Christianity and which was part of the Holy Apostolic tradition, three fingers were introduced.

In old books, in combination with the spirit of the Slavic language, the name of the Savior “Jesus” was always written and pronounced; in new books this name was changed to the Greekized “Jesus”.

In old books, it is established during baptism, wedding and consecration of the temple to walk around the sun as a sign that we are walking under the Sun - Christ. In the new books, walking against the sun has been introduced.

In the old books, in the Creed, it reads: “And in the Holy Spirit of the true and life-giving Lord,” but after the correction the word “true” was excluded.

Instead of "pure", i.e. The double hallelujah, which the Russian church has been doing since ancient times, was introduced by the “triple” (triple) hallelujah.

The Divine Liturgy in ancient Rus' was celebrated on seven prosphora; new celebrations introduced five prosphora, i.e. two prosphoras were excluded.

The liturgy was shortened, as well as the rites of baptism, repentance, confirmation, and the texts of some prayers.

The Old Believers, also known as Old Believers, thereby broke relations with the official hierarchy in the name of protecting ancient Russian rites, Moscow church ideology and their theocratic and utopian hopes for the messianic role of Russia in the Orthodox world. In addition, they defended greater democracy in parish life and church councils, rejecting the willful and often stupid actions of the hierarchy; they advocated greater independence of the church from the state.

Simultaneously with the appearance of the first “zealots of piety” in the late 1620s - early 1630s, another powerful religious movement arose in the depths of the virgin forests of Northern Russia, led by the so-called “forest elders”, like the leaders of the European Reformation, who expected the imminent end of the world . According to the Old Believers, church reform and the rejection of ancient traditions became a betrayal of the true Orthodox faith. Consequently, the “end of the world” has come - God’s Grace has left this world, and God’s chosen Russian state is turning into the kingdom of the Antichrist. In the Old Believer environment, several interpretations of the doctrine of the Antichrist were born. Some believed that the Antichrist had already appeared in the world, and guessed him in Patriarch Nikon and even in Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. Others were more cautious and called the patriarch and the king only his forerunners. By the end of the 17th century, the doctrine of a mental or spiritual Antichrist was established - the Antichrist has already come and rules on earth, but invisibly, in the image of the Nikonian church itself. In 1694, the doctrine of the coming of the “mental” Antichrist was proclaimed as a dogma at the Old Believer Council in Novgorod. Recognition of the coming of the Antichrist and the expectation of the imminent “end of the world” became the main reasons for the “fleeing” of Old Believers to distant lands. They “ran away” not just from the authorities, but from the “Antichrist” authorities, not from the kingdom of Moscow, but from the kingdom of the Antichrist. The Old Believers went north to Siberia, but continued to remain faithful to their faith. The Old Believers refused any kind of communication with the “Antichrist” world, and with the “worldly”, i.e. with people who have accepted the new “Antichrist” order. The Old Believers were not allowed to pray, eat, drink, etc. with them. They relied little on the good side of human nature, much less on human society or even on the Church. Everything worldly in their eyes was hopelessly sinful, and only leaving the world and its temptations could help an Orthodox person preserve his faith and save his soul. Extreme asceticism and maximum rejection of contact with the sinful world became the basis of their teaching. Only mortification of the flesh, tireless prayer and consistent renunciation of all contacts with heretical and sinful society make it possible, they believed, to preserve purity in the most dangerous era of the final betrayal and victory of the Antichrist. Thus, if the “zealots of piety” strove for the salvation of mankind, the ascetics hopelessly despaired of it and went into the forest thickets. They fasted four days a week, on other days, eating only a little bread and vegetables, and their inspirer, the monk Capiton, set an example of mortification of the flesh, carrying two heavy stones on his chest and on his back and sleeping suspended on a hook.

