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Russian History Encyclopedia:
Old Believers
The term Old Believers (or Old Ritualists) includes a number of groups that arose as a result of Russian church reforms initiated between 1654 and 1666. Old Believers desired to maintain the traditions, rites, and prerogatives of Russian Orthodoxy, whereas Nikon, patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, wanted to make Russian practices conform to those of the contemporary Greek Orthodox Church. Nikon's opponents, conscious of both a departure from tradition and an encroachment of central control over local autonomy, refused to change practices.
Origins of the Movement
The reforms took two general forms - textual and ritual. In the first, a group of editors changed all Russian liturgical books to conform with their contemporary Greek counterparts, rather than old Russian or old Greek versions. The most famous of these was the change in spelling of "Jesus" from "Isus" to "Iisus." While the Old Believers rejected all innovation, the symbolic centerpiece of resistance was the sign of the cross. Traditionally, Russians put together their thumb, fourth, and fifth fingers in a symbol of the Trinity. The second finger was held upright, to confirm Jesus' form as perfect man; the middle finger was bent to the level of the second, symbolizing Jesus' Godly form that bent down to become human. These two fingers touched the body during the sign of the cross, showing that both natures of Jesus (human and divine) existed on the cross. In Greek practice, the fingers were reversed - thumb, second, and third fingers were held together and touched the body, while the fourth and fifth fingers were held down toward the palm. When Nikon obliged his flock to change their hands, it seemed that he wanted them to discount the icons in their churches and the instructions in their psalm books, which explicitly showed the old Russian style of the sign. In fact, the Stoglav Council, convened exactly a century earlier, had condemned anything but the "two - fingered sign."
The implementation of reforms were draconian. Ivan Neronov and Avvakum Petrovich, who had been part of Nikon's circle, challenged the patriarch. Sometimes left alone, at other times persecuted, Nikon's opponents included some of the most respected churchmen in Muscovy. In an unusual move, Neronov was finally allowed to continue using the old books for his services, but Avvakum was exiled to Siberia and finally burned at the stake for his extreme anti - reform posture. Even women were not spared - the boyarina Feodosia Morozova was carried out of Moscow to the Borovsk Monastery, where she perished in jail.
For each of the famous anti - reformists, thousands more pious Russians simply paid no heed to the calls for reform and continued to pray according to the old style. Their existence underlined the limit of Nikon's other goal, which was to limit the expansion of central control of religious affairs to the patriarch alone, taking away local prerogatives. The vast majority of Old Believers simply refused to accept either the reforms or the centralization that Nikon imposed on his flock. The traditionalists, of course, perceived themselves as true Orthodox, and called followers of the reformed ritual "new believers" or "Nikonians." Much of this early history, however, is still poorly understood. Recent scholarship has shown that the Old Belief did not coalesce into a movement until perhaps a generation after the schism. Because local concerns tended to override any broader organization of Old Believers, the leadership of the Old Belief probably had only limited authority over a small core of supporters.
Organizational Structure
For the Old Believers, the possible loss of sacramental life splintered the movement shortly after the 1666 schism. Since no bishops consecrated new hierarchs according to the old ritual, Old Believers quickly found themselves bereft of canonical clergy. Old Believer communities solidified into a number of soglasiya, translatable as "concords." The differences among the concords lay not so much in doctrinal issues as in sacramental procedures and interaction with the state.
Old Believers developed a spectrum of views on the sacraments. Half - Old Believers, for example, accepted some Russian Orthodox sacramental life but prayed regularly only with other half - Old Believers. Many such half - Old Believers never openly aligned themselves with any specific concord but instead maintained a secret allegiance to the Old Belief. Although scores of small, locally formed groups sprang up, they tended to wither and die, leaving few traces of their history.
The priestly Old Believers (popovtsy), on the other hand, at some point in their history came to accept clergy from new-rite sources. These priestly Old Believers included the Belokrinitsy and the beglopopovtsy (fugitive-priestly), the latter accepting clergy consecrated in the state-sponsored church. Furthest from the church were the priestless Old Ritualists - the Pomortsy, Fedoseyevtsy, Filippovtsy, and Spasovtsy - all of whom firmly believed that the sacramental life had been taken up into heaven, just as Elijah had ridden his fiery chariot away from a sinful world, only to return in the last days. Priestless Old Believers were more likely to reject accommodation with the state than their priestly coreligionists, sometimes even eschewing the use of money or building permanent homes. While some Old Believers lived openly in their communities, others traveled from place to place, preaching and living off alms.
In broad terms, Old Believer communities on the local level were organized according to similar patterns, regardless of concord. Clergy (priests, preceptors, and abbots) usually came from within the community or from one nearby, and all members of the concord elected the group's clerical leadership. Democratic management of religious affairs found precedent in both the autonomous organization of pre-Nikon parishes and in the monastic rule maintained at the Solovki Monastery in Russia's extreme north. This monastery, a dramatic holdout against the Russian Orthodox church, saw its continued expression in the Vyg and Leksa monastic settlements that, in turn, established the Pomortsy concord.
Legal and Social Status in Imperial Russia
Reaction against Old Believers emanated from both the Russian Orthodox Church and the secular state. In pushing through his ritual and textual changes, Patriarch Nikon relied heavily on his relationship with Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich to suppress popular opposition. The history of the Old Belief's early years tells of numerous confrontations between agents of the state and Old Believers. At times, they were subjected to corporal punishment such as having a tongue cut out, being burnt at the stake, or even being smoked alive "like bacon." Sometimes, however, death came at the hands of Old Believers themselves. On some occasions, Old Believers burned themselves alive in their churches rather than accept the ritual changes of the revised Russian Orthodox Church. Although this was the most extreme form of resistance and did not happen often, it did provide an effective and surprisingly frequent deterrent to state seizure of Old Believer groups. Self-immolation continued even into the period of Peter I, a whole generation after the first reforms.
Peter I's position regarding the Old Believers was mixed. Old Believers were not tolerated as political opponents of the state, especially of Peter's
Western-looking reforms. He implemented a double poll tax on Old Believers and even imposed a tax on the beards that Old Believers refused to shave, as well as the traditional clothing that they would not exchange for Western European dress. In matters advantageous to the state, however, Peter I allowed Old Believers to live as they wished. For example, he refused to persecute Old Believers in the Vyg community while they were producing ore.
