Snob: Old Believers. invisible russia

Sergei Dolya writes: The liturgical reform of Patriarch Nikon in the 17th century led to a split in the Church and persecution of dissidents. The bulk of the Old Believers came to Tuva at the end of the 19th century. Then this land belonged to China, which protected the Old Believers from repression. They sought to settle in deserted and inaccessible corners, where no one would oppress them for their faith.

Before leaving their old places, the Old Believers sent scouts. They were sent light, providing only the most necessary: ​​horses, provisions, clothing. Then the settlers set off in large families, usually along the Yenisei in winter, with all the livestock, household scrubs and children. People often died when they fell into ice holes. Those who were lucky enough to arrive alive and healthy carefully chose a place to settle so that they could engage in farming, arable farming, start a vegetable garden, etc.

Old Believers still live in Tuva. For example, Erzhey is the largest Old Believer village in the Kaa-Khem region with a population of more than 200 residents. Read more about it in today's post...

It takes a long time to get to the village. At first we sawed 200 km from Kyzyl. Along the road there are a lot of banners reminiscent of high-ranking fellow countryman Sergei Shoigu:

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We passed small villages. Almost all of them lack such things as cafes or convenience stores, but there is Lenin:

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Village football stadium. Apparently cows are used to “cut” the grass on the field:

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We crossed the river. The cars were sent by ferry and we boarded the boats ourselves. We walked upstream for half an hour:

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A river with a very fast current:

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The views are very picturesque. Mountains, greenery, rare clouds:

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Our team:

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Fisherman on the shore:

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Finally, they arrived:

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At first glance, the Old Believer village was no different from thousands of ordinary villages in Russia:

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At second glance, nothing special was noticed either. Village and village.

The only thing that reminded us of a special place was the strict rules. You are not allowed to film inside the house. You cannot record speech on a voice recorder. For some reason, Old Believers are catastrophically afraid of the word “interview” and everything connected with mass information:

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Katerina, housewife, 24 years old. By the way, they don’t mind being photographed on the street at all. Her family came from the Urals after the war. There was a terrible famine then, and there were legends that this was almost the promised land, where there was complete prosperity:

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Son. Old Believers do not really want their children to receive an education, since no one returns home after studying at the institute. It’s better without a profession, but at least close to your family. To avoid incest, wives are taken from neighboring villages. Divorces are not accepted, the principle “endure and fall in love” is practiced:

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We were invited into the house, fed with okroshka made with local kvass, which tastes more like water, and with fish pie. The pie was unique: seven centimeters high, made from thin dough, completely filled with lenka. I took a bite and realized I had made a mistake. The fish didn’t just have bones, it had a backbone. I washed down the fish bones with lemon balm.

Nevertheless, the reception left a warm impression. We were allowed to rent the garden. They grow everything themselves, including watermelons and melons:

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Homestead farming with cans:

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The baby’s little car, with which he drives around the yard:

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Dad’s big car, which he drives to Kyzyl once a week. Delivers milk, sour cream and cottage cheese for sale. With the money raised, the father of the family buys flour and food. Still, despite the remoteness, the hermitage of the Old Believers is very conditional - their life is already woven into the neighboring society:

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In fact, their customs and traditions are far from the false ideas that “Old Believers are those who still make sacrifices to Zeus and Perun.” The reason for the split at one time was the reform that Tsar Alexei Romanov and Patriarch Nikon (Minin) decided to carry out. The Old Believers and their difference from the Orthodox began with the difference in making the sign of the cross. The reform proposed changing two fingers to three fingers, abolishing prostrations; later the reform affected all forms of the Church’s charter and order of worship. Until the reign of Peter I, changes took place in church life, which the Old Believers, who valued old customs and traditions, perceived as an encroachment on the traditional and correct, from their point of view, religious way of life.

Archpriest Avvakum called for preserving the old faith, including the Old Believer cross, and to suffer for the “old faith,” if necessary. The reform of Patriarch Nikon was not accepted in the Solovetsky Monastery either; the inhabitants of the monastery turned to Tsar Alexei Romanov with a petition in defense of the old faith. Old Believers in Russia today are followers of those who did not accept the reform in the 17th century.

Who are the Old Believers and what is their difference from the Orthodox, what is the difference between the two traditions?

The Old Believers retained the position of the ancient Church regarding the confession of the Holy Trinity, the incarnation of God the Word, as well as the two hypostases of Jesus Christ. The Old Believer cross is an eight-pointed cross inside a four-pointed one. Such crosses are also found in the Russian Orthodox Church, along with the Serbian Church, so it is still impossible to consider the Old Believer cross exclusively Old Believer. At the same time, there is no image of the Crucifixion on the Old Believer cross.

The Old Believers, their customs and traditions largely overlap with the traditions of those who reacted favorably to the reform and accepted it. Old Believers are those who recognize baptism by immersion, canonical iconography... At the same time, only church books published before 1652, under Patriarch Joseph or earlier, are used for Divine services. The name of Christ in these books is written as Jesus, not Jesus.

Lifestyle

It is believed that in everyday life the Old Believers are very modest and even ascetic, and their culture is full of archaism. Many Old Believers wear beards, do not drink alcohol, learn the Old Church Slavonic language, and some wear traditional clothes in everyday life.

“Popovtsy” and “Bezpopovtsy”

To learn more about the Old Believers and understand who they are, you also need to know that the Old Believers themselves divide themselves into “priests” and “non-priests.” And, if the “priests” recognize the three-rank Old Believer hierarchy and the sacraments of the ancient Church, then the “bezpopovtsy” are sure that after the reform the pious church hierarchy was lost, and therefore many sacraments were abolished. The Old Believers “bezpopovtsy” recognize only two sacraments and their main difference from the Orthodox is that the only sacraments for them are Baptism and Confession, and the difference between the Old Believers “bezpopovtsy” and the Old Believers of chapel consent is that the latter also recognize the latter as sacraments Eucharist and Great Blessing of Water.

