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Russian Dissenters >^ ifStil:.^ HARVARD THEOLOGICAL STUDIES ,,1 HARVARD THEOLOGICAL STUDIES EDITED FOR THE FACULTY OF DIVINITY IN HARVARD UNIVERSITY BY GEORGE F. MOORE, JAMES H. ROPES KIRSOPP LAKE (IHMiUlfHtiniiiilll CAMBRIDGE HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS LONDON: HUMPHREY MILFORD OxjORD University Press I92I HARVARD THEOLOGICAL STUDIES X RUSSIAN DISSENTERS FREDERICK crcONYBEARE HONORARY FELLOW UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, OXFORD .-4 CAMBRIDGE HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS LONDON: HUilPHREY MILFORD OxYou> UmvEKsmr Pkkss I921 COPYMGHT, I92I HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS 6677B4 13 1' S 7 PRINTED AT THE HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS CAMBRIDQE, MASS., UNITED STATES OF AMERICA '^ inof se: 2 PREFACE This work was begun in 1914 and completed nearly as it stands early in 1917, about the time when the Russian Revolution began. It is too early yet to trace the fortunes of the Russian sects during this latest period, for the contradictory news of the struggle is not to be trusted; and few, if any, know what is really happening or has happened in unhappy Russia. Since, however, the future is largely moulded by the past, I trust that my work may be of some use to those who sincerely desire to understand and trace out the springs of the Revolu- tion. It is not a work of original research. I have only read a number of Russian authorities and freely exploited them. I have especially used the Historj' of the Russian Ra^kol by Ivanovski (two volumes, Kazan, 1895 and 1897). He was professor of the subject in the Kazan Seminary between 1880 and 1895. He tries to be fair, and in the main succeeds in being so. Subbotin, indeed, in a letter to Pobedonostzev, Procurator of the Holy SjTiod, who had consisted him about the best manuals on the subject, wrote shghtingly of the work; but I think unfairiy, for the only concrete faults he finds with it are, first, that the author allowed himself to use the phrase; 'the historical Christ,' which had to his ears a rationalist ring; and secondly, that he devoted too Uttle space to the Moscow Synods of 1654 to 1667. Another Russian work I have transferred almost bodily to my pages. This is the extremely rare brochure of I. Uzov or Yusov, Russkie Dissidenty, St. Petersburg, 1881. This is a work of impartial and independent criticism, and valu- able for its numerous and well chosen citations from earUer works on the subject. In many cases where I have identified these citations I have found them accurate. After these two authors, I am most indebted to the works of J. V. Liprandi, of H. I. Kostomarov, of Meliukov, of Maca- rius, archbishop of Moscow, author of a History of the Raskol, PREFACE published in 1889, of Kelsiev, of whose collectanea about the sects several volumes were printed in London between 1860 and 1870, of Th. Livanov, of our own WiUiam Palmer, the Historian of the Patriarch Nikon, of Paul Miliukov, of Father Palmieri, author of an Italian History of the Russian Church, of O. Novitski, and of a few other authors whose names I have given in my pages. It remains for me to express my gratitude to those who have helped me in my work; first and foremost to the Harvard Faculty of Divinity for their adoption of it; to the Librarian of the Widener Library for the generous way he granted me every facility for study; to Dr. R. P. Blake for reading the final proof-sheets, and giving my readers the benefit of his great knowledge of the Russian language; and to Professors George Foot Moore and Kirsopp Lake for reading my work in advance. If there is any good order in my presentation of the subject, it is chiefly due to the latter of my two friends. F. C. CONYBEARE. Oxford, 1921. >l UST OF RUSSIAN PERIODICALS CITED C. for St. BHCjrioTCKa A-1H "^Tenia ; Herep- Library reading; Petersbui^. 6vpiTb. BpaTCKoe Cjiobo The Brotherly Word. BpeMH Time. B-tcTHHirb Ebpohh; C. IleTepCvppb Messenger of Europe; St. Petersburg. BicTHHKi> MocKOBCKoft 3napxiH Messenger of the See of Moscow. Fojiocib OrapooGpHA^a The Voice of the Old believer. /IpVTTb HCTHHH The Friend of Truth. ,fljnnenoje3Hoe ^xeHie Edifying Reading. TheAfair. JKvpHajTb KaBKascKoft 3iiapxiH Journal of the Caucasian See. SnaHie Knowledge. HaB-fecxia HMneparopcKaro OCmecTBa The Proceedings of the Imperial Society HcTopiH H /tpcBHOcreft npn Moc- of History and Antiquities at the KOBCKOM'b yHHBepCHTeri University of Moscow. Hc<5opHHKT> The Elect One. HcTHHa Truth. MnccioHepcKoe 06o3piHie Missionarj' Review. HeBCKlft C6opHBKT. Neva Collection. 