Are there Old Believers in our time. How the Old Believers live, immigrants from South America
Behind strong fences under snowdrifts beds and bushes are guessed. There are no roads, communications, TVs here. And they are not needed, the Old Believers believe. Here they live in childbirth - and even those who went abroad return.
Administrative anomaly
It is not easy to get to Burnoy: first to the village of Kirsantievo, where the Old Believers and the laity are 50 to 50, then along Taseeva. In summer, 20 km by motorboat, in winter - by Khivus. Vessel on air cushion goes well pure ice or open water. But we arrived at the wrong time: after a snowfall and a sudden December thaw, the water on the river went over the ice. As a result, the loaded Khivus sits down at exactly half the road, the engine does not pull on loose snow and water. The head of Kirsantyevo, Nikolai Kozyr, who sits at the helm, does not lead with a mustache: what is a transport accident for us, for the residents of the Motyginsky district, is the norm of life - they have not seen anything like that here. He immediately makes a decision - to leave the women in the Khivus, the men who remain on the river will be returned later.
We are met by a solid village with strong fences and caps of snow on the houses. Stormy - named after the threshold near the village. The threshold is strong, difficult, they say that often during the rafting people die on it. Once upon a time, there was a rafting site on the site of the village; millions of cubic meters of timber were rafted here during the season. The site was closed, and the Old Believers began to settle here.
– They came from the Far East, from Manchuria,” the headman of the village, Perfiliy Bayanov, smiles slyly through his beard. - From the Urals there is, from the Kaluga region. Uruguay, Canada, the Americas...
But how exactly they appeared in this village, does not say directly. The Old Believers receive us, strangers, hospitably, set a luxurious table: pilaf with red fish - Christmas Lent is in the yard, fish pies, compote - a weak intoxicating drink. But they are not invited to the houses and, when answering questions, they do not say much directly, and it is inconvenient to ask again. Not for this, their ancestors left the world, so that later they could tell everyone they met about themselves.
The village of Burny is an administrative anomaly: in the Soviet passports of old-timers, the “settlement of Burny” is listed, in modern ones everyone is registered on one of the streets of Kirsantevo, which remains 20 km from us. (This is a big difficulty for the district authorities, which they are trying with all their might to solve: if there is no village, you can’t lay fuel to get to it.) Yes, the Old Believers have passports, they also receive birth certificates for their children. TIN is already "not by faith." It is not by faith to cut your hair, wear short skirts. You can’t paint and dance, but you can sing. But also not everything. In addition to spiritual songs, the girls of Burny sing folk songs - and Kadysheva, she can. Drinking and smoking is a sin. TV, radio and telephone are sin. But the Old Believers still have it - it lies in the garage so that they can go to the city with it. Everyone has equipment, without it nowhere: a boat, a snowmobile - this is a mandatory minimum. Even 10-year-old boys are deftly managed with them. And although there is no TV and Internet in the village, the residents of Burny know all the news - and almost better than the city ones. They will subscribe to the newspaper - they will all read it together, then people come along the river, they travel by themselves - and everyone knows for sure about the region.
Agree - live
In all the Old Believer villages, of which there are many in Motyginsky, and in neighboring areas, there is only one problem - to find a wife. This society lives apart, and therefore it is difficult to create a family so that there are no closely related ties. Check connections up to the eighth knee. Most often, brides are looked after in the nearest villages: they send a guy to get married. And then he looks at the gatherings - the girl will like it or not. By faith, you can get married from the age of 15, but that was before - now there are few such cases. And the matter is not at all in the Criminal Code - most couples simply do not reach the registry office, the world does not know about them.
– By faith, we don’t have divorces: they agreed, they adopted the law - live, - says smiling Antonina, the elder’s daughter-in-law. She is something like a midwife in the village: if the birth is difficult, women in labor are sent to the Motyginsky Central District Hospital, no, they cope on the spot. We have a wedding. But no white dress and veil, what are you. Sundress and scarf. Someone goes to the registry office, but my husband and I are not registered - we just live for 18 years and that's it. The children are registered with the father.
