The Pravoslavie.Ru website editors continue to publish diplomas of graduates of the Moscow Sretensky Seminary. Diploma of Hieromonk John (Ludishchev) “Problems of Modern Man in the Letters of Confessors of the 20th Century”, the work of a fifth-year student Yuri Filippov “The Revolutionary Movement and Theological Schools of Russia in the late 19th and early 20th centuries” and the work of a fifth-year student Maxim Yanyshevsky “Features of the Religious Life of the Soviet Kazakhstan in 1930-1950" elicited a lively response from readers.

The series of publications is continued by the work of Deacon Alexander Kolnogorov "Dubchensky Old Believer Bespopovsky skete, history and current state", which was made using rare archival materials.

THE ORIGIN OF THE HOUSEHOLD CONSENT OF THE OLD BELIEVERS-BEZPOPOVTSEV

OLD BELIEVERS-BEZPOPOVTS

When the priests of the pre-schism establishment died in antiquity, there was a fundamental division of all the Old Believers into two sects.

Those who preferred to remain without a church hierarchy at all, rather than accept newly appointed priests, were called priestless. For some time, the Old Believers still retained the hope that somewhere (in the country of Belovodie, in impenetrable forests or mountains, in the deserts of the East) the true priesthood of the ancient setting was preserved, and many were eager to acquire it. Until the middle of the 18th century, the bulk of the Bespopovites recognized the absence of the priesthood as a temporary test.

The desire to acquire a church hierarchy was so great among them that the well-known founders of priestlessness - the Denisov brothers - negotiated in writing with representatives of the priests who lived on Vetka, about accepting a bishop even from the dominant church, if only he agreed to keep the old rites. But hopes for the possibility of a speedy acquisition of the hierarchy gave way to disappointment, and really had to build their religious and everyday life in the absence of the priesthood. Under the influence of terrible persecution, the Bespriests considered that the last time had come, in the Orthodox Church (the Old Believers call it the dominant church) and the Antichrist reigned everywhere in the world.

In this regard, the bespriests from the church sacraments retained only baptism and confession (performed by laity, often even by women). They are the minimum necessary for salvation. All other sacraments are not performed at all. realizing, for example, the need for the Eucharist, the non-priests thought to replace it for themselves with "their communion." completely rejecting marriage after the termination, in their opinion, of the true Orthodox priesthood, they demand from all their co-religionists, husbands and wives, a celibate life.

Most non-priestly consents accept the consents coming from others according to the first rank, i.e. re-baptized, from this comes the name of the consent - "bespriest-rebaptists". among them are Pomortsy, Fedoseyevtsy, Filippovtsy, wanderers and others. The exceptions are the chapels, Novospasovtsy, Babushkins and Netovtsy singing, non-singing and denialists, also called non-rebaptized Bespopovtsy.

In the 18th century, a part of the Bespopovtsy added a third, marriage, to the two main sacraments (baptism and confession). the reason was as follows: in their opinion, this is a simple rite that has no dogmatic meaning, which is a combination of elements of ancient traditions with fragments of a wedding, from which priestly actions were removed. Ultimately, this action is an ordinary parental blessing, which consists of two conventionally distinguished parts: the first is the pronunciation of the blessing in the form of a traditional formula, the second is the alternate kissing of the icons by the newlyweds. In conclusion, the ceremony of dividing the bride's one braid into two is performed, which symbolically distinguishes a married woman from a girl. This is the rite of the Old Believer marriage.

This was the beginning of the division of bespopovtsy into married and non-married.

In the 18th century, there was a further fragmentation of the Bespopovtsy, divided into large areas and numerous rumors.

Bespriest communities are headed by mentors - "blessed fathers". they dispose of in meetings during worship and send church services and services, which they supposedly allow out of necessity. According to the non-priests, not everyone has such rights, but only those who have received a successive blessing from former mentors. It has essentially the meaning of placing on a sacred degree.

It is worth noting that there are many interpretations or agreements in priestlessness, differing among themselves in the acceptance and non-acceptance of minor rites.

Today, Bespopovites live in many countries of the world: in Russia, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Romania, Poland, the USA, Uruguay, Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, etc.

The most numerous of the surviving concords of the Bespopovtsy is the chapel.

In Central Russia in the early 1920s. The Fedoseyevites had a numerical superiority among the Bespopovtsy, there were about 2-2.5 million of them. Pomortsev at the same time was up to 2 million people. However, the spontaneous transition of many Fedoseevsky communities to marriage consent in 1920-1950. changed the quantitative ratio in the direction of the Pomeranians.

HOURLY CONSENT MANAGED BY INSTALLERS

Chapels (other name - chapel consent; charter-managed) - the Old Believers, who were originally priests, but because of the persecution, which especially intensified under Nicholas I, remained for a long time without the priesthood. Thus, by being forced to perform the basic rites and conducting divine services without the church hierarchy, they became priestless. Like traditional bespopovtsy, they performed services in chapels deprived of altars, which later gave the name to the concord.

The current state entailed the adoption by the chapels of many purely priestless ideas: about the spiritual coming of the Antichrist (although there are those who claim that he came sensually), about the complete dominance of the Antichrist in the New Believer church and in the state, about the permissibility of self-immolations in case of persecution by the authorities (self-immolations were noted on the Sayans back in 1940), about the inadmissibility of communication, mainly in prayer and meals, with the worldly and especially with personnel, about the fundamental impossibility of obtaining passports, pensions, etc.

The most important difference between the chapels and other bespriests is only the refusal to re-baptize those who come to them from other Old Believer agreements. Baptism is performed by the laity in a wooden font - a tub, while in many non-priestly agreements it is preferable to perform baptism in open water.

The chapel agreement was formed from several migration flows of Old Believers, moving at different times from European Russia further to the east. In 1720 the main part of the ancestors of the chapels left the Nizhny Novgorod forests for the Urals. Back at the beginning of the 20th century, the bulk of their descendants were concentrated in the triangle formed by the cities of Perm, Tyumen and Chelyabinsk. The resettlement to the Urals was also facilitated by the fact that at the beginning of the 18th century the owners of the Ural factories provided patronage to the fleeing Old Believers, seeing in them a powerful workforce. Later, state-owned factories also began to provide this kind of assistance, and Yekaterinburg became the center of the Old Believers who settled in the Urals. The chapels themselves trace their origins to the priestly monk Sophronius, who settled on Kerzhents and was accepted from heresy by the priests of the pre-Nikonian ordination Dionysius, the future Shuisky, Trifilius of Vologda, and others. - for disagreeing with the Vetka-Starodubsky fathers, in vain suspecting them of an ugly reception of sacred persons consecrated by Little Russian bishops-oblivants.

It should be noted that after the death of Patriarch Andrian in 1701, many people were summoned to Moscow to participate in the work of the Synod, who, from the point of view of Nicephorus, had poured baptism and dubious ordination. Nikifor's disagreement with the Kerzhensky and Vetka-Starodubsky fathers was due to the fact that they allegedly received sacred persons indiscriminately, without finding out who was ordained by whom.

His followers began to find out which bishops were known to have been baptized in three immersions and were also ordained by bishops who were also baptized in three immersions. After this kind of research, they began to receive sacred persons ordained only by such bishops. in 1776, the leaders of the chapels believed, relying on some data allegedly obtained in the Synod, that from the hierarchy of the Orthodox Church only the Ryazan and Georgian bishops were baptized in three immersions, which means that they received priests ordained by these bishops.

In 1725, in Nizhny Tagil, Nikifor received from the Orthodox Church priest John (he was later revered among the chapel priests Job). The third Ural priest was the holy monk Iyakov, who was also received by Nicephorus. After correcting Fr. Iyakov lived in the Nevyansk plant until his death (1754). Nikifor also received priests from the Vyatka province from the Orthodox Church - Fr. Simeon and Fr. Gabriel. The first after the correction went to Iryum, and the second - to Ishim. Both of them were martyred in Tobolsk. Until about the first third of the 18th century, the Ural chapels in their current rank received clergy who passed from the Orthodox Church, and in 1735 their leaders from among the mining employees even asked, but unsuccessfully, Empress Anna Ioannovna to consolidate such a practice legally. After the death of Fr. Iyakov, the Ural Old Believers were left without the priesthood, since there was no one to receive fugitive priests from the Orthodox Church, and they were afraid to invite priests from Moscow, from Kerzhents or from Vetka: they could get caught ordained by Bishop Epiphanius, whom they considered an impostor. The reception of this bishop on Vetka exacerbated the distance of the Ural Old Believers from the rest of the priests.