Even when allowed to exist, Old Believers often suffered under separate laws and governmental decrees, some of which were secret and therefore not published. The situation of the Old Believers improved dramatically, however, during the reign of Peter III, who tolerated them. During the rule of Catherine II, the great Old Believer centers of Preobrazhenskoe and Rogozhskoe were founded. In these centers, curiously known only as "cemeteries," Old Believers created large complexes of chapels, churches, bell towers, and charitable institutions, such as hospitals and almshouses. Preobrazhenskoe and Rogozhskoe became the focus of Old Believer merchant and industrial development for succeeding generations.
Meanwhile, the church itself had softened its attitude about the Old Ritual. In 1800, it created the edinoverie, an arm of the official church that continued to use the old rite. Although initially successful, the edinoverie never swayed the majority of priestly Old Believers, and even fewer of the priestless Old Believers, who had become convinced that priesthood would be lost until the Second Coming of Christ.
With the succession of Nicholas I to the throne, Old Believers once more found their legal status eroded. Even by the end of Alexander's reign, the state had already begun again to refer to Old Believers as raskolniki (schismatics). This name had earlier been dropped as too judgmental. As Nicholas worked out a new relationship between church and state, he began to close the Old Believers' places of worship, seize their property, and harrass the faithful. By 1834, the gains made by Old Believers before 1822 had been completely lost.
The policy of the next tsar, Alexander II, toward Old Believers proved much more liberal than that of his father. Although laws from Tsar Nicholas's period curtailing Old Believer freedom stayed on the books, the state generally stopped enforcing them. Old Believers again flourished both in Moscow and in the far reaches of the empire. The Russian Orthodox Church remained an adamant opponent of the schism but began to pursue expanded missionary activity to the Old Believers, rather than engage in direct persecution.
The succession of Alexander III further revised the Old Believers legal status. Study of the Old Ritualist question increased during the early years of Alexander III's administration and culminated in the law on Old Believers of May 1883. This new law served as the capstone to imperial policy on the Old Belief until the revolutionary changes of 1905. At that time, against the wishes of the Russian Orthodox Church, the emperor granted full toleration of all religious groups through his edict of April 17, 1905. In the late imperial period, this date would be celebrated by Old Believers as the beginning of a silver age of growth and wide public acceptance.
No one knows how many Old Believers lived in Russia. The first census of the empire had convinced Old Believers that to be counted was tantamount to being enrolled in the books of Antichrist. Moreover, Old Believers realized that being counted made them more easily subject to the double poll tax. Thus, Old Believers rarely cooperated with imperial authorities during enumerations. The Old Believers could hide from the authorities simply by calling themselves members of the Russian Orthodox Church, especially if they had bribed the local priest to enroll them on parish registers. The question of numerical strength in relation to gender remains sketchy at best. The figure of ten percent of the total population, however, has been regarded as authoritative for the imperial period.
Old Believers tended to live either in Moscow or on the outskirts of European Russia. Often far from imperial power, Old Believer communities tended to include active roles for women and devised self-help programs to insure economic survival. The wealth of Old Believer merchants and industrialists has been noted many times, but even the most modest Old Believer communities usually made provisions for mutual aid, rendering their settlements more prosperous-looking than other Russian villages. Old Believer industrialists were also widely reported to give preferential treatment, good benefits, and high pay for co - religionists working at their factories. Russian Orthodox authorities even claimed that the Old Believers lured poor adherents of the established church, including impoverished pastors, into the arms of the schism.
Old Believers in the Soviet and Post - soviet Period
The situation for Old Believers in post-1917 Russia has not been thoroughly studied, though some generalizations can be made. In many cases, churches were closed and their believers persecuted, especially in the period of the cultural revolution. Activists were jailed or sent to the Gulag camps, as were many other religious believers. In other cases, Old Believers followed a path of partial accommodation with the state, much like the practices of some Russian Orthodox. Taking advantage of Soviet laws, some Old Believer communities used their previous history of persecution and tradition of communal organization to appeal for churches to stay open. This strategy had mixed results. A few major centers were allowed to exist in Moscow, for example, and, after World War II, in Riga, but others were closed or destroyed.
Old Belief was weakened significantly during the communist period. Ritual life regularly became covert, rather than public. After having been baptized as children, Old Believers often ceased to take part in church rituals as they grew older. Some, especially in the urban centers, became Communist Party members, perhaps to revive their religious life in retirement. Older women, with little to lose politically or economically, attended churches more openly and frequently than working men and women.
Many Old Believers, however, retreated into their old practices of secrecy in worship, use of homes instead of officially sanctioned churches, and even flight into the wilderness. Rural Old Believers continued to be skeptical of outsiders, especially communists, and tried to retain ritual distance between the faithful and the unbelievers. Sometimes, illegal or informal conferences debated the problems of secular education, military service, and intermarriage. In the most extreme cases, Old Believer families moved ever farther into Siberia, sometimes even crossing into China. Notably, Old Believers also emigrated to Australia, Turkey, the United States, and elsewhere, continuing a trend that that had begun in the late nineteenth century.
The period of glasnost and perestroika created significant international scholarly and popular interest in the Old Believers, though that has waned during the years of economic difficulty following the breakup of the USSR. In post-communist Russia, Old Believers have become bolder and more public, reviving publications, building churches, and reconstituting community life. They have fought to have the Old Belief recognized by the government as one of Russia's historical faiths, hoping to put the Old Belief on par with the Russian Orthodox Church as a pillar of traditional (i.e., noncommunist) values. Old Believers have continued to struggle with the demands of tradition in a rapidly changing political, social, cultural, and economic environment.
Bibliography
Cherniavsky, Michael. (1996). "The Old Believers and the New Religion." Slavic Review 25:1 - 39.
Crummey, Robert O. (1970). The Old Believers and the World of Antichrist: The Vyg Community and the Russian State, 1694 - 1855. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
Michels, Georg Bernhard. (1999). At War with the Church: Religious Dissent in Seventeenth - Century Russia. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Peskov, Vasily. (1994). Lost in the Taiga: One Russian Family's Fifty-Year Struggle for Survival and Religious Freedom in the Siberian Wilderness, tr. Marian Schwartz. New York: Doubleday.