34-year-old Antonina has four children. There are always children in Old Believer villages - here is Burnovskaya Primary School, over the porch of which the sign “RSFSR. The Ministry of Education," works constantly - 70 years for sure, old-timers say. There are 4-6 children in the only class. The school is literally three rooms: a stove on which ski boots are dried, a classroom with methodological materials, drawings and a schedule on the walls. Everything is like in an ordinary city school: mathematics, Russian, English, drawing. Everything is now led by Olga. She is a rare example of a visiting person who had nothing to do with the Old Believers before. Olga was baptized - and after her husband moved from Khakassia to the Motyginsky district. Now she is a teacher, but only the first four classes. Complete secondary school there is only in Kirsantievo - it is there that children are sent to study after the fourth grade. And even then not all - Kirsantevo is only half its own, there are many temptations, which, according to the Old Believers, can harm children. Often they leave to study further - to the city, but almost all of them return home after their studies. Exceptions are very rare.
Love fairy tales and Barbie
For children, the arrival of strangers is a real attraction. They stand in groups - smile, look carefully. You don’t immediately understand what is unusual in this look, and only after a while it becomes clear: the girls look directly eye to eye, like adults, on an equal footing. And you can immediately see who is whose child, as in our old villages, they live here in childbirth, on this bank of the Taseeva there are literally two surnames for all residents. It is clear who is Bayanov and who is Simushin. Children willingly tell us how they love school, but not all the lessons, because the teacher is strict - she demands. Most of all they like the world, because "there is just a little bit about everything." They like to read, but mostly Russian folk tales. And also - to play with dolls, sew for them, there is also Barbie, they all play together. And - the usual village entertainment: a hill in winter, a river in summer. Parents, no, they are not strict, they don’t swear, if only it would be possible to go to Kirsantevo without a father and buy everything in the store. That's how you can buy, but dad first has to "rule" everything. The girls are embarrassed about how to “rule” like that, they don’t tell: from this one detail it becomes clear: the Old Believer settlements are a complex society in which for many centuries they live according to laws that are incomprehensible to us, the laity. But on the other hand, as the head of Nikolay Kozyr says, they don’t know exactly what the police are here - there are no crimes in Stormy.
You can safely leave the village - you need to go to the city either on business or to the hospital.
– But it just seems that it is very noisy there, and I want to return home as soon as possible, - says Antonina, straightening her scarf. She was born 40 km from Burnoy, in the Balakhtinsky district, where her husband went to woo her. - For me, there is nothing harsh in such a life, I'm used to it - it seems to me that I am a happy person.
At five in the evening it is already getting dark: in the Motyginsky district, daylight hours end an hour earlier than in Krasnoyarsk. At 6-7 o'clock wolves will go hunting, which are many in these places. At 10 pm in Burnoy, the electricity will go out - diesel only works until that time: the head of the district offered to extend it, but "why do we need it," the Old Believers say. The village will fall asleep so that the next day the women wake up at 6 am and begin their daily work that keeps this village alive.
Sergey Dolya writes: The liturgical reform of Patriarch Nikon in the 17th century led to a split in the Church and the persecution of dissidents. The bulk of the Old Believers came to Tuva in late XIX century. Then this land belonged to China, which protected the Old Believers from repression. They sought to settle in deserted and inaccessible corners, where no one would oppress them for their faith.
Before leaving their old places, the Old Believers sent scouts. They were sent light, supplying only the bare necessities: horses, provisions, clothing. Then the settlers set off in large families, usually in the winter along the Yenisei, with all the living creatures, homemade scrub and children. Often people died, falling into polynyas. Those who were lucky enough to get there alive and well carefully chose a place for settlement so that they could be engaged in agriculture, arable farming, start a garden, etc.
The Old Believers still live in Tuva. For example, Erzhey is the largest Old Believer village in the Kaa-Khem region with a population of over 200 inhabitants. Read more about it in today's post...
