Today in Russia there are about 2 million Old Believers. There are entire villages inhabited by adherents of the old faith. Despite the small number, modern Old Believers remain firm in their convictions, avoid contact with the Nikonians, preserve the traditions of their ancestors, and resist "Western influences" in every possible way.
In recent years, interest in the Old Believers has been growing in our country. Many both secular and church authors publish materials on the spiritual and cultural heritage, history and modern day of the Old Believers. However, the very phenomenon of the Old Believers, its philosophy, worldview and peculiarities of terminology are still poorly studied.
Nikon's reforms and the emergence of "schismatics"
The Old Believers have an ancient and tragic history. In the middle of the 17th century, Patriarch Nikon, with the support of the tsar, carried out a religious reform, the task of which was to bring the process of worship and some rituals in line with the "standards" adopted by the Church of Constantinople. The reforms were supposed to increase the prestige of both the Russian Orthodox Church and the Russian state in the international arena. But not all the flock took the innovations positively. The Old Believers are just those people who considered the “book right” (editing church books) and the unification of the liturgical rite to be blasphemy.
The changes approved by the Church Councils in 1656 and 1667 may seem too insignificant to non-believers. For example, the "Symbol of Faith" was edited: it was prescribed to speak about the kingdom of God in the future tense, the definition of the Lord and the oppositional union were removed from the text. In addition, the word "Jesus" was now ordered to be written with two "and" (according to the modern Greek model). The Old Believers did not appreciate it. As for the divine service, Nikon abolished small prostrations (“throwing”), replaced the traditional “two-fingered” with “three-fingered”, and “extra” hallelujah - “triguba”. The Nikonians began to hold the religious procession against the sun. Some changes were also made to the rite of the Eucharist (Communion). The reform also provoked a gradual change in the traditions of church singing and icon painting.
The Nikonian reformers, accusing their ideological opponents of splitting the Russian Orthodox Church, used the term "schismatic". It was equated with the term "heretic" and was considered offensive. Adherents of the traditional faith did not call themselves that, they preferred the definition of "Old Orthodox Christians" or "Old Believers".
Since the discontent of the Old Believers undermined the foundations of the state, both secular and church authorities subjected the opposition to persecution. Their leader, Archpriest Avvakum, was exiled and then burned alive. The same fate befell many of his followers. Moreover, in protest, the Old Believers staged mass self-immolations. But, of course, not everyone was so fanatical.
From the central regions of Russia, the Old Believers fled to the Volga region, beyond the Urals, to the North Under Peter I, the position of the Old Believers improved slightly. They were limited in their rights, they had to pay double taxes, but they could openly practice their religion. Under Catherine II, the Old Believers were allowed to return to Moscow and St. Petersburg, where they founded the largest communities. At the beginning of the 19th century, the government again began to "tighten the screws." Despite the oppression, the Old Believers of Russia prospered. The richest and most successful merchants and industrialists, the most prosperous and diligent peasants were brought up in the traditions of the "Old Orthodox" faith.
Dissatisfaction with such a reform was aggravated by the situation in the country: the peasantry was greatly impoverished, and some boyars and merchants opposed the law on the abolition of their feudal privileges, announced by Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. All this led to the fact that some part of society broke away from the church. Being persecuted by the tsarist government and the clergy, the Old Believers were forced to hide. Despite severe persecution, their doctrine spread throughout Russia. Moscow remained their center. In the middle of the 17th century, the Russian Orthodox Church placed a curse on the breakaway church, which was lifted only in 1971.
Old Believers are ardent adherents of ancient folk traditions. They didn’t even change the chronology, so the representatives of this religion count the years from the creation of the world. They refuse to take into account any changed conditions, the main thing for them is to live the way their grandfathers, great-grandfathers and great-great-grandfathers lived. Therefore, it is not welcome to study literacy, go to the cinema, listen to the radio.
In addition, modern clothes are not recognized by Old Believers and it is forbidden to shave a beard. Domostroy reigns in the family, women follow the commandment: "Let the wife be afraid of her husband." And children are subjected to corporal punishment.
The communities lead a very closed life, replenished only at the expense of their children. They do not shave their beards, do not drink alcohol and do not smoke. Many of them wear traditional clothes. Old Believers collect ancient icons, rewrite church books, teach children Slavic writing and Znamenny singing.
From various sources.
Old BelieversFirst I want to explain why I was interested in the Old Believers or, as they are also called, the Old Believers or schismatics. Cases, as they say, of bygone days, which are loosely connected with the turbulent modernity. There are few Old Believers left in Russia. Wikipedia says about 2 million out of more than 143 million Russians. Most of them live in remote Siberian corners. A certain number - outside of Russia: in Romania, Bulgaria, America, Canada, Latin America and even Australia. They live in closed communities, communicate with the outside world to a minimum. For an ordinary Russian, the Old Believers are of the same interest as the Amish are for the average American: read an article, be surprised, groan and forget. The Old Believers themselves do not want to participate in violent political and public discussions, and seem to prefer to be left alone.
But the more I read about the schismatics, the more I understood that the Old Believers are not at all like the Amish. The interest in them is not only zoological - to stare as at a strange animal in a cage and continue to live as usual. They write about the Old Believers with a sense of nostalgia and regret. For many, the Old Believers are a miraculously preserved type of Russian peasant, economic, sober, reasonable, strong and family. Starover is the embodiment present man, as it is described by authors nostalgic for Tsarist Russia, the owner of the land and their own destiny. This is the bearer of the very traditional values that the media screams about and that the authorities are striving to plant and protect with all their might.
In modern Russia, this type has died out like a mammoth, was knocked out by the authorities due to ideological differences. In general, the Old Believers were too independent and stubborn for any, as we will see later, authorities. I noticed another curious thing that makes the history of the Old Believers relevant. The Old Believers to the last resisted the imposition of Western ideas and the Western way of life.
They seemed to be mothballed and brought to us the cultural code of the Russians of the 17th century in an almost unchanged form. In these times, when there is a McDonald's on every corner, TV shows about the intrigues of the State Department mixed with American blockbusters, passing the law on foreign agents and showing off new iPhones, the story of the Old Believers can be instructive.