At the end of the 20th century, neo-pagans began to call themselves “Old Believers,” so Old Believers in Russia today are not only opponents of reform, but also supporters of various religious associations and sects. However, it is wrong to believe that the real Old Believers, their customs and traditions are somehow connected with paganism.

When it comes to Orthodoxy and church life, we almost always mean the Russian Orthodox Church - the most widespread and authoritative religious structure in our country. However, not everyone knows that the Old Believers (or Old Orthodoxy) have existed in Russia for three and a half centuries. Who are the Old Believers? How do they live today? How do their views and traditions differ from the establishment of the dominant church?

Text: Grigory Pruttskov
Photo from the archive of Archpriest Alexander Filippskikh

AT THE ORIGINS OF THE SCHIPT

The emergence of the Old Believers dates back to the middle of the 17th century. It all started with the fact that the Russian Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich and Patriarch Nikon of Moscow and All Rus' decided to reform the Church, its rituals and traditions. There were several reasons for this. On the one hand, the liturgical rite of the Russian Church differed from the similar rite of the Constantinople and Antioch churches, which were founded by the apostles in the 1st century. Ukraine became part of Russia, and its territory belonged to the Patriarchate of Constantinople. It turned out that in different regions of the same country there were two different liturgical rites. Patriarch Nikon wanted to make Russia the center of universal Orthodoxy, a real Third Rome, taking as a model the Greek church charter of the Second Rome - Constantinople.

On the other hand, Russian church services were much longer than in other local churches, where many fragments of the service were shortened. The Russian church authorities did not dare to take such a step and, back in the 16th century, introduced the so-called polyphony into use. Its essence was that all the prayers, readings and chants required by the rules were not performed sequentially, but simultaneously: the priest offered prayers, the deacon read the litany, the sexton read the psalter, the choir sang stichera. It was almost impossible to understand the meaning of the service, not only for parishioners, but sometimes even for the church ministers themselves.

THE ESSENCE OF THE REFORM

Having become patriarch in the summer of 1652, Nikon immediately began reforms. The first thing he decided to do was change the rituals. During Lent of 1653, a patriarchal letter was sent to all churches, in which it was prescribed to be baptized not with two, but with three fingers (fingers), and small bows to the ground were canceled. At the same time, the letter did not contain any justification for the need for innovations: neither canonical nor everyday. In previous times, changes of this level had to be sanctioned by a church council, but Nikon was not going to organize any discussions within the Church.

Of course, rituals, even those that have been established for centuries, such as double-fingering or bowing, are not dogmas that are indisputable doctrinal truths and which cannot be changed under any circumstances (for example, dogmas about the Holy Trinity, about the divine and human nature of Christ). Rituals often changed not only in Rus', but also in other Orthodox countries. However, this required clarification, which was not given. And therefore, the unexpected change in the formation of the finger and the order of bows could not but cause bewilderment and discontent both among the people and among the clergy. Archpriests Avvakum and Daniel, close to Alexei Mikhailovich, submitted a petition to the king.

“From the point of view of Avvakum, the Orthodoxy of Ukrainians, Serbs, and Greeks was inferior,” historian Lev Gumilyov wrote in the book “From Rus' to Russia.” – Otherwise, why did God punish them by placing them under the rule of the Gentiles?.. Representatives of these peoples were considered by the Old Believers only as victims of error who needed to be re-educated. Of course, such a prospect would not arouse sincere sympathy or desire in anyone to unite with Moscow. Both the Tsar and the Patriarch perfectly understood this subtlety. Therefore, striving for the growth and expansion of their power, they were guided by universal (Greek) Orthodoxy, in relation to which the Orthodoxy of the Russians, the Orthodoxy of the Ukrainians, and the Orthodoxy of the Serbs were nothing more than acceptable variations.”

The Tsar handed over the petition of opponents of the reforms to Nikon. The Patriarch did not prove to his opponents that he was right and ordered them to be exiled: Avvakum to Siberia, Daniel to Astrakhan. Church reforms continued, but Nikon still decided to back them up with the authority of a church council. In the spring of 1654, the council approved the procedure for correcting church books, rites and rituals in order to bring them into line with Greek models. So, let’s say, the word “Jesus” began to be written not with one, as before, but with two “and” - “Jesus”. The Creed underwent a new translation: for example, the old words “His Kingdom will have no end” were replaced with new ones “His Kingdom will have no end,” that is, they changed the present tense to the future. The deacon’s exclamation “and forever and ever” began to sound “and forever and ever".

In addition, the exclamation “Hallelujah” began to be pronounced not twice, but three times, and religious processions around churches were carried out not clockwise, but counterclockwise (or against the sun). Some other details of the worship service were also reformed.

PEOPLE'S REACTION

Even today, in the age of the Internet, the public is very sensitive to any innovations in the church environment. Let us remember how many discussions there were around the introduction of the notorious Taxpayer Identification Number. Many associated this innovation with the end of the world and the number of the devil. Even the recent meeting in Cuba between Patriarch Kirill and Pope Francis caused a far from unambiguous reaction. And what can we say about our ancestors who lived 360 years ago and for whom the only means of communication was, as in ancient times, a messenger, and the main authority was the word from the church pulpit. Patriarch Nikon did not attach importance to the explanation and propaganda of the reforms, as we would say now, he did not promote them. And as a result, a church schism began.

Nikon's uncompromising position was largely to blame for this. In 1656, he convened a Local Council, at which all who were baptized with two fingers were declared heretics and damned. The Great Moscow Council of 1667, which was attended by the Patriarchs of Antioch and Alexandria, deprived Nikon of his patriarchal rank (this topic is beyond the scope of our story), but approved his reforms and anathematized old books and rituals. After the end of the Local Council of 1681, physical reprisals against the Old Believers began, which was legalized in 1682 by the “Twelve Articles” of Princess Sophia.