It takes a long time to get to the village. At first we sawed 200 km from Kyzyl. On the way, there are a lot of banners reminiscent of a high-ranking fellow countryman Sergei Shoigu:
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We passed by small villages. Almost all lack such things as cafes or convenience stores, but there is Lenin:
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Village football stadium. Apparently cows are used to "cut" the grass on the field:
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They crossed the river. The cars were sent on a ferry, they themselves sat on the boats. Half an hour went upstream:
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A river with a very fast current
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The views are very picturesque. Mountains, greenery, rare clouds:
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Our team:
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Fisherman on the shore
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Finally arrived:
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At first glance, the Old Believer village was no different from thousands of ordinary villages in Russia:
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At a second glance, too, nothing special was noticed. Village and village.
The only thing that reminded me of a special place was the strict rules. You cannot shoot inside the house. You cannot record speech on a voice recorder. For some reason, the Old Believers are catastrophically afraid of the word "interview" and everything related to mass information:
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Katerina, mistress of the house, 24 years old. By the way, they don’t mind being photographed on the street. Her family came after the war from the Urals. Then there was a terrible famine, and there were legends that it was here that almost the promised land, where there is full prosperity:
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Son. The Old Believers do not really want their children to receive an education, since no one returns home after studying at the institute. It’s better without a profession, but next to me, with my family. To avoid incest, wives are taken from neighboring villages. Divorces are not accepted, the principle of "endure-fall in love" is practiced:
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We were invited to the house, fed with okroshka on local kvass, which tastes more like water, and a fish pie. The cake was peculiar: seven centimeters high on a thin dough, completely filled with lenok. I took a bite and realized I made a mistake. The fish was not only with bones, it was with a backbone. Washed down fish bones with lemon balm.
Nevertheless, the reception left a warm impression. We were allowed to rent a garden. They grow everything themselves, including watermelons and melons:
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Homestead with cans:
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A small car of a cub, with which he drives around the yard:
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Dad's big car, on which he drives to Kyzyl once a week. Carries milk, sour cream and cottage cheese for sale. With the proceeds, the father of the family buys flour and food. Still, despite the remoteness, the hermitage of the Old Believers is very conditional - their way of life is already woven into the neighboring society:
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My friend Nikolai and I arrived in a village he had known for a long time, to a friendly family of Old Believers who moved here 23 years ago to an empty place. We were received by Uncle Vanya's family.
Uncle Vanya is a hospitable bearded man in a Russian kosovorotka shirt with piercing blue eyes, kind as a puppy's. He is about 60 years old, his wife Annushka is about 55. Annushka at first sight has her charm, behind which strength and wisdom are intuitively felt. They have a spacious wooden house with a stove, surrounded by an apiary and vegetable gardens.
The way of life of the Old Believers has remained virtually unchanged for more than 400 years. Uncle Vanya says: "The Cathedral of the Old Believers passed, and they decided: do not drink vodka, do not wear worldly clothes, a woman braids two braids, does not cut her hair, covers it with a scarf, a man does not shave or trim his beard ..." And this is only a small part .
The solidity and resilience of these people is amazing. Take away their cars or electricity now - they will not regret much: after all, there is a stove, there is firewood, there is water from a well, there is a generous forest, a river with tons of fish, food supplies for the year ahead and experienced workers.
I was lucky enough to attend a feast on the occasion of the arrival of my daughter. Oil painting. The table is breaking, there is everything that is not available in city supermarkets. I saw this only in pictures in history books: bearded men in shirts with tied belts are sitting, joking, laughing at the top of their voices, often you don’t even understand what they are joking about (you still have to get used to the Old Believer dialect), but joyfully from one mood at the table. And this despite the fact that I'm a non-drinker. Old Russian feast in all its glory.
