Today, one of the most mysterious - and at the same time of the greatest interest - currents of Christianity is the Old Believers. Having arisen as a result of the church reform, the Old Believers did not disappear, but began to live according to their own canons, mainly on the outskirts of the country. Having survived the persecution, the Old Believers still exist both in Russia and abroad.

The goal of the church reform was to unify the liturgical order of the Russian Church with the Greek Church and, above all, with the Church of Constantinople. The main reformer of the Russian Church was Patriarch Nikon, who was under the patronage of the young Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. The main opponent of the reforms was the archpriest Avvakum, who, after the start of the persecution, was thrown into prison for several days without food and water, and then sent into exile in Siberia, where Avvakum became the main preacher of the Old Believers, uniting the Old Believers throughout the country. Despite years of exile and persecution, the archpriest and his comrades were burned in a log house in Pustozersk for refusing to make concessions.

The starting point in the liturgical reform, which also became the reason for the split of the church, was the date of February 9, 1651. After one of the church councils, Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich announced the introduction of "unanimity" in worship instead of "multiple voices" in all churches: an order was given to "sing with one voice and slowly." After that, the tsar, bypassing the statement of the conciliar decree of 1649 on the permissibility of "multiple opinions" supported by the Moscow Patriarch Joseph, made a similar appeal to the Patriarch of Constantinople, who also gave the green light to "unanimity" in the churches. In addition to the tsar and the Patriarch of Constantinople, the singing reform was supported by the tsar's confessor Stefan Vonifatiev and bed-keeper Fyodor Mikhailovich Rtishchev. In many ways, it was they who persuaded Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich to go over to "unanimity."

In general, the reform contained the following items:

1. The so-called "book right", expressed in the editing of texts Holy Scripture and liturgical books, which led to changes, in particular, in the text of the translation of the Creed adopted in the Russian Church: the union-opposition "a" was removed in the words about faith in the Son of God "born, not created", they began to talk about the Kingdom of God in the future (“there will be no end”), and not in the present tense (“there is no end”), the word “True” is excluded from the definition of the properties of the Holy Spirit. A number of other corrections were made to the historical liturgical texts, for example, another letter was added to the word "Isus" (under the title "Ic") and it began to be written "Jesus" (under the title "Is").

2. Replacing the two-fingered sign of the cross with a three-fingered sign and the abolition of the so-called. throwing, or small bows to the earth - in 1653, Nikon sent a "memory" to all Moscow churches, which said: "it is not appropriate in the church to do throwing on the knee, but to bow to your waist; even with three fingers you would be baptized" .

4. Nikon's religious processions should be carried out in the opposite direction (against the sun, not salting).

5. The exclamation "Hallelujah" during the singing in honor of the Holy Trinity began to be pronounced not twice (acute hallelujah), but three times (triple one).

6. Changed the number of prosphora on the proskomedia and the inscription of the seal on the prosphora.

The desire of Patriarch Nikon to unify Russian rites and worship according to modern Greek models for that time caused a strong protest from supporters of the old rites and traditions. A few years after the transition to "unanimity", in 1656, at the local council of the Russian Church, all those who were baptized with two fingers were declared heretics, excommunicated from the Trinity and cursed. A year later, the cathedral approved the books of the new press, approved new rites and rites, and imposed oaths and anathemas on old books and rites.

The religious part of the country actually found itself in a state of war: the Solovetsky Monastery was the first to express its disagreement, for which it later paid the price - in 1676 it was ravaged by archers. In 1685, Queen Sophia, at the request of the clergy, publishes a document called "12 Articles", which provides for various kinds of repression against the Old Believers - exile, prison, torture, burning alive in log cabins.

"12 articles" were canceled only by Peter I in 1716. The tsar suggested that the Old Believers switch to a semi-legal mode of existence, in return demanding to pay "for this split, all sorts of payments doubled." At the same time, the death penalty was still provided for the Old Believer worship or the fulfillment of services, and all Old Believer priests were declared either schismatic teachers, if they were Old Believer mentors, or traitors to Orthodoxy, if they had previously been priests.