When the priest Peter came to the Ural Old Believers, there was no one to correct him. Then, according to the conciliar decision, he “through three prayer chants took upon himself the sacred vestments and began to serve as a priest.” After his death, they managed to find the priest Herodion, who was recognized as having a succession of corrections, dating back to the holy monk Iyakov. Company. Herodion was followed by the holy monk Theophylact, who together with him received a number of priests, including Fr. Philip, ordained by the Georgian Bishop Gregory (at that time, those bishops whose ordination the Ural Old Believers considered completely legal had already died in Russia, they considered the Georgian church still not infected with pouring baptism). Philip, in turn, introduced several priests of Georgian ordination, including Fr. Archippa - the last Nizhny Tagil priest. With his death in 1825, the Ural Old Believers were finally left without a church hierarchy. At the beginning of the 19th century, they actively searched for suitable priests, but to no avail, and the subsequent persecution of the Old Believers made this completely impossible. True, some of the chapels recognized the Irgiz priests and Fr. Paul (Tula), but Irgiz was soon ruined, and Fr. Pavel is dead.

The extreme difficulty in obtaining new Old Believer priests and finally their complete disappearance gradually increased the role of non-ordained, but leading divine services, clerks, or old men (hence the other name for consent - old man's consent). The absence of a church vertical also led to the fact that the chapels began to accept those who came to them from Orthodoxy as heretics of the third rank (of course, if the person who came was baptized three times a day). Consequently, the consent began to take shape as a non-priest, although its members retained (and still retain) spare Gifts, consecrated by the fathers, who had successive corrections from the priests of the pre-Nikonian ordination. Among the chapels, apparently, there were also the Sacred Gifts, consecrated on the Irgiz. In addition, at the council in 1913 they discussed the possibility of communion. However, in the journal "Ural Old Believer", in response to a question from the editors, where the chapels got spare Gifts from, they confidently point to the priests of Nikiforovskaya, etc. corrected. The Holy Gifts were also preserved in the well-known Lykov family, belonging to the chapel concord (at present, only Agafia remains of them).

In 1840, the cathedral of chapels refused to receive priests (according to some sources, in connection with the defeat of the Irgiz), and at the Yekaterinburg cathedrals of 1884 and 1887. the possibility of accepting the Belokrinitsky priesthood, which was discussed there, was rejected and the priestless practice of worship was fixed (with the non-ordained elders omitting purely priestly chapel prayers, with confession to the elder, etc.). This circumstance was also facilitated by the fact that, due to the scarcity of the priesthood, adventurers began to operate among the chapels, calling themselves priests of the so-called Belovodsky instruction, whose imposture was sooner or later revealed.

In the middle of the 18th century, new streams of the so-called Poles (as they are still called, for example, in Altai) join the Ural-Siberian Old Believers, that is, those Old Believers who returned from Poland, from Vetka and moved further and further east from Ural. Already since 1780. Beglopopovtsy-Poles actively assimilated with the Ural and Siberian chapels.

The great heterogeneity of chapel harmony at the beginning of the 20th century became an obstacle to the growth of a separate self-awareness of chapels. The first congress (cathedral) of chapels after the law on religious tolerance was held in the village of Sosnovaya Maza near Khvalynsk on February 7, 1910. Then questions of the inner life of consent were considered, incl. it was decided to pray for the king who came to rebaptize if they did not prove that they had been baptized in three immersions in the name of the Holy Trinity. The congress confirmed the rejection of the priesthood, not only passing from the dominant church, but even belonging to the Belokrinitskaya hierarchy. “The Belokrinitsky clergy are impostors like Grishka Otrepiev, and the Russian fools believed him, like the Austrians,” we read in the Acts of the first council.

The second congress, which proclaimed itself the first all-Russian, was held on September 25-29, 1911 in Yekaterinburg and was convened on the initiative of M.L. Sokolov. The Yekaterinburg mentor P.S. was then elected chairman. Mokrushin. Questions were discussed about the harmonization of religious rites, the founding of a brotherhood of Christians of chapel harmony, and public education. Siberian chapels at the beginning of the century held annual councils in the village of Kutorok.

In 1912, a similar council, which was attended by 300 people, was held on January 29 and 30. Then the following decisions were made: not to accept communities, but to consider registered mentors as heresiarchs; the laity to receive the third rank in the non-communal bosom with the curse of communal heresy; do not drink tea and vodka, and punish those who violate it with heavy penances, and consider those who drink vodka as heretics of the third rank; do not send children to public schools, excommunicating violators from common prayer.

The next council took place in the city of Balakovo on May 1, 1913 - under the chairmanship of E.A. Komissarov. The most acute question that was dealt with on it: should the ancestors of the chapels, for the fact that they accepted the fugitive priesthood through chrismation and in their existing rank, be considered heretics or simply mistaken? Comrade Chairman of the Cathedral A.F. Nesterov even demanded to find other ancestors for himself, but the general opinion prevailed: a mistake was made, the spare Gifts are in doubt, however, if anyone wants to partake of them, let it be on his conscience. On the question of the coming of the Antichrist, the participants in the congress made a typically priestless decision: he already reigns. They refused to register communities and to establish schools for youth. But on these issues, the chapels did not have a unanimous opinion, which is clear from the controversy with the anticommunists, which was conducted on the pages of the Ural Old Believer.

Mass persecution of skete-chapels since the mid-1930s. led to the fact that they moved in large numbers to the east of the Urals, including the Yenisei, where they lived in relative calm until 1951, when most of their sketes were destroyed by the troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs using aircraft, mortars, etc. . In connection with these dramatic circumstances, the Angarsk Chapel Cathedral in 1957, by a special decree, allowed those who were imprisoned to receive food from personnel.

Very significant for the Ural-Tyumen chapels is their division into two directions - factory and rural, which existed for at least two centuries (by the way, the word "direction" in the Old Believers is a synonym for "bush", which is actually a term).

The first - factory (sometimes also called urban) - direction belonged to mining workers, who invariably outnumbered the members of the second direction in number. Factory houses have always been considered more liberal in terms of compliance with statutory norms, while rural ones are more fundamentalist-minded. By the 20th century, the statutory strictness began to be less respected by the rural direction: the general process of depeasantization also affected its members, but the psychological distance between factory and rural is still felt by the descendants of both.

It should be pointed out that there were no attempts to organize a regular system of education, a general periodical press, etc.. Publishing activity was also not carried out - until the beginning of the 90s, despite the presence of a large number of early printed books, the leader in reprinting of which was the Belokrinitskaya hierarchy. Her reprint editions are in constant demand in all Old Believer concords.

Tyumen chapels (mostly rural ones) live in Tyumen, Yalutorovsk, Zavodoukovsk, etc. In villages and small towns, they constituted and still constitute an influential and most active part of the population, which not without success influences the formation of public opinion and local authorities (subsidizing repairs and construction of chapels, etc. from the budget). The current state of these communities is as follows: they are small in number and are mainly visited by old believers of advanced age.

Among rural chapels, the rejection of television, radio, the use of coffee, tea, etc. is extremely pronounced. For a long time, only handwritten books were accepted, but more recently, photocopies have also been used.

Among all the chapels of the Urals and Siberia, holy springs are especially revered, among which they include a spring in the village of Roshcha, Sverdlovsk Region (near the border with the Perm Region). Among the young Perm chapels in the 90s. mass pilgrimages to Lake Svetloyar, to the "city of Kitezh", which, according to legend, disappeared under water at the prayer of the inhabitants in order to avoid captivity from the Tatars, were popular.

The scientific study of the chapels began at least 100 years late compared to other Old Believer agreements. Novosibirsk and Yekaterinburg archaeological centers took the main part in the study. According to researchers, during the years of persecution of religion (especially in the 1930s and 1940s, when the activities of most of the central structures of the Old Believers in the USSR were practically paralyzed), the chapels became even more accustomed to an existence independent of European Russia and formed a stable and skeptical attitude towards the current there Old Believer churches.

As before, monasticism and hermitism are developed in harmony. The main region of compact residence of chapels is Transbaikalia and Tuva, no less than them in the east of the Urals and Siberia. There are also several communities of chapels in the USA, where they fled (mainly through China) in the 20-30s and 50-60s.

The history of chapels in the 20th century is described in the publications of N.N. Pokrovsky and his students

The story of the Dubches sketes / New world. 1991. No. 9. p. 77-103; Scythian biographies / New world. 1992. No. 8. pp. 193-210).