The forceful methods of church reform caused massive discontent among both ordinary people and the clergy. Russia actually found itself on the brink of a religious war. The most widespread and prolonged organized protest against innovations was the armed resistance of the monks of the Solovetsky Monastery to the reforms of Patriarch Nikon. It lasted eight years and was brutally suppressed by the Streltsy army in 1676. As the Old Believer “History of the Fathers and Sufferers of Solovetsky” reports, disobedient monks were quartered, burned alive, drowned in ice holes, frozen alive in icy water, and hung on hooks by their ribs.

However, the authorities failed to eradicate the Old Believers. At the beginning of the 18th century, Peter the Great switched from a policy of exterminating adherents of old rituals to their partial legalization. He imposed double taxes on everyone who was baptized with two fingers. However, the number of Old Believers continued to grow. In the book “History of the Russian Church” Professor N.M. Nikolsky writes that even in the 19th century, 200 years after the start of the schism, about a third of the population of our country adhered to the old rituals. Old Believers lived in all the provinces of the Russian Empire, however, according to official statistics, most of them were considered members of the dominant church - in order to avoid sanctions.

BESPOPOVTSY AND POPOVTSY

By the end of the 17th century, the last priests who had been ordained before Nikon’s reforms died. The bishops who ordain priests passed away even earlier. No church hierarchy can exist without clergy, and the most conservative Old Believers came to reject the new priesthood, which was ordained according to new books and rituals. This is how priestlessness arose, the official name of which is Old Orthodox Christians, who do not accept the priesthood. The Bespopovites began to perform divine services in the so-called lay rite. They read the prescribed prayers, but cannot celebrate the Eucharist. As a rule, Bespopovites settled on the outskirts of Russia - off the coast of the White Sea (hence the name Pomors), in the forests of Karelia (there was a whole Bespopov monastery on the banks of the Vyg River), along the Kerzhenets River in the Nizhny Novgorod province.

Unlike the non-priests, the priests always recognized the need for the priesthood. Archpriest Avvakum also bequeathed to his followers to accept priests who were ordained in the dominant Nikonian church and who for various reasons left it. In 1846, Metropolitan Ambrose, who served in the Patriarchate of Constantinople, came over to the Old Believers. He settled in the Austro-Hungarian city of Belaya Krinitsa (now the territory of the Chernivtsi region of Ukraine). From this time on, the priests had their own church hierarchy, which was called Belokrinitskaya. During his leadership of the Old Believer Church, Ambrose ordained two bishops, five priests and three deacons.

At the turn of the 18th–19th centuries, a new direction appeared - Edinoverie. Edinoverists are Old Believers who serve according to pre-Nikon books and traditions, are baptized with two fingers, but at the same time recognize the hierarchical jurisdiction of the dominant church. The number of co-religionists was significantly smaller than the number of Old Believers. Thus, according to the 1897 census, there were more than 2 million 200 thousand Old Believers in Russia, and about 440 thousand fellow believers.

In April 1905, Nicholas II issued a decree “On strengthening the principles of religious tolerance.” From now on, all legal restrictions for Old Believers were abolished: back in the 19th century, they were prohibited from building new churches and even repairing old ones, publishing liturgical books, and holding public positions. Their marriage was not recognized by the state, and the children were considered illegitimate.

Until the end of the 1920s, the Soviet government did not persecute the Old Believers, since it supported all religious organizations that in one way or another conflicted with the dominant church and Patriarch Tikhon. In 1923, a new movement appeared - Old Orthodoxy, whose adherents were called Beglopopovtsy, since they broke with the Belokrinitsky hierarchy and accepted priests from the Moscow Patriarchate. Soon its center moved from Saratov to Novozybkov, where it remained until 2000, and then was moved to Moscow.

OLD BELIEVERS TODAY

The revival of the Old Believers, like all other religious movements, began in the late 1980s, with the weakening of Soviet power. The largest church structure of the Old Believers-Priests is the Russian Orthodox Old Believers Church (ROSC). Since 2005, it has been headed by Metropolitan of Moscow and All Rus' Korniliy (Titov). The church has about 260 parishes and cares for about a million people, about half of whom are citizens of the Russian Federation.

The second largest Old Believer association is the Russian Ancient Orthodox Church (ROC). Since 2000, its primate has been His Holiness the Ancient Orthodox Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' Alexander (Kalinin). However, his patriarchal title is not recognized by other Old Believer accords, nor, of course, by the Moscow Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church. There are about 80 communities and more than 100 thousand believers in the RDC.

The largest non-priest consensus today is the Ancient Orthodox Pomeranian Church (DOC). Its coordinating body is located in St. Petersburg - the Unified Council of the DOC. Chairman of the Council - Oleg Ivanovich Rozanov. There are about 250 communities registered in Russia, and about the same number in other countries of the world.

LIFE OF THE OLD BELIEVER PARISH

How do Old Believers live today? At our request, Ekaterina Filippskikh, mother of the rector of the church and the dean of the Volga-Don deanery, Archpriest Alexander Filippskikh, tells us about the life of the parish of St. Michael the Archangel of the Russian Ancient Orthodox Church in the city of Volgograd:

“The Ancient Orthodox prayer house in the city of Tsaritsyn began to be built back in 1905 with the active participation of the Don Cossacks and the Volga merchants. The wooden single-domed church was located on the banks of the Volga, at the intersection of Pugachevskaya and Grushevskaya streets. In 1938, the temple was closed and desecrated, and destroyed during the Battle of Stalingrad. With the onset of the religious thaw in our country, the Old Orthodox community was one of the first to receive state registration. But the authorities did not allocate land for the church for a long time, and Christians were forced to rebuild the wooden house of one parishioner into a church building. In 1987, the rector of the parish became the charterer Zakhary Antonovich Blokhin, a participant in the Battle of Stalingrad, who was ordained a priest.

