Kerzhaks are an ethnographic group of Russian Old Believers. The name comes from the name of the Kerzhenets River in the Nizhny Novgorod region. Carriers of culture of the North Russian type.
After the defeat of the Kerzhen monasteries in the 1720s, tens of thousands fled to the east - to the Perm province. From the Urals they settled throughout Siberia, to Altai and the Far East. They are one of the first Russian-speaking residents of Siberia, the “old-timer population”. They led a rather closed communal lifestyle with strict religious rules and traditional culture.
One of these rules was the obligatory crossing of a glass when accepting it from the wrong hands (evil spirits could live in the glass); it was also considered obligatory, after washing in the bathhouse, to turn over the basins (in which “bathhouse devils” could also settle) and wash exclusively until 12 pm. Moreover, the Kerzhaks believed not only in the gods of the Orthodox Church; brownies, “bathhouse devils,” mermans, naiads, goblins and other evil spirits were preserved in their faith.
In Siberia, Kerzhaks formed the basis of Altai masons. They contrasted themselves with later migrants to Siberia - the “Rasei” (Russian) ones, but subsequently almost completely assimilated with them due to their common origin.
Later, all Old Believers began to be called Kerzhaks, as opposed to “worldly” - adherents of official Orthodoxy.
The most striking example of the Kerzhaks are the hermits Lykovs, who, like their brothers in faith and way of life, chose to live in the remote taiga. In remote places there are still Kerzhat settlements that have virtually no contact with the outside world.
The Kerzhaks never ate potatoes, which they considered “unclean.” The name "devil's apple" speaks for itself. They also did not drink tea, but only hot water. The food they preferred was thick Kerzhatsky cabbage soup made from barley with kvass, juice shangi made from sour dough greased with hemp juice, and a variety of jelly prepared according to ancient recipes.
For a long time, the Kerzhaks remained committed to traditional clothing. Women wore slanted dark oaks - sundresses made of painted canvas or satin, leather cats, light canvas shaburs. The houses were illuminated with torches. The Kerzhaks did not allow the “worldly” to pray at their icons. Children were baptized in cold water. They married only fellow believers. Along with the Christian faith, many ancient secret rituals were used.
One of the character traits of most Old Believers is a reverent attitude towards this word and towards the truth. The young were punished: “Don’t light it, put out the carcass before it flares up; If you lie, the devil will crush you; go to the barn and joke there alone; promise nedahe - dear sister, slander that coal: if it doesn’t burn, it will get dirty; You’re standing in the truth, it’s hard for you, but stop, don’t turn around.”
To sing an obscene ditty, to utter a bad word - it meant disgracing yourself and your family, since the community condemned for this not only that person, but also all his relatives. They said about him with disgust: “He will sit down at the table with these same lips.”
In the Old Believer environment, it was considered extremely indecent and awkward not to say hello even to an unfamiliar person. After saying hello, you had to pause, even if you were very busy, and certainly talk. And they say: “I had a sin too. She was young, but already married. I walked past my dad and simply said, “You live great,” and didn’t talk to him. He shamed me so much that I should have at least asked: how do you live, daddy?”
They condemned drunkenness very much, they said: “My grandfather also told me that I don’t need hops at all. Hops, they say, last thirty years. How can you die drunk? You won’t see a bright place later.”
Smoking was also condemned and considered a sin. A person who smoked was not allowed near the holy icon and they tried to communicate with him as little as possible. They said about such people: “He who smokes tobacco is worse than dogs.”
And several more rules existed in the families of Old Believers. Prayers, spells and other knowledge must be passed down by inheritance, mainly to their children. You cannot pass on knowledge to older people. Prayers must be memorized. You cannot tell your prayers to strangers, as this will make them lose their power.
The Old Believers settled in Altai more than two hundred years ago. Fleeing from religious and political persecution, they brought with them legends about Belovodye: “...Beyond the great lakes, behind the high mountains there is a sacred place... Belovodye.” The Uimon Valley became the Promised Land for the Old Believers.
