Today, unlike past decades, it is not "terra inconita" - an unknown, incomprehensible and unexplored phenomenon. The history and culture of the Old Believers is dedicated to hundreds scientific research, dozens of books and films, thousands of articles and notes on the Internet. Tourists fly to the once unknown in a helicopter, on a seemingly completely forgotten in the Soviet years Rogozhskoye cemetery the President of Russia arrives, and Old Believer icons and books are exhibited in the halls of the Federal Assembly of the country. Nevertheless, a number of persistent myths about the Old Believers persist in society.

Some myths came to our era from pre-revolutionary times, when slander against the old faith was elevated to the rank of state policy, others have “Soviet” roots and are associated with anti-religious propaganda, some appeared quite recently and reflect the “childhood illnesses” of the formation of public consciousness new Russia. Let's try to deal with some of the myths.

1. The purpose of the reform of Patriarch Nikon was the correction of Russian liturgical books according to ancient manuscripts

Answer: modern science it has been established for certain that during the reforms of Patriarch Nikon and the correction of liturgical books, no authoritative historical sources and ancient manuscripts were used. Liturgist and Byzantologist A.A. Dmitrievsky indicates:

Already found out in historical literature with sufficient persuasiveness that the books on the right under Patriarch Nikon, and in all subsequent times under his successors, were kept at the Moscow Printing Yard not from the old charate Greek and Slavic liturgical manuscripts, but from the printed Greek books of the Venetian printing house. (Dmitrievsky A.A. Correction of books under Patriarch Nikon and subsequent patriarchs. P. 26).

The same view of the correction of books was held by such scholars as S.A. Belokurov(1862-1918), professor N.F. Kapterev (1847-1918), P.F. Nikolaevsky (1841-1899), I.D. Mansvetov(1843-1885) and others. Books were also found from which Patriarch Nikon ordered to “correct” the entire ancient Russian liturgical rite. There are only two of them: the Missal of 1602 of the Venetian edition of Anthony Pinel and the Missal of 1604 of the Lvov Bishop Gideon Balaban, published in Stryatyn.

2. Old Believers are not Orthodox Christians

Answer: Etymology of the word " orthodoxy" And " Orthodox” is understandable to any person who knows at least a little Russian. The two roots of this word right" And " glory” denote the right, right glorification of God.

So, in their theology, the Old Believers adhere to the teachings of the Church, expressed by the holy fathers of the seven Ecumenical and a number of ancient Local Councils, as well as the Councils of the Russian Church that took place before the church schism of the 17th century. In their liturgical life, the Old Believers use rites, rites, and rites that fully correspond to the dogmatic content of the teachings of the ancient Church.

• Thus, the sign of the cross with a symbolic language of gestures expresses the Orthodox Creed adopted by the fathers of the Nicene and Constantinople Ecumenical Councils, namely the incarnation of the Son of God in an earthly man and his sacrifice on the cross, that is, faith in the Holy Trinity - the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit - and in Christ, who has two natures - God and man, and that it was Christ who was crucified on the cross.
• The three-immersion baptism used by the Old Believers symbolically means the dying and resurrection of a person with Christ.
• In the Old Believer Church, unison, monodic church singing, the main purpose of which is not the entertainment of the ear, but prayer.
• The icons used by the Old Believers are exclusively of canonical writing, which, as you know, primarily reflects the spiritual hypostasis of the depicted person or event.

Thus, in the Old Believer Church, worship, glorification occurs with the use of rites and rites corresponding to Christian dogmatics. In other words, God is sung and glorified "right", "right", "orthodox". Therefore, it is the Old Believers who should be called Orthodox, since they glorify God in the correct forms of worship.

Other Christians, including even those who adhere to the correct dogmatic teaching of the Church, but use distorted forms of worship, can no longer be called Orthodox. Distorted forms of glorifying God no longer testify to “Orthodoxy” (correct glorification), but at least to “ falsehood” (somehow distorted glorification).

3. The Old Rite can only be understood by Russians and Russian speakers

Answer: Since the rites and rites used by the Old Believers symbolically reflect the dogmatic teaching of the ancient Christian Church, they will be understandable to any Christian who recognizes this teaching, no matter what language he speaks.

As an example, one can cite in which two fingers (index and great middle) are folded in the name of two natures in Christ - Divine and human. It is quite obvious that in any language of the world two fingers mean the number two. In contrast to this, in the New Believer Church, the so-called nominative signification is widely used, when they try to depict the letters "IC" and XC with their fingers. However, only Slavic or Greek letters can be depicted with human fingers. In no other languages, both modern and ancient, can the name of the Savior be depicted in this way.