However, the joy of the believers was short-lived. In 1994, under unknown circumstances, the temple burned to the ground. In 1997, the Volgograd administration allocated premises in one of the hospital buildings. But even there, the believers were only able to pray for a short time: a morgue was opened in the next room, and due to unbearable sanitary and hygienic conditions, Christians were forced to leave this room and began to pray in the apartment of Father Zacharias. All these problems undermined the already poor health of the Father Superior. In April 2006 he passed away.

Nowadays the parish is in honor of St. Archangel Michael is led by the young priest Alexander Filippskikh. Back in 2000, as a tenth-grader, he was hired to work in the publishing department of the Russian Children's Center. While working in the Archdiocese, he was engaged not only in publishing activities, but also helped in the cathedral during divine services as a regent, an assistant in the choir and in the altar. In 2001, Alexander entered the Faculty of Journalism of Moscow State University named after M.V. Lomonosov. At the same time, he became an employee of the press service of the Ancient Orthodox Church. After graduating from the university, Alexander accepted the priesthood and went to his permanent place of service in Volgograd.

In the spring of 2008, the head of the Volgograd administration allocated a plot of land for the construction of a temple. In just a few months, a frame was installed, roofing work was completed, and the temple was finished both inside and outside. We made and installed an iconostasis. And by autumn the temple was prepared for consecration. On November 21, 2008, on the patronal feast day of the Archangel Michael, His Holiness Patriarch Alexander of Moscow and All Rus' performed a minor consecration of the church in the co-service of the clergy.

Traditions in our parish are closely related to church holidays and customs adopted by the Cossacks. Since Old Orthodox Christians try to marry fellow believers, as a rule, people in the parish are connected to one degree or another by blood ties. Therefore, in our community, relations between parishioners are kindred and warm. We often organize communal meals, celebrate great holidays and the days of the parishioners' angels with a solemn service and a pleasant feast.

During Maslenitsa week, parishioners visit each other to pray together. They eat pancakes, of course. Pancakes are served with honey and kaymak, various fillings and the so-called Cossack scrambled eggs: three dozen eggs are beaten into a large cast-iron frying pan and a lot of butter is added. All this is simmered until a thick mass is obtained. This scrambled egg is wrapped in a pancake and quickly eaten before it cools down.

During Lent, services are frequent and long. The first and Holy Weeks are especially strict, practically no food is consumed, services are held daily. Old Believers take fasting seriously and try to fulfill it accurately. During Bright Week and Holy Week, the parish rector visits his spiritual children. Parishioners try to invite many relatives and friends to a meeting with the priest, so that they can hear the Word of God and be able to communicate in a home environment with the priest.

Before the start of the school year, the priest serves a prayer service and blesses schoolchildren and students for their studies.

Old Orthodox Christians hold old people in special esteem. They are treated as mentors who have spiritual experience and are knowledgeable about the rules and customs of the church. Old people play a particularly important role in villages where there are no clergy. They lead lay services, mentor youth, and govern the community. In our deanery, which includes the Volgograd, Astrakhan and Rostov regions, there are still farmsteads where almost only Old Orthodox Christians live, with their own way of life and regular prayers.”

to Russia from abroad of Russian Old Believers, it is enough to recall the masterful materials of Alexander Rogatkin. And I must say, bearded men were welcomed in their historical homeland with open arms.

But in the spring of 2017, Metropolitan Old Believer Korniliy became the first head of the Orthodox Old Believer Church in 350 years to be officially received by the head of the Russian state. Russian President Cornelius says that now the state will take a more attentive approach to Old Believers who want to return to Russia.

The "bearded men" settled in Primorye, where the governor had also changed. They only bake the golden brown bread themselves, albeit in an electric oven. A brand new sewing machine starts sewing on future shirts and sundresses. The women, tucking their long hemlines, sat behind the wheel.

“Sometimes there are no men. Those with licenses. They have no time. We go to trade,” says Glafira Muracheva, village of Dersu, Primorsky Territory.

This is how the Old Believers live - preserving their way of life, but also accepting the rules of the current world. The village of Dersu in the Krasnoarmeysky district of Primorye is located in the taiga wilderness. Now that the river is frozen, you can get here by car, the rest of the time only on foot along the suspension bridge. There is no mobile phone service, no shops, no school, no hospital.
Old Believers came to the seaside village from South America. There they found refuge during the persecution after the revolution. The migrants were born in Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, but Russia has always remained their sweet homeland.

“We love our country Russia, because this is our Fatherland. We returned to live here. Only here is our life,” Spanish-speaking Ivan Murachev, a fellow villager of Glafira, passionately assures.

At the market in a neighboring village, Old Believers sell crops, dairy products and meat. Everything is theirs, but it seems that they have not yet become theirs for the local residents. It’s too early to talk about a peaceful neighborhood. They are just getting used to each other.

Ulyan Murachev, the head of the community, becomes seriously at odds when he starts talking about problems. There is not enough land, there is not enough agricultural equipment. There is not enough roomy car. After all, for them, seven in a shop is not a proverb, but a reality. Ulyan alone has 12 children and 20 grandchildren.

“The crow is afraid of the bush. Only they will ask us. What are we going to brag about?” - says Murachev.

Ulyan worries what his relatives on another continent think about life in a seaside village. The Old Believers hope that over time all barbudos (bearded men - Spanish) will quickly move to Primorye.