Robson, Roy R. (1995). Old Believers in Modern Russia. DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press.
Scheffel, David Z. (1991). In the Shadow of Antichrist: The Old Believers of Alberta. Lewiston, NY: Broadview Press.
—ROY R. ROBSON
History 1450-1789:
Old Believers
Also known as Old Ritualists (staroobriadtsy), the Old Believers (starovertsy) constituted Russia's principal movement of religious dissent in response to liturgical changes imposed by Patriarch Nikon (reigned 1652–1666). Faced with brutal persecution, the first Old Believers established an underground church that grew into a popular alternative to the Russian Orthodox Church during the eighteenth century. Old Believer communities defined themselves by a number of distinctive tenets and practices, including ritual conservatism, apocalyptic theology, and a strict moral code.
The First Old Believers
Shortly after Patriarch Nikon embarked on the revision of Russian liturgical books in 1652, he clashed with a group of educated churchmen over the sacred traditions of medieval orthodoxy. Nikon's opponents rejected the new three-finger sign of the cross (instead of the old two-finger sign), the four-ended shape of the cross (for the traditional six- or eight-ended crosses), the new spelling of the name Jesus ("Iisus" for the old "Isus"), five loaves (instead of seven) at the altar, processions against (rather than toward) the sun, the deletion of traditional prayers and prostrations, and many other changes. According to Old Believers, the Russian Orthodox Church had inherited Christ's original forms of worship from Byzantium, and even the slightest interference with this ancient legacy would lead to the destruction of Holy Russia. Evoking the imminent end of the world, they condemned Patriarch Nikon as either the precursor of the Antichrist or the Antichrist himself.
Prior to the introduction of liturgical reforms, the first Old Believers had held influential positions within the Russian church, and some had even been close associates of Patriarch Nikon and Tsar Alexis Mikhailovich (ruled 1645–1676). Prominent among the Old Believer founding fathers were the abbot Feoktist, the archimandrites Nikanor and Spiridon Potemkin, the bishops Aleksander of Vyatka and Pavel of Kolomna, the archpriests Ivan Neronov and Avvakum Petrovich, the priest Nikita Dobrynin, and the deacon Fedor Ivanov.
These first Old Believers, who saw their role primarily as instructing ordinary Russians in the essentials of ancient Christianity, established lay conventicles and hermitages as alternative structures of worship. The church and state assaulted most of these communities with military campaigns. Entire congregations sometimes immolated themselves in dramatic attempts to escape capture. Only a few isolated Old Believer communities in frontier areas survived this persecution. Some of the founding fathers were excommunicated and ended up in exile; others suffered martyrdom and became popular Old Believer saints.
A common Old Believer identity emerged only gradually, and due to two principal developments: first, the copying and dissemination of pastoral letters and treatises penned by the founding fathers; second, the composition of hagiographic vitae devoted to martyred heroes. During the last two decades of the seventeenth century, Old Believers began to define themselves as a textual community that shared a body of sacred writings.
The Eighteenth Century
During the reign of Peter I (ruled 1689–1725), tens of thousands of peasants joined Old Believer communities in order to escape the newly imposed army recruitment levies and heavy tax burdens. By 1800 Old Believers numbered several million. An effective school system taught the peasant majority of Old Believers to read and write. A new generation of intellectuals sought to distinguish Old Belief from Russian Orthodoxy. Liturgical books, bells, icons, and crosses from the pre-Nikonian period (or meticulous reproductions thereof) as well as church services using the old liturgies were central features of community life. In addition, powerful elders (nastavniki) enforced stringent discipline and ascetic habits. Contacts with outsiders were severely limited; traditional, simple dress was uniformly imposed; alcohol, tobacco, and tea were prohibited, as were most meats and certain vegetables, such as potatoes and lettuce. Drunkards, fornicators, and other troublemakers were punished or expelled.
Despite their conscious separation from society, Old Believers often became involved in industry and commerce. This seeming paradox can be explained by a number of factors: the necessity of material survival, the effective sharing of resources, and the emergence of a strong work ethic and a disciplined labor force, as well as the state's growing recognition that Old Believers played a crucial role in Russian economic development.
The Old Believer movement failed to develop overarching institutions and soon split into a number of concords (soglasiia) that disagreed over sacraments such as priesthood, baptism, and marriage. The central dilemma remained the sustenance of a church without an episcopal hierarchy. The Priestly (popovtsy), who predominated in Russia's southern and western borderlands, accepted fugitive priests consecrated by the Russian Orthodox Church. By contrast, the Priestless (bespopovtsy), who lived mostly in the Russian north and Siberia, were led by hermits and abolished priestly sacraments such as communion and marriage.
Historiography
Most historians have focused on the first Old Believers and concluded that the founding fathers were charismatic leaders of a popular movement that pitted Russia's masses against the church. According to this standard interpretation, Old Believers' opposition to liturgical changes precipitated a dramatic confrontation usually referred to as the Russian Schism (raskol). Old Believers are perceived to have rallied powerful resistance to the forces of modernization and Westernization unleashed by the Romanov dynasty. This interpretation is supported by polemical texts that depict Old Believers as the principal protagonists in an apocalyptic struggle against the forces of the Antichrist.
Recent studies of Russian archives, however, have shown that conflicts between church and society were far more complicated. Resistance to Nikon's liturgical reforms was not the result of Old Believer propaganda but reflected age-old fissures in Russia's religious geography. Many parishes and monasteries had never been integrated into the institutional structure of the church, and countless peasants, merchants, and lower clergy lived independent lives without conforming to church regulations. When church agents attempted to enforce the Nikonian reforms as signs of obedience to church authority, they failed to break traditional autonomies. Powerless to bridge the gulf between local cultures and the administrative center, the Russian Orthodox Church declared the outbreak of a schism. Old Believers were certainly the church's most visible and outspoken opponents, but they did not attract large popular followings before the eighteenth century. The most remarkable achievement of the Old Believer movement was its subsequent transformation from an underground diaspora into a powerful adversary of the Russian Orthodox Church.