Capito and his followers avoided even entering churches and receiving communion, clearly considering the priests too sinful, and the communion prepared by their unworthy hands as graceless. Nikon's actions gave them an excellent pretext for a final break with the Church: they declared innovations as undoubted signs of an irrevocable fall from Orthodoxy and the victory of the Antichrist. Nikon's innovations seemed to them an abomination, the Church - an instrument in the hands of the Antichrist, and the bishops - his servants. Devoted to the letter of the canons, they believed that after the “falling away” of the church hierarchy, there was no longer a grace-filled priesthood, and without such a priesthood, all the sacraments performed by the Orthodox Church are not only invalid, but also impossible. This means that neither communion nor marriage are possible - and they believed only in church marriage. The entire Earth, the entire human race, with the exception of their own community, will become victims of the triumphant Antichrist. After the Council of 1666-1667, there came a period of hesitation and joint actions by the former “zealots of piety” and the former “forestry elders” against the church hierarchy. Their common resistance to Nikon's reforms temporarily confused the picture and obscured the clear boundary separating these movements. But as soon as the “radical pessimists” began to preach not only mortification of the flesh, but also a complete renunciation of life and the sinful body, the glaring difference between the two teachings became obvious, and they split into two theologically and psychologically different religious movements. One, preserving the ideals and goals of the “zealots of piety” of the 1630s, united those who remained optimists, overwhelmingly preserving the traditional. These Old Believers, called priests, remained devoted to the entirety of Orthodox dogma, including the full institution of the priesthood, the episcopal hierarchy and all church sacraments, refusing merely to obey the control of the “fallen” mainstream church. The other united pessimists or Old Believers - non-priests; on the contrary, they directly accepted a new and extremely unorthodox dogma about the final and complete victory of the Antichrist over the Church, humanity and even over the entire earthly world. According to this teaching, after the “last betrayal” of the dominant church and all its bishops, this hierarchy and its priesthood were deprived of all God’s grace, and therefore none of those sacraments that, according to the canons, could only be performed by a priest, are any longer possible or valid. Among the latter are communion and marriage, so compulsory celibacy has actually become almost a dogma for all non-priest movements.

Bespopovshchina- a direction that arose in the 17th century. after all the priests appointed before Nikon died, i.e. those priests with whom “people of ancient piety” could be in liturgical communion. Since it was forbidden to communicate with priests - “Nikonians”, and the Old Believers did not have bishops with the right to ordain new priests, many of them came to the only possible conclusion, as it seemed to them: in the coming “last times” there is no need for priests, urgent For salvation, the sacraments - baptism and repentance - can also be performed by the laity. At the same time, new believers entering the community had to be baptized anew. The leading center of the Bespopovites was the Vygovskaya Hermitage (in Karelia), where the brothers Andrei and Semyon Denisov lived, who owned the final edition of the Pomor Answers, the famous “Old Believer Catechism” of the 18th century; under Nicholas I the hermitage was mercilessly devastated. The most radical of the Bespopovites believed that in the “last times” there was no need to get married, thereby creating (by the end of the 17th century) a special meaning of “celibates”, or “Fedoseevites” (named after their spiritual leader Theodosius Vasiliev) . In this environment, a whole series of movements also emerged (for example, the “Netovsky consent”), which had neither temples nor church services, but due to their narrow sectarian nature, most of them disappeared over time.

Unity of Faith - The opposite of priestlessness as a sense; on the contrary, the most compromise in relation to the dominant church. It arose in 1799 - 1800, when Moscow Old Believers merchants turned to Metropolitan Platon with a request to allow them to introduce New Believer priests into their communities.

To do this, the Holy Synod had to lift the oaths to the old rituals, and also agree that all services must be conducted according to the old books. Metropolitan Platon partially satisfied these requests, however, Edinoverie was officially viewed as a purely temporary, transitional phenomenon and, moreover, canonically closed to New Believers. So, as a result, the church schism was not overcome, although the authorities sought to maintain a temporary “consent”, transferring under Nicholas I churches, chapels, monasteries, icons and other communal property, taken away during police and military raids, into the ownership of co-religionists as not so dangerous." semi-schismatics."

Popovshchina. The most historically strong and consistent was the priesthood, which, despite all its opposition to the “Nikonians” (an opposition much stricter than in Edinoverie), recognized the need for a church hierarchy and all traditional sacraments. The primary form of this sense was “beglopopovism” (from the end of the 17th century), when the hierarchy was replenished by priests - New Believers who went into schism; it was precisely this that then prevailed in Kerzhenets, Starodubye, Vetka and Irgiz. In the 18th century in Kerzhenets, and then at the Rogozhskoe cemetery in Moscow (where another Old Believer center arose in the 1770s), fugitive priests began to be accepted into the community through a special renunciation of heresy, after which the rite of anointing was performed on them.