Despite the fact that they live on the land, their earnings exceed those of the townspeople. “City people there are much more tense than I am here,” says Uncle Vanya. “I work for my own pleasure.” In the settlement, almost every Old Believer has a Toyota Land Cruiser in the yard, a spacious wooden house, from 150 square meters for each adult family member, land, vegetable gardens, equipment, livestock, procurement and supplies ... They argue in categories of millions - "on one I raised 2.5 million rubles in the apiary alone," Uncle Vanya confesses. “We don’t need anything, we’ll buy everything we need. But how much do we need here? It’s in the city that everything we earn goes to food, and here they grow on their own.”
“Here, the family of a niece from Bolivia came here, they sold equipment, land, brought with them $ 1.5 million. They are farmers. They bought 800 hectares of plowed land in Primorsky Krai. Now they live there. Everyone is happy, everyone lives in abundance,” – Uncle Vanya continues. After that, you think: is our urban civilization so advanced?
There was no centralized government in the community. “In the community, no one can tell me what to do. Our agreement is called “chapel”. We unite, live in villages and gather for service together. But if I don’t like it, then I won’t go and that’s it. I’ll pray at home,” - says Uncle Vanya. The community meets on holidays, which are held according to the charter: 12 main holidays in the year.
“We don’t have a church, we have a prayer house. There is an elected elder. He is elected according to his talents. He organizes the service, birth, baptism, funeral, funeral service. In addition, not every father can explain to his son why one thing can be done, and another - it is impossible. This person must also have such knowledge: the ability to convince, the ability to explain, "Uncle Vanya notes.
Faith is the formative basis of the community. The community meets regularly not in a shop or a pub, but at prayer. Festive, Easter service, for example, lasts from 12 am to 9 am. Uncle Vanya, who came in the morning from the Paschal prayer, says: "It hurts, of course, it is difficult to stand all night. But now there is such grace in the soul, so much strength ... cannot be conveyed." His blue eyes sparkle and burn with life.
I imagined myself after such an event and realized that I would have fallen and slept for another three days. And Uncle Vanya has the following service today: from two to nine in the morning. A regular service is one that lasts from three to nine in the morning. It is held regularly, every week.
"Without a priest," as Uncle Vanya says. “We all participate: everyone reads and sings,” adds Annushka.
“What is the difference from the modern church, to put it briefly: there the people are governed centrally, even at the spiritual level (that the tsar and the patriarch decided that it will reach the very bottom of the people). And here everyone expresses his opinion. And no one will force me. This should convince me, I should need it. Any issues are resolved collectively, and not centrally. All other differences are trifles and particulars that distract and deceive the people, "Ivan notes.
Here's how. Whatever I read about the Old Believers, there really is practically nothing said about it. Modestly silent about the main thing: people make decisions themselves, and not the church - for them. That is their main difference!
Family is the foundation of life. And here you understand it 100%. The average family size is eight children. Uncle Vanya has a small family - only five children: Leonid, Victor, Alexander, Irina and Katerina. The oldest is 33, the youngest is 14. And just an uncountable number of grandchildren are swarming around. “There are more than 100 children for 34 houses in our settlement. Just young families, they will give birth to even more children,” says Uncle Vanya.
Children are brought up by the whole family, they help in the household from an early age. Large families here do not burden, as in a cramped city apartment, but provide an opportunity for support, help for parents and development for the whole family. Relying on family and clan, these people solve all the issues of life: "We always have a relative in every Old Believer settlement."
A relative is a very voluminous concept for an Old Believer: it is at least a group of settlements, including several villages. And more often - and much more. Indeed, so that the blood does not mix, young Old Believers have to look for a mate in the most remote corners of our world.
There are Old Believer settlements all over the world: in America, Canada, China, Bolivia, Brazil, Argentina, Romania, Australia, New Zealand and even Alaska. For hundreds of years, the Old Believers escaped persecution and dispossession. “They tore off the crosses. They forced us to leave everything. And ours were abandoned. Grandfathers had to move from place to place three or four times a year. They take icons, dishes, children and leave,” says Uncle Vanya. no one oppressed. They lived like Russians: they wore their clothes, their language, their culture, their work... And the Old Believers grow to the ground with roots. How can I take everything to leave and leave - I can’t imagine. Our grandfathers were strong."