However, even such repressions did not kill the Old Believers in the state. According to some reports, in the 19th century, about a third of the entire population of the country considered themselves Old Believers. After the introduction of common faith, that is, the recognition by the Old Believers of the hierarchical jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate while maintaining their own traditions, things religious movement improved: for example, the Old Believer merchants grew rich and helped fellow believers. In 1862, the Okrug Epistle, which took a step towards New Rite Orthodoxy, produced great discussions among the Old Believers. Oppositionists to this document made sense of neo-okruzhnikov.

Despite leaving the underground, the Old Believers were still forbidden to rise to a completely legal level. "Schismatics are not persecuted for their opinions about the faith; but it is forbidden for them to seduce and incline anyone into their schism under any guise," - it was said in Article 60 of the Charter on the prevention and suppression of crimes. They were forbidden to build churches, start sketes, and even repair existing ones, as well as publish any books on which it would be possible to conduct worship, their religious marriage was not recognized by the state, and all children born before 1874 among the Old Believers were not considered legitimate. After 1874, the Old Believers were allowed to live in civil marriage: "Marriages of schismatics acquire in a civil relationship, through recording in the special parish registers established for this, the strength and consequences of a legal marriage."

The official exit of the Old Believers to the legal level took place on April 17, 1905: on this day the Supreme Decree "On strengthening the principles of religious tolerance" was issued. The decree abolished legislative restrictions on the Old Believers and, in particular, read: “Assign the name of the Old Believers, instead of the currently used name of schismatics, to all followers of interpretations and agreements who accept the basic tenets of the Orthodox Church, but do not recognize some of the rites adopted by it and send their worship according to old printed books ". Now the Old Believers were allowed to conduct religious processions, to ring bells, to organize communities; Belokrinitsky consent also went into the legal field. The Old Believers-bespopovtsy issued a Pomeranian consent.

Interestingly, the coming to power of the Bolsheviks did not return the Old Believers to the underground; on the contrary, the authorities of the RSFSR, and then the USSR, treated the Old Believers quite favorably, seeing in them opposition to the adopted in pre-revolutionary Russia Orthodoxy - the so-called "Tikhonovism". However, such favor lasted only until the end of the 1920s. Great Patriotic War was greeted ambiguously by the Old Believers: most of them called to stand up for the defense of the Motherland, while there were exceptions - for example, the Republic of Zueva and the Old Believers-Fedoseyevites of the village of Lampovo became collaborators.

In the Old Believer Church, singing is of great educational importance. It is necessary to sing in such a way that "the sounds strike the ear, and the truth contained in them penetrates the heart." The Old Believers do not recognize the classical voice setting - the praying person must sing in his natural voice, in a folklore manner. Znamenny singing has no pauses, stops, all chants are performed continuously. While singing, one should strive for uniformity of sound, singing "in one voice". Previously, the composition of the church choir was exclusively male, but due to the small number of singers today, in almost all Old Believer prayer houses and churches, the basis of the choirs are women.

Today, large Old Believer communities, in addition to Russia, exist in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, Moldova, Kazakhstan, Poland, Belarus, Romania, Bulgaria, Ukraine, the USA, Canada and a number of Latin American countries, as well as Australia. The dominant among the Old Believers is the Russian Orthodox Old Believer Church (Belokrinitskoye consent, founded in 1846), which has about a million parishioners and has two centers - in Moscow and in the Romanian city of Braila.

There is also the Old Orthodox Pomeranian Church (DOC), which has about 200 communities in Russia (most of them are not registered). Centralized, advisory and coordinating body in modern Russia is Russian Council DPC. The spiritual and administrative center of the Russian Old Orthodox Church until 2002 was located in Novozybkovo, Bryansk region, and after that - in Moscow.

In 2000, at the Council of Bishops, the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia offered repentance to the Old Believers: “We deeply regret the cruelties that were inflicted on adherents of the Old Rite, those persecutions by the civil authorities, which were also inspired by some of our predecessors in the hierarchy of the Russian Church… Forgive, brothers and sisters, our sins caused to you by hatred. Do not consider us accomplices in the sins of our predecessors, do not lay bitterness on us for their intemperate deeds. Although we are the descendants of your persecutors, we are not guilty of the disasters caused to you. Forgive the insults, so that we were free from the reproach weighing on them. We bow at your feet and surrender ourselves to your prayers. Forgive those who offended you with reckless violence, for through our lips they repented of what they had done to you and ask for forgiveness ... In the 20th century, new persecutions fell upon the Russian Orthodox Church, now at the hands of the God-fighting communist regime... We sadly acknowledge that the great persecution of our Church in the past decades may partly be God's punishment for the persecution of the children of the Old Rite by our predecessors. And so, we are aware of the bitter consequences of the events that divided us and, thereby, weakened the spiritual power of the Russian Church. We solemnly proclaim our deep desire to heal the wound inflicted on the Church ... ".