The year 1846 was fateful for the Old Believers, when their envoys managed to attract Metropolitan Ambrose of Bosno-Sarajevo (in the world Andrei Popovich) to head the “Old Orthodox” church. Thus, the Belokrinitsa hierarchy was established (received its name from the village of Belaya Krinitsa in Austrian Galicia (now in the Chernivtsi region of Ukraine), where priests from Russia had settled by that time). Most of the largest Old Believer communities recognized the supreme authority of Belaya Krinitsa, which contributed to the consolidation of the Old Believers (although different rumors persisted); On the basis of the Rogozh community, the Moscow Archdiocese was formed (in 1853).

By the beginning of the 20th century. The Old Belief was a branched and strong structure, strong not so much politically as economically, due to the fact that a number of large merchant clans were associated with it (Ryabushinskys, Morozovs, Porokhovshchikovs, Shibaevs, etc.). In aesthetic terms, the popularization of images of “people of ancient piety” was especially facilitated by the novels of P.I. Melnikov (Pechersky), published in 1871-1881.

At the turn of the century, the short “golden age” of the Old Believers began (1905-1917). Following the manifesto of Nicholas II. On the strengthening of the principles of religious tolerance (1905), churches closed under Nicholas I were opened, and their new construction was allowed, which proceeded very intensively - in the spirit of historicism or modernism. The Old Believer press is developing rapidly. The religious center finally moves from Belaya Krinitsa to Moscow. However, after the revolution, the Old Believers again entered a period of severe persecution, now sharing the common fate of all other religious denominations. In many respects, the apocalyptic teaching of the Russian Bespopovites had much in common with Western European sectarian radicalism.

In the Middle Ages, the dualistic heretical movements of the Bogomils and Cathars were based on largely similar eschatological ideas. Throughout the Protestant Reformation, the Anabaptists, just like the followers of Capito, rejected the hierarchical structure of the Church, the institution of the priesthood and most of the sacraments, and had an equally negative attitude towards social institutions, and especially towards the state. Later, in the 18th and early 19th centuries, radical American Pietism, which largely followed the mystical ideas of the German theologian Jacob Boehme, also preached primarily millenarianism, celibacy, and charismatic leadership.

The Russian schism of the 17th century developed as a purely religious movement aimed at satisfying the spiritual needs of believers. However, its intensity led to a conflict between church authorities and the state, and during the several decades that followed the Council of 1666-1667, dissatisfied peasants, merchants and ordinary townspeople joined it. Such a wide response from various layers of the Russian population to the initially purely church conflict had, of course, primarily social reasons - but this became noticeable much later, when the movement itself had already grown greatly.

Migration and resettlement of Old Believers. North. This movement from centers and big cities primarily covered the north of Russia. Mainly active there were the so-called Bespopovtsy, those Old Believers who believed that after the council of 1667, grace in the church dried up, the sacraments and initiation of priests became impossible, and therefore it was necessary to find ways of salvation without the priesthood and sacraments. The most radical of them believed that, in general, a real Christian life had become impossible, and therefore it was necessary to leave life. This is what they did, burning themselves in large groups while singing sacred chants. Less radical ones, believing that the priesthood was impossible, began to found their own semi-monastic communities.

Already in the 1690s. On the Vyg River, between Lake Onega and the White Sea, the first semi-monastic settlement, which later became many thousands strong, was formed, which at the beginning of the 18th century, under the Denisov brothers, became the most influential Old Believer center in Russia.

In the north-west, the center of the Old Believers first became Novgorod, where a certain Theodosius Vasiliev developed a spiritually very radical movement of the so-called Bespopovtsy - “Fedoseevites”. When local authorities began to persecute them, Feodosius Vasilyev went abroad in 1696 to the northwestern regions of Lithuania populated by Russians, in particular to Nevel, which became an important Fedoseyev center for many years. More and more Bespopovtsy emigrants began to settle around Nevel, and there Feodosius created the first foreign Old Believer settlement of Bespopovtsy - marriage fighters. Throughout the century, the Bespopovites moved to Northern Lithuania, as well as to Livonia (Courland).

