Bukhtarma Old Believers. The settlements of the Bukhtarma Old Believers are one of the first Russian peasant settlements on the territory of Kazakhstan. They were founded in the eighteenth century. in the East Kazakhstan region by fugitive peasants from the Volga and central Russian provinces, who sought refuge here from economic and religious oppression, from recruitment. These settlements in remote mountain valleys of the river. The Bukhtarmy (according to local terminology, "in stone", which is why the entire population was also called "masons") remained unknown to the government for a long time, and only since 1791 their inhabitants were officially included in Russian citizenship. In the 1760s, the Russian population of East Kazakhstan increased significantly due to Russian Old Believers who fled from religious persecution to Poland and forcibly returned to Russia (they began to be called "Poles"). "Poles" settled next to the Bukhtarma Old Believers - along the river. Ulba and r. Uba, the right tributaries of the Irtysh, flowing somewhat north of Bukhtarma, closer to the city of Ust-Kamenogorsk. The people of Bukhtarma and the "Poles", due to their common origin and long-term cohabitation, became closer in terms of culture and everyday life.
The Bukhtarma valley was often the ultimate goal of many fugitives. She was known under the name of the Stone, i.e. mountainous part of the region, so its inhabitants were called masons. Later, these lands began to be called Belovodie, identifying the free land, devoid of government supervision, with a mythical country from a utopian legend extremely common among the Old Believers. In its numerous versions, it is said that Belovodie is a holy land where Russian people live, who fled from religious strife in the 17th century. In Belovodye they have their own churches, in which worship is conducted according to old books, the sacraments of baptism and marriage are performed by the sun, they do not pray for the king, they are baptized with two fingers. As E. Shmurlo notes, throughout the 18th and also the 19th centuries, a relentless search goes on for this fantastic El Dorado, where rivers flow with honey, where taxes are not collected, where, finally, there is no Nikon church specially for schismatics. Among the Old Believers there were numerous lists of the "Traveler", indicating the way to Belovodie. The last real geographical point of the route is the Bukhtarma valley. After fruitless attempts to find the Belovodsk land, many of its seekers began to consider the Bukhtarma Territory as Belovodie, where "peasant land is without officials and priests." The latter attracted the Old Believers there. The government knew about secret settlements in the depths of the Altai Mountains from the 40s. XVIII century, but they were discovered only in 1761, when Ensign Zeleny, going with a search mountain party to Bukhtarma, noticed at one of its tributaries - Turgusun - a hut in which there were two men who then managed to hide. Such single houses and small settlements of five or six households were scattered among the mountain gorges of the Bukhtarma valley. Their inhabitants were engaged in fishing, hunting, and farming. However, difficult living conditions, internal strife, frequent crop failures, as well as the constant danger of discovery, as miners began to appear in these places, forced the Bukhtarma people to legalize their position. In 1786, about 60 residents of Kamen went to the Chinese Bogdykhan with a request to take them under his care. But, not wanting a conflict with the Russian government, the Chinese authorities, having kept the petitioners in custody in the city of Khobdo, let them go with a refusal. In 1790, taking advantage of the appearance of a mining official with a party of workers, the Bukhtarma people expressed their desire to "be public to the government." By the rescript of Catherine II of September 15, 1791, masons were accepted into Russia as yasak foreigners. They paid yasak to the government in the form of furs and animal skins, like all other foreigners of the Russian Empire. In 1796, yasak was replaced by a cash tax, and in 1824. - quitrent as from settled foreigners. In addition, the Bukhtarma residents were exempted from subordination to the sent administration, mining works, recruitment and some other duties.
After receiving the official status of Russian subjects, the masons moved to more convenient places to live. In 1792, instead of 30 small settlements, 9 villages were formed, in which a little more than 300 people lived: Osochikha (Bogatyrevo), Bykovo, Sennoye, Korobikha, Furnaces, Yazovaya, Belaya, Fykalka, Malonarymskaya (Ognevo).
These are brief information about the initial history of the Bukhtarma masons, who settled in the region as a result of spontaneous migrations. The formation of Old Believer settlements in the western part of Altai, which took place at the same time as in the Bukhtarma valley, was of a different nature, as it was the result of government orders. In connection with the expansion of the mining business, it became necessary to strengthen the Kolyvano-Voskresenskaya border line, which involved the construction of new redoubts and outposts. It took an increase in the number of miners, and consequently, peasant farmers to provide workers and soldiers with food. In 1760, a Senate decree was issued “On the occupation of places in Siberia from the Ust-Kamenogorsk fortress along the Bukhtarma river and further to Lake Teletskoye, on the construction of fortresses there in convenient places and the settlement of that side along the river Uba, Ulba, Berezovka, Glubokaya and others rivers flowing into the Irtysh River, by Russian people up to two thousand people. In this regard, the Senate, on the basis of the manifesto of Catherine II of December 4, 1761, invited Russian Old Believers who had fled from religious persecution to Poland to return to Russia. At the same time, it was indicated that they could choose the place of residence either the former one or the one indicated at the disposal of the empress, which included Siberia. Thus, some Old Believers settled here voluntarily, but many, especially the residents of the Vetka settlement, which was part of Poland, were deported to this territory by force. In 1765, a special order was issued in which fugitives from Poland and Lithuania were ordered to be exiled to Siberia, so they began to be called Poles in Altai. In the 1760s. all the indigenous villages of the “Poles” were founded in the Zmeinogorsk district: Ekaterininka of the Aleksandrovskaya volost; Shemonaikha, Losikha (Verkh-Uba), Sekisovka, Vladimir volost; Bobrovka, Bobrovskaya volost. Soon new villages appeared, where only Old Believers were residents: Malaya Ubinka, Bystrukha, Vladimir volost; Cheremshanka, Butakovo, Ridder volost, and some others. On May 21, 1779, an order was issued on the assignment of Pole peasants to factories, which obliged them to carry out not only agricultural work, but also logging, export of finished ore, etc. Until 1861, the Poles were assigned to the Kolyvano-Voskresensky mining plants. Unlike masons, they had to perform all state duties and pay a double poll tax as schismatics.
Thus, the history of the Altai Old Believers of the XVIII century. is divided into two stages: the first half of the century, when only individual Old Believers-fugitives come to the region, and the second half - the time of the formation of settled settlements on this territory (in the 1750s - 1790s - masons, in the 1760s - 1800s - - Poles). 19th century characterized by a general stabilization of the life of the Altai Old Believers. This is evidenced by the active process of the formation of new villages (6), the establishment of ties between various Old Believer sects, due to their religious community. In the 19th century in Altai lived representatives of both priestly and non-priestly consents (8). The Old Believers-priests came to Altai in Aleiskaya, Alexandrovskaya, Bobrovskaya, Vladimirskaya, Ridderskaya volosts after the "forcing" of settlements on Vetka. Later, as a result of escapes to the free lands of masons, priests appeared in the Bukhtarma district. In Bystrukha, Malaya Ubinka, Cheremshanka Beglopopov's communities were concentrated. Since the 1850s the spread of the Belokrinitsky priesthood among the Altai Poles is noted, and since 1908 - among the masons, who had the Belokrinitsky church first in Bogatyrev, and since 1917 in Korobikha. Since 1800, a single-faith church began to exist, which is a transitional one between the Old Believer and the Synodal. It was subordinate to the bishops of the New Believer church, but the service in it was performed according to old books in accordance with the Old Believer guidelines. In Altai, the most numerous parishes of the same faith were in Orlovka, Poperechnaya, Yekaterininka, Aleksandrovsky volost, Verkh-Uba, Shemonaikha, Vladimir volost, as well as some villages of masons (Topolnoye, Kamyshenka). In the second half of the XIX century. the cathedral church of the same faith functioned in Barnaul (priest Fr. Mikhail Kandaurov). The chapel, starikovsky and deacon's interpretations act as intermediate between priestly and non-priestly consents. The Ural and Siberian chapels actively assimilated with the Altai Beglopopovtsy in the 1780s. In the valleys of Bukhtarma and Koksa, on the shores of Lake Teletskoye, the old man's sense is most common. In the indigenous settlements of the Poles - the suburbs of Ust-Kamenogorsk, the villages of the Ridder volost - there were Dyakonovskaya. One of the most numerous non-priest talks in Altai is Pomeranian. Pomeranian communities are spread throughout the region. Bespopovtsy-Fedoseevtsy came to Altai in connection with the mass resettlement of Vetkovites here. Their native villages were Verkh-Uba, Butakovo, Vydrikha, Bobrovka, Tarkhanka. In Butakovo, Cheremshanka, Bystrukha, Malaya Ubinka, there were tyrants without priests. In the Uba valley lived representatives of such non-priesty sects as the Spasovites (Netovites), Okhovtsy (Nemolyaks) who came to Altai from the Volga region, self-crosses in the villages along the Uba and Anui rivers, in Yazovaya and Pechi of the Bukhtarma volost - fellow worshipers (dyrniki), along the river. Bukhtarma and in the Zmeinogorsk district - runners (wanderers), which increased the diversity of the ritual-dogmatic picture of the Altai Old Believers of the 19th century. At this time, the main spiritual centers of the region stand out. Prayers in Kondratievo, Turgusun, Vydrikha, Sekisovka, Verkh-Uba, Cheremshanka, Belaya were famous for their decoration and competent service. History has preserved the names of the most authoritative Old Believer mentors of the 19th century. Among the priests in the 1800s - 1820s. Yegor Alekseev (Krutoberezovka), Trofim Sokolov (Malaya Ubinka), Platon Guslyakov (Verkh-Uba) enjoyed great respect; in the 30s - 40s. - Nikita Zelenkov (Turgusun), Ivan Panteleev (Snegirevo), Ekaterina Karelskikh (Bukhtarma villages); in the 50s - 60s. - Ivan Golovanov (Bystrukha); in the 70s - 80s. - Fedor Eremeev (Tarkhanka); among the bespopovtsy - Ivan Krivonogov (Vydrikha), Karp Rachenkov (Butakovo), Fedor Sheshunikov (Tarkhanka), Gury Kostin (Bobrovka), Yasson Zyryanov (Belaya). At the end of XIX - beginning of XX century. the number of Old Believer monasteries is growing. The sketes functioned near Ridder, Verkh-Uba, Ust-Kamenogorsk, Zmeinogorsk, on the river. Bashchelak, near the villages of Ponomari and Kordon of the Charysh volost, in the region of the volost center of Srednekrasilovo, not far from Zalesovo (in the town of Mikulushkino swamp), in Chulyshman in Gorny Altai. During this period, a fairly large group of Old Believers - immigrants from Russia - came to Altai. As shown by expeditionary studies of the employees of the Novosibirsk Conservatory in the areas of residence of the Old Believers in 1993 - 1997. (22), the current state of the Old Believer settlements in Altai has undergone certain changes. In the region there are Belokrinichnik priests, Beglopopovtsy and representatives of eight bespopovtsy: Pomortsy, Fedoseyevtsy, Filippovtsy, chapels, Starikovtsy, Dyakonovtsy, Melchizedeks, runners (presumably). The main centers of Belokrinitsky Old Believers are located in Barnaul (priest Father Nikola), Biysk (priest Father Michael), Ust-Kamenogorsk (priest Father Gleb). Thanks to the missionary activity of the clergy, there is an active growth of Belokrinitsky communities in the regional centers of Krasnogorskoye, Zalesovo, Blagoveshchenka, Gorno-Altaisk, the villages of the Ust-Koksinsky district of the Altai Republic, Glubokovsky and Shemonaikha districts of the East Kazakhstan region. In some settlements (Barnaul, Biysk, Zalesov, the village of Multa, Ust-Koksinsky district), temples are being built. The Beglopopovskaya community, numbering up to 100 people, which has its own church, has been preserved in the village. Cheremshanka, Glubokovsky district, East Kazakhstan region. Beglopopovtsy Old Believers also live in the villages of Kordon and Peshcherka in the Zalesovsky district and in the city of Zarinsk. Some of the fugitives ended up in the Cave from Kamenka, which ceased to exist since 1957 as a result of the merger of collective farms, in which there was once a church. According to local residents, quite recently there was a large community in Zarinsk, but after the death of the mentor, communal (cathedral) services ceased, and the prayer house was sold. At present, the priest Fr. Andrew from the village Barite (Ursk) of the Kemerovo region. The Pomeranian remains the numerically predominant bespopovsky sense of Altai. Pomor communities are concentrated in Barnaul (mentors A.V. Gutov, A.V. Mozoleva), Biysk (mentor F.F. Serebrennikov), Ust-Kamenogorsk (mentor M.K. Farafonova), Leninogorsk (mentors I.K. Gruzinov , A.Ya. Nemtsev), Serebryansk (mentor E.Ya. Neustroev). The places of compact residence of Pomors are Aleisky, Altaisky, Biysky, Charyshsky districts of the Altai Territory, as well as the Glubokovsky district of the East Kazakhstan region. In Leninogorsk in the early 1990s. there was a female Pomeranian monastery, in which there were two nuns and a novice. Most of the Pomors are the natives of Altai, but there are also settlers from the Tomsk region, Tobolsk, and the Urals. In some villages (Verkh-Uba, Butakovo, Malaya Uba), Pomeranians are called samodurovtsy. As before, the most common sense in the south of Altai is the old man's. Old people's communities are known in Gorno-Altaisk (mentor V.I. Filippova), Mayma (mentor N.S. Suhoplyuev), Zyryanovsk (mentors M.S. Rakhmanov, L.A. Vykhodtsev), the villages of Bogatyrevo, Snegirevo, Parygino (mentor T.I. Loschilov), Putintsevo (mentor T. Shitsyna) of the Zyryanovsky district, r.p. Ust-Koksa and the villages of Upper and Lower Uimon, Tikhonkaya, Chendek, Multa (mentor F.E. Ivanov) of the Ust-Koksinsky district, Yailyu of the Turochaksky district. Many of them have abandoned state pensions and are trying to live by subsistence farming, buying the necessary products in stores as rarely as possible. The old people have separate dishes so as not to be defiled through a common meal with worldly people. They do not accept a tape recorder, radio, television, telephone, considering them "demonic". Altai old people are characterized by ritual features. In particular, when taking communion, they do not use prosphora, but epiphany water (the village of Multa, Ust-Koksinsky district), on Easter - an egg that has lain for a year in front of the icons since the day of last Easter (the village of Yailu, Turochaksky district). When moving to the old age, Nikonians must be baptized again, while Belokrinichniks are baptized with “renunciation” (denial of heresy). According to F.O. Bochkareva from the village of Tikhonkaya, “in order to accept our faith, before being baptized, it is necessary to study the charter for three years. We will find an interpretation of this in the gospel parable about the owner and the gardener who took care of the tree for three years, which bloomed only in the fourth year. The spiritual leader of the old man's community is the rector. According to V.I. Filippova from Gorno-Altaisk, “the rector is almost a priest. He has the right to send away from the cathedral, to bring the spouses together. In Mult, the title of “priest” was preserved for the rector, all problems are solved by the cathedral (i.e., the community) in a spiritual conversation. The most controversial dogmatic issues include the funeral of the deceased without repentance. The Starikites deliberately do not spread their faith.
It should be noted that in some Bukhtarma villages (Bykovo, Bogatyrevo, Zyryanovsky district, Soldatovo, Bolshenarymsky district), local residents single out Pole Old Believers. Apparently, these are the descendants of the Poles who moved to live in Kamen, but at the same time retained their distinctive features in everyday life and church practice. Polyakov's Old Believers formed a kind of independent sense of local significance. Resident with Bogatyrevo U.O. Biryukova reported that the Poles fled from Soviet power to China and then returned to Bukhtarma in the 1950s and 1960s. Previously, they had their own prayer room, which differed from the old man's in the absence of bells. In worship they have more singing, and their hymns are more melodious and lengthy.
The Old Believers of East Kazakhstan mastered the main natural resources of the region and were engaged in agriculture (with a predominance of the fallow system), cattle breeding (including the breeding of maral deer), beekeeping, hunting (they hunted sables, squirrels, bears, mountain goats, birds) and fish catching. Many elements of the material and spiritual culture of the Bukhtarma people were distinguished by the preservation of a number of archaic features, which is a consequence of their living in hard-to-reach mountain valleys in isolation from the main mass of the settlement of the Russian people and a secluded lifestyle. The Bukhtarma people adopted some features of culture from neighboring peoples - the Kazakhs, the Altaians. So, separate elements of clothing were borrowed - harem pants from women, ornament, etc. Borrowing cultural elements from the Kazakhs can be explained, in particular, by the fact that men predominated among the first settlers-Old Believers. Due to the lack of women, some of the settlers married Kazakh women, having previously baptized them. A comprehensive ethnographic survey of the Bukhtarma people was carried out in 1927 by the famous ethnographers E.E. Blomkvist and N.P. Grinkova as part of the work of the Kazakh expedition of the Academy of Sciences (headed by S.I. Rudenko). The results of the survey are reflected in the collection prepared by E.E. Blomkvist and N.P. Grinkova
The school year is over, but in three months the schoolchildren will again sit down at their desks, and the 4th grade students will have to solve a difficult question: which course of the subject "Fundamentals of Religious Cultures and Secular Ethics" they should study.
Many will choose the Fundamentals of Orthodox Culture, around which controversy still rages. It is important not only what will be taught, but also who will teach - will the teacher believe in what he tells the students?
The temple interfered with the tram
The first thing you notice in the community of Old Believers is bright faces, a clean, open look. It can be seen that the people who make up the community live a normal human life, but do not constantly rush from side to side from half-bad to half-good, as is typical of many.
There is no pomposity and beauty of the large churches of the Russian Orthodox Church, but here it is no less solemn, only this solemnity is rather internal, connected with the conviction of these people in the path they have chosen.
For more than twenty years, the Intercession community of the Russian Orthodox Old Believer Church in Barnaul has been headed by the archpriest, rector of the Church of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos, Father Nikola Dumnov. He told us what it is worth protecting modern youth from and when the Old Believer church in the regional center will be completed.
- Where did the Old Believers come from in Altai?
The Old Believers were among the first to come to Altai. Now even historians find it difficult to name the exact time, but it is known that Old Believers took part in the foundation of such fortresses as Biysk, Tomsk, Novokuznetsk. Then came the so-called "forcings" from Poland and Belarus - voluntary or forced resettlement of the Old Believers.
Many villages in the Altai Territory were founded by the Old Believers - there were especially many of them in the foothill zone, in the Slavgorod steppe and in the Salair region - in the beginning and middle of the 18th century.
But we must remember that before the beginning of the 20th century, the Old Believers were considered discordants and were deprived of many rights. Only in 1905, the Old Believers were officially recognized and allowed to register their communities. It is known that 34 Old Believer churches were built in Altai.
However, during the Soviet era, all the churches were dismantled or burned down.
The latter was blown up in Barnaul in 1967, allegedly because it interfered with the laying of tram rails - it was located on Krasnoarmeysky Prospekt near the Barnaulka River.
- But the services had to be held somewhere?
They were held in the homes of the parishioners - they collected books, icons, went to visit each other. Around 1947, the old people living on Partizanskaya Street offered their private house for permanent services.
In 1983, the Old Believer community of Barnaul received official registration and was already able to invite priests from Tomsk and Novosibirsk. Well, in 1990 Metropolitan Alimpiy of Moscow sent me to Barnaul as a priest. For 22 years, I fell in love with Altai and its inhabitants.
Newlyweds love to be photographed near the Old Believer church on Georgy Isakov Street in Barnaul, but when will it be completed?
It is difficult to say, we are building the temple on our own and cannot boast of unlimited funding, but, as professional builders tell us, it takes at least two years to complete all the work.
At first, we were given a place on the mountain, near the television center, but the community did not approve of it. And then by chance, although nothing happens by chance, I had to walk through a wasteland on Isakov Street.