Wrong Orthodox and fiery oppositionists
It all started in the 17th century. On the Russian throne sat Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, nicknamed the Quietest. Together with the seventh Moscow Patriarch Nikon, the tsar carried out the church reform of 1650-1660. The goal of the reform was, in general, good: to bring the ritual tradition of the Russian Church into line with the Greek one, which was considered more advanced. Some historians believe that Nikon thus wanted to make the “Third Rome” of Russia, to elevate Alexei Mikhailovich to the throne of the Byzantine emperors, and to become the Ecumenical Patriarch himself. Outwardly, the reform looked like this: it was necessary to be baptized with three fingers, not two, write the name of Christ with two “And” at the beginning, make the procession against the sun and during the service three times, and not proclaim “halelujah” twice (twice hallelujah instead of special). Minor changes were made to the sacred texts and the ritual of prostrations. In the opinion of a modern person, far from church quarrels, a harmless reform was, in fact, an attempt to plant a Western model in Russia. As the priests themselves say, an attempt to forcibly westernize Russia. The people perceived this as an encroachment on traditional, naturally formed values and refused to accept the new liturgical tradition. There was a split. So in Russia appeared right and wrong Orthodox. Since dissent, especially mass dissent, undermines the foundations of the state, a struggle began with the splitting opposition.
(Patriarch Nikon)
The laws at that time were harsh, unlike modern liberal ones. In general, there were problems with tolerance in Russia then. First, any deviation from correct Nikonian Orthodoxy was punishable by death with confiscation of property, in some cases, eternal imprisonment in an earthen prison, and then a prison term, hard labor or exile. As a sign of protest, the schismatics, unlike the modern oppositionists, did not hold meetings and did not write lengthy articles on the Internet. They protested on a grand scale, radically: despite the severest condemnation of suicide by the church, the schismatics voluntarily went to martyrdom and burned themselves. Whole families, with children and old people, mind you. The Old Believers especially got it in the time of Peter the Great, when Westernization was carried out super-actively. The oppositionists were forbidden to wear traditional clothes, grow beards and were ordered to smoke tobacco and drink coffee. Until now, the Old Believers commemorate the great sovereign-transformer with an unkind word. In the 17-18 century, more than 20 thousand Old Believers voluntarily set themselves on fire. Many more were burned voluntarily.
Despite severe repressions, the Old Believers continued to persevere. In the 19th century, according to some sources, up to a third of Russians were Old Believers. At the same time, there were significant indulgences in relation to the authorities and the official church towards the Old Believers. A modern liberal law was adopted: direct persecution was canceled, but any propaganda was prohibited. It was forbidden to build churches, publish books and hold leadership positions. Also, the state did not recognize the marriage of the Old Believers, and until 1874 all the children of the Old Believers were considered illegitimate. In 1905, the government went even further in its tolerance and issued the Supreme Decree "On strengthening the principles of religious tolerance." The decree allowed organizing communities and organizing religious processions.
During the respite, the Old Believers became something like Russian Protestants. With the latter, the Old Believers are related by the cult of labor and modesty in everyday life. These were, as I said above, strong and sober business executives. In the 19th century, the Old Believers formed the backbone of the wealthy merchants and peasantry. 60% of all bank accounts in the country belonged to Old Believer merchants.
The Bolsheviks did not delve into the subtleties of faith. Old Believers were persecuted in the same way as ordinary Orthodox. Many Old Believers suffered during dispossession and collectivization, because the Old Believers were prosperous and did not want to join collective farms. In Stalin's time, thousands of Old Believers received terms for anti-Soviet agitation. The accusation is at least strange, because the Old Believers have always strived to live in closed communities, on their own.
Some of the Old Believers instead of martyrdom, the royal fire and the Soviet camp chose voluntary exile and emigration. They fled to Siberia, where the long tentacles of the tsarist secret police and the NKVD could hardly reach. She fled to China, and from there to Latin America. Thus, Old Believer communities were formed outside of Russia.
Downshifters
The Old Believer communities are tin cans that have preserved the traditions, way of life and thinking of the Russian peasantry of the 16th century almost unchanged. These people deliberately reject modern civilization. The Old Believers live according to the house-building, relations in the community are built along the traditional vertical: children, women, then men, and above all - God. The man is the undisputed head and breadwinner of the family. A woman is a mother and a keeper of the hearth, or, as feminists would say, the business of women is kinder, kuhe, kirche (children, kitchen, church). You can get married from the age of 13. Abortion and contraception are prohibited. In Old Believer families, as a rule, there are 6-10 children. Unconditional respect and obedience to elders. Old Believers of the old school do not shave their beards, women do not wear trousers and always cover their heads with a scarf, even at night. Alcohol and tobacco are either completely prohibited, or homemade brew is allowed. The controversial achievements of civilization, such as television and the Internet, are not welcome among the Old Believers. However, there is no strict ban: many people have cars, they work fields on tractors, girls download embroidery patterns and recipes from the Internet. They feed mainly on their own farm, many Old Believers in the United States have become prosperous farmers. The Old Believers prefer to encounter official medicine as rarely as possible, except in serious cases; are treated with herbs, prayers and gelstat. It is believed that most diseases come from bad thoughts and informational garbage in the head.
In a word, the Old Believers lead a healthy lifestyle: instead of working in a stuffy office and relaxing with a bottle of beer in front of the TV, they do physical labor in the fresh air; murders and political quarrels - soul-saving prayers. Therefore, the Old Believers are mostly very healthy people, old people over 90 look at a maximum of 60. But women fade early from frequent childbirth. It can be said that Old Believers are a kind of downshifters for religious reasons. In this sense, the Old Believers are in trend: fleeing the dubious benefits of civilization, top managers settle in abandoned villages, and hipsters massively nest in Goa. Both those and others would have something to learn from the Old Believers.
Alternative Russians
For centuries, the Old Believers have unwittingly found themselves inconvenient for any government, both tsarist and Soviet. The modern government and the modern church have finally decided to make peace with the Old Believers. In 1971, the Russian Orthodox Church abolished the harsh laws against the Old Believers and ruled the oaths of 1667 to be considered "as if they had not been." In 2000, the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia offered repentance to the Old Believers. Now in Russia, along with the well-known ROC, there is the ROC (Russian Orthodox Old Believer Church) and the DOC (Old Orthodox Pomeranian Church). In general, the Old Believers are divided into several branches, but I will not delve into these subtleties. Relations with the official church are still tense, mainly due to the reluctance of the Old Believers join the team.
