Religious Dissent in

Old Believers and their Cultural Heritage

§ Covers one of the most dynamic periods in the history of the Old Believers

§ A unique example of a free and national press for religious dissenters

§ The most prominent and widely read periodicals

§ Most materials are not available in the West

State Historical Public Library, Advisor: A.V. Znatnov

Old Believers and their cultural heritage Two new installments complete this exciting series on the cultural and political heritage of religious dissenters in Russia. This collection comprises a wide array of sources gathered from several top libraries in Moscow and St. Petersburg. The new installments expand the collection with books in kirillicheskii shrift, polemical monographs in grazhdanskii shrift, post-revolutionary materials. Together with previously published periodicals, these materials reflect the turbulent history of Old Believers. It will appeal to Slavists, historians, theology students, and others with a special interest in the study of religious and cultural conflict.

The Old Believers Illegal book printing and samizdat In only thirteen years more books The Old Believers (or ‘Old Ritualists’) Starting in 1653 with the publication of were published than during the two originated as a group of religious the first amended service book, the Old preceding centuries combined. dissenters opposed to Nikon’s Believers rejected the alterations These years also witnessed a flood ritualistic innovations in the second imposed by Patriarch Nikon and of newspapers, journals, calendars th half of the 17 century. The dispute recognized only those books that and an impressive number of over the revision of the service books, predated his reforms. Because the State original monographs. which initially had a religious and had a monopoly on book printing and cultural character, soon escalated and confiscated old liturgical material, an resulted in the of the Russian alarming shortage of old religious The Old Believers’ book production . books soon became felt. The Old during the ‘Golden Age’ is estimated to Believers responded by printing their exceed one thousand titles, many of Persecuted by the authorities for own service books in illegal printing which enjoyed high print runs. Old adhering to the old and service houses in Russia, as well as abroad - prayer books dating from before the books, the Old Believers fled European Austria, Prussia, and the Kingdom of Nikon reforms were reprinted, some of Russia and settled in the sparsely Poland. They also ran secret print which for the first time and on the basis populated areas of and the far shops (Moscow and its surroundings, of ancient manuscripts: the Apostolos, north. Many of their communities lived the Volga region, the Urals, and the Ostrog , Stoglav (a moral in almost complete isolation, thus Siberia) and often succeeded in codex of ‘hundred chapters’), the preserving the old liturgical practices misleading the authorities by putting a famous Domostroi and the Pomorskie that were crucial to their religious and false place of publication on the title otvety (Answers from Pomor´e). For the cultural identity. page. Historians agree that these first time chant books could be illegally produced materials were the accurately printed. After years of persecution, the situation first form of samizdat literature to improved for the Old Believers in appear in Russia. Old Believer printing houses 1905, when Nicholas II issued the After 1905, there were about a dozen Edict of Toleration. In 1971, the Old Believer printing houses revoked the throughout the country, for example, in th of the 17 century. Moscow, Ural´sk, and Nizhnii

Novgorod. One of the largest and best Today, there are about 2.5 million known was the one set up in Moscow Old Believers living in Russia, the in 1907 by the prominent businessman, , , and P.P. Riabushinskii. It was housed in a other parts of the world. famous building that had been designed

by the architect F. Shekhtel´ according The Old Belief is not only a to the modern style. religious movement, but also a social and cultural phenomenon. Publishing in exile From the end of the 17th until the This period of freedom was relatively beginning of the 20th century, the short, however: In 1917, the Old Believers participated Bolsheviks seized power and closed increasingly actively in the social down all religious printing houses. For and political processes in Russia. a while, the Old Believers continued Their books and periodicals are a printing books (mostly anti-Soviet unique historical source for tracing material) on Russian soil, but only in the relations between Old Believer Andrew, Archbishop of Caesarea. [Commentarius in Apocalypsin. Church those areas that were controlled by the communities and the world at large, Slavic], Moscow, 1913. White Movement. Between the second and for establishing the role and The Golden Age of book printing half of the 1920s and the collapse of status of the Old Believers within the Soviet Union in 1991, the Old Russian society, their influence on The practice of illegal book-printing came to an end with the enactment of Believers were again forced to live in the social and cultural processes in the Edict of Tolerance in 1905 – a date exile. They set up print shops in Harbin Russia, their economic activities, (), Chisinau (which was then in and their cooperation with the generally considered to mark the beginning of the Golden Age of the Rumania, but is now the capital of representatives of other religious Old Believers’ book printing. ), Poland, , Switzerland, . the United States, and Australia. Until 1991, book production in Russia was limited to a few church calendars, and these were strictly censored and scarcely distributed.