0630pb Review. IlepMCKaa 3iiapxiajEbHaa Fasera Gazette of the Perus See. IIpaBOCJiaBHBia Bec^AM Orthodox Conversations. IIpaBocjiaBHoe 06o3piHie Orthodox Review. IIpaBocjiaBHiiid Co6ee]^AHHin> Orthodox Conversationalist. npaBOCjraBHHfl Orthodox Traveller. jciiyTHHKi. IIpHjioaceHie in> JKypnajiy KajmscKofi Supplement to the Journal of the See 3iiapxiH of Kaluga. PyccKift ApXHB-b Russian Archive. PyccKia BicTH Russian News. PyccKifi Mipb Russian World. PyccKaa OrapHHa Russian Antiquity. Cjiobo The Word. CaoBO IIpaBAH The Word of Truth. Ck)BpeMeHHHa Jlironacvi Contemporary Chronicles. CrapooCpaAerrb The Old-beUever. OrapoofipaAiecKift BicTHHirb The Old-behever Messenger. Crpana The Coimtry. CTpaHHHirb The Wanderer. TpyAN KieBCKoft .ZIjrxoBHoft Works of the Kiev Ecclesiastical AjKaACMiH Academy. XpHcriaHCKia ^Teeia Christian Readings. X CONTENTS PAGS Preface v List of Russian Periodicals Cited vii Introduction 1 PART I THE OLD BELIEVERS OF GREAT RUSSIA Chapter I. The Conditions leading to the Schism .... 13 Introduction. The Struggle against Centralization. Russia and Tartar Influence. Russian Ritualism and Litui^cal Ck)ntroversy. Nikon. Nikon's Reforms. The Council of Stoglav. The position of affairs in 1655. The Fall of Nikon. From the Fall of Nikon to 1666. The CouncU of 1666. ?PENDix TO Chapter I 69 P. Aurelio Palmieri's Account of the Russian Clergy. Chapter II. The Earlt Days of the Schism 79 The Rebellion at the Solovetski Monastery. The Revolt of 1682. The Ukaze of 1685 and its Results. Tsardom and Antichrist. IIhapter III. The Dispersion 101 The Settlements of the Popovtsy. The Search for Priests. Epipha- nius, the First Raskol Bishop. The Uniat Movement. The Conces- sions of Paul I. The Persecution of the Raskol by Nicholas I. The Austrian Hierarchy. The General Character of the Popovtsy. !Ihapter TV. The Bezpopovtsy or Priestless Sect .... 151 The Various Settlements of the Bezpopovtsy. The Stranniki. The Netovtsi and the Self-Baptizers. The Prayerless and the Sighers. The Intellectual Development of the Bezpopovtsy. Opinion on Priesthood and Sacraments. /HAPTER V. The Ql*estion of Marrl^^-ge 189 Marriage among the Stranniki. Varieties of Opinion among the Bezpoptovtsy. Theodosius Vasilev. Ivan .\lexiev. I. A. Kovylin. The Present Situation. X CONTENTS PAGE Chapter VI. The Organization, Legal Position, and Numbers OF THE RaSKOL 215 Introduction. The Communes of the Vyg. The Communes of Sopelok. General Organization. Legal Position of the Raskol. Before Peter I. Peter I. Peter III to Alexander I. Nicholas I and his Successors, to 1903. The Reforms of 1903. The Number of the Raskol. Controversial Propaganda against the Raskol. The Publi- cations of the Raskol in Modern Times. PART II THE RATIONALIST SECTS OF SOUTH RUSSIA Introduction 261 Chapter I. The Dukhobortsy 266 Chapter II. The Molokanye 289 The Evidence of their Confession of Faith. The Accounts of Uzov, StoUov and Kostomarov. Ivanovski's account. Chapter III. The Communists, Stundists and other Small Sects 327 The Communists. The Righthand Brotherhood or Zion's Tidings. The Stundists. PART III THE MYSTIC SECTS Chapter I. The Khlysty 339 Chapter II. The Skoptsy 363 RUSSIAN DISSENTERS INTRODUCTION One cannot better approach the study of the Russian Dissenters or Raskol (i. e. division, schism) than by repeating the words with which I. Uzov begins his work upon them. They are these: "Haxthausen need not have warned Russia how serious a peril to her security her dissenters formed, ^ if in nor have warned her to have regard thereto ; as order to compass their destruction she had not all along resorted to the auto-da-fe, the knout, gaUows and every' sort of slow and painful death. Mindful of the proverb: 'Beat a man not ^ith a stick, but with roubles,' the Government has imposed on them double taxes and curtailed their ci\il rights. Every petty official has been at hberty to help himself out of their pockets, and yet dissent has not weakened or diminished; on the contrary it has struck roots ever deeper and stronger into the hfe of the people." When at last the Government realized that the old system of frank and fearless extermina- tion could not stand criticism, it was pretended that the best way of getting rid of them was to encourage among them reading and writing and general enlightenment. It may be that if the Tsar's Government had given all its citizens at the least a middle class education, Dissent in the form in which it now exists might be weakened. But this was never done. Such instruction as was usually reckoned to be good enough for peasants was not of a kind to induce them to give up dissent, as is shewn by the fact that most dissenters had al- ready received it. We have the testimony of an official, Liprandi, commissioned by the Government of Nicholas I to hold an inquisition into them, that "the range of their ^ Aug. Haxthausen. Researches into Inner Life of the People of Russia. Han- nover, 1847, i, 415. A. H. aims his remark at the Dukhobortsy only. 1 2 RUSSIAN DISSENTERS ^ activity is not lessened but extended by education." Count Stenbok, another official set to study them by the Govern- ment, affirms that ''Dissent perpetually spreads and becomes stronger," that, "notwithstanding a weakening of religious interest, their adherents are no weaker as a body," and that "all measures taken against them, by the government are up to ^ the present imavaiUng." An anonymous authority, S.
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