The situation for Old Believers in post-1917 Russia has not been thoroughly studied, though some generalizations can be made. In many cases, churches were closed and their believers persecuted, especially in the period of the cultural revolution. Activists were jailed or sent to the Gulag camps, as were many other religious believers. In other cases, Old Believers followed a path of partial accommodation with the state, much like the practices of some Russian Orthodox. Taking advantage of Soviet laws, some Old Believer communities used their previous history of persecution and tradition of communal organization to appeal for churches to stay open. This strategy had mixed results. A few major centers were allowed to exist in Moscow, for example, and, after World War II, in Riga, but others were closed or destroyed.
Old Belief was weakened significantly during the communist period. Ritual life regularly became covert, rather than public. After having been baptized as children, Old Believers often ceased to take part in church rituals as they grew older. Some, especially in the urban centers, became Communist Party members, perhaps to revive their religious life in retirement. Older women, with little to lose politically or economically, attended churches more openly and frequently than working men and women.
Many Old Believers, however, retreated into their old practices of secrecy in worship, use of homes instead of officially sanctioned churches, and even flight into the wilderness. Rural Old Believers continued to be skeptical of outsiders, especially communists, and tried to retain ritual distance between the faithful and the unbelievers. Sometimes, illegal or informal conferences debated the problems of secular education, military service, and intermarriage. In the most extreme cases, Old Believer families moved ever farther into Siberia, sometimes even crossing into China. Notably, Old Believers also emigrated to Australia, Turkey, the United States, and elsewhere, continuing a trend that that had begun in the late nineteenth century.
The period of glasnost and perestroika created significant international scholarly and popular interest in the Old Believers, though that has waned during the years of economic difficulty following the breakup of the USSR. In post-communist Russia, Old Believers have become bolder and more public, reviving publications, building churches, and reconstituting community life. They have fought to have the Old Belief recognized by the government as one of Russia’s historical faiths, hoping to put the Old Belief on par with the Russian Orthodox Church as a pillar of traditional (i.e., noncommunist) values. Old Believers have continued to struggle with the demands of tradition in a rapidly changing political, social, cultural, and economic environment. See also: ALEXANDER MIKHAILOVICH; AVVAKUM PETRO-VICH; CHURCH COUNCIL, HUNDRED CHAPTERS; NIKON, PATRIARCH; OLD BELIEVER COMMITTEE; ORTHODOXY; RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Cherniavsky, Michael. (1996). “The Old Believers and the New Religion.” Slavic Review 25:1-39. Crummey, Robert O. (1970). The Old Believers and the World of Antichrist: The Vyg Community and the Russian State, 1694- 1855. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press. Michels, Georg Bernhard. (1999). At War with the Church: Religious Dissent in Seventeenth-Century Russia. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
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Peskov, Vasily. (1994). Lost in the Taiga: One Russian Family’s Fifty-Year Struggle for Survival and Religious Freedom in the Siberian Wilderness, tr. Marian Schwartz. New York: Doubleday. Robson, Roy R. (1995). Old Believers in Modern Russia. DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press. Scheffel, David Z. (1991). In the Shadow of Antichrist: The Old Believers of Alberta. Lewiston, NY: Broadview Press.
Until January 31, 1918, Russia used the Julian calendar, while Western Europe had gradually changed to the Gregorian calendar after its introduction by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582. Orthodox Russia, associating the Gregorian calendar with Catholicism, had resisted the change. As a result, Russian dates lagged behind contemporary events. In the nineteenth century, Russia was twelve days behind the West; in the twentieth century it was thirteen days behind. Because of the difference in calendars, the revolution of October 25, 1917, was commemorated on November 7. To minimize confusion, Russian writers would indicate their dating system by adding the abbreviation “O.S.” (Old Style) or “N.S.” (New Style) to their letters, documents, and diary entries. The Russian Orthodox Church continues to use the Julian system, making Russian Christmas fall on January 7. See also: CALENDAR son Igor into Oleg’s care. It is not known whether Oleg succeeded Rurik in his own right or as the regent for Igor. In 882 he assembled an army of Varangians and East Slavs and traveled south from Novgorod, capturing Smolensk and Lyubech. At Kiev, he tricked the boyars Askold and Dir into coming out to greet him. Accusing them of having no right to rule the town because they were not of princely stock as he and Igor were, he had them killed. Oleg became the prince of Kiev and proclaimed that it would be “the mother of all Rus towns.” He waged war against the neighbouring East Slavic tribes, made them Kiev’s tributaries, and deprived the Khazars of their jurisdiction over the middle Dnieper. Oleg thus became the founder of Rus, the state centered on Kiev.
In 907 Oleg attacked Constantinople. Although some scholars question the authenticity of this information, most accept it as true. His army, constituting Varangians and Slavs, failed to breach the city walls but forced the Greeks to negotiate a treaty. One of Oleg’s main objectives was to obtain the best possible terms for Rus merchants trading in Constantinople. He was thus the first prince to formalize trade relations between the Rus and the Greeks. In 911 (or 912) he sent envoys to Constantinople to conclude another more juridical treaty. The two agreements were among Oleg’s greatest achievements. According to folk tradition, he died in 912 after a viper bit him when he kicked his dead horse’s skull. Another account says he died in 922 at Staraya Ladoga. See also: KIEVAN RUS; RURIKID DYNASTY; VIKINGS
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Gerhart, Genevra. (1974). The Russian’s World: Life and Language. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. Hughes, Lindsey. (1998). Russia in the Age of Peter the Great. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Franklin, Simon, and Shepard, Jonathan. (1996). The Emergence of Rus, 750-1200. London: Longman. Vernadsky, George. (1948). Kievan Russia. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
(died c. 912), first grand prince of Kiev, asserted his rule over the East Slavic tribes in the middle Dnieper region and concluded treaties with Constantinople.
When Rurik was on his deathbed in 879 he gave his kinsman Oleg “the Sage” control over his domains in northern Russia and placed his young
(d. 969), Kievan grand princess and regent for her son Svyatoslav.
Under the year 903, the Primary Chronicle reports that Oleg, Rurik’s kinsman and guardian to his son Igor, obtained a wife for Igor from Pskov by the name of Olga. It is unclear whether Igor was
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actually the son of Rurik, the semi-legendary founder of the Kievan state, but, as Igor and Olga’s son Svyatoslav was born in 942, it is very likely that the chronology in the text is faulty and that the marriage did not take place in 903. Legend has it that Olga was of Slavic origin, but evidence is again lacking.
On a trip to collect tribute from an East Slavic tribe called the Derevlians (forest dwellers) in 945, Igor was killed, and the Derevlians decided that Mal, their prince, should marry Olga, who was serving as regent for her minor son. Olga pretended to go along with the plan, but then violently put down their uprising by means of three well-planned acts of revenge, after which she destroyed the Derevlian capital Iskoresten. The chronicle account of Olga’s revenge is formulaic, based on folklore-like riddles that the opponent must comprehend in order to escape death. The tales are clearly intended to demonstrate Olga’s wisdom. From 945 to 947, after her defeat of the Derevlians, Olga established administrative centers for taxation, which eliminated the need for collecting tribute.