4. Old Believers do not drink tea, coffee and do not eat potatoes, do not use telephones and computers - in a word, they live like Agafya Lykova

Answer: Old Believers (Old Believers) today consume tea, coffee, potatoes and other modern products, but at the same time they prefer dishes of Russian national cuisine. The historically wary attitude of the Old Believers to foreign goods, including food, is due to the fact that among such novelties there are some that can cause irreparable harm to spiritual or bodily health. So, for example, the Old Believers for three hundred years opposed the use of tobacco, actively promoted by foreign merchants and the Russian government. But only in recent decades, society has recognized the correctness of the Old Believers and began to fight the spread of this harmful potion.

In 1909, the question of the use of tea, coffee and potatoes caused a sharp controversy at the First Old Believer Congress of Old Believers-bezpriests (accepting marriage). After discussions on this topic, it was decided:

You can't call them heretics. Punishers should be taught that nowhere is the use of tea and wine called heresy. Excessive use of everything is a sin. Belongs to the category of excesses. Those who moderately consume vodka and tea should not be obliged to penances.

Emerging food traditions and oral traditions, not even necessarily based on the Bible or other sources, in modern Old Believers vary depending on the characteristics of the people, place and time of residence. Most of the food prohibitions are no longer observed.

Also, the Old Believers use modern technological devices - this fully applies to the Old Believers living in the deep taiga. There are vehicles for hunters and fishermen, modern weapons, communication and navigation equipment.

As for the urban Old Believers, many of its representatives at one time stood at the forefront of scientific and technological progress. The famous Russian inventor was an Old Believer I.P. Kulibin. Peasant F. pancakes developed the world's first concept of a caterpillar tractor, the scheme of which formed the basis for all subsequent caterpillar vehicles, including tanks. Chairman of the Council of the Rogozh community P.P. Ryabushinsky was at the forefront of nuclear energy. The founder of the shipping company "Along the Volga" Nizhny Novgorod merchant D.V. Sirotkin one of the first began to use oil tankers.

As for the Lykov family, and in particular Agafya Lykova, with whose images the Old Believers are often associated, it can be said for sure that they were able to survive in the taiga thanks to potatoes, which were cultivated for more than 40 years. Today, Agafya and other Old Believer hermits, if necessary, use modern facilities communications, drugs, etc.

5. Old Believers organized the October Revolution of 1917

Answer: The idea that the revolution was largely made by the Old Believers appeared quite recently. Neither the Bolsheviks, nor the monarchists, nor the representatives of the white movement, nor the Soviet historians and representatives of the Russian emigration ever mentioned any role of the Old Believers in the revolutionary events of 1917-1918. This idea arose only in the late 1990s, when the majority of those whom pseudo-patriotic circles had traditionally considered guilty of the revolution left the country, that is, the Jews. It was necessary to find new culprits. And since neither the Russian people for the most part, nor the synodal church, which was the first among the religious denominations to welcome the overthrow of the tsar, did not want to plead guilty to the revolutionary events, the idea arose to appoint the Old Believers guilty.

This idea was outlined in several articles by the economist O.L. Shakhnazarov. Then the historian A.V. began to develop it. Pyzhikov. Old Believer historian M.A. Dzyubenko points out:

The works of these researchers contain a huge number of factual errors and omissions. Before us is a pseudo-scientific manipulative montage in the style that is in demand today. These works and the statements contained in them should not be taken seriously. It must be clearly understood: the Old Believers only in the last ten years of existence Russian Empire was limited to public life and, in some cases, to public life. It may have wanted to influence the general course of events, but it could not, since the entire structure of the Russian state was contrary to the values ​​of ancient Orthodoxy. So, of course, those who had power and numerical advantage bear the main responsibility for what happened in 1917, and it will not work to shift this responsibility to others.

6. To join the Old Believer Church, you need to be baptized a second time

Answer: Since the Old Believer Church, as indicated above, in the celebration of the sacraments follows Orthodox dogma and Church Tradition, then in it it is accomplished through complete immersion.

Rule 50 of St. apostles reads:

If anyone, a bishop or presbyter, performs more than three immersions of a single sacrament, ... let him be deposed.