Now the Old Believers travel around the world to visit each other, introduce children, share clean seeds for the garden, news and experience. Where the Old Believers are, the land begins to bear fruit, which the locals considered infertile, the economy develops, reservoirs are stocked with fish. These people do not complain about life, but take and do their job day by day, little by little. Those who are far from Russia yearn for their homeland, some return, some do not.
The Old Believers are freedom-loving: “They will start to oppress, tell me how to live, I just gathered the children and drove away from here. If necessary, they help us to recover with all our relatives, both Russians and Americans are our relatives from America. 20 years is all we need to restore our way of life." By the way, it is in America that the Old Believers still have a unique dialect of the 30s of the last century. Life beat and beat these people, and at the same time, the love of life and cordiality with which they meet life and us, worldly people, is striking.
Hard work from the heart. The Old Believers work from five in the morning until late at night. At the same time, no one looks tortured or tired. Rather, they look satisfied after another day lived.
Everything that these people are rich in, they created, raised, made literally with their own hands. In food stores, for example, sugar is bought. Although they do not have much need for it: there is honey.
“Here, men live without education or a prestigious profession, but they earn enough, they drive Kruzaks. And they made money on the river, on berries, on mushrooms ... That’s all. He’s just not lazy,” says Uncle Vanya . If something does not work and does not serve development, then it is not for the life of the Old Believer. Everything is vital and simple.
Helping each other is the norm of the Old Believer's life. "During the construction of a house, the peasants can gather with the whole village to help on initial stage. And then, in the evening, I arranged a table to sit. Or for a lonely woman who has no husband, the men will gather and mow hay. There was a fire - we all run to help. Everything is simple here: if I don’t come today, they won’t come to me tomorrow,” says Uncle Vanya.
Parenting. Children are brought up in daily natural work. Already from the age of three, the daughter begins to help her mother at the stove, wash the floors. And the son helps his father in the yard, in construction. “Son, bring me a hammer,” Uncle Vanya said to his three-year-old son, and he happily ran to fulfill his father’s request. This happens easily and naturally: without coercion or special developing urban methods. In infancy, such children learn about life and enjoy it more than any urban toy.
In schools, the children of the Old Believers study among "worldly" children. They do not go to institutes, although boys are required to serve in the army.
A wedding is once in a lifetime. Returning from the army, the son begins to think about his family. It happens at the behest of the heart. “So Annushka entered the house where we were preparing for the holiday, and I immediately understood that this was mine,” says Uncle Vanya. I can't imagine life without her. I feel calm and good when I know that my wife is always with me."
Once having chosen a wife or husband, the Old Believers associate themselves with them for life. There can be no talk of divorce. “A wife is given according to karma, as they say,” Uncle Vanya laughs. They do not choose each other for a long time, do not compare, do not live in a civil marriage, their hearts with centuries of experience help them determine the "only one" for life.
The Old Believer's table is rich every day. According to our perception, this festive table. According to them, this is the norm of life. At this table, it seemed to me that I remembered the taste of bread, milk, cottage cheese, soup, pickles, pies and jam. This taste cannot be compared with what we buy in stores.
Nature gives them everything in abundance, often - even close to home. Vodka is not recognized, if people drink, then kvass or tincture. “All the dishes are illuminated by the mentor, we wash them with prayer, and each person from the side is given worldly dishes, from which we do not eat,” says Uncle Vanya. Old Believers honor prosperity and purity.
There are no medicines. There is no medicine. There are no diseases. You need to start with the fact that these people are healthy from birth. Vaccinations for children are evil, just like vaccinations for adults.
"Genetics," they say, looking at the portly lad with a soldier's bearing in the family photo. "What are you doing?" I ask Annushka. "I don't even know," she says. “The same bath, the same rubbing with honey,” adds Uncle Vanya. “My grandfather treated a sore throat with pepper and honey: he makes a boat out of paper and boils honey over a candle in this paper. The paper does not burn, this is a miracle! Which enhances the effect medicines," he smiles. "Grandfather lived for 94 years, he was never treated with medicines at all. He knew how to treat himself: he rubbed a beetroot somewhere, ate something..."