Among the well-known adherents of the Old Believers, one can single out the philanthropist and founder of the Tretyakov Gallery Pavel Tretyakov, a prominent figure in the Don Cossacks Venedikt Romanov, HSE teacher and Soviet dissident Pavel Kudyukin, ex-head of the security service of Russian President Boris Yeltsin Alexander Korzhakov, scientist Dmitry Likhachev, and others.

The measures taken did not lead to the complete extermination of the Old Believers. Someone moved to the Synodal Church, someone was executed or died in prison, a significant part scattered around the outskirts of Russia and left it. In 1702, Peter I, on his return from Arkhangelsk, decided to visit Vyg (a large Old Believer settlement on the outskirts of the empire).

The Old Believers prepared for flight and for a fiery death, but the tsar did not touch them, but promised the Vygovites confessional autonomy. Academician Panchenko expresses the opinion that these ideas are due to the fact that Peter visited Western Europe, and in his entourage there were many Protestants, on whose ideas he relied and who suffered similar persecution from the Catholic Inquisition in Europe.

Peter I decided to allow the Old Believers to exist in the state, but impose additional taxes on them and begin the fight against the Old Rite with the help of falsifications. To this end, on February 8 (19), 1716, Peter issued a “Decree, personalized, announced from the Senate - on going to confession everywhere, on a fine for non-compliance with this rule, and on the provision for schismatics of a double salary [tax].”

In addition, the Old Believers, due to their religious beliefs, were forced to pay a beard tax, which was levied on January 16 (27), 1705. On February 18 (29), 1716, the tsar issued a new decree, according to which from the Old Believers: widows and unmarried women(girls) began to take the usual tax.

According to Peter's decree of April 6 (17), 1722, the Old Believers had to pay 50 rubles a year for a beard, and they did not have the right to wear any other clothes, except for: a zipun with a standing glued trump card (collar), a ferezi and a single row with a recumbent necklace. The collar must be necessarily red - made of red cloth, and the dress itself cannot be worn red.

Ban on everything Russian. Since that time, only those who believed not in God, but in the Holy Church were considered Russian

If one of the Old Believers appeared in other clothes, then they took a fine - 50 rubles. In 1724, on November 13, Peter issued a decree, at the request of the Archbishop of Nizhny Novgorod Pitirim, to issue copper signs to the Old Believers, which the Old Believers were required to sew on their clothes and wear them (as Jews in Nazi Germany wore yellow star). Old Believer women, according to this decree, were required to wear furry dresses and hats with horns.

It should be noted that all other residents of the cities, according to decrees of December 17 (28), 1713 and December 29, 1714 (January 9, 1715), were forbidden to wear beards, wear Russian clothes and trade in national Russian clothes and boots (trade it was possible only with German-style clothes). The disobedient were beaten with a whip and sent to hard labor.

At the beginning of the 18th century, in order to combat the old rite, false “ancient” manuscripts were created in the Holy Synod: the Council Act on Martin the Armenian and the so-called Theognost’s Treasury, which will be actively used by the Synodal missionaries for more than 200 years, from the 18th century to 1917.

Forced baptism, double-fingering ban, and disenfranchisement

The persecution against the Old Believers did not stop even after the abolition. Tsar Peter conducted several censuses to levy taxes. Those Old Believers who were ready to pay a double salary (tax) and passed the census began to be called "note Old Believers" (officially: "note schismatics"). Those who evaded the census began to be called "non-recorded Old Believers" (officially: "non-recorded schismatics") and ended up in an illegal situation.