Old Believers: what are they?

The split caused by the reforms Nikon, not just divided society into two parts and caused a religious war.

Popovtsy and bespopovtsy

The schism in the Russian Orthodox Church in the 1650s and 1660s, 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 one 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. Preparing for the last days, they dug caves, lay down in coffins, died of starvation, threw themselves 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.

Because of the persecution, the Old Believers were divided into a great variety of different currents.

The main currents of the Old Believers are beglopopovshchina, priesthood and priestlessness.

Beglopopovshchina- This is the earliest form of the Old Believers. This movement got its name due to the fact that believers accepted priests who came to them from Orthodoxy. From runaway popovism in the first half of the 19th century. Hourly agreement took place. Due to the lack of priests, they began to be managed by ustavshchiki, who conducted worship in the chapels.

Groups of priests are close to Orthodoxy in organization, doctrine and cult. Among them, co-religionists and the Belokrinitskaya hierarchy stood out. The Belokrinitskaya hierarchy is an Old Believer church that arose in 1846 in Belaya Krinitsa (Bukovina), on the territory of Austria-Hungary, in connection with which the Old Believers who recognize the Belokrinitskaya hierarchy are also called Austrian consent.

Bespopovshchina at one time was the most radical trend in the Old Believers. According to their doctrine, the Bespopovtsy moved further away from Orthodoxy than other Old Believers.

The dispute between the priest and the bespopov. Engraving. 1841 Fragment (GIM)

Various branches of the Old Believers stopped appearing only after the revolution. Nevertheless, already by that time there were so many different Old Believer movements that even just listing them is a rather difficult task. Not all representatives of the Old Believer confessions are on our list.

Consecrated Cathedral of the Russian Orthodox Old Believer Church (October 16-18, 2012)

To date, this is the largest Old Believer denomination: according to Paul, about two million people. Initially, it arose around the association of the Old Believers-priests. Followers consider the ROCC to be the historical heir to the Russian Orthodox Church that existed before Nikon's reforms. The ROCC is in prayer-eucharistic communion with the Russian Orthodox Old Believer Church in Romania and Uganda. The African community was accepted into the bosom of the Russian Orthodox Church in May this year. The Ugandan Orthodox, led by priest Joachim Kiimba, separated from the Patriarchate of Alexandria, due to the transition to a new style. The rites of the Russian Orthodox Church are similar to other Old Believer movements. Nikonians are recognized as heretics of the second rank.

Lestovka- this is an old believer rosary. The very word "lestovka" means ladder, ladder. A ladder from earth to heaven, where a person ascends through unceasing prayer. You sort through the rows of sewn beads in your fingers and make a prayer. One line - one prayer. And the ladder was sewn in the form of a ring - this is so that the prayer is unceasing. It is necessary to pray continually so that the thoughts of a good Christian do not stagger around, but are directed towards the divine. Lestovka has become one of the most characteristic signs of the Old Believer.

Distribution in the world: Romania, Uganda, Moldova, Ukraine. In Russia: all over the country.

United believers.

The second largest Old Believer denomination in terms of the number of parishioners. Edinoverts are the only Old Believers who have come to a compromise with the Russian Orthodox Church.

Women and men of fellow believers stand in different parts of the temple, during prayer they raise their hands in prayer, the rest of the time they keep their hands crossed. All movements are kept to a minimum.

This trend of priests arose at the end of the 18th century. The persecution of the Old Believers led to a serious shortage of priests among the Old Believers. Some were able to come to terms with it, others were not. In 1787, the Edinoverie recognized the hierarchical jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate in exchange for certain conditions. So, they were able to bargain for the old pre-Nikonian rites and services, the right not to shave their beards and not to wear German dresses, and the Holy Synod undertook to send them myrrh and priests. The rites of the Edinoverie are similar to other Old Believer movements.

It is customary for fellow believers to come to the temple in special clothes for worship: a Russian shirt for men, sundresses and white scarves for women. A woman's handkerchief is stabbed with a pin under the chin. However, this tradition is not observed everywhere. “We don't insist on clothes. People come to the temple not for the sake of sarafans,” notes Priest John Mirolyubov, head of the community of fellow believers.

R Distribution:

Worldwide: USA. In Russia: according to the Russian Orthodox Church, there are about 30 communities of the same faith in our country. How many of them exactly, and where they are located, is difficult to say, since fellow believers prefer not to advertise their activities.

Chapels.

The current of priests, which, due to persecution in the first half of the 19th century, was forced to turn into a priestless one, although the chapels themselves do not recognize themselves as priestless. The birthplace of the chapels is the Vitebsk region of Belarus.

Church of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos in Vereya

Left without priests, a group of fugitives abandoned the priests, replacing them with laity guides. Divine services began to be held in chapels, and so the name of the movement appeared. Otherwise, the rites are similar to other Old Believer movements. In the eighties of the last century, part of the chapels from North America and Australia decided to restore the institution of the priesthood and joined the Russian Orthodox Old Believer Church, similar processes are now observed in our country.

Chapels of the Nevyansk factory. Photo from the beginning of the 20th century

Spreading:

Worldwide: Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, USA, Canada. In Russia: Siberia, Far East.

Ancient Orthodox Pomeranian Church.

DPTs - the modern name of the largest religious association of the Pomeranian consent. This is a priestless trend, Pomors do not have a three-tiered hierarchy, Baptism and Confession are performed by lay people - spiritual mentors. Rituals are similar to others

Old Believer denominations. The center of this current was in the Vyzhsky monastery in Pomorie, hence the name. The DOC is a fairly popular religious movement; there are 505 communities in the world.

In the early 1900s, the Old Believer community of Pomorsky Accord acquired a piece of land on Tverskaya Street. Enlarge The five-domed church in the "Neo-Russian style" with a belfry was built on it in 1906 - 1908 according to the project of the architect D. A. Kryzhanovsky - one of the greatest masters of St. Petersburg Art Nouveau. The temple was designed using the techniques and traditions of the architecture of the ancient temples of Pskov, Novgorod, Arkhangelsk.

Spreading:

In the world: Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, Estonia, Kazakhstan, Poland, USA, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Romania, Germany, England. In Russia: Russian north from Karelia to the Urals.

Runners.

This bespopovskoe current has many other names: sopelkovtsy, secretives, golbeshniks, underground. It originated at the end of the 18th century. The main idea is that there is only one way left for salvation: "have no village, no city, no house." To do this, you need to accept a new baptism, break all ties with society, evade all civil duties.

Wanderer scribes Davyd Vasilyevich and Fyodor Mikhailovich. The photo. 1918

By its principle, escapism is asceticism in its most severe manifestation. The statutes of the runners are very strict, the punishments for adultery are especially severe. At the same time, there was not a single wandering mentor who did not have several concubines. As soon as it emerged, the current began to divide into new branches. So the following sects appeared:

defaulters they rejected divine services, the sacraments and the veneration of saints, worshiped only individual "old" relics. They do not make the sign of the cross, they do not wear a cross, they do not recognize fasting. Prayers were replaced by religious home conversations and readings. Non-paying communities still exist in Eastern Siberia.

Mikhailovsky plant in the Urals - one of the centers of non-payers

Luchinkovtsy appeared at the end of the 19th century in the Urals. It was believed that the Antichrist reigned in Russia as early as 1666. From their point of view, the only object of worship not stained by the Antichrist is a torch, therefore they rejected all other means of illumination. Also, the Luchinkovites refused money and trading devices. Completely disappeared in the first half of the 20th century.

Nevyansk plant in the Urals became the center of Luchinkovites

Moneyless completely rejected the money. It was not easy to do this even in the 19th century, so they regularly had to resort to the help of the recipients of the land, they did not shun money. Disappeared by the beginning of the 20th century.

The descendants of this direction of the Old Believers inherited the name Bezdenezhnykh. Village TRUKHACHI VYATSKAYA GUB.

Marriage Wanderers allowed marriage even after taking a vow of wandering. Disappeared in the first half of the 20th century.

M.V. Nesterov (1862-1942), The Hermit

Hermits they replaced wandering with retreat to remote forests and deserts, where they organized communities, living according to such ascetic standards that even Mary of Egypt would call unnecessarily rigid. According to unverified information, hermit communities exist to this day in the Siberian forests.

Aarons.

The Bespopov current of the Aharonites arose in the second half of the 18th century.

Aaron. Mosaic in the church of St. Sophia in Kiev.

