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“As Soon As We Got Here We Lost Everything:” The Migration Memories and Religious Lives of the Old Believers in Australia by Stefanie Scherr (B.A., M.A.) This thesis is presented for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy of the Swinburne University of Technology Swinburne Institute for Social Research 2013 ii Abstract The Old Believers are a group of Russian Orthodox Christians who claim to preserve the primordial ritual form and religious dogma of their faith. These claims and the Old Believers’ religious lives have been challenged by the global dispersion of their diaspora and the experience of forced migration. Political and religious persecution forced the Old Believers to spread across Europe, North and South America, New Zealand and Australia. After they were forced to leave their former settlements in China during the 1950s and 1960s, several hundred Old Believers settled in Australia. There they formed church communities in Melbourne, Sydney and the country town of Yarwun in Queensland. My thesis focuses both on the impact that religion has on individual migrant journeys, and on how the Old Believers’ religious lives and identities have been transformed by their migration experience. Life story interviews, participant observation, and a range of archival material highlight the various meanings that the Old Believers have attached to their migrant past, their diasporic present and their religious tradition. Their migrant memories offer contested interpretations of their migration and settlement experience in Australia, their religious practice and diaspora identity. My analysis presents the Old Believers’ migratorв movement as a process which conveys a sense of shared history, origin, displacement and belonging. The Australian Old Believers identify strongly with the origins of their Russian Orthodox faith. Their ancestral homeland offers an imaginative and often idealised identification with their diaspora. Memories of the Old Believers’ former settlement and forced migration from China focus on notions of place and displacement; they reveal a more ambivalent and contested aspect of their migrant identity. The idealised reminiscence of a traditional life-style and pious religious practice overlap with memories of state terror, persecution and violence, which had forced the Old Believers to leave Communist China. Various resettlement countries, international organisations and immigration policies had an impact on the trajectory of the Old Believers’ migrant journey. Different political and individual decisions shaped their migration to Australia and influenced their present settlement and diasporic condition. The Old Belief’s often restrictive religious dogma and ritual practice stand in conflict with a modern and mostly urban lifestyle. The Old Believers’ religious practice has adapted to the changed cultural and social setting of their diaspora, and their ritual practice shows aspects of change and continuity. iii Acknowledgments Undertaking this study has been a journey. Without the support of my supervisors, my family, friends and colleagues it would have been impossible. I would like to acknowledge and thank my supervisors: Professor Klaus Neumann and Dr Vivienne Waller, who gave invaluable advice, guidance and support throughout my research and my writing process. Both of them have been an endless source of encouragement, advice and empathy. I am grateful to my interviewees and many other Old Believers I have met in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Gympie. They have shown me so much hospitality, help and interest in my endevours. I would like to thank the Swinburne Institute for Social Research, the German Historical Institute in Moscow and the David C. Lam Institute for East-West Studies at the Hong Kong Baptist University for supporting my research. Last but not least, I thank my family and friends for their constant encouragement which made this thesis possible. iv Declaration This thesis contains no material which has been accepted for the award to the candidate of any other degree or diploma, except where due reference is made in the text. To the best of my knowledge this thesis contains no material previously published or written by another person except where due reference is made in the text. Where the work is based on joint research or publications, this thesis discloses the relative contributions of the respective workers or authors. Stefanie Scherr 2013 v Table of Contents Prologue……………………………………………………………………………………. 1 Introduction………………………………………………………………………………... 3 Chapter 1: The Art of Questioning: Methodological Reflections…………………………………...…….. 31 Chapter 2: Imagining Russia: The Old Believers’ History Making…………………………………. 60 Chapter 3: The Migrant Journey Begins: The Old Believers’ Memory of Place and Displacement……… 108 Chapter 4: The Temporalities of Migration: The Old Believers’ Transit through Hong Kong………………... 162 Chapter 5: Making Home in the Diaspora: The Old Believers’ Arrival in Australia…………………………… 204 Chapter 6: Ritual Bodies and Religious Practice in the Diaspora………… 254 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………... 