IN 91 rule of St. Basil the Great It is said that immersion baptism is a patristic tradition:

Where does the threefold immersion of man come from? And the rest, which happens at Baptism: to deny Satan and his Aggels, from which Scripture is taken? Is it not from this unpublished and inexpressible teaching, which our Fathers preserved in silence inaccessible to curiosity and elicitation, having been soundly taught to guard the sanctuary of the Mystery by silence.

Baptism through dousing, sprinkling, as well as baptism with martyr's blood, sand and other things are allowed only in exceptional cases, when the person being baptized is seriously ill and there is no way to baptize him by immersion, or the person is in prison, and he is threatened with imminent death. The rite carried out in such a case, in fact, is not the sacrament of baptism, but only serves as a witness to outsiders that a person professes his faith in Christ.

As such examples, one can cite the prudent robber Rach, crucified at the right hand of Christ on Golgotha. No baptism was performed on him, but he earned the right to be the first in paradise only by his oral confession and blood. Conversely, there is a well-known story about a certain Jewish traveler who fell seriously ill in the desert and, meeting Christian monks on his way, begged to be baptized. Since there was no water nearby, wandering monks baptized him with sand. However, upon arrival in the nearest town, the case for sand baptism was taken up by the local bishop. And since, fortunately, the traveler did not die in the desert, Bishop Dionysius ordered to baptize a Jew in water, imputing baptism with sand to nothing».

With the spread of pouring baptism in the west Eastern churches by their separate decisions approved the practice of full immersion baptism of persons baptized in other non-canonical ways. The most striking examples of this are the resolutions of the Council of Constantinople in 1755 and the Council of Moscow in 1620, which reject the validity of pouring baptism.

Thus, the largest Old Believer agreements, such as and, join Christians baptized immersively, without any additional baptism. Those who do not have canonical baptism (those who have passed the rites of pouring, sprinkling, sprinkling with sand, etc.) receive a full three-immersion baptism, which is considered the first and only.

There is, however, another point of view. Other Old Believer concords (mainly bezpopovtsy - and the Old Orthodox Catholic Church of Old Pomorsky) baptize each joining, regardless of how the person was baptized before. This is interpreted as follows: "baptism in a heretical church is not baptism, but more than profanation, since it is performed by heretical priests." Pomeranian writings of the 18th century indicate: any heretic, in the absence of priests, can be accepted into the church only through re-baptism, and admission to the second and third ranks in the absence of a priesthood is impossible.

Thus, in the absence of the priesthood among the non-priests, church rules come into force, allowing a layman to baptize and rebaptize in special cases, that is, to receive “from heresies coming” the first rank. Vygovtsy, justifying re-baptism, wrote that in general, every heretic is subject to re-baptism, and if the church has not previously re-baptized some heretics, then this should be understood not as a law, but as “indulgence”, in the hope of their speedy conversion.

7. Old Believers are pagans who lived in Russia before being baptized by Vladimir

Answer: After the church schism of the 17th century, in government and church documents, Orthodox Christians who preserved the ancient liturgical rites, old printed books and customs were called "schismatics." During the reign of Catherine the Great, at the suggestion of Prince Potemkin, Catherine signed a number of documents granting them the rights and benefits to live in special areas of the country. In these documents, the Old Believers were named not as "schismatics", but as "". The Old Orthodox Christians themselves often called themselves Old Believers, explaining that the difference between the Old Believers and the New Believers was not only in the rites, but also in the faith itself.

At the end of the 20th century, religious and quasi-religious cultural associations began to appear in Russia, professing religious beliefs that had nothing to do with Christianity. Supporters of some such associations and sects proclaim the revival of the religious traditions of pre-Christian, pagan Russia. In order to stand out, to separate their views from the Christianity received in Russia during the time of Prince Vladimir, some neo-pagans began to call themselves "Old Believers".

And although the use of this term in this context is incorrect and erroneous, views began to spread in society that the Old Believers are really pagans who revive the old faith in the ancients. Slavic gods- Perun, Svarog, Dazhbog, Veles and others. It is no coincidence that, for example, the religious association "Old Russian Ynglistic Church of Orthodox Old Believers-Ynglings" appeared.

At some point, in the early 2000s, the term "Old Believers" began to be widely perceived as a synonym for pagans. However, thanks to extensive explanatory work, as well as a number of serious lawsuits against the “Old Believers-Ynglings” and other extremist neo-pagan groups, the popularity of this linguistic phenomenon has now declined. IN last years the overwhelming majority of neo-pagans still prefer to be called "Rodnovers".

