Old Believers

IRINA PAERT

Old Believers (starovery), also known as staroobriadtsy (“old ritualists”), is a generic term for the religious dissidents who split from the Russian Orthodox Church in and after the second half of the 17th century. Church reforms carried out in the 1660s under the leadership of Patriarch Nikon created a formal reason for the dissent. The changes introduced by the reformers in accordance with the contemporary Greek practice (concerning primarily lan­guage and ritual forms) alienated a large number of Russian Orthodox who adhered to the traditional Russian ritual practice, including baptism by immersion, the sign of the cross made by two fingers (rather than three), the spelling of the name of Jesus with one “I” (Isus) rather than two, double rather than triple Alleluias, the clockwise (rather than anticlockwise) order of liturgical processions in church, the use of seven rather than five prosphoras for the Eucharist, to name just a few. Moreover, the violent state-advocated methods that characterized the reformist behavior stimulated intense apocalyptic sentiment. Mass self-immolations took place among dissenters and continued until religious toleration was declared in the 1760s. The important centers of Old Believers in Tsarist Russia were in the northern Trans-Volga regions, the border between Russia and the Polish Common­wealth, the Baltic provinces, Bessarabia, Moscow, the Urals, and Siberia.

According to official data, 190,944 men and women registered as Old Believers under Tsar Peter I. However, the numerical strength of the Old Believers could not be determined precisely as many of them also formally belonged to the Orthodox Church. In 1912 there were 1,807,056 Old Believers, which made less than 2.5 percent of the population in the Russian Empire. Their geographical distribution was very uneven: while some regions had a high proportion, others had a more or less homogenous Orthodox population. However, the strength of the Old Believers lay not in their numbers but rather in their literacy, their economic power, and strong commu­nal identity. With the exception of the period of enlightened toleration between 1763 and 1814, the Imperial government did not recognize the legal rights of the Old Believers and tried to assimilate them into the Orthodox population. It was only in 1905 that they received equal legal rights with the members of the Orthodox Church. In the Soviet Union the number of Old

Believers dropped because of repression, with groups emigrating to China in the 1920s-1930s, and then to Australia and America. Apart from Russia, Old Believer communities can be found in Byelorussia, Ukraine, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Italy, Brazil, USA, and Canada. Following the breakdown of the Soviet Union, there has been a revival of Old Believer religious life, but its impact remains quite limited.

The main division is between the priestly (popovtsy) and priestless (bespopovtsy). The popovtsy Old Believers differed from the mainstream Orthodox Church only on the issues of ritual, while bespopovtsy justi­fied lay ministry and had fewer sacraments than the Orthodox Church (notably, the Eucharist is absent). The Old Believers who did not wish to part with holy orders and the Eucharistic communion continued to recruit priests from the Russian Ortho­dox Church, who thus received the popular name “fugitive priests” (beglopopovtsy). Following the conversion in 1846 of the retired Bosnian bishop Amvrosii (Pappa- Georgopoli) to Old Belief, the beglopopovtsy founded a hierarchy independent from the Russian Orthodox Church with the center in Belaia Krinitsa (then in the Austro- Hungarian Empire). In post-Soviet Russia, this section of Old Belief declared its independence from the Belokrinitskaia Old Believer church in Romania and has its center in the Rogozhskoe cemetery in Moscow. It consists of eleven dioceses and is headed by Metropolitan Kornilii. The beglopopovtsy reemerged in the 1920s when two Russian Orthodox bishops converted to Old Belief and founded the Russian Old Orthodox Church with its headquarters in Novozybkovo (Briansk Oblast). At the moderate end of the movement, there has been a union effected between Old Believers and the Orthodox Church, called Edinoverie (United Faith), which was officially approved in 1801. The priestless Old Believers have more internal divisions than the priestly section, splitting over the issue of the Antichrist (whether this can be understood as a spiritual force or a distinct person) and over the role of sacraments. Marriage, in particular, became a subject of fierce debates among the priestless: while some advocated celibacy as the only way of salvation on the basis of radical eschatological views, others practised mar­riage assisted by a non-ordained minister. Most radical offshoots (spasovtsy, stranniki) preached a total break with the world (refusing to hold passports, sabotaging state campaigns, and rejecting military service). As a rule, the priestless Old Believers require their new members to be re-baptized on the grounds that their previous baptism was invalid. They also maintain strict taboos regarding food and hygiene, often keeping separate dishes for use by outsiders. Ritual prohibitions typical for all sections of the Old Believers include shaving beards (for men) and smoking tobacco.

Old Believers preserved the medieval Orthodox rite and liturgy, including the monophonic (znamennyi) chant that has a Byzantine origin, traditional iconography, and a fascinating book culture. Old Be­lievers were instrumental in the revival of interest for traditional Russian icon paint­ing both in Russia and abroad during the first half of the 20th century. Generally, the Old Believer culture is regarded as a reflection of the way of life typical for Russia before the westernization introduced by Peter the Great. Like many religious dissenters in other cultures, Old Believers were active merchants and differed from the average Russian peasants by their well- organized and sustainable agricultural economy. Among them, both the priestly and priestless, the role of the laity was, and remained, very developed. Laymen interpreted the scripture and participated in interconfessional debates. Women as a rule had a high status among the Old Believers both in everyday and in religious life. It was not unusual for women to carry out the roles of ministers among the priestless Old Believers.

SEE ALSO: Russia, Patriarchal Orthodox Church of

REFERENCES AND SUGGESTED READINGS

Crummey, R. (1970) The Old Believers and the World of Antichrist: The Vyg Community and the Russian State 1694–1855. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.

Iukhimenko, E. I. (2002) Vygovskaia staroobriadcheskaia pustyn’. Dukhovnaia zhizn’ i literature, vols. 1–2. Moscow.

Michels, G. (1999) At War with the Church: Religious Dissent in Seventeenth-Century Russia. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

Paert, I. (2003) Old Believers, Religious Dissent and Gender in Russia, 1760–1850. Manchester: Manchester University Press.

Robson, R. (1996) Old Believers in Modern Russia.

DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press. Rogers, D. (2009) The Old Faith and the Russian Land: A Historical Ethnography of Ethics in the Urals. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.