I liked the place, and with the assistance of the then mayor of Barnaul, Vladimir Bavarin, they managed to defend the concept of the temple, created by the architect and Old Believer Alexei Sinelnikov. We had no idea how difficult and how long the construction would take. The fact that the temple is still being built is a lot of both a miracle and the disinterested help of various people.
It is better not to drink if you do not know the measure
- How many people are in the Old Believer community of Barnaul?
There is a parish and there is a community. The community is an active part of the parish. And the parish - all those who were baptized here - is several thousand people.
They visit us only on holidays and, although they associate themselves with the Old Believers, they are not active parishioners. Active - about 200 people - this is a community.
- Do people come from outside?
Now there are a lot of people who come from outside. And for me it's amazing. We have a lot of young people. Young people study and work somewhere, communicate, and interest arises in them - after all, they do not smoke, do not drink, they behave normally.
People around them are wondering - why are they like that? And through interest in them they come to us, look. We do not force anyone. Moreover, we have such conditions that it is easy for those who come for the first time to be disappointed - the poverty of the community is visible.
- What are the requirements for a new member of the community?
The requirements are simple and common to any Orthodox person. He must know the basics of faith and have faith. A person must understand why he came here, why he is baptized, and what baptism means to him.
There are also mandatory requirements for parishioners. We strictly prohibit smoking, the use of any drugs and intoxication with alcohol. Someone completely refuses wine, but Christ did not forbid this - it is important to know when to stop.
If a person does not know how to comply with it, it is better for him not to drink at all. And as for a beard for men - a beard distinguishes a man from a woman and should be in the Orthodox, but we understand that many parishioners work in the police, administration, army, and this is not welcome there.
So we treat this issue with understanding and not involuntarily.
- What are the relations with the Russian Orthodox Church?
Friendly, normal. I know many of our priests. We don't have much disagreement. Yes, we are conservatives. But conservatism is inherent in the church and is necessary. We fight for a healthy, pure rite. And if it were not for our struggle, then maybe the New Believer Church would not be able to save itself ...
Who should talk about faith?
- How do you feel about the introduction of the subject "Fundamentals of Orthodox Culture" in schools?
This question was discussed many times in Moscow at the Council. The general opinion - the foundations of Orthodox culture - is good, but life will show who and how will teach them. There is a danger that if unbelieving teachers teach this subject, they will raise cynics.
- Is cynicism something to be afraid of?
A cynical person knows everything, but believes nothing and is not afraid of anything. And it's scary. His knowledge is usually mediocre, but such a person is a danger to others.
- What else should an Orthodox person shun?
Much to be avoided. That unbridled anti-culture that is being imposed on society. The Old Believers who come to us from abroad are amazed at how our girls walk the streets with a cigarette in one hand and a can of beer in the other.
It is dangerous for the country and for the nation. This destroys the people, affects the security of the state - the question is about national self-preservation.
Therefore, we teach our youth not to harm themselves, not to set a bad example for children, to take care not only of their external, but also of their inner world.
Dip or dip?
The Russian Orthodox Church and the Russian Orthodox Old Believer Church could probably unite if they agreed on the basis of the rites of which church this could be done.
The Old Believer Church is very strict in observing ritual canons and their inner meaning. Thus, the Russian Orthodox Church practices only three-immersion baptism, while in the Russian Orthodox Church baptism can be both immersive, pouring, and dripping.
In the logic of the New Believers, God's grace contained in water does not depend on the amount of water - a drop is enough. The Old Believers, on the other hand, believe that other types of baptism, except for immersion, violate the very symbol of the sacrament.
Christ established the sacrament as a sign of symbolic dying with him - just as he died, so the person who comes to church must enter the church through baptism and symbolic dying. Therefore, no hair should remain on the surface when immersed in water.
By the way, this idea was supported by some prominent theologians of the Russian Orthodox Church - for example, the 19th-century archpriest Grigory Dyachenko considered dousing at baptism not as an Orthodox, but as a Catholic rite.
In the neighborhood of the Kazakh border, in the Uimon Valley, there is a well-known enclave of Old Believers, or "old men", as they are called here. They came here a very long time ago - either in search of Belovodye - the legendary country of freedom and justice, a refuge from the Antichrist who reigned in the world, or persecuted by the church.
The history of Russian Old Believer peasants is one of the most interesting pages of the past of Altai. The settlement of Altai by Russians began in the pre-Petrine era. In the middle of the 17th century, when the Church split in Rus', adherents of the old foundations began to be severely persecuted, as a result of which they were also forced to go to the Altai mountains. But even here they did not find peace. Church and secular authorities continued to persecute them for their faith and for illegal, unauthorized resettlement. Only in 1792, Catherine the Great issued an order to forgive the Old Believers for escaping and granting them the right to reside on the condition of paying a tax - yasak. Since then, the Old Believers have been equated with the local Altai population and exempted from recruitment duty. In the Soviet years, many of the Old Believers were repressed as middle peasants and enemies of the people.
In Altai, the Old Believers mastered large territories, formed entire villages. The mountain villages of the schismatics with arable farming, deer farms, mountain apiaries, hayfields and forest lands were flourishing oases. In almost two generations, they have managed to adapt to large temperature fluctuations, fleeting summers and long winters, seasonal floods of the Katun and other rivers. Gradually, the most reliable methods of a master's attitude to the outside world were selected.
The Uimon Old Believers-farmers in the Altai Mountains turned into excellent hunters, well-aimed shooters, and excellent fishermen. The inhabitants of Belovodie exchanged the obtained furs and skins for grain, cattle, clothes from the Chinese and Russian Cossacks in the villages located near the border zone. They also developed Russian crafts: carpentry, weaving, weaving, fur coats, etc. Kerzhaks of the Uimon basin spun linen, made linen, clothes, rugs, beautiful belts and belts.
The Old Believers lived in solid, warm, well-lit houses with glazed windows. The inside of the house was clean and tidy. The walls were painted with intricate patterns and bright colors. Paints - red lead, ocher, cormorant - craftsmen prepared from natural raw materials. In wall painting, images of outlandish animals, birds, lush and large flowers, and intricate floral ornaments were common motifs. The floors were covered with woven rugs and felt. Forged chests stood along the walls, beautiful embroidered bedspreads lay on the beds. But the most comfortable and warm place in the house was, of course, the stove. Above its canopy were beds on which the children slept. The hostess occupied the place opposite the mouth of the furnace. There were convenient crockery cupboards and kitchen utensils.
The Old Believers kept their houses in amazing cleanliness. The house was ground several times a day, the stove was whitened. Unpainted floors, benches, shelves were scraped with brooms, knives, rubbed with sand every Saturday.
The old clothes of the Uimon old-timers are now worn only during holidays and prayers, in addition, it is used by folklore groups. The traditional Old Believer costume was distinguished by its brightness and variety of colors, bright decoration. The summer men's suit included a white shirt, decorated with a red pattern on the collar and sleeves, and canvas harem pants. The festive costume consisted of wide harem pants made of plush or suede and a plain or colorful undershirt. Outerwear: zipuns, azyams, sheepskin coats were sewn from warm cloth, fur, sheepskin, leather, purchased camel wool.
The traditional female Old Believer costume included a headdress, a sundress, a shirt, a belt, an apron (apron). Short shirts, colloquially referred to as sleeves, were sewn from white canvas and decorated with rich embroidery, the neck was thickly stuffed along a narrow stand-up collar. The main type of sarafan of the Uimon women was at first skew-wedge, then round strap. Many assemblies made the round sundress lush and beautiful. Belts and girdles were an important element of the traditional Old Believer costume. From the moment of baptism, the belt was obligatory for the Old Believer throughout his life. The shoes of the Uimon inhabitants were also peculiar. From dressed rough and thick leather, short and high boots were sewn for men, women wore shoes. From the local peoples, the Old Believers borrowed comfortable and warm fur shoes: high fur boots sewn from goat fur inside and short kitties. From felted wool, they themselves made winter shoes - felt boots (pima).
Of great historical interest is the pottery of the Uimon Old Believers. On Uimon, women were engaged in pottery. The dishes were made not from one lump on a potter's wheel, but by applying rollers (in Uimon they were called karalichkas) on top of each other. This technique of making pottery is called molding. The process consisted of several stages. It all started with the extraction of clay. Pure fine Katunsky sand was added to the clay and crushed on a rough canvas until there were no lumps left. Rollers were molded from the resulting clay dough, which were laid out in 3-5 rows on a prepared flat bottom. The rollers were rubbed and smoothed with water to level the side surfaces. Prepared products were fired in Russian ovens on burning birch wood. For strength and beauty, the scalding technology was used: the products taken out of the oven were immersed in warm decoctions of buttermilk, whey, so that they boiled. After scalding, the dishes acquired a beautiful black color. Unscalded products remained the color of red terracotta.
Of course, today the life of the Old Believers of the Uimon Valley has changed, modern life leaves its mark on it. So that centuries-old traditions do not disappear forever, the Uimons create museums. It is interesting that children become the initiators, as, for example, in the village of Verkh-Uimon. The history of the museum in this village began with an ordinary linen towel brought to a history lesson. Then the children began to carry to school everything that had long been out of use in everyday life. With the help of all these things, it was possible to recreate the atmosphere of a typical Old Believer family. In addition, while interviewing old-timers, schoolchildren collected many proverbs and sayings, incantations and signs of the Uimon Valley. Interesting material was collected about the Great Patriotic War, because the descendants of the harsh Old Believers also, not sparing their lives, fought for their homeland.
Altai is the beauty of primeval nature and the beauty of the human spirit, harmoniously united in an inseparable hypostasis. It was here that the ancient traditions of Orthodoxy were preserved, since the Old Believers moved here during the years of persecution for the faith of Christ. Here they live to this day. The Old Believers of the Uimon Valley are considered bespopovtsy. They do not have a temple, and prayers are held at home. Old Believers call Orthodox Christians laymen. They will always help, they will invite you to the house, but they will feed you from a separate dish. In our review, we will talk about the Old Believers of Altai.