Old Believers is a trend that arose in Russia in the middle of the 17th century among believing Orthodox Christians. After the church reforms carried out by Patriarch Nikon and Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich in 1653-1655, the society was divided into supporters and opponents of this reform. Opponents began to be called Old Believers.

The head of the Old Believers and the ideologist was Archpriest Avvakum (Avvakum Petrov) (1620-1682).

From a young age he devoted himself to Christianity, was an active supporter and preacher of a pious way of life. He was a member of the "Circle of Zealots of Piety", where he met Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich.

Nikon accepted the reforms negatively, he believed that it was necessary to turn to the fundamental principle of faith in Russian, and not Greek sources. For his views, he was deprived of his place in the Kazan Cathedral in Moscow and exiled to Siberia. By royal decree in 1682, Archpriest Avvakum and his associates were burned alive. During the time spent in exile, Avvakum wrote his famous Life of Archpriest Avvakum. The church council of 1666-1667 excommunicated the Old Believers from the church.

The victory of the official church over the "zealots" of the faith led to a split in society. The harsh measures taken by the authorities aroused the sympathy of various segments of the population for them. The movement of the OLD BELIEVERS (schismatics) gained great momentum. It united different strata of society, in their own way understanding adherence to the traditions of the old faith. The forms of protest were different - from self-immolation and starvation, evasion of duties and disobedience to the authorities to armed resistance to the tsarist governors. In the ranks of the Old Believers there were many representatives of black and white clergy and representatives of famous families. The boyar Feodosya Morozova, the widow of brother B.I. Morozov, the tsar's favorite. She was tortured for her old faith and died in an earthen prison along with her sister, Princess Urusova.

In the 17th century, events in the Old Believer movement left an important mark on the history of the country.

Armed uprising on Solovki in 1668-1676. It is also called the Solovetsky seat. The clergy of the monastery resisted church reform. The monks refused to conduct worship according to the new rites, turned to the king with a petition that sounded like an ultimatum: “Do not send teachers to us in vain, sir, but rather, if you please, change books, send your sword to us to move us to eternal life ". To which, in response, the authorities sent a centurion of archers and a punitive army of a thousand people with an order to take the monastery by blockade. After many years, 500 defenders of the monastery were destroyed.

If the movement in the Solovetsky Monastery grew from religious to political, then the Streltsy revolt in Moscow in 1682 began under political slogans, and ended under religious ones. First, the archers exterminated the Naryshkins and their supporters, and then, under the leadership of the Old Believer Prince Khovansky, they turned to the authorities with a call to "stand up for the old Orthodox faith."

On July 5, 1682, in the Faceted Chamber of the Moscow Kremlin, the Patriarch, Princess Sophia met with Tsars Ivan and Peter and the Old Believers, led by Archpriest Nikita Dobrynin of Suzdal. The Old Believers came to the debate with stones. Passions flared up, the "great cry" began.

Neither the execution of the schism teachers, nor the persuasion of the "heretics" by the preachers of the official church could overcome the schism. The protest of the "Old Believers" was directed against innovations in church rituals and represented a conservative beginning in church life.

Perhaps there is some pattern in the fact that economic success cools religious fervor over time. Textile industrialists of the second and especially the third generation received sufficient education and exposure to European culture to moderate their apocalyptic beliefs. Some (for example, the Guchkovs and the Khludovs) have gone over to the officially sanctioned "unanimity". Other families (for example, the Konovalovs) moved towards undifferentiated Orthodoxy.

Nevertheless, there remained clans (for example, the Morozovs and Ryabushinskys), who retained an emotional attachment to ancient piety, although, as individuals, they were already completely Europeanized. It would be an oversimplification to say that the connection with the religious culture of the Old Believers gave rise to a completely different type of personality, characteristic only for adherents of the old faith.

Undoubtedly, people from Old Believer families have learned to think of themselves as different from everyone else; they strove to be persistent and diligent in business and think about the future of their family businesses. Old Believer merchants usually remained merchants, avoiding the temptation of being elevated to the rank of nobility, which traditionally weakened the merchant class. For these reasons, their firms were distinguished by longevity, unusual for the Russian economy.

However, these properties were not unique to the Old Believers, since many families who adhered to official Orthodoxy achieved similar results in the textile elites of merchant Moscow. The distinction between orthodox and non-orthodox denominations seems to have been blurred as merchants of both faiths became active participants in the sharply increased philanthropic, philanthropic and civic activities that marked the onset of the cultural era of merchant Moscow at the end of the 19th century.