Fashionable - everything is short-lived. Can not argue. You can't call these people "village" in any way. Everything is neat, beautiful, aesthetically pleasing. They wear dresses or shirts that I like. “My wife sews shirts for me, my daughter sews them. They also sew dresses and a sundress for women themselves. The family budget does not suffer so much,” says Uncle Vanya. “Grandfather gave me his chrome boots, they were 40 years old, they looked like This was the attitude towards things: he did not change them every year, sometimes long, sometimes narrow, sometimes blunt ... he sewed them himself and carried them all his life.
No "language of the Russian village" - mat. Communication is cordial and simple, starting with the first words "you live great!". So they naturally greet each other.
Maybe we were lucky, but walking around the settlement, we did not hear a swear word. On the contrary, everyone will say hello or nod to you, passing by in a car. Young guys, stopping on a motorcycle, will ask: "Who will you be?", shake hands and go on. Young girls will bow to the ground. This strikes me as a person who has lived since the age of 12 in a "classical" Russian village. "Where is everything and why has it gone?" I ask a rhetorical question.
Old Believers don't watch TV. Generally. He does not have them, it is forbidden by the way, like computers. At the same time, their level of awareness, awareness and political views is often higher than mine - a person living in Moscow. How do people get information? Word of mouth works better than cell phones.
Information about the wedding of Uncle Vanya's daughter reached neighboring villages faster than he managed to get there by car. News about the life of the country and the world is quickly heard from the city, because some Old Believers cooperate with the townspeople.
Old Believers do not allow themselves to be filmed. Several attempts and persuasion to shoot at least something ended with kind phrases: "Yes, it's useless ..." One of the Old Believer principles is "simplicity in everything": home, nature, family, spiritual principles. This way of life is so natural, but so forgotten by us.
Creating an ecovillage in the Moscow region, we often remember this simple life and deep experience. If you like the pursuit of natural life, health and spiritual principles, we will be glad to have you in our community.
Old belief is a unique phenomenon. Both spiritually and culturally. Economists note that Old Believer communities abroad are often more successful than the local population.
1. The Old Believers themselves admit that it is their faith that is Orthodox, and the Russian Orthodox Church is called New Believers or Nikonians.
2. Until the first half of the 19th century, the term "Old Believer" was not used in spiritual literature.
3. There are three main "wings" of the Old Believers: priests, bespopovtsy and co-religionists.
4. In the Old Believers, there are several dozen interpretations and even more agreements. There is even a saying "Whatever a man is good, whatever a woman is consent."
5. On the pectoral cross, the Old Believers do not have an image of Christ, since this cross symbolizes a person’s own cross, the ability of a person to a feat for faith. The cross with the image of Christ is considered an icon, it is not supposed to be worn.
6. The largest place in Latin America where Russian Old Believers-chapels live compactly is Colonia-Russa or Massa-Pe. About 60 families, or about 400-450 people, live here, there are three cathedrals with three separate prayer rooms.
7. The Old Believers retain monodic, hook singing (znamenny and demestvennaya). It got its name from the way the melody is recorded with special signs - “banners” or “hooks”.
8. From the point of view of the Old Believers, Patriarch Nikon and his supporters left the church, and not vice versa.
9. Among the Old Believers, the procession takes place according to the sun. The sun in this case symbolizes Christ (giving life and light). During the reform, the decree to make a procession against the Sun was perceived as heretical.
10. At first, after the schism, there was a habit of recording as “Old Believers” all the sects that arose at that time (mainly of the “spiritual-Christian” direction, like “eunuchs”) and heretical movements, which subsequently created a certain confusion.
11. For a long time, the harm of the Old Believers was considered a sin. It must be admitted that this affected the financial situation of the Old Believers in the most favorable way.
12. Old Believers - "beglopopovtsy" recognize the priesthood of the new church as "active". The priest from the new church, who had gone over to the Old Believers-fugitives, retained his rank. Subsequently, some of them restored their own priesthood, forming "priestly" agreements.