Old Believers or schismatics?
A significant part of the Russian population of various classes did not accept the ongoing reforms of the church rite with corrections to church books, which were carried out by Patriarch Nikon, supported by Alexei Mikhailovich Romanov. They also did not accept the secular reforms subsequently carried out by Peter I. Those who disagreed were called Old Believers, schismatics, Old Believers. However, they called themselves, with the support of the leader, Archpriest Avvakum, none other than "zealots of ancient piety" or "Orthodox Christians." On the contrary, they considered schismatics to be people who decided to submit to "ungodly" reformist actions.
In the Siberian and Altai regions, Old Believers are often called Kerzhaks, after the name of the descendants of sketes on the Kerzhenets River, which is located in the Volga region. It was from these places that most of the famous Old Believer mentors came from. Trying to escape from religious persecution, the schismatics were forced to flee, and to the most remote regions of Russia at that time. They settled in the northern part of the country - the Ural and Siberian regions. Part of the Old Believers left the borders of the empire to the west.
Escape to the rescue
The well-known legend about Belovodye turned out to be a guide to Siberia. It was believed that this rich country was not accessible to the royal authorities, in which the “patristic faith” was completely preserved.
Among the schismatics, hand-written "routes" with an indication of the desired route became widespread: Moscow, then Kazan, then to Siberia through the Urals, when they had to raft along the rivers, go through the mountains, go to the village of Uimon, in which people live, leading further. From Uimon, the route went “to the salt lakes”, “forty-four days on foot through China and Guban”, then to “Bogogogshe” in “Kokushi” and to “Ergor”. And then one could see Belovodye, but only being a pure spirit. It was said that there would be no Antichrist there, that dense forests, high mountains and large crevices separated from Russia. Also, according to legend, there can never be theft in Belovodie.
Until now, Russian villages have been built along this path, which were founded by the Old Believers - seekers of the mythical Belovodye. That is why the opinion of visiting travelers that Belovodie is located in the Uimon Valley is incorrect, and the old-timers know this for sure, but they will not tell. Therefore, modern legends are passed down from generation to generation. How can they not exist when the water in the upper part of the river. The Katun is really whitish, and in its waves it carries white clay ...
The way of life and life of the Old Believers
The forefathers of the Russian old-timers of Uimon lived at the end of the 18th century on the banks of the Koksu and Argut. They were located in small settlements, usually in 3-5 households, which were scattered over gorges and hills. In these places, the inhabitants built small huts, barns, built baths, mills. Arable land was also plowed up here. The settlers hunted wild animals, fished, organized trade with their neighbors from the south - the inhabitants of Altai, Mongolia, and China. We also communicated with similar villages in the Bukhtarma Valley. Behind the high mountains, besides the schismatics, also craftsmen who did not want to work in various mines and enterprises, servicemen who escaped from service, and others found shelter.
Detachments of Cossacks sent for the fugitives, with a few exceptions, could not catch them and simply burned the villages of the fugitives, devastated arable land. However, hiding from the authorities from year to year was more and more difficult. And in 1791, the inhabitants of the mountains (Arguts and Bukhtarminsy), after much thought and discussion, decided to send 3 delegations to the capital at once, asking for mercy and fixing them in Russian citizenship. They received it in 1792 from Catherine II.
After the issued decree, the Old Believers left the harsh and uninhabitable gorges and settled in the Uimon Valley (comparatively wide). There they quietly engaged in agriculture, bred cattle, bees and organized for themselves other crafts necessary for life.
In Uimon, the Old Believers created a number of settlements. The first is the village of Upper Uimon. Natives of it founded other villages. According to the memoirs of the old-timer Zheleznov, when his ancestors fled to these parts, the Altai people were very kind, they hid them from the churchmen. They managed to firmly stand on their feet: each justified the estate, they lived quite richly. However, they worked well. Went to bed at 2 am, got up at 6 am.
A large place among the Old Believers was given to hunting. They devoted a lot of time to her in any season. Special methods were developed for hunting each specific animal.
And now hunting is still a favorite pastime of the local population, and its commercial essence is still preserved. There are families where game is the main source of meat. At the same time, the masons of Uimon were also peasants and plowed the land where the local conditions of nature allowed.
Life in prayers and without
All tourists who saw Uimon at different times spoke about the religiosity of the locals, that they pray a lot and constantly read scriptures and books. Practically until the end of the 19th century, secular reading was not known to Uimon masons. Those books that the forefathers were able to bring and save had a spiritual text. It should be noted that the level of literacy of local residents, including children and women, was very high. Almost everyone could read and write.
All scientists-researchers of this area were surprised at the qualities of the inhabitants. These mountain settlers were courageous, bold, determined and confident. The famous scientist C. F. Ledebour, who visited here in 1826, noted that the psychology of the communities is also really something gratifying in such a wilderness. The Old Believers were not embarrassed by strangers, whom they did not see so often, did not experience shyness and isolation, but, on the contrary, showed openness, straightforwardness and even disinterestedness. According to the ethnographer A. A. Prints, the Altai Old Believers are a daring and dashing people, brave, strong, resolute, tireless. At the same time, women almost did not concede in such qualities. On the famous traveler V.V. Sapozhnikov, the Uimon residents also made a very favorable impression - they are brave, self-confident, well aware of the surroundings and having a broad outlook.
Such qualities of people, their cultural and psychological essence, the ability to adapt to the difficult climatic conditions of high mountain regions, as well as the special type of management formed by the Old Believers, still attract the attention of many researchers.
Raisa Pavlovna, a resident of the village of Verkhniy Uimon, talks about the Old Believers and their kindness.
The history of the Altai Old Believers, closely connected with the development of Siberia by Russian settlers, is widely covered in scientific research. Scientists have created a large factual base based on materials from Siberian chronicles, state documents, statistical data, and literary monuments. The information obtained reveals a variety of problems: the emergence of Old Believers in the region, their adaptation to new living conditions, migration processes, customary legal relations, family and everyday life, cultural traditions, etc. Among the most fundamental works of historical Siberian studies that touch upon the theme of the Altai Old Believers, the academic work “History of Siberia from ancient times to the present day”, the monograph “Bukhtarma Old Believers”, books by N.V. Alekseenko, Yu.S. Bulygina, N.N. Pokrovsky, N.G. Apollova, N.F. Emelyanova, V.A. Lipinskaya, T.S. Mamsik. The studies of modern scientists take into account the achievements of the figures of historical science of the 19th - early 20th centuries: S.I. Gulyaev, G.N. Potanin, A. Printts, P.A. Slovtsova, D.N. Belikova, E. Shmurlo, M. Shvetsova, B. Gerasimova, G.D. Grebenshchikova, I.V. Shcheglova, N.M. Yadrintsev. The researches of these, as well as a number of other researchers, give a holistic view of the initial stages of the history of the Altai Old Believers and its further development.
The annexation of Siberia to Russia dates back to the end of the 16th century. This process is connected with Yermak's campaign. The region of the primary development of the Siberian lands was the Tobolsk province. By the middle of the XVII century. Russian settlers occupied the lands from Verkhoturye to Tobolsk. Since the rivers were the main, perhaps the only possible way to move inland, the development of Siberia at first took place along the Ob and Irtysh.
Then the settlers began to settle in more convenient places - along the southern tributaries of the Siberian rivers. N.M. Yadrintsev defined the general pattern of resettlement processes as moving by river from less fertile to more fertile places. This is how the formation of the most densely populated regions of Siberia proceeded. At the beginning of the XVIII century. as a result of pushing the nomadic Siberian tribes to the Chinese border, the land holdings of the Russian state are expanding. Powerful migration flows poured into the south of Siberia - to the foothills of the Altai and further through Semirechye to the Amur. Thus, Altai is a region of rather late development of Siberian lands by Russian people (1).
The process of colonization of Siberia, including Altai, went in two ways - governmental, including military, industrial and so-called state migration, i.e. sending to Siberia in connection with any royal decree, and free people, associated with secret escapes of people from oppression and duties. The Russian settlers included military men, Cossacks, who went to strengthen and expand border lines, protect fortresses, outposts and prisons; miners and industrialists who developed Siberian natural resources; peasant farmers sent by the tsarist administration to the new industrial zones; fugitive exiles, convicts, and finally, just "walking people" looking for free lands.
The motley old-timer population also had confessional differences. Here it is necessary to single out representatives of pre-reform Orthodoxy who came to Altai as a result of internal migration of the population from Tobolsk, whose ancestors ended up in Siberia at the end of the 16th - first half of the 17th centuries, the Nikonian New Believers, who accepted in the second half of the 17th century. church reform, and the Old Believers, who rejected the innovations of Patriarch Nikon. The Old Believers constituted a completely separate group among the Siberian population. In the areas of the primary development of Siberia by Russian settlers, the Old Believers appeared soon after the split. The mass distribution of the Old Believers in Siberia begins in the last quarter of the 17th century. The facts of the burning of schismatics by the Tobolsk authorities in 1676 and 1683-1684, the self-immolation of Old Believers in Berezovsky on the Tobol River in 1679, in Kamenskoye near Tyumen and in Kurgai Sloboda in 1687 were documented. In Siberia, the Old Believers spread in accordance with the general direction of advancement of the Russian population - from the northwest to the southeast. Old Believers appeared in Altai no earlier than the 18th century, which is confirmed by documentary sources and historical research.
The first Old Believers came to Altai from the previously developed northern Siberian territories. Some of them were among other Russian settlers who fell under government decrees on the settlement of new lands in connection with the foundation of fortresses and factories. Others were fugitives hiding in the hard-to-reach gorges of the Altai Mountains from government duties, serfdom, recruitment, and religious persecution. The reason for the frequent shoots was the introduction in the 20s. 18th century double salary from the Old Believers, as well as the order of 1737 on the involvement of schismatics in mining at state-owned factories (2).