296 Glossary……………………………………………………………………………….... 304 List of Interviewees…………………………………………………………….……… 306 Archival Sources…………………………………………………………………….… 307 Bibliography…………………………………………………………………...……….. 310 Appendix: Ethics Clearance and Statement of Compliance………………...… 340 Prologue A crisp clear winter morning has brought relentless cold to Moscow. Clouds of frozen breath and the noise of crunching snow hang in the air. A dirty white marshrutka (share taxi) takes me from the Taganskaia metro station, in the citв’s southwest, to the Rogozhskoe cemetery. My Lonely Planet guide has recommended a visit to its Russian Orthodox Old-Rite church1, “one of Russia’s most atmospheric religious centres”. At my destination I circle the various church buildings and the belltower, and then enter the central church through a side door, escaping the frosty cold. As I step out of the anteroom and into the nave, my eyes need to adjust to the dimness inside. The shapes of large wooden icons emerge in the flickering twilight of a dozen candles. Their paintings begin to gleam in vivid purple, marine blue and ochre. A candlelit chandelier hangs from the ceiling, and enhances the shine of sumptuous frescos and gilded arches. My eyes wander from the dark wooden floorboards, along the silver candelabra, up to the altar front, which is illuminated by the winter sunlight. A golden iconostasis, painted with the highest ranks of saints and angels, ascends to the vaulted ceiling. Suddenly I glimpse a little girl, pacing down the aisle in front of the altar. Her long red dress sways around her feet and a colourful tasseled belt is girt around her waist. Her hair is covered with a bright headscarf. Its thin laвer of white satin frames the girl’s face. Evenly spreading over her back and shoulders, the headscarf gives her childish figure a solemn look. The girl has stopped in front of the side altar. Her hand reaches carefully up to the top of the candelabra, where she places a small thin candle. She crosses herself, tapping her fingers with utmost fervency against her chest and bowing deeply. I am struck by the devoutness of her gesture, its intensity and sincerity. The girl seems totally immersed in the ritual movement of her body and the church atmosphere. The candlelight that shines on her face makes her appear mysterious and angelic. 1 Mв use of the term ““Russian Orthodox Old-Rite Church” refers to the church hierarchy of Belokrinitsa. It is headed by Metropolitan Korniliy (Titov) who resides at the Rogozhskoe cemeterв in Moscow. The “Orthodox Old-Rite Church”, also known as the Lipovan Orthodox Old-Rite Church, belongs to the Austrian concord of the Belokrinitsa Hierarchy and is currently lead bв Metropolitan Leontв (Iгotov) in Brăila. (For the establishment and historical development of the priestly Old Believer church hierarchies see: Peter Hauptmann, Rußlands Altgläubige [Russia’s Old Ritualists] (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2005), 124–195)). 2 As I look around and observe the worshippers around me, I become even more amazed by the mystical world which I have entered. A group of men, dressed in high laced boots and Cossack pants, are standing near the entrance. Their stature is imposing, and the expression on their faces betrays their religious devotion. Immersed in their prayers these men stand with arms crossed over their chest, responding to the melodic chants of a choir. After a while I leave the church, mesmerised by its splendour, by the sweet smell of incense and the fervour of the worshippers. I like to think that the magic spell, which was cast on me that day at the Rogozhskoe cemetery, eventually led to my research interest in the Old Believers’ religious faith and historв. Introduction Gympie – Last Refuge for the Old Believers It is still pouring with rain. A pair of gumboots has stained the white tiles near the front door with a puddle of rainwater, gravel and soil. Vlas’s1 lumberjack shirt is dripping; his short silver hair is all wet. He was outside to check the garden and the gutters. Back in the house he calms his wife down: “No worries – everвthing’s fine.” During the summer months heavy rain falls are not unusual in Gympie, a small country town in the hinterland of Queensland’s Sunshine coast. Vlas’s wife has been nervous and worried. Their adult children have promised to come for a visit, as the family is about to celebrate Christmas. If the small creek in front of their house overflows, their farm can no longer be reached. Looking through the window and down towards the small valley, the winding gravel road leading up the hill has already disappeared behind a front of rain and wind. Clouds of thunder and lightning loom over Vlas’s new house, which for the moment only consists of a wooden frame and electric cabling. Further down the valley I recognise the silhouettes of a few houses and a small prayer hall. Vlas and his wife belong to a group of Russian Orthodox Christians who reject the reformed Russian Orthodox Church. This dissident group opposed reforms that Patriarch Nikon (1605– 1681) had introduced in the mid-seventeenth century.

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