On May 15 (26), 1722, the Law “On orders for the conversion of schismatics to the Orthodox Church” is issued on behalf of the Synod. According to this law, upon transition to the New Believers, the Old Believers who were baptized by the Old Believers must be baptized again. Monks to be tonsured again. Children of registered schismatics (Old Believers) must be baptized by force in New Believer churches. Those Old Believers who obey the church in everything, but are baptized with two fingers, are considered schismatics outside the church.

Those "Which though holy church and they obey and accept all the sacraments of the Church, and the cross is depicted on itself with two fingers, and not with a three-fingered addition, which are with opposite sophistication, and which, out of ignorance but from stubbornness, do it, write both in schism no matter what.

The testimonies of schismatics (Old Believers) are equated with the testimonies of heretics and are not accepted in courts, both ecclesiastical and civil. Parents of the Old Believers are forbidden to teach their children double-fingering under pain of cruel punishment (which the teachers of schismatics were subjected to).

The latter meant that if Old Believer parents taught their own children to be baptized with two fingers, then they were equated with schismatic teachers and sent under guard (guard) to be judged by the Holy Synod in accordance with paragraph 10 of the law in question.

All this lawlessness, the extermination of everything Russian, was going on in our country. These historical information is in open sources, but it is not customary to talk about it. The Russian Orthodox Church, represented by Patriarch Kirill, tells us publicly that before baptism, the Russian people were barbarians and practically wild people.

We must comprehend all this, accept and draw conclusions on how we should live on. We must openly say that the Patriarch is lying! In Russia there was universal Orthodoxy.

Literature:

L.N. Gumilev "From Russia to Russia" http://www.bibliotekar.ru/gumilev-lev/65.htm
S. A. Zenkovsky “Russian Old Believers. The Church and Moscow during the interregnum"
http://www.sedmitza.ru/lib/text/439568/
F. E. Melnikov. " Short story Old Orthodox (Old Believer) Church" http://www.krotov.info/history/17/staroobr/melnikov.html
A.I. Solzhenitsyn (from the message to the Third Council of the Russian Church Abroad) http://rus-vera.ru/arts/arts25.html

Based on the article https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C2%AB%D0%94%D0%B2%D0%B5%D0%BD%D0%B0%D0%B4%D1%86%D0% B0%D1%82%D1%8C_%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B0%D1%82%D0%B5%D0%B9%C2%BB_%D1%86%D0%B0%D1%80% D0%B5%D0%B2%D0%BD%D1%8B_%D0%A1%D0%BE%D1%84%D1%8C%D0%B8

Old Believers did not have single organization. It was divided into two directions - recognizing priests and not recognizing. The first ones were called "Polovtsy", second - "bespopovtsy". The second broke into many interpretations and agreements. The former were more united, but they did not have their own bishops and there was no one to ordain (to rank) priests. Old Believers poached priests from the official church, retrained them and sent them to their parishes.

Old Believers have long suffered various harassment and restrictions. They did not have the right to receive orders, to hold elected positions (for example, the mayor), even in places where the Old Believers lived mainly. When the position of the Old Believers worsened even more. A decree was issued forbidding them to receive fugitive priests. Following this, the destruction of the Old Believer monasteries on the Bolshoi Irgiz River in the Trans-Volga region began, where "correction" runaway priests. In 1841, the last of the Irgiz monasteries was closed. The ranks of the Old Believer clergy began to thin out.

But "priests" soon their own bishops appeared. In 1846, the Bosno-Sarajevo Metropolitan Ambrose, who became the Metropolitan of Belokrinitsa (Belaya Krinitsa, a village in Bukovina, within the then Austria), passed to the Old Believers. "Austrian Accord", which had its own metropolitans, bishops and priests, became, as it were, the second Orthodox Church in Russia. The number of its supporters multiplied despite the fact that the main organizers of the new church were soon hidden in monastic prisons. In Moscow and the Moscow province, the number of followers of the Belokrinitskaya church was 120 thousand people. Attempts suppress the Old Believers turned into a fortification.

By the time of great changes in the life of the country there was no unity in the Orthodox Church and discontent grew. The higher clergy grumbled at the dominance of secular officials. Ordinary priests - against the despotism of the hierarchical authority. For the most part, the parish clergy were crushed by need and had a low level of training. It saw its main task in the performance of rites and weakly led a sermon, insufficiently explained to the people the moral foundations of religion. The unsatisfied need for religious instruction forced believers to make long journeys to the monastic elders or turn to the Old Believers, among whom there were many skilled preachers.