It should be noted that in the remote areas of Altai, free-people colonization preceded the government development of these lands. This is how the settlement took place in the upper reaches of the Uba, Ulba and further south along the rivers Bukhtarma, Belaya, Uimon, Koksa. A. Printz believed that the first Old Believers appeared here in the 20s. XVIII century, but documentary evidence refers only to the 40s. 18th century Then secret settlements of desert dwellers were discovered on the river. Ube united around the monk Kuzma. In 1748, two factory workers were caught trying to escape through the Uba to the Bukhtarma valley. As it turned out, their route was already well-trodden by their predecessors, which indicates an earlier secret development of these places.
The Bukhtarma valley was often the ultimate goal of many fugitives. She was known under the name of the Stone, i.e. mountainous part of the region, so its inhabitants were called masons. Later, these lands began to be called Belovodie, identifying the free land, devoid of government supervision, with a mythical country from a utopian legend extremely common among the Old Believers. In its numerous versions (3), it is said that Belovodie is a holy land where Russian people live, who fled from religious strife in the 17th century. In Belovodye they have their own churches, in which worship is conducted according to old books, the sacraments of baptism and marriage are performed by the sun, they do not pray for the king, they are baptized with two fingers.
“In those places, there are no tatba and theft and other things that are contrary to the law ... And there are all kinds of earthly fruits, and gold and silver are innumerable ... They don’t have a secular court, there are no police or guards there, but they live according to Christian custom. God fills this place." However, only true zealots of ancient piety can get into Belovodye. “The way there is ordered for the servants of the Antichrist ... Faith must be unshakable ... If you waver in faith, then the Belovodsk fair land will be covered with fog” (4).
As E. Shmurlo notes, throughout the 18th and also the 19th centuries, a relentless search goes on for this fantastic El Dorado, where rivers flow with honey, where taxes are not collected, where, finally, there is no Nikon church specially for schismatics.
Among the Old Believers there were numerous lists of the "Traveler", indicating the way to Belovodie. The last real geographical point of the route is the Bukhtarma valley. After fruitless attempts to find the Belovodsk land, many of its seekers began to consider the Bukhtarma Territory as Belovodie, where "peasant land is without officials and priests." The latter attracted the Old Believers there.
The government knew about secret settlements in the depths of the Altai Mountains from the 40s. XVIII century, but they were discovered only in 1761, when Ensign Zeleny, going with a search mountain party to Bukhtarma, noticed at one of its tributaries - Turgusun - a hut in which there were two men who then managed to hide. Such single houses and small settlements of five or six households were scattered among the mountain gorges of the Bukhtarma valley. Their inhabitants were engaged in fishing, hunting, and agriculture.
However, difficult living conditions, internal strife, frequent crop failures, as well as the constant danger of discovery, as miners began to appear in these places, forced the Bukhtarma people to legalize their position. In 1786, about 60 residents of Kamen went to the Chinese Bogdykhan with a request to take them under his care. But, not wanting a conflict with the Russian government, the Chinese authorities, having kept the petitioners in custody in the city of Hobdo, let them go with a refusal.
In 1790, taking advantage of the appearance of a mining official with a party of workers, the people of Bukhtarma expressed their desire to "be public to the government." By the rescript of Catherine II of September 15, 1791, masons were accepted into Russia as yasak foreigners. They paid yasak to the government in the form of furs and animal skins, like all other foreigners of the Russian Empire. In 1796, yasak was replaced by a cash tax, and in 1824 - quitrent as from settled foreigners. In addition, the Bukhtarma residents were exempted from subordination to the sent administration, mining works, recruitment and some other duties.
Girls in festive clothes. Yazovaya village, Bukhtarma district (Bukhtarma "masons") Photo by E. E. Blomqvist and N. P. Grinkova (1927)
After receiving the official status of Russian subjects, the masons moved to more convenient places to live. In 1792, instead of 30 small settlements, 9 villages were formed, in which a little more than 300 people lived: Osochikha (Bogatyrevo), Bykovo, Sennoye, Korobikha, Furnaces, Yazovaya, Belaya, Fykalka, Malonarymskaya (Ognevo).
Russian masons. A trip to the arable land with a scythe. D. Korobikha, 1927. Photo by A.N. Beloslyudov. Source: Bukhtarma Old Believers. Materials of the Expeditionary Research Commission
These are brief information about the initial history of the Bukhtarma masons, who settled in the region as a result of spontaneous migrations. The formation of Old Believer settlements in the western part of Altai, which took place at the same time as in the Bukhtarma valley, was of a different nature, as it was the result of government orders. In connection with the expansion of the mining business, it became necessary to strengthen the Kolyvano-Voskresenskaya border line, which involved the construction of new redoubts and outposts. It took an increase in the number of miners, and consequently, peasant farmers to provide workers and soldiers with food.
In 1760, a Senate decree was issued “On the occupation of places in Siberia from the Ust-Kamenogorsk fortress along the Bukhtarma river and further to Lake Teletskoye, on the construction of fortresses there in convenient places and the settlement of that side along the river Uba, Ulba, Berezovka, Glubokaya and others rivers flowing into the Irtysh River, by Russian people up to two thousand people. In this regard, the Senate, on the basis of the manifesto of Catherine II of December 4, 1761, invited Russian Old Believers who had fled from religious persecution to Poland to return to Russia. At the same time, it was indicated that they could choose the place of residence either the former one or the one indicated at the disposal of the empress, which included Siberia.
Thus, some Old Believers settled here voluntarily, but many, especially the inhabitants of the Vetka settlement (5), who were deported by Major General Maslov, were sent to this territory by force. In 1765, a special order was issued, which commanded to exile the fugitives from Poland and Lithuania to Siberia, so in Altai they began to be called Poles.
In the 1760s all the indigenous villages of the “Poles” were founded in the Zmeinogorsk district: Ekaterininka of the Aleksandrovskaya volost; Shemonaikha, Losikha (Verkh-Uba), Sekisovka, Vladimir volost; Bobrovka, Bobrovskaya volost. Soon new villages appeared, where only Old Believers were residents: Malaya Ubinka, Bystrukha, Vladimir volost; Cheremshanka, Butakovo, Ridder Volost and some others.
On May 21, 1779, an order was issued on the registration of Polish peasants to the factories, which obliged them to carry out not only agricultural work, but also logging, export of finished ore, etc. Until 1861, the Poles were assigned to the Kolyvano-Voskresensky mining plants. Unlike masons, they had to perform all state duties and pay a double poll tax as schismatics.
Children are "Poles" in home everyday clothes. Photo by A. E. Novoselov
Thus, the history of the Altai Old Believers of the XVIII century. is divided into two stages: the first half of the century, when only individual Old Believers-fugitives come to the region, and the second half - the time of the formation of settled settlements on this territory (in the 1750s - 1790s - masons, in the 1760s - 1800s - - Poles). 19th century characterized by a general stabilization of the life of the Altai Old Believers. This is evidenced by the active process of the formation of new villages (6), the establishment of ties between various Old Believer sects, due to their religious community (7).
In the 19th century in Altai lived representatives of both priestly and non-priestly consents (8). The Old Believers-priests came to Altai in Aleiskaya, Alexandrovskaya, Bobrovskaya, Vladimirskaya, Ridderskaya volosts after the "forcing" of settlements on Vetka. Later, as a result of escapes to the free lands of masons, priests appeared in the Bukhtarma district. In Bystrukha, Malaya Ubinka, Cheremshanka Beglopopov's communities were concentrated. Since the 1850s the spread of the Belokrinitsky priesthood among the Altai Poles is noted, and since 1908 - among the masons, who had the Belokrinitsky church first in Bogatyrev, and since 1917 in Korobikha (9).
Since 1800, a single-faith church began to exist, which is a transitional one between the Old Believer and the Synodal. It was subordinate to the bishops of the New Believer church, but the service in it was performed according to old books in accordance with the Old Believer guidelines. In Altai, the most numerous parishes of the same faith were in Orlovka, Poperechnaya, Yekaterininka, Aleksandrovsky volost, Verkh-Uba, Shemonaikha, Vladimir volost, as well as some villages of masons (Topolnoye, Kamyshenka). In the second half of the XIX century. Edinoverie Cathedral functioned in Barnaul (priest Father Mikhail Kandaurov).
The chapel, starikovsky and deaconovsky interpretations act as intermediate between priestly and non-priestly consents (10). The Ural and Siberian chapels actively assimilated with the Altai Beglopopovtsy in the 1780s. In the valleys of Bukhtarma and Koksa, on the shores of Lake Teletskoye, the old man's sense is most common. In the indigenous settlements of the Poles - the suburbs of Ust-Kamenogorsk, the villages of the Ridder volost - there were Dyakonovskaya.
One of the most numerous non-priest talks in Altai is Pomeranian. Pomeranian communities are spread throughout the region. Bespopovtsy-Fedoseevtsy came to Altai in connection with the mass resettlement of Vetkovites here. Their native villages were Verkh-Uba, Butakovo, Vydrikha, Bobrovka, Tarkhanka (11). In Butakovo, Cheremshanka, Bystrukha, Malaya Ubinka, there were tyrants without priests (12). In the Uba valley there lived representatives of such non-priesty sects as the Spasovites (13) (Netovites), Okhovtsy (14) (non-Molians) who came to Altai from the Volga region, self-crosses (15) in the villages along the Uba and Anuy rivers, in the Yazovaya and Pechi of the Bukhtarma volost - one-worshipers (dyrniki) (16), along the river. Bukhtarma and in the Zmeinogorsk district - runners (17) (wanderers), which increased the diversity of the ritual-dogmatic picture of the Altai Old Believers of the 19th century. At this time, the main spiritual centers of the region stand out. Prayers in Kondratievo, Turgusun, Vydrikha, Sekisovka, Verkh-Uba, Cheremshanka, Belaya were famous for their decoration and competent service.