13. Old Believers-bespriests consider the priesthood completely lost. The priest who went over to the Old Believers-bespriests from the new church becomes a simple layman
14. Readers among the Old Believers-priests perform almost all the same functions as priests in non-priest churches. According to the old tradition, there is only a part of the sacraments that can only be performed by priests or bishops - everything else is available to ordinary laity
15. A sacrament accessible only to priests is marriage. Despite this, marriage is still practiced in the Pomeranian agreement. Also, in some Pomor communities, another inaccessible sacrament is sometimes performed - the sacrament, although its effectiveness is being questioned.
16. Unlike the Pomortsy, in the Fedoseevsky agreement, marriage is considered lost, along with the priesthood. Nevertheless, families start, but they believe that they live in fornication all their lives.
17. The Old Believers are supposed to pronounce either a triple "Hallelujah" in honor of the Holy Trinity, or two "Hallelujahs" in honor of the Father and the Holy Spirit, and "Glory to you God!" in honor of Christ. When in the reformed church they began to say three "Hallelujahs" and "Glory to you God!" the Old Believers considered that the extra "Hallelujah" is pronounced in honor of the Devil.
18. Among the Old Believers, icons on paper are not welcome (as well as any other material that can easily be damaged). On the contrary, cast metal icons became widespread.
19. Old Believers make the sign of the cross with two fingers. Two fingers - a symbol of the two Hypostases of the Savior (true God and true man.
20. Old Believers write the name of the Lord as "Jesus". The tradition of writing the name was changed during the Nikon reform. The double sound “and” began to convey the duration, the “stretching” sound of the first sound, which in Greek is indicated by a special sign, which has no analogy in the Slavic language. However, the Old Believer version is closer to the Greek source.
21. The Old Believers are not supposed to pray on their knees (bows to the ground are not considered as such), and it is also allowed to stand during prayer with arms folded on the chest (right over left).
22. The Old Believers, bespopovtsy dyrniks, deny icons, pray strictly to the east, for which they cut holes in the wall of the house to pray in winter.
23. On the tablet of the crucifixion, the Old Believers usually write not I.N.Ts.I., but “King of Glory”.
24. In the Old Believers of almost all consents, a ladder is actively used - a rosary in the form of a ribbon with 109 "beans" ("steps"), divided into unequal groups. Lestovka symbolically means a ladder from earth to heaven.
25 . Old Believers accept baptism only by full triple immersion, while in Orthodox churches baptism by pouring and partial immersion is allowed.
26. In tsarist Russia there were periods when only marriage was considered legal (with all the ensuing consequences, including inheritance rights, etc.), concluded by the official church. Under these conditions, many Old Believers often resorted to a trick, formally accepting the new faith at the time of the wedding. However, not only the Old Believers resorted to such tricks at that time.
27. The largest Old Believer association in modern Russia - the Russian Orthodox Old Believer Church - belongs to the priests.
28. The Old Believers had a very ambiguous attitude towards the kings: while some strove to record the next persecutor king as Antichrist, others, on the contrary, shielded the kings in every possible way: Nikon, according to the ideas of the Old Believers, bewitched Alexei Mikhailovich, and in the Old Believer versions of the legends about substitution of Tsar Peter, the true Tsar Peter returned to the old faith and died a martyr's death at the hands of the supporters of the impostor.
29. According to economist Danil Raskov, Old Believers abroad are somewhat more successful than natives, because they are more hardworking, capable of performing monotonous and complex work, more oriented towards projects that take time, are not afraid to invest, and have stronger families. One example is the village of Pokrovka in Moldova, which, contrary to general trends, has even grown somewhat, as young people stay in the village.
30. Old Believers, or Old Believers, despite the name, are very modern. They are usually successful in their work and united. Old Believer books can be read and downloaded on the Internet, and large movements, for example, the Old Orthodox Church, have their own website.