(the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Kornily, gives Patriarch Kirill an Old Believer rosary - a ladder)
In 2006, a state program began to operate to assist voluntary resettlement in the Russian Federation of compatriots living abroad. In 2012, Putin made it indefinite. Magadan, Sakhalin, Kamchatka, Buryatia were declared priority areas for settlement. And the Old Believers stretched from warm Latin America and Australia to the harsh and poorly mastered Siberia and the Far East - bearded men in jeans and loose-fitting shirts and women in sundresses and headscarves, speaking Russian with a foreign accent. The Russian government promised to pay for the move, provide housing, give a lift (up to 120 thousand rubles for each family member) and pay unemployment benefits for the first 6 months. True, with the condition: you can’t leave until the money allocated for resettlement is used up. Such is serfdom in a modern way.
The blissful return of the former opposition did not happen.
First of all, the Old Believers faced a clumsy bureaucratic machine. Good intentions are good intentions, and paperwork must be drawn up according to all the rules. Bearers of Russian traditions were equated with migrants. Of course, the Old Believers, unlike ordinary guest workers, received concessions, but still the procedure for naturalizing descendants primordially Russian turned out to be difficult and lengthy. Some unwittingly turned into illegal immigrants and again, as centuries ago, fled deeper into the taiga, into the forests, hiding from the authorities. Again, the Old Believers, against their will, found themselves in opposition, again in confrontation with the state. History repeats itself.
Secondly, Russia turned out to be not at all the quiet country of birches and churches that grandparents told modern Old Believers about. The Russian village is on the verge of destruction: only old people and alcoholics remain in the villages, collective farms have collapsed, hired workers work in the fields. The customs of modern Russians are strikingly different from those adopted by the Old Believers. In order to avoid "messing" with the laity and save themselves, the Old Believers again seek to hide, to get away from people and civilization. The hopes of the authorities that the Old Believers would help the spiritual revival of Russia did not come true.Many Russians themselves do not want to be spiritually reborn , and the Old Believers were not ready to take on this most difficult task. Old Believers do not need modern Russia.
The phenomenon of the Old Believers is that they represent, as it were, an alternative version of the Russians. Russians who were not changed by the revolution of 1717, the years of Soviet indoctrination, the apocalypse of the 90s and the capitalism of the 2000s. Which our disputes about the fate of Russia and the national Russian idea do not concern. They found their idea back in the 16th century and carried it almost untouched to our time. One side, an example of enviable spiritual fortitude, the famous Russian character. The "pernicious" influence of the West on the Old Believers had almost no effect. Traditional values, as the example of Old Believer families shows, work. Who knows whether there would be a demographic crisis in Russia now, if the family according to the Old Believer model has survived to this day. From the government's point of view, our politicians, who zealously propagate traditional values, may be right.
On the other hand, such stubborn conservatism and rejection of civilization hinder development. Old Believers are undeniably fanatics. Progress is always going beyond the established system, breaking traditions. And I can hardly imagine how to squeeze a modern person into the narrow framework of a patriarchal family.
From a third party while we are discussing the fate of Russia here, the Old Believers are silently working. Do not waste time on doubts and reflections. They already have the answers.
Video: The whole truth about the life of the Old Believers:
Video: Old Believers - Leaving is easy, returning is difficult:
"The Schism of the Russian Church of the 17th Century". Report by Archpriest Igor Korostelev
Chapter 17 of the Gospel of John tells of the prayer that the Lord prayed to His heavenly Father after He taught His disciples about the coming of the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, and before He went with eleven closest disciples to the Garden of Gethsemane, where He was arrested.
In that prayer, the Lord prayed for His relationship with the Father, so that the Son might be glorified, He prayed for those whom the Father had given Him - the apostles. And finally, He prayed for the unity of those who would believe in Him according to the words of the apostles (John 17:20-26). The Lord wants His followers to be united. He repeatedly repeats: “Let them all be one, as You, Father, in Me, and I in You, so they too may be one in Us... that they may be one as We are one... that they be perfected in one” (Jn. 17:21,22,23). As an example of true unity in the spiritual world, the Lord refers to His unity with the Father. Our Lord Jesus Christ longs for unity. If a person or a group of people oppose unity in Christ, they oppose the will of God! Those who believe in Christ should follow the instructions of the apostle Paul to "keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace" (Eph. 4:3). Divisions and strife among Christians turn many away from the Church of Christ and prevent them from embarking on the path of salvation. Christ said: "...let the world believe that you sent me... let the world know that you sent me..." (John 17:21,23). That is, the Lord linked the faith of the world with the unity of Christians.
The history of the Church of Christ shows that the enemy of the human race did everything to sow poisonous tares into the saving gospel of Christ and divide Christians. There were heresies that shook the Church, some of which resulted in schisms. In order to preserve the Truth and the true Church, to resist the abomination of desolation, the Ecumenical Councils began to gather, so that with the universal mind, with the assistance of the Holy Spirit, to resist the human pride of the heresiarchs.
The first upheavals of the Church of Christ took place from the 1st to the 7th centuries, when the currents of the Arians, Nestorians, Monophysites and Monothelites broke away from the true gospel of Christ. In the 11th century, a tragic split occurred that divided Christianity into the Western (Roman) Church, which later became known as the Catholic (Greek katholikos - common, ecumenical) and the Eastern (Constantinople), which later became known as the Orthodox (Latin - orthodox). The third great church schism occurred in the 16th century, when the Protestant churches separated from Catholicism in Western Europe as a result of the Reformation. In the 17th century, an Old Believer schism occurred in the Russian Orthodox Church.