One of the leaders of the movement had the nickname Aaron, after his "drive" and began to call this denomination. Aaronites did not consider it necessary to renounce and withdraw from life in society and allowed to marry, which was crowned by a layman. In general, they treated marriage issues very favorably, for example, they allowed to combine married life and desert living. However, the wedding

committed in the Russian Orthodox Church, the Aaronites did not recognize, they demanded a divorce or a new marriage. Like many other Old Believers, the Aaronites shied away from passports, considering them "seals of the Antichrist." Sin, in their opinion, was to give any receipt in court. In addition, the double-dancers were revered as apostates from Christ. Back in the seventies of the last century, several communities of Aaronovites existed in the Vologda Oblast.

Bricklayers.

This priestless religious denomination has nothing to do with Masons and their symbols. The name comes from the ancient Russian designation of a mountainous area - a stone. Translated into modern language - highlanders.

All scientists-researchers of this area were surprised at the qualities of the inhabitants. These mountain settlers were courageous, bold, determined and confident. The famous scientist C. F. Ledebour, who visited here in 1826, noted that the psychology of the communities as well is indeed something gratifying in such a wilderness. The Old Believers were not embarrassed by strangers, whom they did not see so often, did not experience shyness and isolation, but, on the contrary, showed openness, straightforwardness and even disinterestedness. According to the ethnographer A. A. Prince, the Altai Old Believers are a daring and dashing people, brave, strong, resolute, tireless.

Bricklayers were formed in the hard-to-reach mountain valleys of the southwestern Altai from all sorts of fugitives: peasants, deserters. Separate communities followed the rituals characteristic of most Old Believer movements.

In order to avoid closely related ties, up to 9 generations of ancestors were remembered. External contacts were not welcome. As a result of collectivization and other migration processes, masons scattered around the world, mixing with other Russian ethnic groups. In the 2002 census, only two people identified themselves as bricklayers.

Kerzhaki.

The homeland of the Kerzhaks is the banks of the Kerzhenets River in the Nizhny Novgorod province. In fact, the Kerzhaks are not so much a religious movement as an ethnographic group of Russian Old Believers of the Northern Russian type, like masons, the basis of which, by the way, was just the Kerzhaks.

Hood. Severgina Ekaterina. Kerzhaki

Kerzhaks are Russian old-timers of Siberia. When the Kerzhensky sketes were defeated in 1720, the Kerzhaks fled in tens of thousands to the east, to the Perm province, and from there they settled throughout Siberia, to Altai and the Far East. The rites are the same as those of other "classical" Old Believers. Until now, in the Siberian taiga, there are Kerzhatsky Zaimkas that do not have contacts with the outside world, like a famous family Lykov.

According to the 2002 census, 18 people called themselves Kerzhaks.

Self-baptists.

Self-baptized. Engraving. 1794

This priestless sect differs from others in that its followers baptized themselves, without priests, through three immersion in water and reading the Creed. Later, self-baptists ceased to perform this "self-rite". Instead, they introduced the custom of baptizing infants in the same way as midwives do in the absence of a priest. So self-baptists received a second name -grandmother's. Self-baptized grandmothers disappeared in the first half of the 20th century.

Ryabinovtsy.

Ryabinovtsy refused to pray for icons where anyone other than the depicted image was present. There were few such icons, and in order to get out of the situation, the Ryabinovites began to carve eight-pointed crosses from rowan wood for prayers without images and inscriptions.

Ryabinovtsy, as the name implies, generally revered this tree very much. According to their beliefs, it was from the mountain ash that the cross was made, on which Christ was crucified. In addition, the Ryabinovites did not recognize church sacraments, they themselves baptized their children in the name of the Holy Trinity, but without the rank of baptism and prayers. In general, they recognized only one prayer: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us sinners!" As a result of this, they buried their dead without a funeral service, instead they laid down prostrations for the repose of the soul of the deceased. Completely disappeared in the first half of the 20th century.

Dyrniki.

This is the course of self-baptized bespopovtsy. The name of the sect appeared because of the characteristic way of praying. Dyrniki do not venerate icons painted after the church reform of Patriarch Nikon, since there was no one to consecrate them.

At the same time, they do not recognize "pre-reform" icons either, since they have been desecrated by "heretics". To get out of the predicament, the dyrniki began to pray like Muslims, on the street facing east. In the warm season, this is not difficult to do, but our winter is very different from the Middle East. Praying while looking at the walls or a glazed window is a sin, so the hole-makers have to make special holes in the walls, which are plugged with plugs. Separate communities of dyrniks exist to this day in the Komi Republic.

middlemen.

Sredniki is another non-priest-self-baptizing movement. Unlike other self-baptists, they do not recognize... the days of the week. In their opinion, when during the time of Peter the Great they moved the celebration of the new year from September 1 to January 1, the courtiers made a mistake by 8 years and moved the days of the week. Like, today's Wednesday is the former Sunday. Our Sunday, according to them, is Thursday. Completely disappeared by the beginning of the 20th century.

Fedoseevtsy.

Fedoseevtsy are adherents of the Bespopov Old Believer movement. Their views are somewhat similar to the beliefs of contemporary Russian protesters.

Gifts to Napoleon. Preobrazhensky Fedoseyevites send a bull and gold to the Kremlin as a gift to Napoleon in 1812. From an engraving.

The Fedoseyevites are convinced of the historical corruption of the Russian state. In addition, they believe that the kingdom of the Antichrist has come and adhere to celibacy. The name arose by the name of the founder of the community - Theodosius Vasiliev from the boyar family

Urusovs. The vow of celibacy did not prevent the community from attracting new supporters. For a hundred years - from the second half of the 18th to the second half of the 19th centuries, the Fedoseyevites were the most numerous and influential trend in priestlessness, communities appeared throughout the country. At the beginning of the 20th century, due to internal contradictions, the Fedoseyevites were divided into several areas: liberal Moscow(they accept "newlyweds" for confession, allow them to participate in services without making the sign of the cross),

Conservative Kazan("newlyweds" are not accepted, only unmarried people can sing and read in the temple), Filimonovites and non-communists.

They did not disappear even after the revolution. In 1941, in one of the centers of the Fedoseev current, the village of Lampovo near Tikhvin, the Fedoseyevites proved themselves to be malicious collaborators.

30 facts that will help you better recognize the Old Believers

Old Belief, or Old Believers, is a unique phenomenon.

Both spiritually and culturally. Economists note that Old Believer communities abroad are often more successful than the local population.

1. The Old Believers themselves admit that it is their faith that is Orthodox, and the Russian Orthodox Church is called New Believers or Nikonians.

2. Until the first half of the 19th century, the term "Old Believer" was not used in spiritual literature.

3. There are three main "wings" of the Old Believers: priests, bespopovtsy and co-religionists.

4. In the Old Believers, there are several dozen interpretations and even more agreements. There is even a saying "Whatever a man is good, whatever a woman is consent."

5. On the pectoral cross, the Old Believers do not have an image of Christ, since this cross symbolizes a person’s own cross, the ability of a person to a feat for faith. The cross with the image of Christ is considered an icon, it is not supposed to be worn.

6. The largest place in Latin America where Russian Old Believers-chapels live compactly is Colonia-Russa or Massa-Pe. About 60 families, or about 400-450 people, live here, there are three cathedrals with three separate prayer rooms.

7. The Old Believers retain monodic, hook singing (znamenny and demestvennaya). It got its name from the way the melody is recorded with special signs - “banners” or “hooks”.

8. From the point of view of the Old Believers, Patriarch Nikon and his supporters left the church, and not vice versa.

9. Among the Old Believers, the procession takes place according to the sun. The sun in this case symbolizes Christ (giving life and light). During the reform, the decree to make a procession against the Sun was perceived as heretical.

10. At first, after the schism, there was a habit of recording as “Old Believers” all the sects that arose at that time (mainly of the “spiritual-Christian” direction, like “eunuchs”) and heretical movements, which subsequently created a certain confusion.

11. For a long time among the Old Believers, careless work was considered a sin. It must be admitted that this affected the financial situation of the Old Believers in the most favorable way.

12. Old Believers - "beglopopovtsy" recognize the priesthood of the new church as "active". The priest from the new church, who had gone over to the Old Believers-fugitives, retained his rank. Some of them restored their own priesthood, forming "priestly" agreements.