Last year, fate brought me to Lake Baikal from Buryatia. I am a hydrographer and we worked on the Barguzin River. Almost untouched nature, the cleanest air, good simple people - everything delighted me.
But most of all I was struck by the Semey settlements there. At first we could not understand what it was.
Then they explained to us that they were Old Believers.
Semeyskie live in separate villages, they have very strict customs. To this day, women still wear sundresses to their heels, and men wear blouses. These are very calm and benevolent people, but they behave in such a way that you can’t go to them once again. They just won't talk, we've never seen anything like that. These are very hardworking people, they never sit idle. At first it was somehow annoying, then we got used to it.
And later we noticed that they are all healthy and beautiful, even old people. Our work took place just on the territory of their village, and in order to disturb the inhabitants as little as possible, we were given one grandfather, Vasily Stepanovich, to help us. He helped us take measurements - very convenient for us and the residents. For a month and a half of work, we became friends with him, and my grandfather told us a lot of interesting things, and showed us too.
Of course, we also talked about health. Stepanych repeated more than once that all illnesses come from the head. Once I clung to him with a demand to explain what he meant by this. And he answered this: “Let's take you, five men. Yes, I’ll tell you by the smell of your socks what you think!” We became interested, and then Stepanych simply stunned us.
He said that if a person has a strong smell of feet, then his strongest feeling is the desire to postpone all things for later, to do them tomorrow or even later. He also said that men, especially modern ones, are lazier than women, and therefore their feet smell stronger. And he added that he didn’t need to explain anything to him, but it was better to answer honestly to himself, whether it was true or not. This is how, it turns out, thoughts affect a person, and legs too! Grandfather also said that if old people's feet begin to smell, it means that a lot of garbage has accumulated in the body and you should starve or strictly fast for six months.
We began to torture Stepanych, but how old is he? He kept refusing, and then he says: "That's how much you give - that's how much it will be." We began to think and decided that he was 58-60 years old. Much later we learned that he was 118 years old and that it was for this reason that he was sent to help us!
It turned out that all the Old Believers are healthy people, they don’t go to doctors and treat themselves. They know a special belly massage, and everyone does it for himself. And if the indisposition has gone, then the person understands, together with his loved ones, what thought or what feeling, what business could cause illness. That is, he tries to understand what is wrong in his life. Then he begins to starve ...., and only then he drinks herbs, infusions, is treated with natural substances.
The Old Believers understand that all the causes of diseases in a person are in the head. For this reason, they refuse to listen to the radio, watch TV, believing that such devices clog the head and make a person a slave: because of these devices, a person stops thinking for himself. They consider their own lives to be the most valuable.
The whole way of family life made me reconsider many of my views on life. They do not ask anyone for anything, but live well, with prosperity. Each person's face glows, expressing dignity, but not pride. These people do not offend anyone, do not offend, no one swears obscenities, does not make fun of anyone, does not gloat. Everyone works - from small to large.
Special respect for the elderly, the young do not contradict the elders. They especially respect purity, and purity in everything, starting with clothes, at home, ending with thoughts and feelings. If you could see these extraordinarily clean houses with crisp curtains on the windows and valances on the beds! Everything is washed and scraped clean. All of their animals are well cared for.
The clothes are beautiful, embroidered with different patterns, which are protection for people. They simply do not talk about the infidelities of a husband or wife, because this is not there and cannot be. People are driven by a moral law that is not written anywhere, but everyone honors and observes it. And for the observance of this law, they were rewarded with health and longevity, and what!
When I returned to the city, I often thought of Stepanych. It was difficult for me to put together what he was saying and modern life with her computers, planes, telephones, satellites. On the one hand, technological progress is good, but on the other ...
We have really lost ourselves, we do not understand ourselves well, we have shifted the responsibility for our lives to parents, doctors, and the government. Maybe that's why there are no truly strong and healthy people. What if we really die out without realizing? We imagined that we had become smarter than everyone, because our technology is unusually diverse. But it turns out that because of technology we are losing ourselves ...
Live outside of civilization and not turn into a beast.