In the system of moral and ethical traditions among the Old Believers, traditions closely related to work activity come first. They lay the foundations of respect for work as “good and godly work,” the earth and nature. It was the hardships of life and persecution that became the basis for caring for the land as the highest value. Old Believers sharply condemn laziness and “careless” owners, who were often paraded in front of large crowds of people. It was the labor activity of the Old Believers that was marked by unique traditions, festivals and rituals, which was a reflection of the unique culture and way of life of the Russian people. The Kerzhaks cared about the harvest, the health of their family and livestock, and the passing on of life experience to the younger generation.
The meaning of all rituals was the return of wasted strength to the worker, the preservation of the land and its fertile power. Mother Earth is a nurse and breadwinner. Old Believers consider nature to be a living being, capable of understanding and helping people. The intimate relationship with nature was expressed in the tradition of folk art, the basis of which was the moral relationship between man and nature. Carpentry, beekeeping, stove masonry, artistic painting and weaving were passed down from generation to generation.
The idea of beauty among the Old Believers is closely connected with the cleanliness of the home. Dirt in a hut is a shame for the housewife. Every Saturday, from early morning, the women of the family thoroughly washed everything around them, cleaning them with sand until they smelled like wood. It is considered a sin to sit at a dirty (dirty) table. And before cooking, the housewife must cross all the dishes. What if the devils were jumping in it? Many people still don’t understand why the Kerzhaks always wash the floor, wipe the door handles and serve special dishes when a stranger comes into their house. This was due to the basics of personal hygiene. And as a result, the villages of the Old Believers did not know epidemics.
The Old Believers developed a reverent attitude towards water and fire. Holy was water, forests and grass. Fire cleanses a person’s soul and renews his body. Bathing in healing springs is interpreted by Old Believers as a rebirth and a return to original purity. Water brought home was always taken against the flow, but for “medicine” it was taken along the flow and at the same time they uttered a spell. Old Believers will never drink water from a ladle; they will definitely pour it into a glass or mug. It is strictly forbidden by the Old Believer faith to take out garbage to the river bank or pour out dirty water. Only one exception was made when icons were washed. This water is considered clean.
The Old Believers strictly observed the traditions of choosing a place to build and furnish their home. They noticed places where children played or livestock roosted for the night. The tradition of “help” occupies a special place in the organization of the Old Believer community. This includes joint harvesting and building a house. In the days of “help”, working for money was considered a reprehensible thing. There is a tradition of “nursing” to help, i.e. it was necessary to come to the aid of those who had once helped the community member. Internal mutual assistance was always provided to fellow countrymen and people in trouble. Theft is considered a mortal sin. The community could give a “rebuff” to a thieving person, i.e. each member of the community uttered the following words, “I refuse him,” and the person was kicked out of the village. It is never possible to hear swear words from an Old Believer; the canons of faith did not allow slander against a person, they taught patience and humility.
The head of the Old Believer community is the mentor, he has the final word. In the spiritual center, the prayer house, he teaches reading the Holy Scriptures, conducts prayers, baptizes adults and children, “brings together” the bride and groom, and drinks the deceased.
Old Believers have always had strong family foundations. The family sometimes numbered up to 20 people. As a rule, three generations lived in a family. The head of the family was a big man. The authority of a man in the family is based on the example of hard work, faithfulness to his word and kindness. He was helped by his big lady mistress. All her daughters-in-law obeyed her unquestioningly, and the young women asked permission for all household chores. This ritual was observed until the birth of her child, or until the young were separated from their parents.
The family never raised them with shouts, but only with proverbs, jokes, parables or fairy tales. According to the Old Believers, in order to understand how a person lived, you need to know how he was born, how he played a wedding and how he died. It is considered a sin to cry and lament at a funeral, otherwise the deceased will drown in tears. You should come to the grave for forty days, talk to the deceased, and remember him with good words. Parents' days of remembrance are also associated with the funeral tradition.