The new head of the region, Andrei Tarasenko, suggested that the Old Believers create an agricultural cooperative in Primorye and is even ready to build an Old Believer temple in Vladivostok.
Already at the stage of obtaining citizenship it will be possible to obtain Far Eastern hectares. For Old Believers, land is most important. They call themselves not farmers, not peasants - agriculturists in the Spanish style.

“Here life is real. The forest is beautiful, it’s far away. But there it’s not, it’s not like that. You climb into the forest, crawl on your hands and knees. You tear off the lashes, it’s impossible to get through,” says Evstafiy Murachev.

The speech of the Old Believers is a bizarre mixture of languages. Almost everyone speaks Spanish and Portuguese. And in their Russian there is a lot that we have already forgotten. Children are taught literacy from basics to basics.

Education is a separate issue. In South America, Old Believers shunned public schools. In Russia, only the primary school program has been adopted so far. But not the school itself.

“If we let them into public schools, to study in the city, we will lose our faith and traditions; this is the only way we have preserved our faith abroad,” Ivan Murachev is convinced.

Now a teacher from a neighboring village comes to teach numeracy and literacy. A ten-year-old child is already an assistant in the field, and it is believed that he has nothing to do at his desk. But the Old Believers are asking to build a primary school right in Dersu.

On the wall in the hut of the elder Ulyana are family photographs. Filmed in China, Alaska, Canada, Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia. So far, not a single group photo from Russia. People here are really looking forward to their relatives moving to Russia. To finish wandering around the world and settle here - albeit at the ends of the earth, but in the homeland.

Liberty

A SINFUL LIFE IN ALASKA

Nikolaevsk is not a city. Nikolaevsk is not a very large village in Alaska, so the name was clearly given to it for growth. Russian Old Believers live here.

My friend, who lived in the States for three years, said that America is such a country, such a country!.. Of extraordinary cool. She has been living in the 20th century for a long time. Everything here is so unusual, technologically advanced and progressive that you just have to go and see it. Probably confused with Japan.

It was foggy in the morning, and the old American airplane, probably riveted together by the Wright brothers, was not equipped with a system for all-weather flights. Or maybe it was equipped, but the airport in Homer, where we were heading, was not and could not accept our plane because of the fog. So we, the photojournalists and I, sat on plastic chairs in the Anchorage airport lounge and waited for the fog to clear in Homer.

Then they finally announced landing. The citizens boarded the plane, sat down, after which the pilot turned around and announced that now, of course, we would take off, but if upon arrival in Homer it turns out that there is fog or low clouds, we will return back to Anchorage. Fortunately, at the airport of arrival there was a break in the clouds, and we landed safely on the blessed land of Homer - an insignificant American town that the world would never have heard of if it were not for the Russian village of Nikolaevsk nearby.

I have long wanted to see how the Old Believers live. I read a lot about them, but never wrote, and this is a mess: the writer must write, and the reader must read. The division of labor is the basis of our civilization... From newspapers and books I learned a lot of interesting things about the Old Believers - that they do not eat from public dishes, so they eat only at home, so as not to be defiled. They don’t watch TV because it’s a big sin. Unsociable. Non-contact. They don't recognize civilization.

By prior telephone agreement, Old Believer Ivan was supposed to meet us. But for some reason I didn’t meet him. Maybe he changed his mind? Indeed, why should he commit sin with the dissolute? Having called Ivan home from the airport of arrival just in case, we learned from his wife that Ivan had long since left “there”.

Where "there"?

There. To meet you.

Here it is, unhurried provincial life, incomparable with the bustle of Moscow! An hour earlier, an hour later... Well, at least our plane was late, otherwise we would have been exhausted waiting.

After a while, Ivan pulled up, loaded us into his vehicle and drove us to Nikolaevsk. On the way we started talking. It turned out that Ivan was originally “from China” and had never been to Russia, although he speaks Russian (like all Old Believers) without an accent. But what is most surprising is that Ivan really looked a little like... no, not like a Chinese, although he also looked like a Chinese, of course... but more like Ho Chi Minh, who was, as you know, a purebred Vietnamese.

The characteristic mustache with a thin beard played this cruel joke on Vanya.

We lived there near Harbin. Closer to the Mongolian side there. But here in this... uh... Khabarovsk - uncles, bros. We separated after the revolution.

The life of Ivan the Old Believer and his fellow tribesmen was not easy, but full of adventures. From China, the entire Old Believer village moved to Brazil, then lived a little in Italy, then in a swarm they left and moved to Oregon, a state on the Pacific coast of the United States, and after Oregon, a difficult journey brought them to Alaska. But the Old Believers feel that from here they will soon have to move somewhere: it is becoming painfully crowded. Civilization is advancing from all sides, preventing us from living as our ancestors bequeathed.

I noticed this myself. The car we were driving was full of music CDs and had a good record player.

Isn't it a sin to listen to CDs? - I asked.

“This is my son’s car,” Ivan answered with a sigh. - It is a sin, of course. Everything is sin...

Is it a sin to drive a car?

Sin.

Why are you traveling?

Well, how?

On a horse. Jump-jump...

On horseback I would follow you to the airport all day...

Which brand of car is less of a sin to drive, and which is more of a sin?

Well, they buy more Chevrolet pickup trucks from us. Every car, of course, is a sin. But the Chevrolet is more convenient.

Understand. If you're going to sin, do it comfortably... Do you have a TV at home?

Nope. We are not allowed.

But you have a telephone at home... Is it a sin?

Sin.

What about the sewer?..

Everything is sin...

The asphalt ended, the primer began. In Russia, such roads are called graders. But in America I don’t know how. It was shaking. It was gathering dust... Where are you, famous American highways, do you exist in the world?..

And how are the children, Vanya, not leaving their father’s faith, not running to the cities?