Spiritual heritage The religious books that were printed prior to Nikon’s reforms have always had a sacred status among Old Believers. Considering any alteration in the text a distortion of the Word of God, they have persisted in using the Old Slavic language and the kirillicheskii shrift.

Rigorous and uncompromizing, the Old Believers have played an

absolutely crucial role in the preservation of the Russian book, the Russian and Russia’s

spiritual heritage at large. Mirskaia zhizn´ Moskva, 1911-1912 Installment 1: Periodicals The series on the Old Believers texts printed in grazhdanskii shrift, provides a wide variety of materials which were introduced by Peter I in The variety of this type of Old Believer literature is extensive, that will help to shed new light on the 1708. The books printed in Cyrillic fascinating history of this religious have therefore always been the main ranging from historical and minority and its place in Russian source of information concerning the ethnographic works, polemic and political essays, scholarly works on history. The present installment history and spiritual faith of the Old includes the most prominent and Believers. The beginning of the 20th philosophy, economics, and widely read Old Believers’ periodicals century witnessed an avalanche of statistics, to works on theology and law, the minutes of Old Believer published between 1905 and 1918. The printed Old Believer religious collection includes, amongst others, literature. This literature comprises a assemblies, fiction, and even poetry. journals of the Popovtsy (Zlatostrui, number of original monographs, titled Mirskaia zhizni), of the so-called books, and icon-painting originals, as The recourse by the Old Believers to Pomor´e Union (Shchit very, Vestnik well as reprinted anti-Old Believer grazhdanskii shrift and their deliberate Vserossiiskogo soiuza khristian pamphlets in krillicheskii shrift bearing orientation toward the “outside” reader pomorskogo soglasiia), the polemic comments written by Old and secular themes, makes this Belokrinitskii Hierarchy (Tserkov´, Believer adepts. literature both more accessible and Staroobriadcheskaia mysl´, richer in substance and variety of Staroobriadets) and the Chapel Installment 3. topics. Consent (Ural´skii staroobriadets). Old Believer secular literature Published during one of the most At the dawn of the 20th century, the Libraries dynamic and turbulent periods of Old Believers exhibited an amazing The project is executed in close Russian history, these periodicals allow ability to adapt to the new social and cooperation with Russia’s main us to appreciate the traditional, yet economic conditions without libraries: the State Historical Public vibrant world of the Old Believers at abandoning their traditional culture or Library in Moscow, the National the eve of the revolution. their religious beliefs. This period saw Library of Russia and the Library of the birth and subsequent blossoming of the Russian Academy of Sciences Installment 2: the widely known business dynasties. (BAN) in St. Petersburg. Old Believer Cyrillic-script books One of the main driving forces behind The printing of Old Believer books in the printing of books in grazhdanskii kirillicheskii shrift is a unique shrift was the revival of the polemic phenomenon in book history. The Old disputes between the Old Believers and Believer movement carried on the the official Church. At the beginning of traditions of Russian Orthodox the 20th century, the Old Believers Christianity into the middle of the 20th printed their secular literature in century. The Old Believer culture was grazhdanskii shrift, in order to draw outstanding in its rigorous acceptance attention to their crucial need for a of Cyrillic texts, and greater number of sympathizers from A.V. Zvatnov in its guarded attitude toward the same the outside.

General information

Scope 123 titles

Number of fiche 1,464

Size of fiche 105 x 148 mm.

Film type Positive silver halide

Reduction ratio Varies depending on the size of the original

Internal Eye-legible headers on every fiche indicating the finding aids author, abbreviated title, place and date of printing of each item

Bibliographic Bibliographic records for all titles ordered are supplied information in AACR2/MARC21 format with the microfiches

This collection is also available in separate installments, for more information, please contact [email protected] Andrew, Archbishop of Caesarea. [Commentarius in Apocalypsin. Church Installment No. of titles No. of microfiche Slavic], Moscow, 1913. 1. Periodicals, 1905-1918 24 991 2. Old Believer Cyrillic-script books 1906-1916 27 308 3. Old Believer secular literature, 1916-1918 72 165

Andrew, Archbishop of Caesarea. [Commentarius in Apocalypsin. Church Slavic], Moscow, 1913.

Golos tserkvi Moskva : [s.n., 1918] Chtenie dlia sem´i, shkoly i naroda. Moskva, [1914]. Drug zemli. Moskva, [1909-1914].