And today one can see how strictly the Old Believers observe religious rituals. The older generation still devotes a lot of time to prayer. Every day of an Old Believer's life begins and ends with prayer. Having prayed in the morning, he proceeds to the meal and then to righteous labor. They begin any activity by saying the Jesus Prayer, while making the sign of two fingers over themselves. There are many icons in the houses of the Old Believers. Under the shrine are ancient books and ladders. A ladder (rosary) is used to mark the number of prayers and bows said.
To this day, Old Believers strive to preserve their traditions, customs and rituals, and most importantly, their faith and moral principles. Kerzhak always understands that you need to rely only on yourself, on your hard work and skill.
Kerzhaki- ethnographic group Russian Old Believers . The name comes from the name of the Kerzhenets River in the Nizhny Novgorod region. Carriers of culture of the North Russian type. After the defeat of the Kerzhen monasteries in the 1720s, tens of thousands fled to the east - to the Perm province. From the Urals they settled across
As a result of Soviet transformations of society (atheism, collectivization, industrialization, dispossession, etc.), most of the descendants of the Kerzhaks lost ancient traditions, consider themselves to be a Russian ethnic group, and live throughout the Russian Federation and abroad.
According to the 2002 census in Russia, only 18 people indicated that they belonged to the Kerzhaks
Old Believers moved to the territory of the Altai Mountains more than two hundred years ago. Fleeing from religious and political persecution, they brought with them legends about Belovodye: “...Beyond the great lakes, behind the high mountains there is a sacred place... Belovodye.” The Uimon Valley became the Promised Land for the Old Believers.
In the system of moral and ethical traditions among the Old Believers, traditions closely related to work activity come first. They lay the foundations of respect for work as “good and godly work,” the earth and nature. It was the hardships of life and persecution that became the basis for caring for the land as the highest value. Old Believers sharply condemn laziness and “careless” owners, who were often paraded in front of large crowds of people. It was the labor activity of the Old Believers that was marked by unique traditions, festivals and rituals, which was a reflection of the unique culture and way of life of the Russian people. The Kerzhaks cared about the harvest, the health of their family and livestock, and the passing on of life experience to the younger generation. The meaning of all rituals was the return of wasted strength to the worker, the preservation of the land and its fertile power. Mother Earth is a nurse and breadwinner. Old Believers consider nature to be a living being, capable of understanding and helping people. The intimate relationship with nature was expressed in the tradition of folk art, the basis of which was the moral relationship between man and nature. Carpentry, beekeeping, stove masonry, artistic painting and weaving were passed down from generation to generation.
The idea of beauty among the Old Believers is closely connected with the cleanliness of the home. Dirt in a hut is a shame for the housewife. Every Saturday, from early morning, the women of the family thoroughly washed everything around them, cleaning them with sand until they smelled like wood. It is considered a sin to sit at a dirty (dirty) table. And before cooking, the housewife must cross all the dishes. What if the devils were jumping in it? Many people still don’t understand why the Kerzhaks always wash the floor, wipe the door handles and serve special dishes when a stranger comes into their house. This was due to the basics of personal hygiene. And as a result, the villages of the Old Believers did not know epidemics.
The Old Believers developed a reverent attitude towards water and fire. Holy was water, forests and grass. Fire cleanses a person’s soul and renews his body. Bathing in healing springs is interpreted by Old Believers as a rebirth and a return to original purity. Water brought home was always taken against the flow, but for “medicine” it was taken along the flow and at the same time they uttered a spell. Old Believers will never drink water from a ladle; they will definitely pour it into a glass or mug. It is strictly forbidden by the Old Believer faith to take out garbage to the river bank or pour out dirty water. Only one exception was made when icons were washed. This water is considered clean.
The Old Believers strictly observed the traditions of choosing a place to build and furnish their home. They noticed places where children played or livestock roosted for the night. The tradition of “help” occupies a special place in the organization of the Old Believer community. This includes joint harvesting and building a house. In the days of “help”, working for money was considered a reprehensible thing. There is a tradition of “nursing” to help, i.e. it was necessary to come to the aid of those who had once helped the community member. Internal mutual assistance was always provided to fellow countrymen and people in trouble. Theft is considered a mortal sin. The community could give a “rebuff” to a thieving person, i.e. each member of the community uttered the following words, “I refuse him,” and the person was kicked out of the village. It is never possible to hear swear words from an Old Believer; the canons of faith did not allow slander against a person, they taught patience and humility.