It turned out they were running. Vanya is sad... By the way, the Old Believers have many children, 8-15 in each family. And all because they do not protect themselves, as I found out. It's a sin to protect yourself! By the age of forty-six, Ivan had fathered 9 children and, it seems, has no intention of finishing this fascinating process... So, grown-up children are fleeing from Old Believer villages. To big cities, to the "lower" states. Not everyone, but they are running. I would have leaked too. “Harun ran faster than a doe...” And those children who have not yet run away are sinning, like dogs, in a terrible way: they watch TV, listen to all kinds of music. Ugh!.. That’s why the Old Believers are now planning to break out in a swarm again and fly away somewhere into the wilderness. Some villages have already left and flown to Bolivia.

Why to Bolivia, Van?

There aren't many people here, it's cramped. Everything is very expensive, it’s not very expensive here: go somewhere and buy a piece of land! There's nothing to look at, but you won't be able to buy it! Expensive! This is such a small place - do you see the building standing? - twenty-five thousand dollars, ditch!.. And taxes are heavily crushing you here. Let’s say I go fishing, but sometimes it’s not profitable. It’s easier to stand at work for an hour.

I've already heard this somewhere, about taxes... Well, okay, why exactly to Bolivia?

And there you can get isho land for free. Just process it. Understood?

Well, then... That means you don't watch TV. Do you fly on airplanes?

Yes. We have to... We, of course, have lost a lot, but we are trying to save as much as we can, not use it, what we can do without. Next will be a sneeze. All this is coming towards us. First televisions, then computers. Then the tapes.

What tapes?

This pornography...

Do you already have computers at home?

No.

But surely children at school have a computer class? Surely the American government is teaching them computer literacy?

You see, again, as I explained, we try as much as we can. And how impossible it is... You won’t fight the government. If they installed computers at school, then they installed them.

Do they teach sex education?

There is such...

Those who sin excessively are punished. Interesting punishment, by the way. The fact is that Old Believers are divided into priests and non-priests. The priests have a priest, the non-priests do not have a priest - it’s simple. Popovtsy live in Nikolaevsk, next to it there is a village of Bespopovtsi. Our Ivan comes from the village of Bespopovtsy. The Bespopovites themselves choose one of the brethren for the position of priest. He accepts confession. Every Old Believer must come to confession “three times a summer.” And those who have sinned are excommunicated from confession.

Hmm, it turns out that being an Old Believer is not so tiring. But it’s terribly unprofitable! Because their strange faith forbids the Old Believers to have any contact with the government. Old Believers without priests are not hired to work in government agencies and do not even receive unemployment benefits. Out of principle.

Old Believers try to escape to places on the planet where they can live by simple labor - agriculture. The only exception is Alaska, in whose northern climate garden crops do not ripen very well.

Here, apart from acres of potatoes, cabbage, and carrots, nothing else grows. Corn doesn’t grow either,” Ivan reasoned quietly, turning the power steering wheel back and forth. He barely works with his legs: the American automatic transmission does the work for him.

In general, since nothing grows here beyond an acre of potatoes, the Old Believers took up fishing, and when this activity ceased to bring sufficient profit (try competing with huge seiners!), they began... building boats. They are glued out of fiberglass and sold to Americans.

However, in critical cases, Old Believers can turn to the government. For example, if someone has an accident and there is no money for treatment. And in such cases they agree to a blood transfusion. Although it’s a sin, of course, needless to say...

Old Believers even prefer not to go to the store again. So Ivan went hunting, killed a musa (elk) and filled a huge (and sinful, of course) freezer with meat. And the freezer in the refrigerator was filled with meat too.

And in the store we take only the most necessary things - butter, sugar, salt, flour with which we bake bread. Again, we take purchased dishes and then keep them at home.

We also try not to throw away the dishes... Do you vote in presidential elections?

Yes.

The Americans will vote for whomever they ask. It’s all the same for us, it makes no difference. I don’t see any good in either one.

Nikolaevsk greeted us with rain. It creepily creeped down on the American village, somewhat subtly reminiscent of a Russian village. I don’t even know why... It seems like the houses are built in the American style, and the cars all around are American, but come on...

There were especially many cars parked near the local priest’s house. After all, priests live in Nikolaevsk, that is, such Old Believers who believe that there should be a special priest in the village for the exercise of religious worship. By the way, there he is, the priest, scattering a pile of gravel around the yard with a shovel, and he went out to warm up. Although the priest, by the way, has a personal excavator in his yard.

The villagers turned out to be very talkative American citizens. I had not walked even two steps when I met Alla Mametyeva, an elderly woman. She immediately told me that she came to her brothers in faith in America several years ago, married her grandfather here and now lives with him. The grandfather was a good man, but the grandfather’s sons (they are all adults and live in the city) did not like the fact that the grandfather married an aunt from Russia and now her grandfather’s inheritance will go to her. They started getting my grandfather drunk, forced him to sell his house, and took the money for themselves. Now she and her grandfather are forced to rent housing. My grandfather also had a daughter, a kind one, but her husband killed her. And everyone was drunk.

This is how Nikolaevsk reminded me of a Russian village. With your spirit...

Grandma Alla’s grandfather receives a pension of $1,200, of which they pay $400 for renting a house. Plus electricity, telephone, food and so on. In general, Grandma Alla is forced to work.

What do you do, Baba Alla?

Babysitter.

And do they pay a lot?

One dollar an hour. Because it’s so small that I haven’t received citizenship yet. And the state of Alaska pays benefits to Americans with many children so that they can hire a babysitter. They hired me. And my brother writes to me from Russia: you are there, you American bastard, getting fat, and we are dying here. There, in Russia, they think that in America, dollars grow on a bush... And when my grandfather dies, what will I do? I'll stay...