THE SCHIT OF THE RUSSIAN CHURCH IN THE 17TH CENTURY
The schism of the 17th century is one of the most tragic events in the history of not only the Russian Orthodox Church, but the entire Russian people. The reform of Patriarch Nikon (1652-1666), carried out with the support of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich (1645-1676), which some of the clergy and laity refused to accept, divided the people into two irreconcilable camps, into those Orthodox who remained in the bosom of the Russian Orthodox Church, performing divine services according to the new rules and on the Orthodox, who continued to adhere to the pre-reform church rites (now - the Old Believers or Old Believers). The spiritual unity of the Russian people ceased to exist. For more than three centuries, people who sincerely consider themselves Orthodox have experienced mistrust and enmity towards each other and do not want to enter into communication with each other. For the first time in the history of the state, there is an acute hostility on religious grounds. S.A. Zenkovsky wrote about this tragedy in the following way: “The schism was not a split from the church of a significant part of its clergy and laity, but a genuine internal rupture in the church itself, which significantly impoverished Russian Orthodoxy, in which not one, but both sides were to blame: both stubborn and those who refused to to see the consequences of their perseverance, the planters of the new rite, both too zealous, and, unfortunately, often also very stubborn, and one-sided defenders of the old.
The good intentions of Patriarch Nikon ended in reprisals against opponents of the reforms, and sincere concern for preserving the usual church rites unchanged on the part of adherents of the old rite often reached fanaticism, up to self-immolation and rejection of God-established Church Sacraments. The methods by which church reforms were carried out alienated a significant part of the clergy and the common people from the reformers. The forcible removal of church books, icons and other shrines that do not correspond to the Greek canons and their further public destruction, a sharp and ill-conceived transition to new rules of worship, a new translation of individual texts from Greek into Russian, which, although slightly, began to differ from the old Old Russian ones, caused the masses of the people are convinced that they are trying to impose a different faith. In addition, those who refused to accept the innovations were subjected to serious corporal punishment, which did not add sympathy to Patriarch Nikon and his entourage. The lack of unity and agreement in the church environment on the issue of ongoing reforms led to the emergence of opponents of innovations among the clergy, who became the spiritual leaders of the Old Believers.
Vasily Petrov. Nikita Pustosvyat. Dispute about faith. 1880-1881
The religious life of the country actually found itself in a state of war. For eight years, from 1668 to 1676, the siege of the Solovetsky Monastery, which became the stronghold of the Old Believers, continued. After the capture of the monastery, he was devastated by archers. Six years later, a schismatic revolt arose in Moscow itself, where archers under the command of Prince Khovansky took the side of the Old Believers. The leaders of the rebellion were executed. In 1685, Princess Sophia, at the request of the clergy, issues a law of the Moscow state called "12 Articles", which provides for various kinds of repression against the Old Believers - expulsion, prison, torture, burning alive in log cabins. In 1716, Tsar Peter I abolished the "12 Articles". The tsar transferred the Old Believers to a semi-legal mode of existence, demanding to pay "for this split all sorts of payments doubled." However, the death penalty was provided for the Old Believer worship, and the Old Believer mentors among the Bespriests were declared schismatic teachers, and the priests among the Beglopopovtsy were traitors to Orthodoxy.
Vasily Surikov. Boyar Morozova
The church schism often became one of the main reasons for mass popular unrest, spiritual discord and unrest that periodically shook the Russian land throughout the 17th and 18th centuries. The Old Believers found strong support among the common people, it was around them that all those dissatisfied with the existing order in the state gathered.
The harsh methods of implementing reforms by Patriarch Nikon and the ensuing Church schism had a negative impact on the relationship between the authorities and the church, which can be described as cooling and confrontation. And this led to the fact that the management of church affairs began to gradually move into the state department. The supremacy of royal power over church power began to be established. This process was finally completed under Peter I, who abolished the institution of the patriarchate. The schism of the 17th century in Russian history, as a spiritual unhealed wound, left its mark on the entire subsequent course of Russian life and is the beginning of the defeat of the Russian Orthodox monarchical statehood at the beginning of the 20th century.
Many have written about the split. Church and secular historians, writers, philosophers, Orthodox and Old Believer authors - each in his own way interpreted its causes and explained the consequences. The church hierarchy of the Russian Church was very wary of an objective study of the fateful events of the 17th century, which can be seen from the letter of Metropolitan Platon Levshin to Archbishop Ambrose (Podobedov) on the issue of establishing Edinoverie: “This is an important matter: after 160 years the Church stood against this, the advice of all is needed pastors of the Russian Church, and the general position, and, moreover, to observe the honor of the Church, that she did not fight so much against and condemned in vain with so many definitions, so many proclamations, so many published works, so many establishments of their joining the Church, so as not to leave us in shame, and opponents not they would have proclaimed the former “victorious” and are already shouting. If the then church hierarchs were so worried about issues of honor and shame, if they were so afraid to see their opponents victorious, then it was impossible for the schismatics to expect understanding, and even more so love and mercy from the tsarist government.
The immediate cause for the Schism was the "book right" - the process of correcting and editing liturgical texts. The need for such a correction has been felt for a long time, since many distortions were introduced into the books that do not coincide with the teachings of the Orthodox Church.
Back in 1551, Tsar John IV convened the "Stoglavy Cathedral", which had the goal of streamlining the internal life of the country. The tsar personally compiled a list of questions that the assembly of Russian pastors had to answer, in order to correct the flaws in the people's life that hinder the salvation and charitable dispensation of the Russian kingdom by the authority of their decisions. The subject of attention of the council was the question of church books. Their corruption through rewriting by untrained scribes, who made mistakes and distortions, was obvious to everyone. The council bitterly complained about the malfunctioning of the liturgical books and charged the archpriests and deans to correct them according to good lists, and not to put unreviewed books into use. At the same time, the conviction arose that it was necessary to start a printing house instead of scribes and print books. After Stoglav, until the middle of the 17th century, the matter of correcting books did not undergo significant changes. The books were corrected from good translations according to ancient Slavic lists and inevitably carried all the errors and malfunctions of the latter, which were becoming more common in the press. The only thing that was achieved was the prevention of new errors. For this, Patriarch Hermogenes even established a special title of book references at the printing house. Under Patriarch Philaret (1619-1633), Joasaph I (1634-1641) and Joseph (1642-1652), the work undertaken on this part proved the need for verification not according to Slavic lists, but according to Greek originals, from which they were once made original translations.