The head of the Old Believer community is the mentor, he has the final word. In the spiritual center, the prayer house, he teaches reading the Holy Scriptures, conducts prayers, baptizes adults and children, “brings together” the bride and groom, and drinks the deceased.
Old Believers have always had strong family foundations. The family sometimes numbered up to 20 people. As a rule, three generations lived in a family. The head of the family was a big man. The authority of a man in the family is based on the example of hard work, faithfulness to his word and kindness. He was helped by his big lady mistress. All her daughters-in-law obeyed her unquestioningly, and the young women asked permission for all household chores. This ritual was observed until the birth of her child, or until the young were separated from their parents.
The family never raised them with shouts, but only with proverbs, jokes, parables or fairy tales. According to the Old Believers, in order to understand how a person lived, you need to know how he was born, how he played a wedding and how he died. It is considered a sin to cry and lament at a funeral, otherwise the deceased will drown in tears. You should come to the grave for forty days, talk to the deceased, and remember him with good words. Parents' days of remembrance are also associated with the funeral tradition.
And today one can see how strictly the Old Believers observe religious rituals. The older generation still devotes a lot of time to prayer. Every day of an Old Believer's life begins and ends with prayer. Having prayed in the morning, he proceeds to the meal and then to righteous labor. They begin any activity by saying the Jesus Prayer, while making the sign of two fingers over themselves. There are many icons in the houses of the Old Believers. Under the shrine are ancient books and ladders. A ladder (rosary) is used to mark the number of prayers and bows said.
To this day, Old Believers strive to preserve their traditions, customs and rituals, and most importantly, their faith and moral principles. Kerzhak always understands that you need to rely only on yourself, on your hard work and skill.
These are the houses of the Skerzhaks - strong, large, with high windows and floors, and all because livestock and people and cellars are under one roof
Old Believers are the name given to Christians who left the Orthodox Church during the reforms of Patriarch Nikon. They are also called schismatics or Old Believers, and some historians call them Orthodox Protestants. All these terms refer to the same people. The concept of “schismatic” was used by supporters of the new faith and was of a negative nature. "Old Believers" is a term coined by secular authors in the 19th century.
The Old Believers still calculate chronology in the old way: in September 2015 the year 7524 came.
The schism in the Russian Orthodox Church was initiated in the 1650s by Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich (second of the Romanov dynasty). He nurtured ambitious plans to unite the entire Orthodox world around Moscow. The initial step in this direction seemed to Alexei to be the reduction of the symbols of faith to a single model. The fact is that by the 17th century, the Greek Church, which gave Orthodoxy to Rus', began to differ from the Russian Church in some rituals.
The then Patriarch Nikon invited Greek scientists to Moscow, who were supposed to identify differences in the performance of religious rituals. Scientists have come to the conclusion that over several centuries the Russian Orthodox Church moved away from the Byzantine canons. To bring the rituals into unity, Nikon introduced a number of changes: to be baptized not with two, but with three fingers, after prayer, bow down not 17, but 4, write the name “Jesus” with two “ands”, conduct the procession not in the direction of the sun, but vice versa, etc. .d. In 1666, a Council took place, which decided that all Nikon’s innovations should be observed as true.
This caused numerous church protests, and in some cases, unrest. Among the first to refuse to obey Nikon were the monks of the Solovetsky Monastery. Rebels are publicly burned at the stake and executed by hanging. The people, who did not agree with the innovations, but were frightened by the executions, fled across Russia. At first, the “schismatics,” as Nikon’s adherents began to call them, hid in the forests near Moscow, and then went east - to the Urals, to Siberia. This is how the Old Believers arose.
The suppression of the rebellion, the cause of which was merely a formal change in religious rituals, turned out to be inappropriately cruel. Those who were caught spreading the old faith were ordered to be tortured and burned alive. Those who retain the faith or provide minimal assistance to the Old Believers are ordered to be identified and mercilessly flogged. Old Believers find themselves completely outside the law: they are prohibited from holding government or public office, being witnesses in court, etc.