Next, Alla Mametyeva said that very interesting people live nearby - Grandma Marya and Grandfather Feopent, and you should definitely go see them: they know a lot about life. Baba Alla also revealed a terrible secret to correspondents from Moscow - the Bespopovites from the neighboring village, it turns out, also have televisions! Only unlike the priests, who keep their TVs open, the non-popovites keep them in wardrobes so that the neighbors don’t see. And they watch in secret in the evenings.

What else can I tell you about the wonderful inhabitants of the Russian province, who by a strange coincidence are located in America?.. The tireless Nina Konstantinovna lives here. She caught the Ogonyok flying brigade at the top of the hill, where our photojournalists were filming a general view of Nikolaevsk. Nina Konstantinovna cheerfully climbed the hill and said that she actually didn’t want to leave the house today because she was “on sick leave,” but kind people reported that guests had arrived from Moscow. And Nina Konstantinovna hurried. It would be a sin to miss such an opportunity to send second-hand clothes and a black bra for my sister to relatives in Moscow. Sister nun, everything is black for her...

Be sure to send photos! - Nadezhda Konstantinovna strictly ordered after her Russian flavor was captured against the backdrop of American landscapes.

Nina Konstantinovna is not only an Old Believer, but also a businesswoman. She runs a Russian souvenir shop in Nikolaevsk. And at the same time he is a Russian language teacher at a local school. Nina Konstantinovna produces language learning aids herself. He takes children's books from his counter and reads them expressively onto audio cassettes. The result is manuals that she sells in her store.

Occasionally, American tourists come here and buy nesting dolls and books in Russian. However, the store, according to the owner, is unprofitable, and should be closed, but the hand does not rise. But Nina Konstantinovna closed the Russian restaurant, which was also unprofitable, long ago.

To support the fading business, we purchased for $20 a photocopied brochure about the Old Believers, “How We Fled from Russia,” and most importantly, a book from the publishing house “Children’s Literature” entitled “Poems about the Soviet Army” (Moscow, 1988).

Oh, you have taste! “You know what’s the best book to buy,” said Nina Konstantinovna, packing her purchases in a bag. “I’ve had it for many years now, and no one takes it.”

Here are poems from this wonderful book, which for some reason foreigners did not covet:

"The birds fell asleep on the branches,
The stars don't shine in the sky.
Hidden by the border
Border guard detachment..."

"Peoples live as one big family,
The Land of Soviets is strong, like granite.
On guard of peace, happiness and freedom
A soldier of the Soviet army is standing."

And what pictures there are in this book! The airplane is flying. Grandfather in an overcoat. A border guard with a dog and a Kalashnikov assault rifle walks through the night forest, a huge eagle owl hoots on a branch above him. A sailor on the deck of a cruiser placed on his shoulder a boy who had appeared from nowhere, with a red flag in his hand, wrapped in a warm coat and earflaps, and ice floes were floating around... In my opinion, foreigners lost a lot by not buying this educational book...

And in general, it’s a pity that few guests come here, because there are a lot of interesting things in Nina Konstantinovna’s “Russian Gifts”! And colored nesting dolls, and painted shirts, and different hats! Metallic Russian money is folded in a separate box. One ruble is worth one dollar. This, I think, is a fair course.

The photojournalists and I immediately raked out all the Russian change from our wallets and put them in the compartments of the box in accordance with their denomination. I also took out some old, torn receipts from stores from my wallet and gave them to Nina Konstantinovna, which made the hostess incredibly happy. She will photocopy the receipts and sell them as Russian souvenirs because the receipts say "THANKS FOR YOUR PURCHASE" in Russian.

“I also have scarves here from the assholes,” the hostess pointed to the counter.

Why assholes? Very good scarves. Purely Russians are like that...

Because from Japan, maid in Joepan. I don't sell them for much...

Despite the fact that the store is unprofitable as it is, Nina Konstantinovna sends a lot of dollars to her brothers in faith in Russia - for the construction of churches. “I can’t,” he says, “I’m here gorging myself on crabs while people there are starving and can’t build a temple.”

An hour had already passed since we crossed the threshold of the store, and we still could not leave the hospitable Nina Konstantinovna. She made us dress up in Russian painted shirts and take pictures in different poses inside and outside. It all ended with me being given a bag of used clothes for my poor Moscow relatives.

We left the kind Russian people with the warmest feelings. One of the Old Believers gave me personally baked cakes of a rather terrible appearance. I brought them to Anchorage and put them in my room at the Hilton Hotel. The cleaning lady was probably surprised when she saw these products this morning! I probably thought: a wild Russian baked himself in the bathroom, he will come in the evening and eat. Or maybe, on the contrary, she thought that America is a great country, in whose stores you can buy anything you want, even these strange, crooked baked goods of a very unappetizing appearance...

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Old Believer Petr Kharin has been living in the remote taiga for 19 years.

The banks of the deep-water Biryusa, far from the convict route, were chosen by the Old Believers hundreds of years ago. The construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway and the civil war drove them further and further into the taiga. But they stayed together, married fellow believers, sending matchmakers to other villages. In winter, the men went fishing - to catch elk or kill squirrels. Sometimes the hunters were not in the village for three weeks. Such desperate men were treated with respect, because the taiga does not forgive weaklings. Missing people are not uncommon in these places. Therefore, the news that a hermit had settled at the confluence of the Biryusa and Khainda rivers spread quickly throughout the taiga. Old Believer Pyotr Kharin built a hut 19 years ago far from the nearest village. Inaccessible rocks and impenetrable taiga protect Peter Abramovich's home from prying eyes.

Intermarried with the tiger catchers

Pyotr Kharin's entire life was spent in the taiga. Fishing, hunting - hit a squirrel in the eye. Peter was sent to serve in the Novosibirsk region, to a construction battalion. The Old Believer’s handwriting turned out to be beautiful, and for four years he repaid his debt to the Motherland as a clerk. After demobilization in 1956, he married Stepanida.