Bibliography
Bubnov, N. Iu. Staroobriadcheskaia kniga v Rossii vo vtoroi polovine XVII veka: Istochniki, tipy, i evoliutsiia. St. Petersburg, 1995.
Cherniavsky, Michael. "The Old Believers and the New Religion." Slavic Review 25, no. 1 (March 1966): 1–39.
Conybeare, Frederick C. Russian Dissenters. Harvard Theological Studies, vol. 10. Cambridge, Mass., 1921.
Crummey, Robert O. "Old Belief as Popular Religion: New Approaches." Slavic Review 52, no. 4 (Winter 1993): 700–712.
——. The Old Believers and the World of Antichrist: The Vyg Community and the Russian State, 1694–1855. Madison, Wis., Milwaukee, and London, 1970.
Michels, Georg. At War with the Church: Religious Dissent in Seventeenth-Century Russia. Stanford, 1999.
——. "The First Old Believers in Tradition and Historical Reality." Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas 41, no. 4 (1993): 481–508.
Smirnov, Petr S. Istoriia russkogo raskola staroobriadstva. St. Petersburg, 1895.
Zenkovsky, Serge A. Russkoe staroobriadchestvo: Dukhovnye dvizheniia semnadtsatogo veka. Munich, 1970.
—GEORG MICHELS
Wikipedia:
Old Believers
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In the context of Russian Orthodox church history, the Old Believers (Russian: старове́ры or старообря́дцы) became separated after 1666 - 1667 from the hierarchy of the Russian Orthodox Church as a protest against church reforms introduced by Patriarch Nikon. Old Believers continue liturgical practices which the Russian Orthodox Church maintained before the implementation of these reforms. Russian-speakers refer to the schism itself as raskol (раскол - etymologically indicating a "cleaving-apart").
Introductory summary of origins
In 1652, Nikon (1605 – 1681; Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church from 1652 to 1658) introduced a number of ritual and textual innovations with the aim of achieving uniformity between Russian and Greek Orthodox practices. Nikon, having noticed discrepancies between Russian and Greek rites and texts, ordered an adjustment of the Russian rites to align with the Greek ones of his time. He acted without adequate consultation with the clergy and without gathering a council. After the implementation of these innovations, the Church anathematized and suppressed those who acted contrary to them with the support of Muscovite state power. These traditionalists became known as "Old Believers" or "Old Ritualists".
The reforms of Patriarch Nikon
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By the middle of the 17th century Greek and Russian Church officials, including Patriarch Nikon, had noticed discrepancies between contemporary Russian and Greek usages. They reached the conclusion that the Russian Orthodox Church had, as a result of errors of incompetent copyists, developed rites and missal texts of its own that had significantly deviated from the Greek originals. Thus, the Russian Orthodox Church had become dissonant from the other Orthodox churches. Later research was to vindicate the Muscovite service-books as belonging to a different recension from that which was used by the Greeks at the time of Nikon, and the unrevised Muscovite books were actually older and more venerable than the Greek books, which had undergone several revisions over the centuries and ironically, were newer and contained innovations (Kapterev N.F., 1913, 1914; Zenkovskij S.A., 1995, 2006).
Nikon, supported by Tsar Alexis I (reigned 1645 - 1676), carried out some preliminary liturgical reforms. In 1652, he convened a synod and exhorted the clergy on the need to compare Russian Typikon, Euchologion, and other liturgical books with their Greek counterparts. Monasteries from all over Russia received requests to send examples to Moscow in order to have them subjected to a comparative analysis. Such a task would have taken many years of conscientious research and could hardly have given an unambiguous result, given the complex development of the Russian liturgical texts over the previous centuries and an almost complete lack of textual historigraphic techniques at the time.
The locum tenens for the Patriarch, Pitirim of Krutitsy, convened a second synod in 1666, which brought Patriarch Michael III of Antioch, Patriarch Paisius of Alexandria and many bishops to Moscow. Some scholars allege that the visiting patriarchs each received both 20,000 roubles in gold and furs for their participation (Zenkovskij S.A., 1995, 2006). This council officially established the reforms and anathematized not only all those opposing the innovations, but the old Russian books and rites themselves as well. As a side-effect of condemning the past of the Russian Orthodox Church and her traditions, the messianic theory depicting Moscow as the Third Rome appeared weaker. Instead of the guardian of Orthodox faith, Russia seemed an accumulation of serious liturgical mistakes.
Nevertheless, both Patriarch and Tsar wished to carry out their reforms, although their endeavours may have had as much or more political motivation as religious; several authors on this subject point out that Tsar Alexis, encouraged by his military success in the war against Poland-Lithuania to liberate West Russian provinces and the Ukraine, grew ambitious of becoming the liberator of the Orthodox areas which at that time formed part of the Ottoman Empire. They also mention the role of the Near-East patriarchs, who actively supported the idea of the Russian Tsar becoming the liberator of all Orthodox Christians (Kapterev N.F. 1913, 1914; Zenkovsky S.A., 1995, 2006).
Main alterations introduced by Patriarch Nikon
The numerous changes in both texts and rites occupied approximately 400 pages. Old Believers present the following as the most crucial changes:
| Old Practice | New Practice | |
|---|---|---|
| Spelling of Jesus | Ісусъ [Isus] | Іисусъ [Iisus] |
| Creed | рождена, а не сотворена (begotten but not made); И в Дѹха Свѧтаго, Господа истиннаго и Животворѧщаго (And in the Holy Ghost, the True Lord, the Giver of Life) | рождена, не сотворена (begotten not made); И в Дѹха Свѧтаго, Господа Животворѧщаго (And in the Holy Ghost, the Lord, the Giver of Life) |
| Sign of the Cross | Two fingers, straightened | Three fingers, straightened |
| Number of Prosphora in the Liturgy | Seven Prosphora | Five Prosphora |
| Direction of Procession | Sunwise | Counter-Sunwise |
| Alleluia | Аллилуїa, аллилуїa, слава Тебѣ, Боже (Alleluia, alleluia, glory to Thee, o God) | Аллилуїa, аллилуїa, аллилуїa, слава Тебѣ, Боже (thrice alleluia) |
Notes on other differences appear below. Modern readers may perceive these alterations as trivial, but the faithful of that time saw rituals and dogmas as strongly interconnected: church rituals had from the very beginning represented and symbolised doctrinal truth (see the section on Justification of Old Belief below). Furthermore, the authorities imposed the reforms in an autocratic fashion, with no consultation of the people who would become subject to them, and the reaction against the so-called Nikonian reforms would have objected as much to the manner of imposition as to the actual alterations. In addition, changes often occurred arbitrarily in the texts. For example, wherever the books read 'Христосъ' [Christ], Nikon's assistants substituted 'Сынъ' [meaning the Son], and wherever they read 'Сынъ' they substituted 'Христосъ'. Another example is that wherever the books read 'Церковь' [meaning Church], Nikon substituted 'Храмъ' [meaning Temple] and vice-versa. The perceived arbitrariness of the changes infuriated the faithful, who resented needless change for the sake of change.