In 1649, by royal decree, Arseniy Sukhanov, a cellarer, was sent to the East for ancient reliable lists of books, who brought to Russia about seven hundred manuscripts, 498 of which were collected by him in Athos monasteries, and the rest were found in “other ancient places”.
In the middle of the 17th century, members of the Circle of Zealots of Piety, formed in the late 1640s and early 1650s and existed until 1652, advocated the elimination of discrepancies and the correction of liturgical books, as well as the elimination of local differences in church practice. The rector of the Kazan Cathedral, Archpriest Ivan Neronov, Archpriests Avvakum, Loggin, Lazar believed that the Russian Church had preserved ancient piety, and proposed to carry out unification based on ancient Russian liturgical books. The confessor of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich Stefan Vonifatiev, nobleman Fyodor Rtishchev, who were later joined by Archimandrite Nikon (later Patriarch), advocated following Greek liturgical patterns to strengthen ties with the Eastern autocephalous Orthodox churches. As a result, those who advocated bringing church books and rituals in line with contemporary Byzantine canons won.
Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich supported the implementation of the church reform as he sought to strengthen the international position of the Russian state among the Orthodox countries. In government circles, the theory of Moscow as the Third Rome, put forward as early as the 15th century by the Pskov elder Philotheus, was popular. After the church schism in 1054, Constantinople became the spiritual center of the Orthodox Church. Philotheus believed that after the fall of Byzantium, the Russian capital became a stronghold of the true Orthodox faith. To confirm this status of Moscow, the Russian Tsar had to enlist the support of the Greek Church. To do this, it was necessary to bring the worship service in line with Greek rules. In addition, in 1654, the territory of Polish Ukraine, by decision of the Pereyaslav Rada, joined the Russian state. In the new lands, the Orthodox liturgy was held according to the Greek canons, so the unification of liturgical rules contributed to the process of unification of Russia and Little Russia. After the recent tragic events of the Time of Troubles, centers of popular unrest periodically flared up in the country, and the establishment of uniformity in the rules of church life seemed to the tsar an important tool in maintaining unity in the state.
In 1652, Metropolitan Nikon was elected patriarch. Two years after the primate's accession to the throne, the patriarch summoned the Russian bishops to a council, where the need to correct books and rites was finally recognized. In order to enlist support, Patriarch Nikon issues a message with questions about the need to unify Russian rites, considering them heretical, according to Greek models. He addresses this message to Patriarch Paisios of Constantinople.
In Constantinople, Patriarch Paisios assembled a council, to which he invited 28 bishops. The Council sends a reply to Moscow, in which it writes that the difference in rites is not a crime against dogmas and a sign of heresy and schism; different local churches may well differ in orders, for example, the time of the celebration of the liturgy or with which fingers the priest should bless. However, not listening to wise advice, Nikon acted in his own way.
In 1653, before Lent, the patriarch sent out a decree on how many prostrations should be made during the reading of the Lenten prayer of St. Ephraim the Syrian (four instead of 16). Despite the conciliar decree of 1649 on the admissibility of "multiple voices", the order was given to "sing with one voice and slowly." Then the Russian icon painters became the subject of criticism, who deviated from the Greek models in painting icons and applied the techniques of Catholic painters. At the same time, the patriarch introduced the custom of delivering sermons of his own composition in the church - in ancient Russia they saw such sermons as a sign of self-conceit.
In 1656, the patriarch convened a new council, which, together with the Russian bishops, was attended by Patriarch Macarius of Antioch and Patriarch Gavriil of Serbia. The council approved the newly corrected books and ordered them to be introduced in all churches, and the old ones to be taken away and burned.
"Book right", expressed itself in editing the texts of Holy Scripture and liturgical books, which led to changes, in particular, in the text of the translation of the Creed adopted in the Russian Church: the union-opposition "a" was removed in the words about faith in the Son of God "born , and not created", they began to talk about the Kingdom of God in the future ("there will be no end"), and not in the present tense ("there is no end"). In the eighth article of the Creed ("In the Spirit of the Holy Lord, true and life-giving"), the word "true" was removed. In the historical liturgical texts, by analogy with the Greek texts, a number of other corrections were made, for example, another letter was added to the spelling of the name of the Lord "Jesus" and it began to be written "Jesus". Opponents of the reforms believed that this was the name of "another God."
Other ecclesiastical innovations followed the change in the books. The most significant and most noticeable to believers were the following:
1. Replacing two-fingered fingers for making the sign of the cross with three-fingered ones. Opponents of the reforms, this innovation caused the most criticism. The sign of the cross, performed in a new way, was regarded as disrespectful to the Lord himself, because from three fingers a “fig to God” was obtained.
Settlers in the Komarovsky Skete
However, it is known from the history of the Church of Christ that at first Christians were baptized with one finger, emphasizing their faith in the one God, and they were baptized with a small cross - overshadowing only the forehead with a cross. By the 4th century, Christians began to overshadow their entire body with a cross, that is, a “wide cross” appeared. After the Council of Nicaea (325), which formulated the dogma of the unity of the two natures in Christ, by the 9th century, single-fingeredness gradually replaced double-fingeredness, which was due to the widespread heresy of Monophysitism in the Middle East and Egypt. When Russia was baptized, in Byzantium they were baptized with two more fingers. Since by the 12th century the struggle with the Monophysites had already ended, the double-fingeredness lost its demonstrative and polemical character. Approximately in the XI-XII centuries in the Greek-speaking Local Orthodox Churches (Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem and Cyprus), the two-finger was replaced by the three-finger, since the two-finger equalized Orthodox Christians with the Nestorians, who also used the two-finger. Orthodox Greeks began to overshadow themselves with the sign of the cross with three fingers, emphasizing their veneration of the Most Holy Trinity.
2. The abolition of the so-called throwing, or small prostrations - in 1653, Nikon sent a "memory" to all Moscow churches, which said: "it is not appropriate in the church to do throwing on your knee, but to bow to your belt; also three fingers would be baptized." in ancient times, at the Lenten prayer of St. Ephraim the Syrian, “Lord and Master of my belly ...”, they made earthly bows (throwing), then over time the Greeks replaced them with waist ones.