Even when the merchant class in Russia began to acquire clear features of the industrial bourgeoisie "für sich", almost no one, except for those who came from the Old Believers, could accept the challenge of the time and turn their business interests towards politics and ideology.

The basis for these changes was laid by the eloquent Old Believer Vasily Kokorev, who in the middle of the 19th century was the first to leave the walls of his factory and entered into an alliance with such Slavophil thinkers as Fyodor Chizhov and Ivan Babst, and the legendary Savva Morozov, whose powerful voice and charismatic leadership interrupted suicide committed at the very moment when the bourgeoisie entered the political arena in 1905.

In the restless inter-revolutionary era of 1905-1917, a triumvirate of Pavel Ryabushinsky, Alexander Konovalov and Alexander Guchkov arose, voicing the political aspirations of the emerging bourgeoisie. Undoubtedly, thanks to their understanding of the historical mistakes of despotic power in Russia, these new leaders of the Old Believer heritage acted as political liberals and constitutionalists.

Guchkov led the parliamentary faction of the "Octobrists" - a nationalist coalition in the first three State Dumas, which tried to find ways to reconcile with the government of Prime Minister Pyotr Stolypin. In the Third Duma, he fought for the adoption of laws on the Old Believers, guaranteeing the protection of the rights of religious dissidents. After the assassination of Stolypin in 1911, Guchkov became disillusioned with the tsarist regime and soon joined the more radical position of Ryabushinsky and Konovalov.

Alexander Konovalov and Pavel Ryabushinsky led the Progressive faction in the Fourth Duma, they sought to unite all opposition forces under the banner of the Progressive Bloc. Ryabushinsky, who still professed the old faith, was chairman of the All-Russian Congress of Old Believers and tried to attract his co-religionists to participate in political process through the organization of the neo-Old Believer movement. On the eve of the First World War, Konovalov and Ryabushinsky were secretly negotiating with the Bolsheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries about ways to resist the tsarist regime, and Konovalov even hinted at the need for a “supernatural way out” of the political impasse of 1914.

These industrial activists were practically the only representatives of the entrepreneurs who had sufficient self-confidence and conviction to act on equal terms with the intellectuals and aristocrats who formed the backbone of the liberal political culture of that time. During the war years, people of this circle, united by their opposition to the autocracy, created and headed military-industrial committees that contributed to the mobilization of the economy. It should also be noted their desire to unite the liberal opposition under the auspices of the "Progressive Bloc".

In 1916, Guchkov took an active part in a secret conspiracy to overthrow the tsar. When the autocracy finally collapsed in 1917, Konovalov and Guchkov became ministers of the Provisional Government. Konovalov saw the end of old Russia with his own eyes when he was arrested by the Bolsheviks in the Winter Palace while serving as Comrade Prime Minister in Kerensky's last cabinet.

The names of these people personified the interests of the business community to such an extent that Lenin usually used them as eponyms for the "big bourgeoisie." Expressions such as "gentlemen Ryabushinskys", "those Konovalovs" and "Guchkov's party" were common elements of his political lexicon directed against the "leaders of the bourgeoisie".

It cannot be said with complete certainty that their careers were predetermined by belonging to a non-orthodox religion. However, their entrepreneurial dynamism, fighting style, strong nationalist sentiments, liberal demands for the rule of law, defense of religious freedom, implacable opposition to the tsarist regime (after the failure of Guchkov's collaborationist experiment), desire to cooperate with revolutionary parties and join conspiracies - all this carries a distinct imprint of an unorthodox heritage.

Although their actual relationship with ancient piety ranged from ardent to aloof, it must be concluded that the emergence of these bright personalities against the backdrop of hard-to-distinguish figures on the political scene who came from the orthodox tradition was not entirely accidental.

So, for example, in the Konovalov family, problems with leadership arose in the third generation. I. A. Konovalov was not very well versed in entrepreneurship and indulged in the joys of life beyond measure. As a result, the family business fell into disrepair. In 1897, by decision of the family, he was removed from business, and control of the company passed to his son Alexander.

At the very moment when his car drove into the territory of the Rogozhskaya Sloboda, Vladimir Putin put an end to three and a half centuries of exile of the Old Believers. On May 31, for the first time since the painful split of Russian Orthodoxy in 1667, the country's leader paid a visit to an ancient spiritual community that had been persecuted by both tsarist and Soviet authorities.