The Schism or "Raskol"
Opponents of the ecclasiastical reforms of Nikon emerged among all strata of the people and in relatively large numbers (see Raskol). Even after the deposition of patriarch Nikon (1658), who presented too strong a challenge to the Tsar's authority, a series of church councils officially endorsed Nikon's liturgical reforms. The Old Believers fiercely rejected all innovations, and the most radical amongst them maintained that the official Church had fallen into the hands of the Antichrist. Under the guidance of Archpriest Avvakum Petrov (1620 or 1621 to 1682), who had become the leader of the conservative camp within the Old Believers' movement, the Old Believers publicly denounced and rejected all ecclesiastical reforms. The State church anathematized both the old rites and books and those who wished to stay loyal to them at the synod of 1666. From that moment, the Old Believers officially lacked all civil rights. The State church had the most active Old Believers arrested, and executed several of them (including Archpriest Avvakum) some years later in 1682.
After the schism
After 1685 a period of persecutions began, including both torture and executions. Many Old Believers fled Russia altogether. However, Old Believers became the dominant denomination in many regions, including Pomorye (Arkhangelsk region), Guslitsy, Kursk region, the Urals, Siberia etc. A compact 40,000-strong Lipovan community of Old Believers still lives in neighboring Kiliia raion (Vilkovo) of Ukraine and Tulcea County of Romania in the Danube Delta. By the 1910s, about 25% of the population in Russia said that they belonged to one of the Old Believer branches (census data).
Government oppression could vary from relatively moderate, as under Peter the Great (reigned 1682 - 1725) (Old Believers had to pay double taxation and a separate tax for wearing a beard) — to intense, as under Tsar Nicholas I (reigned 1825 - 1855). The Russian synodal state church and the state authorities often saw Old Believers as dangerous elements and as a threat to the Russian state.
In 1905 Tsar Nicholas II signed an Act of religious freedom, which ended the persecution of all religious minorities in Russia. The Old Believers gained the right to build churches, to ring church bells, to hold processions and to organize themselves. It became prohibited (as under Catherine the Great (reigned 1762 - 1796)) to refer to Old Believers as raskolniki (schismatics), a name they consider insulting. People often refer to the period from 1905 until 1917 as "the Golden Age of the Old Faith". One can regard the Act of 1905 as emancipating the Old Believers, who had until then occupied an almost illegal position in Russian society. Nevertheless some restrictions for Old Believers continued: for example, they had no right to join the civil service.
Modern situation
In 1971 the Moscow Patriarchate revoked the anathemas placed on the Old Believers in the 17th century, but most Old Believer communities have not returned to Communion with other Orthodox Christians.
Estimates place the total number of Old Believers remaining today at from 1 to 10 millions, some living in extremely isolated communities in places to which they fled centuries ago to avoid persecution. One Old-Believer parish in the United States has entered into communion with the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia.
Old-Believer churches in Russia currently have started restoration of their property, although Old Believers (unlike the nearly-official mainstream Orthodoxy) face many difficulties in claiming their restitution rights for their churches. Moscow has churches for all the most important Old Believer branches: Rogozhskaya Zastava (Popovtsy of the Belokrinitskaya hierarchy official center), a cathedral for the Novozybkovskaya hierarchy in Zamoskvorech'ye and Preobrazhenskaya Zastava where Pomortsy and Fedoseevtsy coexist.
Within the Old-Believer world, only Pomortsy and Fedoseevtsy treat each other relatively well; none of the other denominations acknowledge each other. Ordinary Old Believers display some tendencies of intra-branch ecumenism, but these trends find sparse support among the official leaders of the congregations.
Nowadays Old Believers live all over the world; they scattered mainly due to persecutions under the Tsars and due to the Russian Revolution of 1917. Significant Old-Believer communities exist in Plamondon, Alberta; Woodburn, Oregon; Erie, Pennsylvania; Erskine, Minnesota and in various parts of Alaska including near Homer (Voznesenka, Razdolna, and Kachemak Selo), Anchor Point (Nikolaevsk),[1] and Delta Junction.[2] A flourishing community also exists in Sydney, Australia.
Old Believer Denominations
Although all Old Believers groups emerged as a result of opposition to the Nikonian reform, they do not constitute a single monolithic body. In fact, the Old Believers feature a great diversity of groups that profess different interpretations of the church tradition and often are not in communion with each other. Some groups even practise re-baptism before admitting a member of another group into their midst.
The terminology used for the divisions within the Old-Believer denomination does not always make precise delineations. Generally, people may refer to a larger movement or group — especially in the case of such major ones as popovtsy and bespopovtsy — as a soglasie or soglas (in English: "agreement" or more generally, "confession"). Another term, tolk (English: "teaching") usually applies to lesser divisions within the major "confessions". In particular it can characterise multiple sects that have appeared within the bespopovtsy movement.
Popovtsy
Since none of the bishops joined the Old Believers (except Bishop Pavel of Kolomna, who was put to death for this), apostolically ordained priests of the old rite would have soon become extinct. Two responses appeared to this dilemma: the Popovtsy (поповцы, "with priests") and the Bespopovtsy ("priestless").