Lubok (second half of the 19th century. Unknown artist. Ink, tempera). Comparative image of some attributes of rituals and symbols adopted by the Old Believers and in the official Orthodox Church.

The Russian Orthodox Church could not split the 300-year-old Tatar-Mongol yoke. No matter how hard they tried, the popes of Rome could not subjugate them to their throne. The Russian Church was led to a split in the second half of the 17th century by their own, Russian people - Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, nicknamed the Quietest and Patriarch Nikon. With fire and sword they introduced church reform.

Old Believers: going through the torment

Hundreds of thousands of believing Russian people were executed only because they did not want to fold their fingers during baptism with a “pinch”. For this, they pulled out their tongues and cut off their hands so that they would not raise their two-fingered fingers in prayer, quartered, burned - like Archpriest Avvakum. But faith for them was more precious than life.

"Only care, that into the fire and into the water ...".

The position of the adherents of the old faith in the 17th century was in many ways similar to the position of Christians in the Roman Empire in the first centuries of Christianity. Then the Christians, suffering from persecution by the pagan authorities, were forced to hide in the catacombs and caves. So the Russian people, who did not accept church reforms, had to flee to deserts, forests, mountains, and other countries, hiding from persecution by state and spiritual authorities.
But the authorities nowhere allowed the Old Believers to live in peace, trying to get them to renounce the old faith. The most cruel tortures were used: people were slowly burned on fire, their veins were exhausted, they were quartered, they were hung by their ribs from the ceiling or on a special crossbar and left to hang like that. for a long time- until renunciation or death. They hung them on their arms turned back, wheeled them, buried them in the ground up to their necks alive. Someone, unable to withstand the torture, renounced his faith - however, insincerely.
But there were many who preferred to burn themselves instead of accepting new rites. “There is no place for us anywhere,” they said, “only to go into fire and into water.” They made log cabins for self-immolation in advance, prepared separate huts or chapels, tarred and lined with straw. When they found out that they were going after them, they locked themselves in the building and, when the persecutors appeared, they declared: “Leave us, or we will burn.” Sometimes the persecutors left, and then the people got rid of self-immolation. But in most cases, the persecuted burned themselves - people were burned by the hundreds and thousands.
Even the children of the Old Believers fearlessly walked into the flames. Once, 14 people were brought to a tarred log house for execution, including a nine-year-old girl. Everyone felt sorry for her, and the bishop's bailiffs, who ordered the execution, ordered the child to be detained. The log house was already on fire, but the child was still rushing to his own. Then they told her, as if wanting to scare and stop: "Well, go into the fire, just look, don't close your eyes." And the girl, crossing herself three times, threw herself into the fire...

Massacre over Habakkuk

The Great Moscow Cathedral of 1666-1667 supported the church reform and cursed all its opponents, who began to be called the insulting word "schismatics". After the council, new exiles and executions followed. The famous defenders of ancient Russian piety Archpriest Avvakum, priest Lazar, deacon of the Annunciation Cathedral in Moscow Fedor, monk Epiphanius were exiled to Pustozersk, Arkhangelsk province and imprisoned in an earthen prison. Everyone, with the exception of Habakkuk, had their tongues cut out and their right hands cut off so that they could neither speak nor make the sign of the cross with two fingers.
Year after year passed, and there were no changes in the position of the Pustozero prisoners. As before, they were confined within the four walls of their prison, and as before they were kept on bread and water. However, no tortures and tortures, persuasion of the king, promises of all earthly blessings for giving up their beliefs could force Avvakum and his associates to stop fighting against Nikon's reform. Here the archpriest began to write his famous Life. From its pages, in all its gigantic growth, the image of an outstanding Russian man, steadfast, courageous and uncompromising, arose. In denouncing representatives of ecclesiastical and secular authorities, Avvakum did not spare the tsar himself. In his messages, he calls the Quiet One "a poor and thin king", who supports the "heretics" in everything. He believed that the tsarist government had betrayed Russia by starting a church reform, and fearlessly declared this.
In 1676, Tsar Alexei died, and his son Fyodor succeeded to the throne. A few years later, Avvakum decides to send a message to Tsar Fedor. And again he blasphemes his father, writes that he had a vision - Alexei Mikhailovich is burning in fiery hell. This Tsar Fedor could no longer bear. “For the great blasphemy against the royal house,” it was ordered to burn both Avaakum and everyone who had been with him for a long 14 years.
On April 14, 1682, this execution took place. But if the shirts of Lazarus, Epiphanius and Fyodor were soaked with resin and they burned out very quickly, then this last favor was not shown to Habakkuk, and he experienced the most severe torments.
However, Archpriest Avvakum managed to address the people with a parting word. Raising his hand folded high into two fingers, he bequeathed: "If you pray with this cross, you will never perish."