This historical event, which went almost unnoticed and took place in a closed area in the south of Moscow (previously, the Old Believers had premises only outside the capital), followed a congress of Old Believers gathered from all over the world. “We discussed returning home, participation in agriculture. They would very much like to be given land. They would revive it and pray,” Metropolitan Kornily told the president.

The spiritual leader of the Old Believers, a man in a black cassock, with a large medallion half hidden by a well-groomed beard and long hair under a black headdress, took on the role of a tour guide for the guest of honor.

Our guide's name is Peter. He is wearing high Cossack boots, his waist is intercepted by a cloth belt, and his beard is hardly inferior to that of the Metropolitan (under Peter the Great, he would have had to pay an additional tax for it).

Terrible split of the 17th century

This 26-year-old Siberian received a degree in chemistry, but then moved on to theology. We say that he reminds us a little of the Amish living in North America a closed community that also formed as a result of the religious schism in Europe in the 17th century. “Nothing like that,” he counters. “We live in a society and watch TV, but not action movies or horror films.” Be that as it may, in order to get into the Intercession Cathedral, you need to familiarize yourself with the rules.

Context

Ministry of Traditions

Yle 21.03.2017

Christianity, the religion of the few

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 20.09.2016

Russian Orthodox Church creates a "holy alliance" with the Kremlin

21.11.2015

Will religion ever disappear?

BBC 01/08/2015

Old Believers return to Russia

La Croix 27.10.2011
Women should tie a scarf on their heads (it is stabbed under the chin with a pin), put on long skirt and carry the bag in your hands, not on your shoulder.

Here, the service is conducted by the light of candles, which are manually lit on a giant chandelier suspended from the ceiling. The floor is pristine, and there are many icons hung on the walls: they say that there are about 4 thousand of them.

The Old Believers are primarily distinguished by the form of the sign of the cross: in the Byzantine tradition, two joined fingers symbolize the dual, human and divine, nature of Christ. This seemingly harmless gesture caused a terrible split in the 17th century, when Patriarch Nikon decided to reform scripture and introduce a three-fingered sign of the cross according to the Greek model (symbolizes the Trinity). The reform was supported by the second in the Romanov dynasty, Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, but some believers perceived it as imposing "European" orders to the detriment of Russian traditions.

Oppressions before 1905

Entire families of Old Believers ended up at the stake or died during a journey filled with hardships to remote regions of Russia, far beyond the Urals, or abroad.

Exhibited in the famous Tretyakov Gallery, Vasily Surikov’s painting “Boyar Morozova” captured their martyrdom: she sits on a sleigh with her hands chained, but raises her palm with two fingers in the sign of the cross.

© RIA Novosti, Alexei Nikolsky

Peter tells us about the existence of a French Old Believer, a certain Vavila, who studied at the Sorbonne, who preferred to end his life at the stake in the Vladimir region, but did not renounce his newfound faith.

The persecution of the Old Believers continued until 1905, when Tsar Nicholas II removed the label of "schismatics" from them, and also granted them the right to ring bells and build churches. Be that as it may, the lull turned out to be short-lived: after 12 years, the Bolshevik terror fell upon representatives of all religious movements. The Orthodox Church itself lifted the anathema only in 1971. “There are too many disagreements over dogmas,” says Peter.

Religion - Russian difference from the West

Restored after the collapse of the USSR, Rogozhskaya Sloboda occupies an area of ​​​​several hectares (it even has its own cemetery), like an island in the middle of Soviet buildings that has fallen out of the stream of time.

In one of the churches, which was recently used as a dining room, there is an exhibition “Force of Spirit, Loyalty to Tradition”. It presents the life of the Old Believers, icons that have somehow survived, portable iconostases, miniature religious objects and leaflets.

The representative of the Old Believer Church, Roman Antorin, calls Putin's visit "divine providence": "The authorities are finally turning to face us and appreciate the contribution of the Old Believers to the history of Russia, its culture and heritage."

The head of state understands this very well. The retired KGB officer now actively leans on religion as a difference between Russia and the West. In particular, he promised to help with the return of the Old Believers living abroad.

The materials of InoSMI contain only assessments of foreign media and do not reflect the position of the editors of InoSMI.

The Old Believers in their opposition to the clergy and the desire to honor the traditions of ancient Orthodoxy often went to extremes. They did not obey the authorities, accused the Church of heresy and killed themselves in the hope of salvation.