Betrothed Petra was born in China near Harbin. Her parents, also Old Believers, emigrated to Primorye in the 1920s to escape the Bolsheviks. In northern China, they made a living by hunting tigers. But when the Celestial Empire became restless and smelled of red terror, the family returned to Russia. We found out where the Old Believers lived and settled in the village of Burny. It was there that Peter met Stepanida, and they got married there. And then, together with his new relatives, he left for the Khabarovsk Territory. But the seaside forest and tiger hunting did not suit Peter’s soul. He missed the Siberian taiga and its owner - the bear. Peter and Stepanida returned to Siberia. Here the Kharins gave birth to seven children one after another: Antonina, Alexander, Ermolai, Fedor, Peter, Irina and Leonty.

(Today seventy-four-year-old Peter has 32 grandchildren and 7 great-grandchildren!)

The Kharins lived a hard life. Pyotr Abramovich worked as a firefighter at an airbase, extinguishing forest fires, then got a job as a forester. The taiga and the fish Biryusa helped raise the large crowd. Without subsistence farming and meat, which was handed over to the procurement office, the children would have nothing to buy not only a coat, but also socks. Peter jokingly calls his children descendants of tiger catchers and is proud that Stepanida’s place of birth is written in his passport: Colombo, China.

He knows how to listen to silence

When the youngest son Leonty returned from the army, Peter walked at his wedding and went into the taiga - for good. The wife died, the children grew up, started their own household, and they no longer seemed to need their father.

From Shivera, Peter sailed down the Biryusa on a homemade raft, with a gun and simple belongings, to the place where impenetrable rocks stood like a fortress wall along the river’s path. There he erected a log house, cleared up a plot for a vegetable garden, and made a homemade smokehouse. On the “garden” plot, the hermit grows not only potatoes and onions. I started a strawberry plantation and sowed poppies for beauty. For fifteen years Kharin has lived as a hermit on Khainda. Since then, I have never attended any elections, but I was pleased to learn that Vladimir Putin was re-elected president of Russia.

“I built six hunting huts on Biryusa,” says Pyotr Abramovich, “it’s boring to sit in one place.” And so you move from one place to another, as if you were celebrating a housewarming party. I'm already used to being alone, I like it. I learned to listen to silence.

Kharin not only listens to silence. Taseevsky hunter Maxim Kazakov said that on winter nights the hermit Peter writes poetry. Sometimes he reads them to fishermen and hunters he knows.

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The inhabitants of an Old Believers village in Moldova live exactly the same as their ancestors in the 18th century

You don't have to invent a time machine to travel back in time. It is enough to come to Moldova and get to the village of Kunicha. Russian Old Believers have been living there for about 300 years. To escape persecution, they began to move to the banks of the Dniester back in the time of Peter I. And gradually turned the Moldavian hinterland into one of the centers of the Old Believers. The inhabitants of the village carefully preserve their traditions, language and religion.

The feeling of unreality does not leave every visitor. Not a modern Moldavian village, but a Russian settlement of the 18th-19th centuries. Here, not only have they not forgotten their native speech, but they also remember phrases that have not been used in Russia for 200 years.

Tilisnut po murzal or zyabra is an expression that means to hit in the face, but it sounds soft. They don’t plow, but yell, and are no longer offended by the nickname Katsap. This is what they are also called here in Moldova and in neighboring Ukraine, hinting at beards; tsap is a goat in Russian.

Arkhip Kornienko: “Katsap - this one had a DAC, and that’s how things went.”

Russians came to Kunichi almost 3 centuries ago. The schismatic Old Believers were hiding on the banks of the Dniester from the authorities and the official church. During this time, little has changed. Men still wear beards and shirts tied with a belt. They make the sign of the cross with two fingers and make a living by weaving brooms and growing walnuts and fruits.

The local priest Ivan Andronnikov is about 90. He has baptized, married and performed funeral services for villagers since the 60s. The Oak Church, built without a single nail, survived both the German-Romanian occupation and the period of Soviet atheism.

Ivan Andronnikov, rector of the church: “Well, there were assassination attempts. There were more than once, they broke them and took away the icons once - 30 icons.”

There are almost no single people in the village, and most families have many children. Planned children are, of course, not for Old Believers. Everyone gives birth and as many as God will send.

Ivan Andronnikov, rector of the church: “How many children do you have? - I don’t remember. Many.”

The Andronnikovs never had a television in their house, but Mother Anna, the wife of a village priest, understands who a secretary-assistant is. That's what they called her in Kunichi. The 85-year-old woman's head is like a computer. He knows everyone in the village, where there are several thousand inhabitants. Before the priest marries someone, he asks his mother if everything is pure in the pedigree of the bride and groom? Relatives up to the 7th generation are not allowed to marry.

Anna Andronnikova, the priest’s wife: “They don’t take us until the 7th generation. So that you are a stranger. So she baptized you, her daughter or her son don’t take you, and cousins ​​and second cousins ​​don’t take you. - But what about love? - Well, that’s how the unmarried lived.”

Former Afghan Vissarion Makarov has an eldest daughter of marriageable age. The strict father insists that the groom should not be found at a disco.

Vissarion Makarov: “It’s safer to find a groom in the church, the Lord will send it. I always tell her, what’s yours will not leave you. If you are very good, the Lord will give it to you.”

Young people follow traditions, but the Internet and television are no longer considered an obstacle for a true believer.

Artem Turygin: “Perhaps this is inaccessible for Agafya Lykova, because she identifies the Old Believers with the taiga dead end. Well, this was such a policy, perhaps in Soviet times, to present religious people as somehow dark.”

Semyon Pridorozhny in the village is called a correspondent behind his back. He was a journalist under Brezhnev, writes novels about the life of the great Old Believers and is going to publish a dictionary of local speech patterns. On the shelf with classics of literature there is a bust of Lenin.