Forever chased...

Six years before the burning of Pustozero prisoners fierce death hundreds of venerable fathers and confessors of the Solovetsky monastery were betrayed. Together with other monasteries and sketes of the Russian Orthodox Church, the monastery refused to accept the new Nikon books. They boldly declared to the king: “It is better for us to die a temporary death than to perish forever. And if we are given over to fire and torment, or cut into pieces, even then we will not change the apostolic tradition forever.
In response, the tsar sent troops to the Solovetsky Monastery. They besieged the monastery for seven years - from 1668 to 1675. When they nevertheless broke in there, they staged a terrible massacre. Up to 400 monks were martyred: some were hanged, others were cut to pieces, and others were drowned in ice holes. But none of them asked for mercy or mercy. The bodies of the dead lay uncleaned and undecomposed for half a year, until the royal order came to bury them. The ruined monastery was later inhabited by monks sent from Moscow, who accepted new faith…
In 1685, Princess Sophia issued a decree, rightly called "draconian." It said that those who spread the old faith would continue to be tortured and exiled. It was ordered to beat with a whip and batogs even those who would somehow help the persecuted Christians. The property of the Old Believers - yards, estates, estates, shops and all sorts of crafts and factories - was ordered to be selected and unsubscribed to the "great sovereigns". Only the complete renunciation of the old faith and slavish obedience to the orders of the authorities could save the ancient Orthodox Christians from these terrible persecutions, devastation and death.
Bonfires blazed throughout Russia, hundreds and thousands of innocent people were burned. The clergy and the government exterminated their own brothers for their loyalty to the covenants and traditions of Holy Russia and the Church of Christ. At times, the repressions first weakened, then intensified again, but never stopped.
Tsar Peter I proclaimed religious tolerance in the state, it was widely used in Russia by different religions: Roman Catholic, Protestant, Mohammedan, Jewish. And only the Old Believers did not have freedom in their native land. In the reign of Peter they were not burned en masse, but there were still some cases of burnings and other executions. The tsar allowed the Old Believers to live openly in cities and villages, imposing a double salary on them. Also, each man was charged 50 rubles a year for wearing a beard. Duties were collected from the Old Believers in favor of the clergy of the New Believer Church. However, they could not hold state or public positions.
The Old Believers, who enrolled in a double salary, were listed as registered. But most lived in secret, hiding from the authorities. They were constantly searched for and exiled to hard labor. In order to have more reasons to persecute the Old Believers, Peter ordered to invent false cases against them.
Under Catherine II, the Old Believers lived a little easier, as under Alexander I - but only in the first half of his reign. Only under Nicholas II, from the end of 1905, did the Old Believers get the opportunity to openly arrange their church life in their native fatherland: build churches, monasteries, make religious processions, have bell ringing, organize communities, open schools. But even under this king, the Old Believers did not receive complete religious freedom.
At times Stalinist repressions they hunted the Old Believers, classifying them as kulaks. Again, the authorities ravaged the sketes, burned old books, icons, and people were arrested and exiled to harsh edges. It became more and more difficult to run away, and then self-immolations began again - just not to live among atheists, not to join collective farms, not to pay excessive taxes.
Modern Old Believers say that the persecution against them will never end and that the worst, perhaps, is yet to come...

Today in Russia there are about 2 million Old Believers. There are entire villages inhabited by adherents of the old faith. Despite the small number, modern Old Believers remain firm in their convictions, avoid contact with the Nikonians, preserve the traditions of their ancestors, and resist "Western influences" in every possible way.