Popovtsy and bespopovtsy

The schism in the Russian Orthodox Church in the 1650-60s, connected with the reforms of Patriarch Nikon, put the adherents of the old rite in a difficult position - there was not a single bishop in their ranks. The last was Pavel Kolomensky, who died in 1656 and left no successors.

According to the canons, the Orthodox Church cannot exist without a bishop, because only he is authorized to appoint priests and deacons. When the last pre-reform priests and deacons passed away, the paths of the Old Believers parted ways. One part of the Old Believers decided that it was possible to resort to the help of priests who had renounced the Nikon faith. They began to willingly receive priests who had left their diocesan bishop. So there were "priests".

Another part of the Old Believers was convinced that after the Schism, grace completely left the Orthodox Church and all that was left for them was to humbly await the Last Judgment. The Old Believers who rejected the priesthood began to be called "bespriests". They settled mainly on the uninhabited shores of the White Sea, in Karelia, the Nizhny Novgorod lands. It is among the bespopovtsy that the most radical Old Believer agreements and rumors subsequently appear.

Waiting for the Apocalypse

Eschatological motives became a key element in the ideology of the Old Believers. Many rumors of the Old Believers, protecting themselves from the "anti-Christ power", existed from generation to generation in anticipation of the imminent end of the world. The most radical currents did try to bring it closer. Getting ready for last days, they dug caves, lay down in coffins, starved to death, rushed into the pool, burned themselves with entire families and communities.

Throughout its history, the Old Believers exterminated tens of thousands of their adherents. A connoisseur of the Old Believers and sectarianism Alexander Prugavin tried to determine the number of schismatics who died in the fire. According to his calculations, only up to 1772, about 10,000 people were burned alive.

Netovtsy (Spasovo consent)

This is one of the biggest bespopovsky consents. The total number of Netovites at the end of the 20th century reached 100 thousand people, mainly living in the Saratov, Nizhny Novgorod, Vladimir regions, as well as in the Middle Volga region.

Netovtsy (the word speaks for itself) deny Orthodox shrines, rituals and many sacraments, rely solely on the Savior, who "himself knows how to save us poor." Throughout their existence, they tried to avoid any contact with the Orthodox Church, especially if it concerned the burial rite. The dead were buried in the forest, ravine or behind the fence of the cemetery.

Nevertheless, the netovites did not reject the sacrament of baptism. They recognize that it is possible to perform the rite of baptism in Orthodox Church, interpreting this in a very peculiar way: "although a heretic baptized, but a priest in robes, and not a simple peasant." However, more stringent currents manage with self-baptism, and some replace this rite by simply putting a cross on a newborn.

Spasovo consent requires from its followers a fairly severe asceticism in everyday life. For example, under the ban on the use of products with yeast, with hops, they do not eat potatoes. There is a taboo for bright and colorful clothes. The proverb says: “whoever wears a motley shirt, it means that his soul is the sister of the Antichrist,” or “what is not a motley, then a demon servant.”

Self-immolation suicides were widespread among Netovites.

Dyrniki

This is one of the most radical offshoots of the Spas accord, not recognizing any spiritual mentors. They do not venerate "new-painted" icons because without the priesthood there is no one to consecrate them, and "old-painted" icons because they were desecrated from the possession of heretics. Dyrniki do not have special liturgical premises. Prayer takes place either in the open air or indoors through a special opening strictly to the east. Praying through a window or a wall is a sin for them. A small group of holers now live in Central Siberia.

Pomeranian consent

The history of Pomeranian consent dates back to 1694, when a male community was founded on the Vyg River. In 1723, the Vygovskaya monastery became famous for compiling the Pomeranian Answers. This polemical book subsequently became the apologetic basis for the defense of the entire Old Believers.

Pomortsy demand from their followers a complete break with the official church, and all those who come to them from Orthodoxy are necessarily re-baptized. They do not refuse the sacraments, but divide them into those necessary for salvation (baptism, repentance and communion) and the rest, without which you can do without.

Serious disagreements among the Pomeranians arose over marriage. Over time, practicality prevailed. Thanks to the introduction of the marriage rite, the Pomortsy legalized marital relations, which led to the possibility of the legal transfer of property by inheritance.

IN Soviet times Pomeranians were the most numerous among the bespopovskih consents. Today, large groups of their followers live in Vilnius, Riga and Moscow.