History has preserved the names of the most authoritative Old Believer mentors of the 19th century. Among the priests in the 1800s - 1820s. Yegor Alekseev (Krutoberezovka), Trofim Sokolov (Malaya Ubinka), Platon Guslyakov (Verkh-Uba) enjoyed great respect; in the 30s - 40s. - Nikita Zelenkov (Turgusun), Ivan Panteleev (Snegirevo), Ekaterina Karelskikh (Bukhtarma villages); in the 50s - 60s. - Ivan Golovanov (Bystrukha); in the 70s - 80s. - Fedor Eremeev (Tarkhanka); among the bespopovtsy - Ivan Krivonogov (Vydrikha), Karp Rachenkov (Butakovo), Fedor Sheshunikov (Tarkhanka), Gury Kostin (Bobrovka), Yasson Zyryanov (Belaya).
At the end of XIX - beginning of XX century. the number of Old Believer monasteries is growing. The sketes functioned near Ridder, Verkh-Uba, Ust-Kamenogorsk, Zmeinogorsk, on the river. Bashchelak, near the villages of Ponomari and Kordon of the Charysh volost, in the region of the volost center of Srednekrasilovo, not far from Zalesovo (in the town of Mikulushkino swamp), in Chulyshman in Gorny Altai (18). During this period, a fairly large group of Old Believers - immigrants from Russia - came to Altai. At the beginning of the XX century. Old Believers settle in Kulunda. About 15 families of Old Believers arrived in Altai in 1898 from the Voronezh province. They settled in the Petukhovo of the present Klyuchevsky district. But since the main part of the Roosters were Nikonians, the Old Believers wanted to form separate settlements. And when in the early 1900s. the government allocated plots of land for the settlement of the Kulunda steppe, the Old Believers turned to the head of the resettlement with a request to give them land, citing religious incompatibility. Since 1908, the resettlement of the Old Believers to the Kulunda steppe begins. Thus, the Kulunda Old Believers belong to the late settlement group of the non-indigenous Siberian population.
In general, the second half of the 19th - early 20th century. - the most favorable period in the history of the Altai Old Believers (19). It was a time of intense spiritual life, including a full-fledged ritual and liturgical practice, comprehension of the dogmatic issues of the Old Believers; the formation of libraries of spiritual literature and iconostases in prayer rooms, the functioning of Old Believer schools in which they taught the Church Slavonic language and hook singing, which contributed to the preservation of liturgical traditions; production of handwritten books by monastic scribes and hermits on the river. Ube (mentor V. G. Tregubov).
With the establishment of Soviet power in the region from the 20s. In the 20th century, religious oppression began: prayer rooms were closed, believers were persecuted, religious customs and traditions were defiled. A lot of spiritual literature was confiscated, iconostases were destroyed. Many communities have lost competent guides. The Old Believers again went underground, once again suffering harassment and persecution by the state (20).
And only recently there has been a religious revival, as evidenced by the registration of Old Believer communities throughout the region, the opening of new prayer houses, the involvement of the younger generation in the communities, the resumption of training in hook singing (in particular, in the parishes of the Russian Orthodox Church (21) of Barnaul, Biysk, Ust-Kamenogorsk ) etc. However, such processes do not appear everywhere. In settlements remote from urban centers, reverse trends of destruction and extinction of spiritual traditions prevail.
As shown by expeditionary studies of the employees of the Novosibirsk Conservatory in the areas of residence of the Old Believers in 1993 - 1997. (22), the current state of the Old Believer settlements in Altai has undergone certain changes. In the region there are Belokrinichnik priests, Beglopopovtsy and representatives of eight bespopovtsy: Pomortsy, Fedoseyevtsy, Filippovtsy, chapels, Starikovtsy, Dyakonovtsy, Melchizedeks, runners (presumably).
The main centers of Belokrinitsky Old Believers are located in Barnaul (priest Father Nikola), Biysk (priest Father Michael), Ust-Kamenogorsk (priest Father Gleb). Thanks to the missionary activity of the clergy, there is an active growth of Belokrinitsky communities in the regional centers of Krasnogorskoye, Zalesovo, Blagoveshchenka, Gorno-Altaisk, the villages of the Ust-Koksinsky district of the Altai Republic, Glubokovsky and Shemonaikha districts of the East Kazakhstan region. In some settlements (Barnaul, Biysk, Zalesov, the village of Multa, Ust-Koksinsky district), temples are being built (23).
The Beglopopovskaya community, numbering up to 100 people, which has its own church, has been preserved in the village. Cheremshanka, Glubokovsky district, East Kazakhstan region. Beglopopovtsy Old Believers also live in the villages of Kordon and Peshcherka in the Zalesovsky district and in the city of Zarinsk. Some of the fugitives ended up in the Cave from Kamenka, which ceased to exist since 1957 as a result of the merger of collective farms, in which there was once a church. According to local residents, quite recently there was a large community in Zarinsk, but after the death of the mentor, communal (cathedral) services ceased, and the prayer house was sold. At present, the priest Fr. Andrew from the village Barite (Ursk) of the Kemerovo region.
The Pomeranian remains the numerically predominant bespopovsky sense of Altai. Pomor communities are concentrated in Barnaul (mentors A.V. Gutov, A.V. Mozoleva), Biysk (mentor F.F. Serebrennikov), Ust-Kamenogorsk (mentor M.K. Farafonova), Leninogorsk (mentors I.K. Gruzinov , A.Ya. Nemtsev), Serebryansk (mentor E.Ya. Neustroev). The places of compact residence of Pomors are Aleisky, Altaisky, Biysky, Charyshsky districts of the Altai Territory, as well as the Glubokovsky district of the East Kazakhstan region. In Leninogorsk in the early 1990s. there was a female Pomeranian monastery, in which there were two nuns and a novice. Most of the Pomors are the natives of Altai, but there are also settlers from the Tomsk region, Tobolsk, and the Urals.
In some villages (Verkh-Uba, Butakovo, Malaya Uba), Pomeranians are called samodurovtsy. Now there is no separate sense of self-durovites in Altai. They joined the Pomeranians, adopted their dogmatics and rituals. Only the name remained, which in the original Samodur villages was also transferred to the Pomeranians.
Fedoseyevtsy live in the villages of Bobrovka, Tarkhanka, Butakovo, Glubokovsky district, East Kazakhstan region (mentor E.F. Poltoranina). Once the Fedoseyevites of these places had two prayer houses. Now they gather only on big holidays in Butakovo.
The Old Believers-Filippo have survived in the Zalesovsky and Zarinsky districts. They got to these places from Vyatka. However, most of them in the 1930-1940s. migrated to the Belovsky and Guryev districts of the Kemerovo region.
The Old Believers-Melchizedeks living in Zalesovo and Biysk also have Vyatka origin (the full name of the sense is the ancient cephalic church according to the order of Melchizedek). This is the only community of the now rare Old Believers discovered in Siberia. From a conversation with Z. Kuznetsova, a resident of Zalesovo, it became clear that earlier their community numbered up to 70 people, the priest was Fr. Timothy, who was killed during the years of repression; The church building burned down in the 1960s. Now only seven Melchizedeks live in Zalesovo.
Interesting information about the Melchizedeks - closed to communication and little contact Old Believers - was given by the daughter of the mentor of the Biysk community: “At present, we no longer have priests, the last of them died in the 60s, so now they are not ordained to the priesthood. My grandfather (the father of the current mentor) was a bishop, lived in Vyatka, moved to Siberia in the 30s, fleeing collectivization: first to the Tomsk region, the village of Kargasok, then to Altai. My father studied at a church school as a child, studied the charter there. Apart from him, there are no literate people in the community.”
The informant told us that the Melchizedeks have their own calendar and books, the main one being the Hourbook. Other people's and new books do not use. The service is conducted in Church Slavonic, chants are sung into speech. Worldly songs are forbidden, only the singing of spiritual verses is permissible. They make candles themselves, which are consecrated by the mentor. During communion hours, they take communion with water and prosphora. Due to the lack of priests, the wedding ceremony is not performed, they only bless for marriage. Previously, only people of their faith were blessed, now marriage of people of different faiths is allowed, but only a member of the community receives the blessing. Children are baptized in the font, adults - in the river. Only men have the right to baptize, bless, take to confession, and lead the charter. As a result of the unification of several parishes, three temple holidays are celebrated: the prophet Elijah, the icon of the Mother of God of Vladimir, the Great Martyr George the Victorious.
The Melchizedeks are still very strict in "observing the cup." Previously, after passing travelers, the dishes used by them were thrown away, now there is a separate set of dishes for worldly people. The Melchizedeks prefer not to communicate with the Gentiles and not to tell anything about their faith.
As before, the most common sense in the south of Altai is the old man's. Old people's communities are known in Gorno-Altaisk (mentor V.I. Filippova), Mayma (mentor N.S. Suhoplyuev), Zyryanovsk (mentors M.S. Rakhmanov, L.A. Vykhodtsev), the villages of Bogatyrevo, Snegirevo, Parygino (mentor T.I. Loschilov), Putintsevo (mentor T. Shitsyna) of the Zyryanovsky district, r.p. Ust-Koksa and the villages of Upper and Lower Uimon, Tikhonkaya, Chendek, Multa (mentor F.E. Ivanov) of the Ust-Koksinsky district, Yailyu of the Turochaksky district.
The old people of Gorny Altai (the self-name of the sense is old man) are distinguished by the originality of ideas, as well as the severity of morals. Many of them have abandoned state pensions and are trying to live by subsistence farming, buying the necessary products in stores as rarely as possible. The old people have separate dishes so as not to be defiled through a common meal with worldly people. They do not accept a tape recorder, radio, television, telephone, considering them "demonic".
Altai old people are characterized by ritual features. In particular, when taking communion, they do not use prosphora, but epiphany water (the village of Multa, Ust-Koksinsky district), on Easter - an egg that has lain for a year in front of the icons since the day of last Easter (the village of Yailu, Turochaksky district). When moving to the old age, Nikonians must be baptized again, while Belokrinichniks are baptized with “renunciation” (denial of heresy). According to F.O. Bochkareva from the village of Tikhonkaya, “in order to accept our faith, before being baptized, it is necessary to study the charter for three years. We will find an interpretation of this in the gospel parable about the owner and gardener, who took care of a tree for three years, which bloomed only in the fourth year.