The Popovtsy represented the more moderate conservative opposition, those who strove to continue religious and church life as it had existed before the reforms of Nikon. They recognized ordained priests from the new-style Russian Orthodox church who joined the Old Believers and who had denounced the Nikonian reforms. In 1846 they convinced Amvrosii Popovich (1791 - 1863), a deposed Greek Orthodox bishop whom Turkish pressure had had removed from his see at Sarajevo, to become an Old Believer and to consecrate three Russian Old-Believer priests as bishops. In 1859, the number of Old-Believer bishops in Russia reached ten, and they established their own episcopate, the so called Belokrinitskaya hierarchy. Not all priestist Old Believers recognized this hierarchy. Dissenters known as беглопоповцы (beglopopovtsy) obtained their own hierarchy in the 1920s. The priestist Old Believers thus manifest as two churches which share the same beliefs, but which treat each other's hierarchy as illegitimate. Popovtsy have priests, bishops and all sacraments, including the eucharist.
- Belokrinitskaya hierarchy - The largest Popovtsy denomination. One can refer to the Russian part of this denomination as the Belokrinitskoe Soglasie (the "Belokrinitsky Agreement") or as the Russian Orthodox Old-Rite Church.
- Okruzhniki (extinct)
- Neokruzhniki (extinct)
- Novozybkovskaya hierarchy or Russian Old-Orthodox Church
- Beglopopovtsy (extinct, now the Russian Old-Orthodox Church)
- Luzhkane, also known as Luzhkovskoe soglasie (extinct). In some places, they had no priests and so belonged to Bespopovtsy.
Bespopovtsy
The Bespopovtsy (the "priestless") rejected "the World" where Antichrist reigned; they preached the imminent end of the world, asceticism, adherence to the old rituals and the old faith. The Bespopovtsy claimed that the true church of Christ had ceased to exist on Earth, and they therefore renounced priests and all sacraments except baptism. The Bespopovtsy movement has many sub-groups. Bespopovtsy have no priests and no eucharist.
- Pomortsy or Danilovtsy (do not confuse with Pomors) originated in North European Russia (Russian Karelia, Arkhangelsk region). Initially they rejected marriage and prayer for the Tsar.
- Novopomortsy, or "New Pomortsy" - accept marriage
- Staropomortsy, or "Old Pomortsy" - reject marriage
- Fedoseevtsy – “Society of Christian Old Believers of the Old Pomortsy Unmarried Confession” (1690s- present); deny marriage and practise cloister-style asceticism.
- Fillipovtsy.
- Chasovennye (from a word chasovnya - a chapel) - Siberian branch. The Chasovennye initially had priests, but later decided to change to a priestless practice. Also known as Semeyskie (in the lands east of Baykal Lake).
Bespopovsty: Minor Groups
Aside from these major groups, many smaller groups have emerged and died out at various times since the end of 17th century:
- Aristovtsy (beginning of 19th to the beginning of 20th centuries; extinct) - from the name of the merchant Aristov;
- Titlovtsy (extinct in 20th cent.) - emerged from Fedoseevtsy, supported the use of Pilate's inscription upon the cross (titlo), which other groups rejected;
- Troparion confession (troparschiki) - a group that commemorated the tsar in the hymns (troparia);
- Daniel’s confession of the “partially married” (danilovtsy polubrachnye);
- Adamant confession (adamantovy) - refused to use money and passports (as containing the seal of Antichrist);
- Aaron's confession (aaronovtsy) - second half of the 18th century, a spin-off of the Fillipovtsy.
- “Grandmother’s confession” or the Self-baptized - practised self-baptism or the baptism by midwives (babushki), since the priesthood — in their opinion — had ceased to exist;
- “Hole-worshippers” (dyrniki) - relinquished the use of icons and prayed to the east through a hole in the wall (!);
- Melchisedecs (in Moscow and in Bashkortostan) - practised a peculiar lay "quasi-eucharistic" rite;
- “Runaways” (beguny) or “Wanderers” (stranniki);
- “Netovtsy” or Saviour’s confession - denied the possibility of celebrating sacraments and praying in churches; the name comes from the Russian net "no", since they have "no" sacraments, "no" churches, "no" priests etc.
Yedinovertsy
Yedinovertsy (единоверчество) - Agreed to become a part of the official Russian Orthodox Church while saving the old rites. First appearing in 1800, the Yedinovertsy come under the omophor of the Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate or of the Russian Church Abroad. They retain the use of the pre-Nikonian rituals. One can call them "Old Ritualists", but they do not count as "Old Believers" in the standard sense.
Differences between the Old Believers and post-Nikonian Russian Orthodoxy
- Old Believers use two fingers while making the sign of the cross (two fingers straightened, three folded) while new-style Orthodoxy uses three fingers for the sign of cross (three fingers straightened, two fingers folded). Old Ritualists generally say the Jesus Prayer with the Sign of the Cross, while New Ritualists use the Sign of the Cross as a Trinitarian symbol. This makes for a significant difference between the two branches of Russian Orthodoxy, and one of the most noticeable (see the picture of Boyarynya Feodosia Morozova above).
- Old Believers reject all changes and emendations of liturgical texts and rituals introduced by the reforms of Patriarch Nikon. Thus they continue to use the older Church Slavonic translation of the sacred texts, including the Psalter, striving to preserve intact the "pre-Nikonian" practices of the Russian Church.
- Old Believers only recognize performing baptism through three full immersions, and reject the validity of any baptismal rite performed otherwise (for example through pouring or sprinkling, as the Russian Orthodox Church has occasionally accepted since the 18th century).
- Old Believers in principle oppose ecumenism, despite many instances of good relationships and collaboration with other Eastern Orthodox churches.
Old Believers and new-style Orthodoxy have a lot of small, but essential, differences in their respective church services. The very style and atmosphere of the services differs:
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- Old Believers perform the Liturgy with 7 prosphora, not 5, as in new-style Orthodoxy.
- Old Believers chant the alleluia verse after the psalmody twice, not three times.
- Old Believers do not use polyphonic singing, but only monodic, unison singing. They also have their own way of writing down music: not with linear notation, but with special signs — kryuki or znamena ("hooks: or "banners" in English translation; see Znamenny Chant). Old Believers practise several different types of Znamenny Chant: znamenny raspev, stolpovoy raspev, pomorsky raspev(or khomovoe singing), demestvenny raspev etc.