13. Old Believers-bespriests consider the priesthood completely lost. The priest who went over to the Old Believers-bespriests from the new church becomes a simple layman

14. According to the old tradition, there is only a part of the sacraments that only priests or bishops can perform - everything else is available to ordinary laity

15. A sacrament accessible only to priests is marriage. Despite this, marriage is still practiced in the Pomeranian agreement. Also, in some Pomor communities, another inaccessible sacrament is sometimes performed - communion, although its effectiveness is being questioned.

16. Unlike the Pomortsy, in the Fedoseevsky agreement, marriage is considered lost, along with the priesthood. Nevertheless, families start, but they believe that they live in fornication all their lives.

17. The Old Believers are supposed to pronounce either a triple "Hallelujah" in honor of the Holy Trinity, or two "Hallelujahs" in honor of the Father and the Holy Spirit, and "Glory to you God!" in honor of Christ. When in the reformed church they began to say three "Hallelujahs" and "Glory to you God!" the Old Believers considered that the extra "Hallelujah" is pronounced in honor of the devil.

18. Among the Old Believers, icons on paper are not welcome (as well as any other material that can easily be damaged). On the contrary, cast metal icons became widespread.

19. Old Believers make the sign of the cross with two fingers. Two fingers - a symbol of the two Hypostases of the Savior (true God and true man).

20. Old Believers write the name of the Lord as "Jesus". The tradition of writing the name was changed during the Nikon reform. The doubled sound “and” began to convey the duration, the “stretching” sound of the first sound, which in Greek is indicated by a special sign, which has no analogy in the Slavic language. However, the Old Believer version is closer to the Greek source.

21. The Old Believers are not supposed to pray on their knees (bows to the ground are not considered as such), and it is also allowed to stand during prayer with arms folded on the chest (right over left).

22. The Old Believers, bespopovtsy dyrniks, deny icons, pray strictly to the east, for which they cut holes in the wall of the house to pray in winter.

23. On the tablet of the crucifixion, the Old Believers usually write not I.N.Ts.I., but “King of Glory”.

24. In the Old Believers of almost all consents, a ladder is actively used - a rosary in the form of a ribbon with 109 "beans" ("steps"), divided into unequal groups. Lestovka symbolically means a ladder from earth to heaven. Lestovka can be done independently.

25. Old Believers accept baptism only by full triple immersion, while in Orthodox churches baptism by dousing and partial immersion is allowed.

26. In tsarist Russia, there were periods when only marriage (with all the ensuing consequences, including inheritance rights, etc.) entered into by the official church was considered legal. Under these conditions, many Old Believers often resorted to a trick, formally accepting the new faith at the time of the wedding. However, not only the Old Believers resorted to such tricks at that time.

27. The largest Old Believer association in modern Russia - the Russian Orthodox Old Believer Church - belongs to the priests.

28. The Old Believers had a very ambiguous attitude towards the kings: while some strove to write down the next persecutor king as Antichrist, others, on the contrary, shielded the kings in every possible way. Nikon, according to the ideas of the Old Believers, bewitched Alexei Mikhailovich, and in the Old Believer versions of the legends about the substitution of Tsar Peter, the true Tsar Peter returned to the old faith and died a martyr's death at the hands of the supporters of the impostor.

29. According to economist Danil Raskov, Old Believers abroad are somewhat more successful than natives, because they are more hardworking, capable of performing monotonous and complex work, more oriented towards projects that take time, are not afraid to invest, and have stronger families. One example is the village of Pokrovka in Moldova, which, contrary to general trends, has even grown somewhat, as young people stay in the village.

30. Old Believers, or Old Believers, despite the name, are very modern. They are usually successful in their work and united.

Belokrinitskaya hierarchy

Russian Orthodox Old Believer Church (ROC)- the name established by the decision of the Consecrated Council in 1988 for the Old Believer Church on the territory of the USSR (now in Russia and the CIS countries). The former name, used since the 18th century, is Ancient Orthodox Church of Christ. The Russian Orthodox Old Believer Church is in full ecclesiastical canonical unity with the Old Believer Church in Romania and with the communities subordinate to it in other countries. In the literature there are names of the ROC: Belokrinitsky consent, Belokrinitskaya hierarchy- by the name of the monastery in Belaya Krinitsa (Northern Bukovina), which was part of the Austrian Empire. Due to the latter circumstance, in Russian pre-revolutionary literature, the current was also called Austrian hierarchy.

A Brief History of the Russian Orthodox Old Believer Church

As is known, one of the consequences of the liturgical reform undertaken by the Patriarch Nikon(1605–1681) and king Alexey Mikhailovich(1629–1676), there was a schism in the Russian Church. The state and church authorities, guided by a number of external and internal political considerations, undertook the unification of Russian liturgical texts with Greek ones, which was not accepted by a significant part of the Russian Church. The forms of sacraments, sacred rites, prayers accepted in Russia were changed, canceled or even anathematized by the conciliar court of the Church. As a result of state persecution, the Old Believers were left without an episcopate (the only open opponent of Nikon's reforms from the bishops, the bishop, died in exile in April 1656). In such emergency conditions, some Old Believers (who later became known as bezpopovtsy) refused to accept into communion the Nikonian priesthood as heretical, being completely without a priesthood. In the future, bezpopovstvo was divided into many agreements and interpretations, sometimes significantly differing from each other in their teachings.

The other part of the Old Believers, the priests, proceeding from the canonical practice that had existed in the Church since the time of the struggle against Arianism, insisted on the possibility and even the necessity of accepting New Believer clergy into communion in the existing rank, provided that they renounce Nikon's reforms. As a result of this, already from the end of the 17th - beginning of the 18th centuries, among the priests, the practice of receiving the priesthood from the New Believers through. During the 18th century, the Old Believers made several attempts to receive some bishop into communion, but all of them were unsuccessful.

During the reign of the emperor Nicholas I(1796–1855), the situation of the Old Believers changed for the worse: the government took measures to eradicate the fugitive Old Believer priesthood. In response to persecution among the Old Believers, the idea of ​​establishing an Old Believer episcopal department outside of Russia was born. In 1846, located in the Belokrinitsky Monastery (in the middle of the 19th century, the village of Belaya Krinitsa belonged to the Austrian Empire (later Austria-Hungary), then to Romania, from June 1940 - as part of the Ukrainian SSR, while the metropolitan see was transferred to the city of Braila in Romania) former Metropolitan of Bosno-Sarajevo, Greek by origin, (Pappa-Georgopoli) (1791-1863; September 12, 1840 was recalled to Constantinople by Patriarch Anfim IV (d. 1878) due to fears caused by the metropolitan’s complaint about oppression of the population from local Turkish officials (earlier, in the same year, he supported the uprising of the Bosnians against the Ottoman ruler in Sarajevo), after negotiations with the Old Believers (monks Paul and Alimpiy), he agreed to join the Old Believers in the second rank (through anointing with the world) and performed a number of consecrations for Thus, the beginning of the Old Believer hierarchy was laid in Belaya Krinitsa, and a number of newly appointed bishops and priests appeared within the R ossian empire. Some accuse Ambrose of the sole ordination of bishops, which contradicts the letter of the law of the 1st Apostolic Canon, but many saints served as an example of the performance and approval of such an action in extreme circumstances, including St. c. 347-407) and Athanasius the Great (c. 295-373).

Founded in 1853 Vladimir Archdiocese; ten years later (in 1863) it was transformed into Moscow and all Russia. The Belokrinitsky Consent Center was located in Moscow on Rogozhsky Old Believer Cemetery. The government took measures to eradicate the new hierarchy: priests and bishops were imprisoned (for example, Bishop Konon (Smirnov; 1798–1884) spent 22 years in the Suzdal monastery prison, the altars of Old Believer churches were sealed (the altars of the churches of the Rogozhskaya Sloboda in Moscow stood sealed for almost half a century: 1856-1905), the Old Believers were forbidden to enroll in the merchant class, etc. The persecution began to weaken only in the reign of Alexander III, but even under him the ban on the service of the Old Believer priesthood remained. In the context of increased persecution after the establishment of the hierarchy, new divisions arose among the Old Believers-priests. Part of the priests, believing the government, as well as the non-priestly propaganda about the allegedly pouring baptism of Metropolitan Ambrose, the accession of Ambrose to the Old Believers because of money (simony), etc., did not recognize the Belokrinitskaya hierarchy, continuing to be nourished by the fleeing priesthood from the Russian Synodal Church. This group, called in the first half of the 19th century " fugitives”, managed to find its own hierarchy only in 1923; the modern name for this consent is (ACC).