The spiritual leader of the old man's community is the rector. According to V.I. Filippova from Gorno-Altaisk, “the rector is almost a priest. He has the right to send away from the cathedral, to bring the spouses together. In Mult, the title of “priest” was preserved for the rector, all problems are solved by the cathedral (i.e., the community) in a spiritual conversation. The most controversial dogmatic issues include the funeral of the deceased without repentance.
The Old Men deliberately do not spread their faith.
“One must hide one’s faith so that outsiders do not ridicule the Scriptures, do not consider everything that is written there to be fairy tales and fables. Our faith will not die from this, it will only become thinner and stretched into a thread, ”says F.O. Bochkareva.
It is known that in the mountains on Lake Teletskoye there are hermitages and a nunnery of the Old Men.
Russian peasants. A family of Old Believers from Katanda. 1915 Author N.V. Novikov. From the funds of the Altai State Museum of Local Lore
According to the Old Believer A. Isakova from the village. Chendek of Ust-Koksinsky district, earlier the old man's church was in Katanda. She said that the Old Believers of Koksa communicated with the Bukhtarma people, as well as the Kerzhaks of Biysk and Barnaul. At present, the village of Multa is the center of the Koksinskaya Starikovshchina. Old people from Chendek, Upper and Lower Uimon, and Tikhonkaya come here for big holidays. According to the memoirs of M.K. Kazantseva:
“In Mult there was once a large prayer room, consisting of two compartments: the right one for men, the left one for women, with a common altar. The service went from four in the evening until nine in the morning. Wealthy villagers kept the prayer house.
If in the villages there is a tendency to unite the old people around a single center, then in the urban communities the opposite processes are taking place. So, in the recent past, the community in Gorno-Altaisk split into two, the second is now gathering in Mayma. Back in the 1960s, the once large parish in Zyryanovsk was divided into two groups for the convenience of worship, and at present, the Zyryanovsk Old Believers are not moving towards rapprochement, forming separate communities under the spiritual guidance of M.S. Rakhmanov and L. A. Vykhodtseva.
In Biysk, old people are called "unsubscribed". As explained by F.F. Serebrennikov, the Biysk old people spun off from the chapels, joining the fellow believers, then they turned away from the common faith, considering it Nikonianism, while the chapels were them. they didn’t take it back, which is why they began to be called unsubscribers, then - Starikites. There is a similar community in Topolnoye, Soloneshinsky District (mentor A.A. Filippova).
Old Believers who call themselves chapels are found in the villages of the Tyumentsevsky district.
Dyakonovshchina (self-name Dyakovsky) has been preserved in the Rudny Altai in the suburbs of Ust-Kamenogorsk and the village. Cheremshanka, Glubokovsky district, East Kazakhstan region (mentor T.S. Denisova) - about 50 people in total.
In Rubtsovsk, Zmeinogorsk, the villages of the Zmeinogorsky, Tretyakovsky districts, "Ipekhashniks" live. Apparently, these are the descendants of the truly Orthodox Christian runners, once numerous in Altai.
From the memoirs of the inhabitants of Zmeinogorsk:
“During the war years, the holy old man lived in these parts - a seer, performed healings in front of people. His name was Demetrius, he was a simple Christian, until he heard a voice from heaven. Since believers were persecuted, he hid in secret corners and huts, where people came to pray. Then Dimitri was found and tried, since then he has been missing. His work was continued by his son Mikhail, who returned from the war. However, he was also tried for refusing his passport. Michael returned from prison crippled, but continued his religious activities. About 40 people joined him.”
Now there are no more than 10 such people left. They do not accept the priesthood, calling modern priests "cult workers" who "do not serve, but work." The sacrament of communion is performed independently: after fasting, they take holy baptismal water, repent before the Gospel - thereby, they partake of the Holy Spirit (“in the Spirit is truth”). Many Ipekhashniks refused pensions, believing that money is given not by God, but by the devil, from passports, as the seal of the Antichrist who reigned in the world; the electricity is out, candles are used, and food is cooked on fire in the oven. These people try to live in isolation, contacting the "world" as little as possible.
It should be noted that in some Bukhtarma villages (Bykovo, Bogatyrevo, Zyryanovsky district, Soldatovo, Bolshenarymsky district), local residents single out Pole Old Believers. Apparently, these are the descendants of the Poles who moved to live in Kamen, but at the same time retained their distinctive features in everyday life and church practice. Polyakov's Old Believers formed a kind of independent sense of local significance. Resident with Bogatyrevo U.O. Biryukova reported that the Poles fled from Soviet power to China and then returned to Bukhtarma in the 1950s and 1960s. Previously, they had their own prayer room, which differed from the old man's in the absence of bells. In worship they have more singing, and their hymns are more melodious and lengthy.
Old Believers of the village of Bykovo (village of Bykovo) of the Bukhtarma district (Bukhtarma "masons"). Photo by A. N. Beloslyudov (1912-1914)
There was information that representatives of such a rare and small persuasion as non-okruzhniki live in Zalesovo. However, expeditionary studies have shown that there is no neo-okruzhnikov community here. There are individual Old Believers who consider themselves both non-encirclementers and Melchizedeks at the same time. It is likely that the existence of the word "non-environment" testifies to the existence of this sense in the Altai in the past, then assimilated with other Old Believer accords.
In general, different trends prevail among modern Old Believers-priests and bespopovtsy. In priestly communities, there is an intensification of spiritual life, a desire not only to preserve their traditions, but also to give them a continuation in the new conditions. Priests are not characterized by religious isolation. Contact has been established between their communities both within the region and beyond: with fellow believers in Novosibirsk, Moscow, Odessa, and Belarus. Among the bespriests, there is no unity of views on ritual-dogmatic and customary-legal aspects, which in many respects contributes to the destruction and extinction of spiritual traditions, up to the disappearance of some interpretations, their merger with the originally dominant one (24).
So, the more than 250-year history of the Altai Old Believers continues to develop, enriched with new events and facts. The uniqueness of this region is largely due to the multi-layered culture of the Old Believers. Along with the old-timer layer of the Old Believers of Altai, there is a group of late settlers. A large number of interpretations and agreements on the territory of Altai introduces additional fragmentation and indicates the heterogeneity of the phenomenon under study. Constant migration processes associated with the outflow of the population due to political events (25), discoveries and development of ore deposits, large construction projects, such as the Bukhtarma hydroelectric power station, for example, give a dynamic character to the map of Old Believer settlements.
There is no doubt that Altai is one of the most interesting and promising regions for studying the Old Believers, therefore, the systematic collection of material in order to study the current state of the Altai Old Believers must be continued in the future, which will complement and expand our understanding of this original historical and cultural phenomenon.
Notes
(1) So, the foundation of the Biysk fortress dates back to 1709, the Kolyvan-Chausky prison - to 1713. In the same year, Prince M.P. Gagarin reported to Peter I about the possibility of building fortresses along the Irtysh to strengthen the line through Dzungaria. In 1718, the Semipalatinsk fortress was founded, in 1720 - the Ust-Kamenogorsk fortress. In 1723, the first ore deposit was discovered on the river. Loktevka, where in 1726 A.N. Demidov founded the Kolyvan copper smelter. The subsequent finds of ore deposits contributed to the discovery of mining plants: Barnaul, Shulbinsk, Zmeinogorsk, in the second half of the 18th century. - Pavlovsky, Loktevsky, Zyryanovsky, Gavrilovsky.
(2) These decrees were reinforced by others. In particular, in 1735 (according to other sources, in 1738), a census of schismatics at the Demidov factories was scheduled to include them in the feudal tax system.
(3) K.V. Chistov identified seven lists and three editions of the Belovodsk legend.
(4) Here is a variant of the legend recorded by the author of the article during the 1993 expedition to the village. Parygino, Zyryanovsky district, East Kazakhstan region from A. Loshchilova, born in 1926: “People gathered, dried crackers, went to Belovodie. They go, they drag the sled, they leave notches. So we got to a large ice mountain. They began to climb on it, and the traces immediately behind them freeze and disappear. Finally, the sled rolled downhill, and there - the sea or a large river. Wherever they rush - all the depth. Only one was able to cross the water, because he was local (Belovodsky) was. Either they have a bridge under water, or what secret signs they have, or maybe what prayers they know, in general, not everyone, but only the elect can get into Belovodie.
(5) Polskaya Vetka is one of the spiritual centers of the Old Believers, along with Kerzhents, Starodubye, Irgiz, Rogozhsky and Preobrazhensky settlements in Moscow. The first Old Believer settlements were founded on Vetka by fugitives from Starodubye. Soon, about 20 settlements were formed, where immigrants from other areas of Russia also settled. The entire territory inhabited by the Old Believers began to be called Vetka. Monasteries and sketes were founded here, in which priests were trained for individual parishes, polemical essays were written in defense of the Old Believers, etc.
The tsarist government tried several times to “ruin” Vetka: books and icons were confiscated from monasteries and houses, all buildings were burned, and the population was resettled. The first defeat of Vetka, known as "forcings", took place in 1735, but soon the Old Believers again settled there. In the early 60s. 18th century there was a second "forcing" Vetka.
(6) On the territory of residence of the Poles - Volchikha, Zimovie, Poperechnoye, Pikhtovka, Streznaya, Orlovka, Tarkhanka, Chistopolka, Aleksandrovka; masons - Berel, Kamenka, Berezovka, Turgusun, Snegirevo, Krestovka, Solovyevo, Parygino. The settlements of the Uimon Old Believers are founded - Upper and Lower Uimon.
(7) The Poles fled to Kamen from the unbearable burden of mining duties. The masons, among whom the male population predominated, often took wives from the Poles' villages. The commonality of these population groups is clearly expressed in the wedding ceremony.