- Old Believers use only icons of old Russian or Byzantine iconography; they do not believe in venerating realistic images of Christ, Our Lady and the Saints as icons (which has wide acceptance in new-style Orthodoxy). Old Ritualists do not accept photographic or printed reproductions of icons in their worship.
- Old Believers do not kneel while praying, but in comparison with new-style Orthodoxy, they perform more bows and prostrations, see Zemnoy poklon). While making prostrations, Old Believers use a special little rug called a podruchnik, placing their hands on it. The fingers used to make the Sign of the Cross must remain clean during the prayers.
- On average the Old Believers' services last two to three times longer than in new-style Orthodoxy. In general, the Old Believers insist on following the rubrics to the letter, and refrain from shortening the Psalter readings and hymnography. They also tend to combine several services together, sometimes redundantly. Thus, a typical Old-Rite "vigil service" (vsenoschnoe bdenie) would include shortened ("small") vespers, a solemn ("great") vespers, compline, midnight office, matins and the First Hour.
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- While saying repetitive prayers, Old Believers use a special type of beads called lestovka.
- Old Believers who have ordained priests use a more strict preparation before Communion — with very strict fasting within the week before Communion. This explains in part why Communion among laity is common only during the Lent and other long fasts.
- It is common after each Confession to have some epitimia. Usually, it is a certain number of bows, which are counted with the help of a lestovka.
- Old Believers do not venerate saints that appeared in Orthodoxy after 1666. For example, they do not venerate Saint Seraphim of Sarov, one of the most well-known Russian saints of the 19th century. On the other hand, many Old Believers' ecclesial bodies have canonized a number of saints who are not being recognized by the Russian Orthodox Church, e.g. archpriest Avvakum and others.
- Old Believers use cast (silver, bronze) and carved (wooden) icons as well as painted ones. The new-style Orthodoxy prohibited the veneration of icons in relief. In Old Believer circles the practice continued and became very popular, since Old Believers had often to hide their religious implements. Cast icons of small size (and often also folding — see skladen) proved very useful in that respect.
Old Believers also have unique daily-life practices. They consider shaving one's beard a sin — though some modern denominations of Old Believers show more tolerance towards shaven chins. Some Bespopovsty denominations prohibit drinking coffee and tea. Smoking or any other use of tobacco counts as a dire sin. The most strict and eschatological Bespopovsty have practices of refraining from contact with the outer world. That may include prohibitions on sharing meals with people of other faiths, on using their belongings and wares, etc.
Validity of the Reformist Theory: sources of Russian traditions
Vladimir officially converted the Eastern Slavs to Christianity in 988, and the people had adopted Greek Orthodox liturgical practices. At the end of 11th century, the efforts of St. Theodosius of the Caves in Kiev (Феодосий Киево-Печерский, d. 1074) introduced the so-called Studite Typicon to Russia. This typicon (essentially, a guide-book for liturgical and monastic life) reflected the traditions of the urban monastic community of the famous Studion monastery in Constantinople. The Studite typicon predominated throughout the western part of the Byzantine Empire and was accepted throughout the Russian lands. In the end of 14th century, through the work of St. Cyprian, metropolitan of Moscow and Kiev, the Studite liturgical practices were gradually replaced in Russia with the so-called Jerusalem Typicon or the Typicon of St. Sabbas - originally, an adaptation of the Studite liturgy to the customs of Palestinian monasteries. The process of gradual change of typica would continue throughout the 15th century and, because of its slow implementation, met with little resistance - unlike Nikon's reforms, conducted with abruptness and violence. However, in the course of 15th-17th centuries, Russian scribes continued to insert some Studite material into the general shape of Jerusalem Typicon. This explains the differences between the modern version of the Typicon, used by the Russian Orthodox Church, and the pre-Nikonian Russian recension of Jerusalem Typicon, called Oko Tserkovnoe (Rus. "eye of the church"). This pre-Nikonian version, based on the Moscow printed editions of 1610, 1633 and 1641, continues to be used by modern Old Believers.
However, in the course of the polemics against Old Believers, the official Russian Orthodox Church often claimed the discrepancies (which emerged in the texts between the Russian and the Greek churches) as Russian innovations, errors, or arbitrary translations. This charge of "Russian innovation" re-appeared repeatedly in the textbooks and anti-raskol treatises and catecheses, including, for example, those by Dimitry of Rostov. The critical evaluation of the sources and of the essence of Nikonian reforms began only in the 1850s with the groundbreaking work of Nikolai F. Kapterev (1847-1917), continued later by Serge Zenkovsky. Kapterev demonstrated - for the first time to the wider Russian audience - that the rites, rejected and condemned by the Nikonian reforms, were genuine customs of the Orthodox Church which suffered alterations in the Greek usage during the 15th-16th centuries, but remained unchanged in Russia. The pre-Nikonian liturgical practices, including some elements of the Russian typicon, Oko Tserkovnoe, were demonstrated to have preserved many earlier Byzantine material, being actually closer to the earlier Byzantine texts than some later Greek customs (Kapterev, N.F. 1913; Zenkovsky, S.A. 2006).
Remarkably, the scholars who opened the new avenues for re-evaluation of the reform by the Russian Church — Kapterev and E.E. Golubinsky — themselves held membership in the official church, but took up study of the causes and background of the reforms and of the resulting schism. Their research revealed that the official explanation regarding the old Russian books and rites was unsustainable. Zenkovsky has described Kapterev's as [...] the first historian who questioned the theory about the “pervertedness” or incorrectness of the Old Russian ritual and pointed out that the Russian ritual was not at all perverted, but had on the contrary preserved a number of early Old Byzantine rituals, among them the sign of the cross with two fingers, which had been changed later on by the Greeks themselves, in the 12th and 13th century, which caused the discrepancy between the Old Russian and the New Greek church rituals. — Zenkovsky, S.A., Russkoe staroobrjadčestvo, 1970,1990, p. 19-20.