3. Processions and the circumambulation of the analogion during baptism and weddings, the patriarch ordered to conduct against the sun, and not along the sun.
The custom to make a salting procession was established in the Russian Church by the middle of the 17th century. Prior to this, processions were made and anti-sun. The church reform of Patriarch Nikon unified all the rites in order to correspond to modern standards throughout the Orthodox world. The Old Believers believe that the salting procession is a procession behind the Sun-Christ. Orthodox New Believers, making a procession, go towards the sun, since the Savior of the world, Jesus Christ, by definition of the Church, is the Sun of Truth. Orthodox go towards Christ.
4. At the service, instead of singing "Alleluia" twice (double hallelujah), it was ordered to sing three times (triple hallelujah). Since "Hallelujah" means "Glory to Thee, God," then, according to the "destroying" Hallelujah, thus "quadruple" the Holy Trinity. Orthodox believe that "Hallelujah" means each person of the Trinity, and the exclamation: "Glory to Thee, God" means the unity of the persons of the Trinity.
5. The number of prosphora on proskomedia has been changed from seven to five. To celebrate the sacrament of the Eucharist, one prosphora is required, from which the holy Lamb is taken out. From the second prosphora, a particle is taken out in memory of the Most Holy Theotokos, from the third, nine-fold - a particle in memory of all the saints. At different times in the Orthodox Church - both in the East and in Russia, different amounts of prosphora were used. In the Russian Church until the 16th century, 7, 6, 5 and 3 prosphora were used on the proskomedia. In order to pay special attention, as a sign of reverence and respect for the Royal person and the Patriarch, they took out particles from the fourth prosphora in memory of one Sovereign, from the fifth - the Patriarch, from the sixth - the names of the living, recorded in diptychs, and from the seventh - the names of the dead Orthodox Christians. In Novgorod, where there were no princes, particles were taken out of six prosphora. In general, in the ancient Russian service books, indications of the number of prosphora are vague.
6. Bread ready for proskomedia is sealed with a sacred seal. The inscription of the seal on the prosphora was also changed. Today, the seal is a four-pointed cross and divides the prosphora into four parts, on which the words "Jesus Christ Nike" (Jesus Christ conquers) are embossed. This seal was approved by the great Moscow Cathedral of 1667. Before the reform, and among the Old Believers of the priests, an eight-pointed cross, a cane, a spear and the words "Jesus Christ the King of Glory" are depicted.
7. Together with the eight-pointed cross, they began to use both the four-pointed and the six-pointed. The eight-pointed cross is the most consistent with the historically reliable form of the cross on which Christ was already crucified, however, when the Lord carried the cross to Golgotha on His shoulders, then the cross was still four-pointed, because there was still no title or foot on it. St. Demetrius of Rostov wrote: “Not according to the number of trees, not according to the number of ends, the Cross of Christ is revered by us, but according to Christ Himself, with whose holy blood it was stained. And, manifesting miraculous power, any cross does not act by itself, but by the power of Christ crucified on it and by the invocation of His most holy name. An eight-pointed cross with an inclined foot is considered the “Russian cross” throughout the Christian world, therefore it is a gross delusion to reject four-pointed crosses crowning churches in all Orthodox countries of the world, including in Russia.
The reforms contributed to the appearance among the clergy and the people of detractors of "innovations", allegedly planted in the Church and in the Russian state to everyone's death. Petitions were given to the tsar, begging him to protect the Church. It was said about the Greeks, who were considered the sources of "innovations", that under the Turkish yoke they betrayed Orthodoxy and indulged in Latinism. A special cooling of the Russians towards the Greeks occurred after the conclusion in 1439 of the Florentine Union between the Roman and Greek churches. And earlier in Russia, the Byzantines were suspected of an unsteady faith, and now they were ready to see in every visitor from the East a "heretic" who betrayed his father's faith, a "Latin" and a "Christ-seller." The fall of Constantinople in 1453 under Constantine XII was perceived as God's punishment to the Greeks for betraying Orthodoxy. After the adoption by Kyiv of the Brest Union in Russia, it was believed that the Western Russian church submitted to the Antichrist. Patriarch Nikon was scolded as a traitor and Antichrist, accused of all imaginable and unimaginable sins. Despite the fact that the vast majority of the population recognized the cases 
about the “book right” with humility, a new Trouble began.
Fragment of the painting "Burning Archpriest Avvakum"
The patriarch took drastic measures. Pavel, Bishop of Kolomna, who refused unconditionally to sign the council's decision approving the corrections, was defrocked and exiled, the other leaders of the schism, Archpriests Avvakum and John Neronov, and Prince Lvov were also sent to distant monasteries. The threat of a new Time of Troubles disappeared, but the rumors about the coming of the last times, about the near end of the world, about the patriarchal “treason” continued to excite the people.
Due to a personal conflict and a break with the tsar, in July 1658, Patriarch Nikon left the Patriarchal See, left Moscow and, living in the Resurrection Monastery, continued to appoint priests, fulfilling his episcopal ministry.
By order of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, a large Moscow Council of 1666/67 was convened "for the newly appeared schismatics and rebels of the saints of the Orthodox Catholic Church", which was held under the ecclesiastical chairmanship of Patriarch Paisios of Alexandria. Patriarch Macarius III of Antioch, representatives of the Ecumenical and Jerusalem Patriarchs, ten metropolitans, eight archbishops and five bishops, a host of black and white clergy also participated in the council. The trial of Patriarch Nikon took place at the cathedral. He decided: to deprive Nikon of the patriarchal rank and, with the rank of a simple monk, send him to the Ferapontov-Belozersky Monastery for repentance.
The Church Council officially approved the new rites and church books, which were to be accepted by the entire Orthodox Church. By the decision of the same Council, adherents of the "old faith" were excommunicated and equated with heretics. The Council summoned to its meetings the main propagators of the Schism, subjected their “philosophies” to a test and cursed them as alien to spiritual reason and common sense. Some schismatics obeyed the exhortations of the Church and repented of their errors. Others remained uncompromising.