Southwest. If the Bespopovites organized their centers mainly in the north and partly went from there abroad and to the east, to the Urals and Siberia, then priestly settlements began to arise in the southwest and south. One of the important intermediate concentrations of the priests was Kaluga and its surroundings, and from there they spread further - beyond the border of Muscovite Rus', into the southern regions of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, also populated by Russians. So in the 1690s. A large settlement of priests was formed on the island of Vetka on the Sozh River, a tributary of the Dnieper, in the Starodubovsky “regiment”. The local Russian population treated them quite favorably, and the Polish lords were glad that the local Polesie swampy lands and forests were settled by foreign and enterprising Old Believers, and even provided them with assistance, legalizing their settlement. Vetka's connection with Russia was made easier by the fact that the Russian-Lithuanian border lay in the dense, impenetrable and poorly protected forests of the Gomel region and Starodubye. For two-thirds of a century, Vetka became the main center of the Old Believers - the priests, from where they repeatedly made not very successful attempts to restore their Old Believer episcopal hierarchy. Many priests moved further to the southwest, settling in Volyn and Podolia. The branch flourished until the 1760s, but in 1762, first Peter III and then Catherine II proclaimed the freedom of belief of the Old Believers; Catherine even invited them to return to their homeland and again establish, mainly in the southern part of the Middle Volga region, their own settlements. To “encourage” re-emigration in 1764, Russian troops crossed the border and occupied Vetka, dispersed the leaders of its community, and then the majority of Vetka residents moved back to Russia, mainly to the deserted regions of the Lower Volga at that time, where the monasteries on the Irgiz became their spiritual center . In order to complete this brief overview of the migration of the Old Believers - the Popovites to the west, it should be noted that much later, under Emperor Nicholas I, a group of the Popovtsy founded in the 1820-1830s. active settlement in East Prussia, now called Polish Masuria. Here they set up their printing house, published their magazine and books. The founder of the printing house, which published not only liturgical books, but also a number of polemical publications, was Konstantin Efimovich Golubev. In his journal, he developed the Orthodox, albeit with an Old Believer slant, national Russian ideology, and very often polemicized with the London group of emigrants led by Herzen and Ogarev. His worldview was even reflected in F.’s thinking. M. Dostoevsky, who in “Demons” and a number of journalistic articles developed thoughts very close to the writings of Golubev. Another of the leading figures of this community was the so-called Navel of Prussia (Lednev), who began a persistent search for a bishop who would agree to lead the priests and restore the Old Believer hierarchy. He succeeded in this in 1846, when the former Bosnian Metropolitan Ambrose converted to the Old Believers and ordained several Russian Old Believers - priests - as bishops. For some time, the center of the priests became the town of Belaya Krinitsa in Bukovina, where Ambrose lived, but then the leadership of the priests - Old Believers - moved to Moscow to the Rogozhskaya community (the so-called Rogozhskoe cemetery), where it remains to this day.

South. In the second half of the 17th century, despite the fact that the Russian southern border was moving south, the Wild Field still separated the borders of the Russian state from the Cossack settlements in the lower reaches of the Don and in the Caucasus. And it was there that the preaching of the Old Believers, and especially the abbot Dosifei, elusive to the authorities, enjoyed great success. At a military council in 1687, the Don Cossacks decided to recognize the old faith as the official, as it were, state religion of the Don. Some of them even began to say that it was time for them to restore the old faith throughout Russia. Returning from Moscow, military ataman Minaev suspended the preaching of the Old Believers, arrested several instigators, and again placed the parishes and monasteries of the Don under the shepherd of the Tambov ruler. But supporters of the old faith and their troops began to concentrate along the Medveditsa River, a northeastern tributary of the Don. The tireless abbot Dosifei was also with them. The other part went south to the Kuma River, where they came into contact with the Greben (Terek) Cossacks. The Greben Cossacks, without breaking with Moscow, firmly adhered to the old faith, and in 1738-1740, when the Astrakhan bishop demanded that they introduce “new” books, they finally left the church, declaring that they would remain faithful to the old rite. The Cossacks, who left for Kuma under pressure from the Don authorities, first settled near the Kuban River, coming under the patronage of the Crimean Khan. In the 1740s, when Russian troops appeared in the North Caucasus, Old Believers Cossacks emigrated to Turkey, where some of them settled in Asia Minor, near the Bosphorus, and some in Dobruja, near the mouth of the Danube. Despite the emigration to Turkey of the most persistent supporters of the old faith, a very significant number of Don Cossacks and all the Greben Cossacks remained for centuries in schism with the church. The Astrakhan Cossacks also retained their devotion to the old faith, and the Ural Cossacks even turned out to be among the most persistent adherents of the old rite and the old tradition, repeatedly participating in uprisings against state and church authorities, including in the Pugachev rebellion.