On February 24, 1862, in response to numerous attacks from the Bespopovites and accusations of heresy, “ District Epistle of the Russian Archpastors of the Belokrinitsky Hierarchy”, prepared by the Vladimir (later Moscow) Archbishop Anthony and dogmatist Ilarion Kabanov(pseudonym Xenos; 1819–1882). V " district message”, in particular, it was argued that the New Believers, although they err in the faith, still believe in Christ, that the new rite spelling “Jesus” does not mean “another god” different from Jesus Christ, that the four-pointed image of the Cross of Christ is also worthy of worship, as well as octagonal, that the Christ-faithful priesthood, the sacraments and the bloodless Sacrifice will exist in the Orthodox Church until the end of time, that prayer for the Tsar is necessary, that the time of the last Antichrist and the end of the world has not yet come, that in the Synodal and Greek Churches the priesthood is true, therefore, it is true and in the Russian Orthodox Church, which received the priesthood from Ambrose. Most of the believers of the Belokrinitsa consent accepted the "District Message" (such Christians began to be called " districts”), but there were also those who rejected it (“ non-environment", or " countercircumferences"). The situation was complicated by the fact that some hierarchs joined the neo-okrugs. During the late 19th - early 20th centuries, attempts were regularly made by the districts to heal the neo-okrugniy schism, in connection with which, for the purposes of church economy, the “District Epistle” was repeatedly declared “as if it had not been” (while it was emphasized that the epistle was completely Orthodox and did not contain heresies ). The reconciliation of a significant part of the neo-okrugs with the Moscow Archdiocese took place in 1906. During the years of Soviet power, that part of the neo-okrugniy hierarchy that remained in schism with the Moscow Archdiocese was repressed, another part moved to the Russian Orthodox Church, and the other part to the same faith, only a few old people continue to be in a priestless state.

Despite the restrictive nature of Russian legislation in relation to the Old Believers, the Belokrinitsky consent, which since 1882 was headed in Russia by the Archbishop of Moscow (Levshin; 1824-1898), gradually strengthened its position.

At the end of the 19th century, the internal church life of the Old Believers of the Belokrinitsky hierarchy was streamlined on the basis of the principle of catholicity, in which the bishop (Shvetsov; 1840–1908) had a great merit. Until 1898, all the most important internal church issues were resolved by the Spiritual Council under the Moscow Archbishop, which included a few proxies of the primate.

In March 1898, a council was held in Nizhny Novgorod with the participation of 7 bishops and 2 representatives from non-arrived bishops, which fired Savatiy from the Moscow cathedra. By majority vote, the locum tenensity of the archiepiscopal throne was entrusted to Bishop Arseny of Ural.

In October of the same year, a new council was held in Moscow, which elected the Bishop of the Don (Kartushin; 1837–1915) to the Moscow cathedra. The council abolished the Spiritual Council and obliged Archbishop John to convene regional councils of bishops to consider complaints against bishops and in general to improve church affairs at least once a year. The council also decreed that the bishops of the Belokrinitsk hierarchy in Russia, including the archbishop of Moscow, should be subordinate to these councils. In the years 1898-1912, 18 councils were held, along with the clergy, the laity took part in their work. In addition to the cathedrals, the annual All-Russian congresses of the Old Believers were of great importance in the life of Belokrinitsky consent in the late 19th - early 20th centuries. Sobors were the "supreme bodies of church-hierarchical administration", and congresses - "the body of the church-civil unity of the Old Believers", dealing mainly with economic and socio-political issues.

Of great importance for the Old Believer Church was the manifesto “On Strengthening the Principles of Tolerance”, published on April 17, 1905, which provided rights for the Old Believers. In the 12th paragraph of the manifesto, it was ordered "to print out all prayer houses closed both in administrative order, not excluding cases that ascended through the committee of ministers to the Highest consideration, and according to the determinations of judicial places." According to the telegram of the emperor, given on April 16, representatives of the Moscow authorities removed the seals from the altars of the Old Believer churches of the Rogozhsky cemetery. On February 21, 1906, a delegation of 120 Old Believers of all accords was received by Nicholas II in Tsarskoye Selo. In 1905-1917, according to estimates (1874-1960), more than a thousand new Old Believer churches were built, which were actively involved in the work of prominent architects of that time - F.O. Shekhtel (1859–1926), I.E. Bondarenko (1870–1947), N.G. Martyanov (1873 (according to other sources 1872) -1943) and others. During these years, about 10 Old Believer monasteries were opened.

At the 2nd All-Russian Congress of Old Believers (1901), a school commission was created, which was faced with the task of opening a general education school in each Old Believer parish. This process after 1905 proceeded quite rapidly. In August 1905, the cathedral adopted a resolution on the organization of schools for the study of the Law of God and church singing in parishes, on the creation of a theological school in Nizhny Novgorod and on teaching young men “to read and sing and prepare them for the service of St. Church" in the Cheremshan Assumption Monastery near Khvalynsk, Saratov province. On August 25, 1911, by a resolution of the Consecrated Council of Old Believer Bishops, a Council was established under the Moscow Archdiocese, which, under the leadership of Archbishop John (Kartushin), would deal with the consideration of church and public affairs and issues and explain them. In 1912, the Old Believer Theological and Teaching University was established at the Rogozhsky cemetery with a six-year term of study. Along with priests, this educational institution was supposed to train teachers of the law, church and public figures and teachers of general education Old Believer schools.

Immediately after the October Revolution of 1917, during the mass liquidation of house churches, house Old Believer churches (mainly in merchant houses) were closed. In 1918, almost all Old Believer monasteries, the Theological and Teachers' Institute in Moscow, and all Old Believer periodicals were abolished. During the civil war, there were massacres of the Red Army and Chekists with the Old Believer clergy. In 1923, the archbishop (Kartushin; ca. 1859-1934) and the bishop (Lakomkin; 1872-1951) issued an "Archipastoral Epistle" calling on the flock to be loyal to the new government.

In the mid-1920s, the Belokrinitsky consent, with the permission of the OGPU, managed to hold several councils (in 1925, 1926, 1927), at which issues of organizing church life in the new social conditions were considered. The publication (in private publishing houses) of the "Old Believer Church Calendars" has been resumed. Bishop Gerontius organized in Petrograd the brotherhood of St. Hieromartyr Avvakum with pastoral and theological courses under him. By the end of the 1920s, the Old Believer Church of the Belokrinitskaya hierarchy included 24 dioceses, which were ruled by 18 bishops, several monasteries that existed after 1918 under the guise of "labor artels", and hundreds of clergymen.

The government's policy towards the Old Believers changed dramatically in the late 1920s, when, during the collectivization of agriculture in the USSR, a campaign was launched to "eliminate the kulaks as a class." The majority of the Old Believer peasant economy was prosperous, and this gave rise to N.K. Krupskaya (1869-1939) to say that "the fight against the kulaks is at the same time the fight against the Old Believers", within which the largest and most organized was the Belokrinitsky agreement. As a result of mass repressions against the Old Believers in the 1930s, all monasteries were closed; many areas, previously considered Old Believers, lost all functioning churches, the vast majority of clergy were arrested. When temples and monasteries were closed, icons, utensils, bells, vestments, books were completely confiscated, and many libraries and archives were destroyed. Some of the Old Believers emigrated, mainly to Romania and China. During the repressions, the episcopate was almost completely destroyed. Most of the bishops were shot, some languished in prisons, and only two (Bishop of Nizhny Novgorod (Usov; 1870-1942) and Bishop of Irkutsk Joseph(Antipin; 1854-1927) managed to go abroad. By 1938, one bishop remained at large - Bishop of Kaluga-Smolensk Sava(Ananiev; 1870s - 1945). The Belokrinitskaya hierarchy on the territory of the USSR was under the threat of complete disappearance. Trying to avoid this and expecting arrest and execution every day, in 1939 Bishop Sava single-handedly ordained Bishop Paisius (Petrov) as his successor to the Kaluga-Smolensk diocese. There was no arrest, and in 1941 Bishop Sava, at the request of the Rogozhsky Old Believers, elevated the Bishop of Samara (Parfyonov; 1881-1952) who had returned from prison to the dignity of an archbishop. In 1942, Bishop Gerontius (Lakomkin) returned from prison and became an assistant to the archbishop.