AT last years interest in the Old Believers is growing in our country. Many both secular and ecclesiastical authors publish material on the spiritual and cultural heritage, history and modern day Old Believers. However, the very phenomenon of the Old Believers, its philosophy, worldview and peculiarities of terminology are still poorly studied.

Nikon's reforms and the emergence of "schismatics"

Old Believers, has an ancient and tragic story. In the middle of the 17th century, Patriarch Nikon, with the support of the tsar, carried out a religious reform, the task of which was to bring the process of worship and some rituals in line with the "standards" adopted by the Church of Constantinople. The reforms were supposed to increase the prestige of both the Russian Orthodox Church and the Russian state in the international arena. But not all the flock took the innovations positively. The Old Believers are just those people who considered the “book right” (editing church books) and the unification of the liturgical rite to be blasphemy.

The changes approved by the Church Councils in 1656 and 1667 may seem too minor to non-believers. For example, the "Symbol of Faith" was edited: it was prescribed to speak about the kingdom of God in the future tense, the definition of the Lord and the oppositional union were removed from the text. In addition, the word "Jesus" was now ordered to be written with two "and" (according to the modern Greek model). The Old Believers did not appreciate it. As for worship, Nikon canceled small prostrations(“throwing”), the traditional “double-fingered” was replaced by “three-fingered”, and the “excessive” hallelujah was replaced by “two-fingered”. Procession The Nikonians began to hold against the sun. Some changes were also made to the rite of the Eucharist (Communion). The reform also provoked a gradual change in the traditions of church singing and icon painting.

The Nikonian reformers, accusing their ideological opponents of splitting the Russian Orthodox Church, used the term "schismatic". It was equated with the term "heretic" and was considered offensive. Adherents of the traditional faith did not call themselves that, they preferred the definition of "Old Orthodox Christians" or "Old Believers".

Since the discontent of the Old Believers undermined the foundations of the state, both secular and church authorities subjected the opposition to persecution. Their leader, Archpriest Avvakum, was exiled and then burned alive. The same fate befell many of his followers. Moreover, in protest, the Old Believers staged mass self-immolations. But, of course, not everyone was so fanatical.

From the central regions of Russia, the Old Believers fled to the Volga region, beyond the Urals, to the North Under Peter I, the position of the Old Believers improved slightly. They were limited in their rights, they had to pay double taxes, but they could openly practice their religion. Under Catherine II, the Old Believers were allowed to return to Moscow and St. Petersburg, where they founded the largest communities. At the beginning of the 19th century, the government again began to "tighten the screws." Despite the oppression, the Old Believers of Russia prospered. The richest and most successful merchants and industrialists, the most prosperous and diligent peasants were brought up in the traditions of the "Old Orthodox" faith.

Dissatisfaction with such a reform was aggravated by the situation in the country: the peasantry was greatly impoverished, and some boyars and merchants opposed the law on the abolition of their feudal privileges, announced by Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. All this led to the fact that some part of society broke away from the church. Being persecuted by the tsarist government and the clergy, the Old Believers were forced to hide. Despite severe persecution, their doctrine spread throughout Russia. Moscow remained their center. In the middle of the 17th century, the Russian Orthodox Church placed a curse on the breakaway church, which was lifted only in 1971.

Old Believers are ardent adherents of the ancient folk traditions. They didn’t even change the chronology, so the representatives of this religion count the years from the creation of the world. They refuse to take into account any changed conditions, the main thing for them is to live the way their grandfathers, great-grandfathers and great-great-grandfathers lived. Therefore, it is not welcome to study literacy, go to the cinema, listen to the radio.

In addition, modern clothes are not recognized by Old Believers and it is forbidden to shave a beard. Domostroy reigns in the family, women follow the commandment: "Let the wife be afraid of her husband." And children are subjected to corporal punishment.

The communities lead a very closed life, replenished only at the expense of their children. They do not shave their beards, do not drink alcohol and do not smoke. Many of them wear traditional clothes. Old Believers collect ancient icons, rewrite church books, teach children Slavic writing and Znamenny singing.

From various sources.