East. If emigration from Central Russia to the south and then to Turkey was relatively small, then the resettlement of Old Believers to the east, to the Volga region, to the plains between the Volga and the Urals, to the Urals and further to Siberia became widespread. Historians of the schism believe that from central Russia at the end of the 17th and beginning of the 18th centuries, the total emigration of Old Believers - however, including in this number the resettlement to the west and south - reached about one million people. And this made up a very significant part of the country's population. By the end of the 18th - beginning of the 19th century, almost all trade on the Volga, the main economic artery of Russia at that time, was in the hands of Old Believers merchants. The resettlement of Old Believers from Vetka there, who founded several large monasteries and settlements on the Irgiz, gave the Volga Old Believers spiritual and ideological support, and helped their settlements attract more and more of their fellow believers from the central regions of the country.

At the end of the 18th century, two very influential Old Believer centers were formed in Moscow itself: the priest's Rogozhskoe cemetery and the bespopovskoe Preobrazhenskoe cemetery. They were called “cemeteries” because the initial permission from the authorities was given only to the cemetery for the burial of Old Believers - victims of cholera in the 1790s, but very soon monasteries, homes for the elderly and orphans, and, finally, semi-official Old Believers were created there. churches. In the first half of the 19th century, the Rogozhskoye and Preobrazhenskoye settlements became the main capitalist, financial, industrial and trade hubs of Russia. In the Urals, even under Peter the Great, the Old Believers created a colossal mining and iron industry. In 1702, Peter transferred the state-owned plant into the hands of the Tula industrialist Nikita Demidov, who, although officially not an Old Believer, nevertheless widely supported Old Believer centers on the Vyga and on the Volga and accepted “technocrats” of his enterprises as managers exclusively Old Believers. Soon Demidov and his family became the largest iron business entrepreneurs in the Urals. In 1736. Of the 53 large factories in the Urals, 22 belonged to the Demidovs, who in the 18th and early 19th centuries were considered the richest people in the Russian Empire. Other factories in the Urals also accepted almost exclusively Old Believers as directors and technocrats of the mining and metallurgical business. They were so successful that by the 1790s. Russia produced more iron than England, and even exported its iron to England and other countries.

Resettlement to the east helped the Old Believers avoid stricter government control, and, having colossal funds for those times, they coped with the close attention of local authorities. No less successfully than in the Volga region and the Urals, the Old Believers acted in Siberia. There, the first successes in spreading the old faith were made by Archpriest Avvakum during his Siberian exile in the 1650s. His followers continued his preaching in this region, still little developed by Russia, and therefore the businessmen there also for the most part belonged to the old faith. Religious community with the businessmen of the Volga, Ural, and from the beginning of the 19th century with the Rogozhsky and Preobrazhensky cemeteries in Moscow greatly facilitated their activities. Since the end of the 18th century, everywhere, both in Moscow and St. Petersburg, there were “their” people whom they knew, with whom they “half-hid” from the government, and with whom they shared the same understanding of faith and life. In this respect, the Russian Old Believers can be compared to the Huguenots of France, who largely dominated the French economy before the Edict of Nantes. As some sociologists now point out, the impossibility and difficulty of a bureaucratic or military career for members of one or another religious group leads them along the path of economic activity. A new page in the history of Old Believer emigration began in the twentieth century, when Old Believers began to move overseas. Even before the war of 1914 - 1918. several thousand Old Believers moved from Courland to the United States, where they settled mainly in Pennsylvania, in particular in the cities of Erie and Marion. After the revolution and during the Civil War, many Old Believers from European Russia also emigrated to the West, mainly to France and America. From the east of Russia, from the Urals and from Siberia, many Old Believers went to China, from where, when the Communists seized power there in the late 1940s and 1950s, they moved: some to the United States, some to Australia and Brazil. From Brazil, most of them later moved to the United States, mainly to Oregon. The Old Believers of Turkey, in turn, due to the ever-growing Turkish nationalism, left their settlements, where they lived for almost two hundred years. Most of them returned to Russia before World War II and settled mainly on the Don. Other “Turkish” Old Believers received permission to immigrate to the United States by a special resolution of the American Congress under Robert Kennedy, then Minister of Justice. With the help of the Tolstoy Foundation, they moved from Turkey to New Jersey, the vastness of which allowed them to preserve their religious and everyday individuality. The “second” Russian emigration to America after World War II included a number of Old Believers, mostly Don and Terek Cossacks, who settled in New Jersey, where they formed their own communities in the Lakewood area. Thus, as a result of the wars and revolutions of the twentieth century, the Old Believers found themselves scattered not only across Europe and Asia, but also across overseas continents.

Orthodox Old Believer unpopularism edinoverie