Fedoseevtsy

At the end of the 18th century, as a result of disputes about the inscription on the cross and about marriage, the Fedoseyevites separated from the Pomeranian consent. In 1781, Ilya Kovylin (a former serf of Prince Golitsyn) founded a community in Moscow near the Preobrazhensky cemetery. The Fedoseevsky community was distinguished by strict discipline and unconditional obedience to the mentor. Its members were required to observe celibacy and chastity.

Like many other bespopovtsy, the Fedoseevites believe that there is no more grace in the world. "Every modern state power we regard it as satanic, as a trap for the antichrist,” they say. Of the church sacraments, only baptism and the Eucharist, which are performed by the laity, have been preserved. Due to the non-recognition of the Orthodox priesthood, the Fedoseyevites practice cohabitation without a wedding.

During the Great Patriotic War a large number of Fedoseyevites collaborated with the German authorities and actively opposed the Red Army and partisans.

The most numerous groups of Fedoseevites live in the Pskov, Novgorod, Ulyanovsk and Tyumen regions. Their total number is about 200 thousand people.

Shepherd's consent

It originated in the bowels of the Pomeranian consent, its founder was the shepherd Vasily Stepanov. Unlike the Pomortsy, the shepherds avoided all communication with the civil authorities. They rejected money, passports and other items with the image of the state emblem. But in order to avoid debauchery, they were forced to recognize the marriage.

The extreme degree of rejection of the outside world imposed on the shepherds a ban on living in settlements where there was at least one civil servant, a supporter of the Orthodox Church, or a representative of another Old Believer persuasion. Their foot has never set foot on stone pavements, as inventions of the "age of the Antichrist."

Runners

In 1772, in the village of Sopelki near Yaroslavl, a runner's sense arose as a current opposing the "anti-Christ power." The basis of the teachings of the runners is salvation from the Antichrist, which, unlike most of the bespriests, they perceived not as a spiritual phenomenon, but as a personified person in the guise of Peter I.

Runners live in anticipation of the "first resurrection" when Christ will fight the Antichrist. And "then the millennium kingdom of Christ will come, the New Jerusalem for the habitation of strangers will be lowered from heaven to the place where there is no sea to it." Runners see their new abode near the Caspian Sea, where they regularly make pilgrimages.

All runners are "self-baptized" and undertake to lead a chaste life, to eat only lenten food. They completely reject marriage, but at the same time they allow fornication, considering it a lesser sin.

Popular rumor tells of a strange custom of runners, called the "red death". Its essence is to suffocate a dying person with a red pillow so that by martyrdom he atones not only for his own sins, but also for the sins of his brothers in faith.

For centuries, the runners, persecuted by the authorities as a "harmful sect", remained a small group scattered across the wilderness of Siberia and the Northern Urals.

crowberry

Vodyaniki or Staropopovtsy belong to those sects where the priesthood is not completely rejected. They denounce the Old Believers, who accept priests for money, but recognize the transition of a clergyman from Orthodoxy to the Old Believers if the priest renounces the "heretical faith."

If a member of the Old Popov community falls ill, he is forbidden to take medicine. The essence of the treatment is reduced solely to communion with Epiphany water.

Vozdykhantsy

In 1870, shoemaker Ivan Akhlebinin founded a community in Kaluga, which later became known as Vozdykhantsev. Members of this sect reject any outward worship of God, icons, sacraments and church hierarchy, however, they recognize "explanatory books" - the Gospel, the Acts of the Apostles and the Psalter.

According to the beliefs of the people who breathe, first there was the kingdom of God the Father, then the kingdom of God the Son came, and after 8 thousand years from the creation of the world, the kingdom of the Holy Spirit came. This doctrine was reflected in the rites of the Vozdykhans. At prayer meetings, instead of making the sign of the cross, they sigh, raising their eyes to heaven and passing their hand or handkerchief over their faces.

Many other radical agreements and opinions of the bespriest Old Believers, not significantly differing from each other, have only their inherent features. So, the followers of the consent of the raziny, having gathered for prayer on the day of the Eucharist, stand open-mouthed in anticipation that they will be communed by angels.

Dark people are among those who recognize the rite of baptism, but perform it only at night, as if imitating Christ.

In Akulino's consent, a hostel and celibacy are accepted. This served as a repeated pretext for accusing the Akulinovites of debauchery and sinful sin.

The Kapitonites of the Kshar statute are supporters of radical approaches to suicide for the faith, participants in mass acts of self-immolation.

Ryabinovites believe that the cross of Christ consisted of cypress, cedar and pevg. They associate the last tree with rowan, from which the cross should be made.