The church schism in Russia is associated with the name of Archpriest Avvakum Petrov, a well-known leader of the Old Believers. For disagreement with church reforms, he was exiled for a long eleven years to Siberia. Having endured many hardships and hardships, he remained faithful to the "old faith". As a result, by decision of the Church Council, Avvakum was sentenced to imprisonment in an earthen prison, and later burned alive.
Thus, the religious Schism in Russian society has become a fact. The decision of the council, which in 1667 took an oath on those clergy who, due to adherence to uncorrected books and old customs, became an opponent of the Church, decisively separated them from the church flock.
EFFECTS
The tragedy of the opponents of the reforms of Patriarch Nikon was that they were supported by only one Bishop of Kolomna and Kashira Pavel, who, while still hegumen, was close to the Circle of Zealots of Piety. At the council of 1654, he spoke in defense of old books, and against the abolition of prostration during the Lenten prayer of Ephraim the Syrian: “From the time we became Christians, and received the right faith by inheritance from the pious fathers and grandfathers, we kept these rites and this faith, and now they do not agree to accept the new faith. For opposing the reforms, the bishop was exiled to a monastery, where he died in 1656. The Old Believers believe that he was killed and revere him as a holy martyr. Bishop Paul did not leave behind a successor who supports the zealots of the old faith, and according to canonical rules, the Orthodox Church cannot exist without a bishop, since only a bishop has the right to ordain priests.
The priests of the pre-reform establishment left this world after some time, and the Old Believers, after heated disputes and denunciations of each other, were divided into two main sects: the priestly, who considers the need for the clergy and all church sacraments, and the non-priestly, who denies the possibility of the existence of a "true" clergy after the conducted Patriarch Nikon of reforms. Therefore, the remaining two incomplete sacraments of baptism and repentance and all church services, except for the liturgy, are performed by elected laity.
The Bespopovites are sure that after the reforms, grace completely disappeared from the Church and one should humbly expect the death of the world and the Last Judgment. Initially, the Bespopovtsy settled in wild uninhabited places on the coast of the White Sea and therefore began to be called Pomors. Karelia and the Kerzhenets River in the Nizhny Novgorod lands became other major centers of the Bespopovtsy. Many fled from persecution to the southern outskirts of the Russian state and abroad, founded their own communities there. Subsequently, new divisions arose in the non-priest movement and new accords were formed: Danilovskoye (Pomeranian), Fedoseevskoye, Chasovnoye, Spasovo, Aristovo and smaller middlemen, holers, runners and others. Many have decided that history is ending, Russia is dying, surrendering to the power of the servants of the Antichrist. There is no longer a kingdom headed by the Anointed of God, nor a priesthood clothed with the saving power of grace. It remains to escape alone, to flee to the forests, to the sketes, and if the pursuers find it, then lock themselves in a strong log house and set fire to it from the inside.
Today, most of the small non-priestly concords have disappeared, but large non-priesty communities are functioning - the Ancient Orthodox Pomeranian Church (which accepted the marriage rite), the Old Orthodox Catholic Church of the Fedoseevsky consent (which did not accept the marriage rite), as well as Christians of the Old Pomeranian and Solovetsky offspring (Philippian consent), who at one time rejected prayers for royalty.
Popovtsy fled to the Kerzhensky forests (Nizhny Novgorod region), the Starodubya region (Chernihiv region), the Kuban and the Don River. The priests accepted priests who had been ordained in the "Nikonian Church" if they cursed "Nikon's novelties" and received the proper "correction". These Old Believers also began to be called Beglopopovtsy, as they accepted the “fugitive”, that is, the priests who left their diocesan bishop. The Beglopopovtsy Old Believers always had a dream of their own bishop. Moreover, even among these Old Believers who accept the priesthood there is no liturgical unity, since one part of them recognizes the hierarchy restored in 1846 by the Bosnian Metropolitan Ambrose, who was outside the state of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, and the other accepts the hierarchy founded in 1923 by the vicar bishop of the Saratov diocese Nikolai who converted to the Old Believers (Pozdnev), who broke communion with the Moscow Patriarch because of his deviation into renovationism.
Currently, the priests have: the Russian Old Orthodox Church (Novozybkovskoye consent), headed by the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia; The Russian Orthodox Old Believer Church (Belokrinitskoye Accord) headed by the Metropolitan of Moscow and All Russia and parishes of the same faith as part of the Russian Orthodox Church MP.
In 1800, many parishes that retained the old rites, but lost the succession of the priesthood, returned to the bosom of the Mother Church.
On November 9, 1800, Edinoverie parishes were officially established in the bosom of the Russian Orthodox Church by Emperor Paul I and the Holy Synod. Since then, they have been under the jurisdiction of the Russian Orthodox Church, but they continue to worship according to old books and observe ancient Russian rites.
In 1864, Emperor Alexander II approved the "Rules" on the Old Believers. Old Believer sects, loyal to the tsarist government, were allowed to freely conduct worship services, open schools, hold public positions, and travel abroad. In essence, the “schism” was legalized and the persecution of the Old Believers that took place under Emperor Nicholas I stopped. Despite the exit from the underground, the Old Believers were still forbidden to rise to a completely legal level. "Schismatics are not persecuted for their opinions about the faith; but it is forbidden for them to seduce and incline anyone into their schism under any guise," - it was said in Article 60 of the Charter on the prevention and suppression of crimes. They were forbidden to build churches, start sketes, and even repair existing ones, as well as publish any books on which it would be possible to conduct worship, their religious marriage was not recognized by the state, and all children born before 1874 among the Old Believers were not considered legitimate. After 1874, the Old Believers were allowed to live in a civil marriage: "Marriages of schismatics acquire civilly, by recording in the special parish registers established for this, the strength and consequences of a legal marriage."
The official exit of the Old Believers to the legal level took place on April 17, 1905: on this day the Supreme Decree "On strengthening the principles of religious tolerance" was issued. The decree abolished legislative restrictions on the Old Believers and, in particular, read: “Assign the name of the Old Believers, instead of the currently used name of schismatics, to all followers of interpretations and agreements who accept the basic tenets of the Orthodox Church, but do not recognize some of the rites adopted by it and send their worship according to old printed books ". Now the Old Believers were allowed to hold religious processions, ring bells, and organize communities.
The Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church, held in 1971, recognized the wrongness of the Moscow Council of 1656 and the Great Moscow Council of 1667, which “legitimized” the schism. The anathemas against the adherents of the old rites, pronounced at these councils, were recognized as "as if they had not been," and the old rites themselves were equal to those accepted in the Russian Orthodox Church.
In 2000, at the Council of Bishops, the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia offered repentance to the Old Believers: “We deeply regret the cruelties that were inflicted on adherents of the Old Rite, those persecutions by the civil authorities, which were inspired by some of our predecessors in the hierarchy of the Russian Church… Forgive, brothers and sisters, our sins caused to you by hatred. Do not consider us accomplices in the sins of our predecessors, do not lay bitterness on us for their intemperate deeds. Although we are the descendants of your persecutors, we are not guilty of the disasters caused to you. Forgive the insults, so that we were free from the reproach weighing on them. We bow at your feet and surrender ourselves to your prayers. Forgive those who offended you with reckless violence, for with our lips they repented of what they had done to you and ask for forgiveness ... In the 20th century, new persecutions fell upon the Russian Orthodox Church, now at the hands of the God-fighting communist regime... We sadly acknowledge that the great persecution of our Church in the past decades may partly be God's punishment for the persecution of the children of the Old Rite by our predecessors. And so, we are aware of the bitter consequences of the events that divided us and, thereby, weakened the spiritual power of the Russian Church. We solemnly proclaim our deep desire to heal the wound inflicted on the Church ... ".
Today, large Old Believer communities, in addition to Russia, exist in Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Moldova, Kazakhstan, Poland, Belarus, Romania, Bulgaria, Ukraine, the USA, Canada and a number of Latin American countries, as well as Australia. Popovskaya Russian Orthodox Old Believer Church (Belokrinitskoye consent), has about a million parishioners and has two centers - in Moscow and in the Romanian city of Braila. The spiritual and administrative center of the priestly Russian Old Orthodox Church until 2002 was located in Novozybkov, Bryansk region, and today is located in Moscow. The Bespopov Old Orthodox Pomeranian Church has about 200 communities in Russia alone. According to rough estimates, there are about two million followers of the Old Believers.
On July 12, 2005, a general meeting of members of the Religious Old Orthodox Old Believer Pomeranian community (bespopovskaya) was held in Minsk, which decided to join the Belarusian Orthodox Church. In 2006, the Pomor community of Minsk was accepted into the jurisdiction of the Belarusian Orthodox Church as the "Old Believer parish in honor of the holy prophet Elijah in the city of Minsk of the Minsk diocese" of the 2nd Minsk Joy of Sorrow Deanery.
REASONS FOR NOT ACCEPTING REFORMS BY BELIEVERS
For what reason did many Russian Orthodox believers not accept the innovations suddenly introduced by Patriarch Nikon into the peacefully flowing life of the Russian Orthodox Church? It is necessary to understand how many centuries these believers have heard in the temple the words of the Apostle Paul: “I beseech you, brethren, beware of those who create divisions and temptations, contrary to the doctrine that you have learned, and turn away from them; For such people serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly, and deceive the hearts of the simple with flattery and eloquence” (Rom. 16:17-18). “I am surprised that you are so quickly moving from Him who called you by the grace of Christ to a different gospel, which, however, is not different, but only there are people who confuse you and want to turn the gospel of Christ. But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preached to you something other than what we preached to you, let it be anathema” (Gal. 1:6-8). “Be careful therefore, walk carefully, not as fools, but as wise, making the most of the time, for the days are evil” (Eph. 5:15,16).
And these truths were preached by the Church, whose mission is to affirm the truth on this earth. After all, it is about her that Scripture says: “... the Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth” (1 Tim. 3:15).
It is clear that the apostle had in mind the reverent keeping of the saving gospel of Christ. But the truth preserved by the Church is proclaimed to believers, including with the help of church rites. These rituals were perceived in the 17th century and are perceived today as an invariable attribute of the right faith, as an ancient Christian tradition, as the teaching of the holy fathers. Ordinary parishioners are unlikely to notice the distortion of church dogmas, but the change in habitual rituals alarms people. We are seeing this today. The so-called "visitors" will accept any changes in worship without question, since they simply do not know the church charter, and are not interested in it. But for regular parishioners, any change in the service without a patient and loving explanation by the priest causes a minimum of embarrassment, and often sharp rejection. For example, reading the gospel in modern Russian or Belarusian for missionary purposes. This intelligible explanation to ordinary believers of the need for reforms in the 17th century was not made.
In addition, the Russians have always considered their Church to be the last stronghold of Orthodoxy, which preserved the ancient rites of Byzantine worship, since over the centuries of Turkish rule the Greeks allowed reductions and changes in the service, while the Russians firmly held the Byzantine statutory service.
In the XV-XVII centuries, the Orthodox East experienced a strong influence of the Catholic Church, the main conductors of which were Greek books published in Venice and Rome. Not without the influence of these books in the East there were some changes in the rites that made them different from the ancient Byzantine and ancient Russian liturgical practices. From the Greeks, the Serbs, Bulgarians, Ukrainians and Belarusians, who were subordinate to the Patriarch of Constantinople, adopted the new rites. The difference in rituals between Russia and the rest of the Orthodox world was very significant, and the Russians were constantly pointed out to the Greek hierarchs who came in the middle of the 17th century. to Moscow.
At the council of 1654, it was decided to correct the liturgical books in ancient Greek and ancient Slavic, but in fact the correction was made according to new Greek books printed in Jesuit printing houses. Even the Greeks themselves spoke of these books as distorted and erroneous. New translations were also checked and corrected according to modern books printed in Ukraine and Lithuania.
Therefore, we can conclude that the real reason for the Schism is the reverent fear of believers: is grace leaving the church? Is not the true, saving faith of Christ distorted? Is salvation still possible? Has not the church source of living water dried up? Will the former peaceful life return, will peace, love and mercy, holiness and purity return? After all, life has changed dramatically. There is malice, hatred, cruelty and confusion in the spiritual life around. The clergy, instead of sowing peace in the souls of the faithful, argue themselves to the point of hoarseness.
Archpriest Igor Korostelev