(8) The division of the Old Believers into two consents occurred in the 90s. 17th century after the death of all priests of the old ordination. One part of the Old Believers - priests - accepted fugitive priests from the New Believer church. The other - the non-priests - did not recognize the priests of the new setting and, thereby, lost such church sacraments as the Eucharist, chrismation, anointing, marriage. For the performance of the church service, as well as the sacraments of baptism, repentance, and in some cases marriage, spiritual mentors from members of the community are elected among the bespriests.
(9) Belokrinitskoye (Austrian) consent was named after a significant event in the history of the Old Believers that took place in 1846 in Belaya Krinitsa, Austria. This year, the three-rank hierarchy was restored in the Old Believer Church due to the accession to the Old Believers of Bosno-Sarajevo Metropolitan Ambrose. Thus, the Old Believer Church acquired its own bishop, endowed with the right to ordain to the priesthood.
However, not all Old Believers-priests accepted the Belokrinitsky hierarchy. Some continued to perform divine services and church sacraments with the help of fugitive, stripped priests of the New Rite church. They were called fugitives. Fugitiveism, in fact, was the first form of priesthood, but it took shape in an independent sense after the establishment of the Belokrinitsky hierarchy, in contrast to it.
(10) They arose in the Kerzhensky sketes and in the initial period they were offshoots from the fugitives. Over time, in the communities of these persuasions, they began to choose spiritual fathers, endowed with the right to perform a number of church sacraments. So there was a degeneration of these rumors into bespopovskie.
Chapel consent (Starikovshchina is one of its self-names) is called so due to the service in chapels deprived of altars. An important distinguishing principle of their dogmatics is the refusal to re-baptize the Old Believers who converted to the Old Believers of other accords. The chapels themselves trace their origins to the Kerzhensky monk Sofroniy.
Dyakonov's consent was founded at the beginning of the 18th century. Old Believer writer and polemicist T.M. Lysenin. Its name is associated with one of the most active figures - Hierodeacon Alexander (executed in 1720). Dyakonovtsy allowed the Old Believers to perform civic duties, serve in the army, communicate with the Nikonians. Unlike the fugitives, they recognize the four-pointed cross on a par with the eight-pointed one.
(11) In the first years of its existence, priestlessness was represented by the Pomeranian sense, founded in the 1690s. in the Olonets province by brothers Andrey and Semyon Denisov and deacon Danila Vikulin. Councils of 1692 and 1694 decided that teachers could not perform the sacraments assigned to priests, in connection with which the inadmissibility of marriage was proclaimed. However, soon part of the Pomors, at the initiative of the Moscow mentor Vasily Emelyanov, abandoned celibacy. Subsequently, they recognized the double tax established by Peter 1, began to pray for the tsar, and eschatological motives somewhat weakened in their sermons.
The Old Believers, who remained in their previous positions, separated into an independent sense under the leadership of Fedosey Vasiliev. Fedoseyevshchina arose in Poland. Over time, the asceticism of the Fedoseyevites softened: married members of the community were under penance, and in old age they were allowed to participate fully in church life. Fedoseyevtsy are sometimes called celibates, and Pomortsy are referred to legal consent, since the latter do not recognize the sinfulness of marriage.
(12) The Samodurites did not recognize any other sacraments, except for baptism. At the same time, baptism was considered invalid only in infancy, since it was not realized by a person. In this regard, their main dogma substantiates the need for a second baptism. In addition, the tyrants did not pray for icons, but had in each room only the Crucifixion without the image of the Holy Spirit.
(13) The Spasovites (founded by Kozma Andreev, the sense arose in the Kerzhen sketes at the turn of the 17th-18th centuries) believe that it is necessary to pray to the Savior without witnesses and intermediaries, since they reject traditional Orthodox dogmas and rituals, replacing them with "skete repentance" . As V. Anderson notes, they confess in private, in front of the image of the Savior or the Virgin, since they do not recognize other icons. The essential difference between the Spasovites and other bespopovtsy is that they do not rebaptize other Orthodox Christians, because they are convinced that a person must be baptized once. Another name for consent - netovshchina - is associated with the denial of the sacraments, priesthood, temples, monasteries.
(14) The Ohovtsy are included in a separate sense in the agreement of the netovshchina. Realizing the sinfulness of life, they prefer to sigh over their sins instead of praying. From here came their other names - non-molaks and vzdykhantsy. Believing in the impossibility of salvation, they refused not only prayers, but also icons. True prayer is “not in the reach of the hands and the presence of the body and the sight of the tongue is seen, but in smart teaching.”
(15) The name of the self-crosses comes from the personal performance of the sacrament of baptism by the believers themselves without an intermediary: “they will undress and with a prayer plunge into Uba, put on clean linen and call themselves a new name according to the holy calendar,” testifies G.D. Grebenshchikov.
(16) From self-crosses originate dyrniki (or one-worshippers), who do not recognize any objective deity, except for God outside of time and space. They pray to God in the open air, bowing to the east. They have special openings in their houses, which they open when they turn to God.
(17) The consent of wanderers arose in the second half of the 18th century. in the Yaroslavl province (according to most researchers, its founder is a runaway soldier Evfimy), standing out from the Philippov region. Wanderers believe that eternal wandering is necessary to save the soul. Since the Antichrist has reigned in the world, one cannot obey the authorities, perform public duties, and pay taxes. Runners do not recognize passports, refuse their names and surnames in order to cut off contact with civil society, perceive self-baptism as a religious dogma, so that no one connected with the world of Antichrist should participate in baptism.
(18) Journalist A. Kratenko tried to restore the history of one of the Old Believer monasteries in Altai. From documentary sources, he found out that in 1899, at the confluence of the river. Banna in Uba founded a women's Pomor monastery by eight sisters who came from the Ufa province. In 1911 there were already about 40 nuns in the monastery. In the 1930s the monastery was destroyed, some of the nuns were imprisoned, after their release, many of them settled in Guslyakovka and Ermolaevka.
(19) Let us note the positive consequences of the decree of April 17, 1905 on religious tolerance: the loyal attitude of the government towards the Old Believers, the end of the moral and economic oppression of the Old Believers.
(20) Let us illustrate the above with the story of A.F. Belogrudova, who comes from the Dolgov Old Believer family, well-known in Altai, and for a long time a former usher in the Biysk Belokrinitsa community: “In Soviet times, they prayed secretly, there was no permanent prayer room. Out of fear of being noticed, worship was performed by moving from house to house. Sometimes I had to change places during one service.” The description of such a situation had to be repeatedly recorded, it was so typical for that time.
(21) ROCC - Russian Orthodox Old Believer Church - the official name of the Belokrinitsky (Austrian) consent.
(22) In 1993, expeditions to the Rudny Altai (East Kazakhstan region) took place N.S. Murashova and V.V. Murashov and in Barnaul - I.V. Polozova and L.R. Fattakhova.
In 1996, with the support of the Russian Humanitarian Foundation (project 96-04-18023), T.G. Kazantseva, N.S. Murashova, V.V. Murashov and O.A. Svetlov examined Biysk, Gorno-Altaysk, the villages of Biysk, Altai, Ust-Koksinsky and Turochaksky districts. In 1997, again, thanks to the assistance of the Russian Humanitarian Foundation (project 97-04-18013), six expeditions were carried out: T.G. Kazantsev and A.M. Shamne worked in the Old Believer communities of Barnaul and Biysk; T.G. Kazantseva, N.S. Murashova and V.V. Murashov visited during the celebration of Easter in the Biysk Pomor community, and then in the Zalesovsky and Zarinsky districts; N.S. Murashova and V.V. Murashov examined Rubtsovsk, Zmeinogorsk, the villages of Zmeinogorsk, Tretyakovsky and Kuryinsky districts; O.A. Svetlova and O.V. Svetlov worked in the Biysk, Altai, Krasnogorsk and Soloneshensk regions; O.A. Svetlov and I.D. Pozdnyakov made a trip to Aleisky, Ust-Kalmansky, Charyshsky districts. The materials of the expeditions are in the Archive of Traditional Music of the Novosibirsk Conservatory.
(23) On September 28, 1997, the church was consecrated (the laying of the church - ed. note) in Biysk. Let us give a brief description of those events according to the expedition diary of T.G. Kazantseva: “The rite of consecration took place in the courtyard at the prayer house. The future temple has a foundation, a plinth and the first crown of logs. The church is small: 10 by 10 m. An iconostasis of three icons was prepared in the courtyard, in the center - a temple icon of the Kazan Mother of God; lamp; a table with the Gospel for priests; stand for singing books; in the distance - a wooden eight-pointed cross. Closer to the house were tables for a festive meal. Biysk priest Fr. Michael, Barnaul priest Fr. Nikola, mother Marina, who read the canon, surplice reader Vasily, singers of the Biysk and Barnaul communities (headmaster Alexander Yemelyanov). About 100 people were present. The rite consisted of reading and singing the canon, reading the Gospel. The consecration itself consisted in cruciform censing of the temple on four sides and inflicting notches with an ax in each corner, also in a cruciform manner. After the prayer service and the consecration of the temple, all those who took part in the ceremony approached the priests in pairs to sprinkle with holy water. Then a crowded dinner took place with festive speeches and the singing of spiritual verses.
(24) So, among the Pomeranians, a two-person Deity is depicted on the crucifix (there is no dove - a symbol of the Holy Spirit). During baptism, Pomeranians do not go around the font around: both the spiritual father and the godson are turned to the east. Among the old people, the spiritual father approaches the font from the west, and then turns to the east. Different opinions among the Old Believers necessitate “observance of the cup”, communication with the “world”, the use of money, appeal to state authorities, etc.
At present, there are no differences between Pomors and Fedoseevs. Samodurovtsy lost their independent status, dissolving among the Pomeranians. In the ideology of the Pomeranians, there is a penetration of spiritual motives of wandering, in particular, a negative attitude towards passports and other documents, as to the seal of the devil.
(25) For example, in the 1920s-1930s. many Old Believers left the Soviet regime for China, in the 1950s and 1960s. some of them returned to their homeland after a 30-year joint stay with the Old Believers from other regions.
Op.: Traditions of spiritual singing in the culture of the Altai Old Believers. Novosibirsk: Nauka, 2002