In the post-war period, the position of the ancient Orthodox Church was extremely difficult. Most of the churches closed in the 1930s were never returned to the Church. The Archdiocese of Moscow and All Russia huddled in the back room of the Edinoverie church of St. Nicholas at the Rogozhsky cemetery. No permission was received to open monasteries and educational institutions. The only sign of a religious "thaw" was the permission to publish the church calendar for 1945. After the war, the episcopate was replenished. In 1945, a bishop (Morzhakov; 1886-1970) was ordained, in 1946 - a bishop Benjamin(Agoltsov; d. 1962), and two years later - a bishop (Slesarev, 1879-1960). In the 1960s - mid-1980s, the church life of concord was characterized by stagnant tendencies: new parishes practically did not open, individual provincial churches were closed due to the lack of not only clergy, but also laity capable of conducting choir service. The practice of ministering to several parishes by one priest spread. Priests who tried to show any activity often fell under the ban. In 1986, after the death of the archbishop (Latyshev; 1916-1986) and the locum tenens of the bishop (Kononov; 1896-1986), the ordained Bishop of Klintsovo-Novozybkovsky (Gusev; 1929-2003) was elected Archbishop of Moscow and All Russia shortly before gg.).

The new primate began to actively visit provincial parishes, including those where there had been no hierarchal service for several decades. At the 1988 council, the Moscow Archdiocese was transformed into a Metropolis. At the same Council, a new official name of the Church was adopted - "Russian Orthodox Old Believer Church" instead of the former "Old Orthodox Church of Christ".

On July 24, 1988, Archbishop Alympius was solemnly elevated to the rank of Metropolitan of Moscow and All Russia in Moscow. In 1991, the Russian Orthodox Old Believer Church resumed the official theoretical and spiritual and educational publication - the Church magazine. Under Metropolitan Alimpiy, the Yaroslavl-Kostroma, Siberian, Far Eastern, Kazan-Vyatka dioceses were revived. For the first time after 1917, the connection with the local Old Believer Church of Romania was renewed. In 1995, an Old Believer department was opened at the Art and Restoration School in Suzdal. In 1998, the first release took place. Among the nine people who received graduation certificates at that time, all found themselves in the church ministry. In 1999, due to financial and organizational problems, the school was closed. In 1996, the Old Believer Theological School was established on Rogozhsky, the first graduation of which took place in 1998. Then there was a big break in the activities of the school again. On December 31, 2003, Metropolitan Alimpiy died, and on February 12, 2004, the Bishop of Kazan and Vyatka (Chetvergov, 1951-2005) became Metropolitan of Moscow and All Russia. His name is associated with the revitalization of the activities of the Russian Orthodox Church in many areas, as well as the policy of openness to the outside world. On September 1, 2004, the Moscow Old Believer Theological School resumed its work. In October 2004, the territories of the former Kaluga-Smolensk and Klintsovsk-Novozybkov dioceses became part of the newly formed St. Petersburg and Tver diocese.

Metropolitan Andrian stayed at the metropolitan see for a year and a half; managed to establish close ties with the Moscow government, thanks to which two churches were placed at the disposal of the Church, Voitovicha Street was renamed into Old Believer Street, and funding was provided for the restoration of the spiritual and administrative center in Rogozhskaya Sloboda. Metropolitan Andrian died suddenly on August 10, 2005 at the age of 54 from a heart attack. On October 19, 2005, the Bishop of Kazan and Vyatka (Titov, born 1947) was elected Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church. The enthronement of a new Old Believer metropolitan took place in Moscow on October 23 in the spiritual center of the Old Believers, located in Rogozhskaya Sloboda.

In May 2013, an Orthodox community from Uganda was received into the Russian Orthodox Church, headed by a priest Joachim Kiimboy. After the death of Protopresbyter Joachim Kiimba on January 10, 2015, Priest Joachim Valusimbi was appointed as the new rector. On September 20, 2015, his priestly consecration took place in Moscow, which was performed by Metropolitan Kornily. As of September 2015, the community had one operating temple in the suburbs of the capital of Uganda, Kampala, and two more under construction (the number of parishioners was about 200 people). On February 4, 2015, the Council of the Metropolia of the Russian Orthodox Church decided to establish a commission on the possibility of recognizing the legitimacy of the Belokrinitsky hierarchy by the Moscow Patriarchate. On March 31 of the same year, with the participation of Metropolitan Kornily, the first meeting of the commission with the working group of the Moscow Patriarchate took place. The supreme governing body of the Russian Orthodox Church is the Consecrated Cathedral of the Russian Orthodox Old Believer Church. It gathers annually with wide participation of clergymen of all levels, monastics and laity. The church hierarchy consists of ten bishops headed by the Metropolitan of Moscow and All Russia. The Volga region, Central Russia, the Urals, Pomorie and Siberia, and to a lesser extent the Far East, the Caucasus and the Don are considered traditionally Old Believer regions. Another 300 thousand people - in the CIS, 200 thousand - in Romania, 15 thousand - in the rest of the world. As of 2005, there were 260 registered communities. The Russian Orthodox Old Believer Church currently belongs to a women's church near Uglich. The journal "Church" and its appendix "During the time it ..." are published. Since 2015, there has been an Old Believer Internet radio "Voice of Faith" (Sychevka, Smolensk Region, creator - Priest Arkady Kutuzov) and Old Believer online lectures have been held.

Dioceses of the Russian Orthodox Church

As of spring 2018.

• Don and Caucasus Diocese - Archbishop (Yeremeev)
• Irkutsk-Transbaikal diocese - Bishop (Artemikhin)
• Kazan and Vyatka diocese - Bishop (Dubinov)
• Diocese of Kazakhstan - Bishop Sava (Chalovsky)
• Diocese of Kiev and all Ukraine - Bishop (Kovalev)
• Diocese of Chisinau and all Moldova - Bishop (Mikheev)
• Moscow Metropolis - Metropolitan (Titov)
• Diocese of Nizhny Novgorod and Vladimir - widowed, high-ranking Metropolitan Kornily (Titov)
• Diocese of Novosibirsk and All Siberia - Bishop (Kilin)
• Diocese of Samara and Saratov - widowed, high-ranking Metropolitan Kornily (Titov)
• St. Petersburg and Tver diocese - widowed, high-ranking Metropolitan Kornily (Titov)
• Tomsk Diocese - Bishop Gregory (Korobeinikov)
• Ural diocese - widowed, high-ranking Metropolitan Kornily (Titov)
• Diocese of Khabarovsk and the entire Far East - widowed, high-ranking Metropolitan Kornily (Titov)
• Yaroslavl and Kostroma diocese - Bishop Vikenty (Novozhilov)

Priest's response:

The Old Believer schism arose in the Russian Orthodox Church in the middle of the 17th century under Patriarch Nikon. The prerequisite for its appearance was ritual belief, which intensified as a result of several favorable conditions: the fall of Constantinople and the distrustful attitude of Russians towards the Greeks as a result of the conclusion of the Florentine Union with the Catholics by the latter, the lack of religious education (theological schools) in Russia at that time, pastoral sermons at divine services (there were periods when they haven't been spoken in decades). Naturally, ordinary people knew nothing about faith, and therefore began to perceive its external manifestations - rituals, as a means of salvation, and any change in rituals - almost for apostasy. This disease has always existed in the Church. It is strong even today, with all the abundance of spiritual literature, Sunday schools, Orthodox TV channels, and other things. The need for liturgical reforms carried out by Patriarch Nikon is long overdue. During the period of the Tatar-Mongol yoke, a large number of serious errors crept into the liturgical books, which were then copied by hand. It is enough to mention the following text: “Christ died an endless death”, that is, in fact, he did not rise again! Three words were added to the Creed that were not in the original Greek text: 1 “Born, a uncreated”, 2 “His Kingdom carry end", 3 "And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord True and Life-Giving." However, the reforms initiated by Nikon led to a split in the Church and the emergence of the so-called Old Believers. There were several reasons for this: the radical character of the patriarch himself, the personal resentment against him by his former associates: Archpriest Avvakum, Ivan Neronov, Longinia. The spread in Russia of the heresy of Manichaeism under the guise of the movement of Kapitonovites, in whose circle the leaders of the Old Believers revolved (they, the Old Believers, later adopted the practice of self-immolation). Correction of books on Greek texts, which, as a result of the conclusion of the Union of Florence by the Greeks, were treated by many as damaged by Latinism. Severe persecution of the Old Believers by the state authorities of Russia.