Justification of Old Belief
The Old Believer schism did not occur simply as a result of a few individuals with power and influence. The schism had complex causes, revealing historical processes and circumstances in 17th-century Russian society. Those who broke from the hierarchy of the official State Church had quite divergent views on church, faith, society, state power and social issues. Thus the collective term “Old Believers” groups together various movements within Russian society which actually had existed long before 1666/1667. They shared a distrust of state power and of the episcopate, insisting upon the right of the people to arrange their own spiritual life, and expressing the ambition to aim for such control.
Both the popovtsy and bespopovtsy, although theologically and psychologically two different teachings, manifested spiritual, eschatological and mystical tendencies throughout Russian religious thought and church life. One can also emphasize the schism's position in the political and cultural backgrounds of its time: increasing Western influence, secularization, and attempts to subordinate the Church to the state. Nevertheless, the Old Believers sought above all to defend and preserve the purity of the Orthodox faith, embodied in the old rituals, which inspired many to strive against Patriarch Nikon’s church reforms even unto death.
Outsiders have often depicted the Old Believers' movement as an obscure, fanatic faith in rituals that led to the deaths of tens of thousands of ignorant people. All people of that time, however, felt that ritual expressed the very essence of their faith. Old Believers hold that the preservation of a certain "microclimate" that enables the salvation of one's soul requires not only living by the commandments of Christ, but also carefully preserving Church tradition, which contains the spiritual power and knowledge of past centuries, embodied in external forms.
The circumstance that the church reforms of Nikon concerned mainly liturgical texts and rituals sometimes leads to a view of the Old Believers' faith as being extremely conservative, not able to develop, and preferring form to content. From an Old Believer's point of view, the idea of contents a priori prevailing over form appears simplistic. To illustrate their response, consider poetry. If one converts a poem into prose, the "contents" of the poem may remain intact, but the poem will lose its charm, emotional impact, and much of its ability to influence an audience's reaction; moreover, the poem will essentially no longer exist. In the case of religious rituals, form and contents do not just form two separable, autonomous entities, but connect with each other through complex relationships, including theological, psychological, phenomenal, esthetic and historic dimensions.
These aspects, in their turn, play a role in the perception of these rituals by the faithful and in their spiritual lives. Considering the fact that Church rituals from their very beginning have had a connection with doctrinal truth, changing these rituals can have a tremendous effect on religious conscience and a severe impact on the faithful.
Nevertheless, centuries of persecution and the nature of their origin have made some Old Believers very culturally conservative and mistrustful of anything they see as insufficiently Russian. Some Old Believers go so far as to consider any pre-Nikonian Orthodox Russian practice or artifact as exclusively theirs, denying that the Russian Orthodox Church has any claims upon a history before Patriarch Nikon.
However, Russian economic history of the late 19th and early 20th centuries reveals the Old-Believer merchant families as more flexible and more open to innovations while creating factories and starting the first Russian industries. This observation stands in apparent contradiction of the official doctrines of the Old Believers' faith, but centuries of struggle developed in them a habit of working and living without great concern for the State or for mainstream cultural influences. Old Believers also lent money to each other with a much lower interest rate than any financial institutions and individuals, which helped them to arrange a cross-financing network and to accumulate capital.
Similarities between Old Believers and Oriental Orthodox Christians
(These are not true with all Christian Churches)
Although Oriental Orthodox Churches and the rest of Christendom (Eastern Orthodox Churches and the Catholic Church) separated in 451 AD following the Council of Chalcedon, striking similarities can be found today between the Old Believers Russian Orthodox Christians and the Oriental Orthodox Christians, such as the Copts, the Armenians, the Syriacs, the Ethiopians, and the Eritreans. This similarity can be attributed to the fact that both groups are much stricter than any other Christian denomination in resisting even the slightest changes to their liturgy, practices or Orthodox faith as it has been handed down to them by the fathers of the early Church in the first 4 centuries of Christianity. Some of the most notable similarities between the Old Believers and the Oriental Orthodox Christians include the following:
- Both adhere strictly to the practise of baptism by three full immersions, and reject the validity of baptism by sprinkling or pouring of water.
- Both reject any changes or emendations of liturgical or religious texts.
- Both employ monodic singing, as opposed to the polyphonic singing of most other Christian denominations.
- Both reject the use of modern realistic iconography, and adhere to the veneration of traditional icons.
- Both groups practise bows and prostrations during liturgical services, and do not kneel during prayer.
- The liturgical services of both the Old Believers and the Oriental Orthodox are considerably longer than those of other Christian denominations. These services can last for as long as eight hours on feast days.
- Preparation for communion is very strict for both groups and lasts for days prior to receiving the sacrament.
References and select bibliography
In English:
Cherniavsky, M., "The Reception of the Council of Florence in Moscow" and Shevchenko I., "Ideological Repercussions of the Council of Florence", Church History XXIV (1955), 147-157 and 291-323 (articles)
Crummey, Robert O. The Old Believers & The World Of Antichrist; The Vyg Community & The Russian State, Wisconsin U.P., 1970
Gill, T. The Council of Florence, Cambridge, 1959
Meyendorff, P.": Russia - Ritual and Reform: The Liturgical Reforms of Nikon in the 17th Century", St Vladimir's Seminary Press, Crestwood, NY, 1991
Zenkovsky, Serge A. "The ideology of the Denisov brothers", Harvard Slavic Studies, 1957. III, 49-66
Zenkovsky, S.: "The Old Believer Avvakum", Indiana Slavic Studies, 1956, I, 1-51
Zenkovsky, Serge A.: Pan-Turkism and Islam in Russia, Harvard U.P., 1960 and 1967
Zenkovsky, S.: "The Russian Schism", Russian Review, 1957, XVI, 37-58
In Russian:
Зеньковский С.А. Русское старообрядчество, том I и II, Москва 2006 / Zenkovsky S.A. “Russia’s Old Believers”, volumes I and II, Moscow 2006
Голубинский Е.Е. История русской церкви, Москва 1900 / Golubinskij E.E. “History of the Russian Church”, Moscow 1900
Голубинский Е.Е. К нашей полимике со старообрядцами, ЧОИДР, 1905 / “Contribution to our polemic with the Old believers”, ČOIDR, 1905
Каптерев Н.Ф. Патриарх Никон и