The Old Believers, having arisen, were divided into two large currents: priests and bespopovtsy, which, in turn, were divided into dozens of interpretations. Bespopovtsy - completely abolished the priesthood, the Sacraments (Eucharist, Confession), and divine services were performed by lay people. Priests - retained ideas about the need for the priesthood and the Sacraments. However, only a few priests who broke off relations with the Church were included in the priestly movement. Not a single bishop joined them. And when all the legally ordained pastors died with time, the question arose of appointing a bishop who would continue the series of ordination. To this end, the priests turned to a certain Metropolitan Ambrose (forbidden in the priesthood), who in the village of Belaya Krinitsa, ordained a bishop for them. And the priests had the so-called Belokrinitskaya hierarchy, now headed by the Old Believer "patriarch".

What were the main mistakes of the Old Believers?

Firstly, as already mentioned above, in attributing some saving power to the rites, and, as a result, in the fear of changing them, which contradicts the historical facts of church life, which testify that rites can change within certain limits. If the rite reflects the dogmas of the Church and is useful for spreading piety, it was accepted. If - he becomes a conductor of heresies, then at least - even if he was old - he was rejected. So, in particular, it happened with the two-fingered sign of the cross, replaced as a result of Nikon's reforms, with the three-fingered sign. The appearance of the sign of the cross in the history of Christianity changed as the Church opposed the false teachings. In the first centuries, Christians were baptized with one thumb of their right hand on their foreheads to affirm, in contrast to pagan polytheism, that the true God is One. In the fight against Arianism, the Church, in order to show that God is a Trinity, used three fingers. To affirm the two Natures in Christ, two fingers were used. But when, in the history of the Old Believer schism in Russia, its ideological leaders began to use two-fingeredness to defend the Nestorian heresy, which cut the single God-human nature of Jesus Christ into the Son of God and the Man Jesus (which, by the way, Avvakum preached in his so-called controversial letters) , two-finger had to be replaced with three-finger.

Secondly, while defending the secondary (rites), the Old Believers lost the main thing: they broke away from the Church, called the Apostle Paul - the Body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:27). When a branch breaks off from a tree, it, no longer able to feed on its juice, dries up. So in the Old Believers, external forms remained without internal content: churches, icons, patristic creations, liturgy and other Sacraments, ancient melodies are present, but saving grace has dried up.

This was confirmed by the subsequent history of the Old Believer schism. The Old Believers supported all the enemies of Russia. They initiated the Streltsy rebellion, the uprisings of Stepan Razin and Emelyan Pugachev. During the Patriotic War of 1812, part of the Old Believers supported Napoleon, for which he allowed them to rob Orthodox churches in Moscow. Finally, the Bolshevik coup of 1917 was carried out with the money of the Old Believers. However, this did not remain for them, without consequences. By the time of the revolution, there were 12 million Old Believers in Russia, and in our time, according to official figures, there are 225 thousand of them left, although in reality, only a few thousand people go to Moscow Old Believer churches.

Old Belief, or Old Believers, is a unique phenomenon. Both spiritually and culturally. Economists note that Old Believer communities abroad are often more successful than the local population.

1. The Old Believers themselves admit that it is their faith that is Orthodox, and the Russian Orthodox Church is called New Believers or Nikonians.

2. Until the first half of the 19th century, the term "Old Believer" was not used in spiritual literature.

3. There are three main "wings" of the Old Believers: priests, bespopovtsy and co-religionists.

4. In the Old Believers, there are several dozen interpretations and even more agreements. There is even a saying "Whatever a man is good, whatever a woman is consent."

5. On the pectoral cross, the Old Believers do not have an image of Christ, since this cross symbolizes a person’s own cross, the ability of a person to a feat for faith. The cross with the image of Christ is considered an icon, it is not supposed to be worn.

6. The largest place in Latin America where Russian Old Believers-chapels live compactly is Colonia-Russa or Massa-Pe. About 60 families, or about 400-450 people, live here, there are three cathedrals with three separate prayer rooms.

7. The Old Believers retain monodic, hook singing (znamenny and demestvennaya). It got its name from the way the melody is recorded with special signs - “banners” or “hooks”.

8. From the point of view of the Old Believers, Patriarch Nikon and his supporters left the church, and not vice versa.

9. Among the Old Believers, the procession takes place according to the sun. The sun in this case symbolizes Christ (giving life and light). During the reform, the decree to make a procession against the Sun was perceived as heretical.

10. At first, after the schism, there was a habit of writing down as “Old Believers” in general all the sects that arose at that time (mainly of the “spiritual-Christian” direction, like “eunuchs”) and heretical movements, which subsequently created a certain confusion.

eleven . For a long time among the Old Believers, hack work was considered a sin. It must be admitted that this affected the financial situation of the Old Believers in the most favorable way.

12. Old Believers - "beglopopovtsy" recognize the priesthood of the new church as "active". The priest from the new church, who had gone over to the Old Believers-fugitives, retained his rank. Some of them restored their own priesthood, forming "priestly" agreements.

13. Old Believers-bespriests consider the priesthood completely lost. The priest who went over to the Old Believers-bespriests from the new church becomes a simple layman

14. According to the old tradition, there is only a part of the sacraments that only priests or bishops can perform - everything else is available to ordinary laity

15. A sacrament accessible only to priests is marriage. Despite this, marriage is still practiced in the Pomeranian agreement. Also, in some Pomor communities, another inaccessible sacrament is sometimes performed - the sacrament, although its effectiveness is being questioned.

16. Unlike the Pomortsy, in the Fedoseevsky agreement, marriage is considered lost, along with the priesthood. Nevertheless, families start, but they believe that they live in fornication all their lives.

17. The Old Believers are supposed to pronounce either a triple "Hallelujah" in honor of the Holy Trinity, or two "Hallelujahs" in honor of the Father and the Holy Spirit, and "Glory to you God!" in honor of Christ. When in the reformed church they began to say three "Hallelujahs" and "Glory to you God!" the Old Believers considered that the extra "Hallelujah" is pronounced in honor of the devil.

18. Among the Old Believers, icons on paper are not welcome (as well as any other material that can easily be damaged). On the contrary, cast metal icons became widespread.

nineteen . The Old Believers make the sign of the cross with two fingers. Two fingers - a symbol of the two Hypostases of the Savior (true God and true man).

20. Old Believers write the name of the Lord as "Jesus". The tradition of writing the name was changed during the Nikon reform. The doubled sound “and” began to convey the duration, the “stretching” sound of the first sound, which in Greek is indicated by a special sign, which has no analogy in the Slavic language. However, the Old Believer version is closer to the Greek source.

21. The Old Believers are not supposed to pray on their knees (bows to the ground are not considered as such), and it is also allowed to stand during prayer with arms folded on the chest (right over left).

22. The Old Believers, bespopovtsy dyrniks, deny icons, pray strictly to the east, for which they cut holes in the wall of the house to pray in winter.

23. On the tablet of the crucifixion, the Old Believers usually write not I.N.Ts.I., but “King of Glory”.

24. In the Old Believers of almost all consents, a ladder is actively used - a rosary in the form of a ribbon with 109 "beans" ("steps"), divided into unequal groups. Lestovka symbolically means a ladder from earth to heaven. Lestovka.

25. Old Believers accept baptism only by full triple immersion, while in Orthodox churches baptism by dousing and partial immersion is allowed.

26. In tsarist Russia, there were periods when only marriage (with all the ensuing consequences, including inheritance rights, etc.) entered into by the official church was considered legal. Under these conditions, many Old Believers often resorted to a trick, formally accepting the new faith at the time of the wedding. However, not only the Old Believers resorted to such tricks at that time.

27. The largest Old Believer association in modern Russia - the Russian Orthodox Old Believer Church - belongs to the priests.

28. The Old Believers had a very ambiguous attitude towards the kings: while some strove to write down the next persecutor king as Antichrist, others, on the contrary, shielded the kings in every possible way. Nikon, according to the ideas of the Old Believers, bewitched Alexei Mikhailovich, and in the Old Believer versions of the legends about the substitution of Tsar Peter, the true Tsar Peter returned to the old faith and died a martyr's death at the hands of the supporters of the impostor.

29. According to economist Danil Raskov, Old Believers abroad are somewhat more successful than natives, because they are more hardworking, capable of performing monotonous and complex work, more oriented towards projects that take time, are not afraid to invest, and have stronger families. One example is the village of Pokrovka in Moldova, which, contrary to general trends, has even grown somewhat, as young people stay in the village.

30. Old Believers, or Old Believers, despite the name, are very modern. They are usually successful in their work and united. Old Believer books can be read and downloaded on the Internet, and large movements, for example, the Old Orthodox Church, have their own websites.