Fugitive hermits set up their hermitages - secluded dwellings in remote, hard-to-reach places. On the territory of the Urals there are many hermitages known on islands, in impenetrable swamps, in the mountains, in forest wilds, etc. For many years, the Old Believers hid in the Merry Mountains in the Middle Urals. Movement along them is difficult due to windbreaks, rubble and extensive wetlands at the base of the mountains. The ridge has intricate orography, making orientation difficult. The places, despite the relative proximity of populated areas, are very remote. Since the 17th century here fugitive schismatic Old Believers began to secretly settle in monasteries. Over the course of 200 years, they found their own ascetics, revered by the people, and holy places - the graves of the elders.
There were several dozen such graves, but four were especially revered: the schema-monks Hermon, Maxim, Gregory and Paul. The grave of Elder Pavel, one of the Old Believer preacher-mentors, is located at the foot of the Old Stone. Secret roads led to the graves of the elders from the Verkhne- and Nizhny Tagil factories, Nevyansk, Chernoistochinsk, Staroutkinsk. Only in 1905 did the persecution of schismatics stop, and shrines were “legalized.” New roads were cut, a marble monument was erected on the grave of Father Paul, the time of commemoration was determined, and the land under the graves was transferred to the eternal possession of the Verkhnetagil Old Believer Society. A mass pilgrimage of schismatics began with prayers at the graves, the first day of which was called the Day of Joyful Meeting, and the last - the Day of Sad Parting. After 1917, not a trace remained of the graves; no roads to them could be found.
The monasteries of the Old Believers in the vast Bakhmet swamp in the Tugulym region have still been preserved. In the central part of the impassable marsh there are several dry islands covered with pine forests and heathland. Among them is Abraham Island, named after Elder Abraham (Alexey Ivanovich of Hungary, 1635–1710) - the leader of the Siberian Old Believers who fled east from Nikon’s reforms and settled in the Trans-Ural swamps. To this day, the Abraham Stone is revered - a holy place for the Old Believers.
Many Old Believer sites are located on the island of Vera, which is nestled on the pristine western shore of Lake Turgoyak. These are the dugouts of the islanders, a chapel with a stone cross on the shore of the lake, and an Old Believer cemetery. Architect Filyansky, who described the island during his visit in 1909, says that around the chapel, wooden icons were hung right on the trees. Archaeologists are trying to restore the ruins of these structures.
12 YEARS OF FREEDOM
Old Believers became especially widespread in the Urals with the development of industry here. The Demidovs and other factory owners, in defiance of the supreme royal authority, encourage the Old Believers in every possible way, hide them from the authorities and even endow them with high positions. Breeders need profit, they don’t care about priestly dogmas, and all Old Believers are conscientious workers. What is difficult for others is observed without difficulty. Their faith does not allow them to ruin themselves with vodka and smoke. Old Believers easily made a career, becoming craftsmen and managers. The Ural factories are becoming a stronghold of the Old Believers.
In 1905, common sense finally prevailed - and the royal decree lifted the ban on “schismatics” (as they were called for almost 250 years) to hold public office and allowed the “Old Believers” (the name from the new royal decree) to openly create their parishes and perform religious services.
“At the beginning of the twentieth century. Entire villages on Pechora are populated by Old Believers. They had their own icons (mostly copper), which were placed not in the red corner, but near the stove or behind a partition. The old faith forbade them to smoke, drink wine, swear, or wear European clothes. Each “faithful” had his own dishes - a mug, spoon and bowl, which he never parted with; guests were not given their own dishes. Women wore dark-colored clothes. The most fanatical Pechora schismatics did not eat potatoes or “overseas” vegetables; instead of kerosene they used splinters. The Old Believers did not have churches or houses of worship; they chose living quarters for worship. At the same time as the Old Believers, Orthodox Christians also lived in the villages. Clashes on religious grounds between them rarely occurred.”
Many note a certain caution, silence and mistrust of the Old Believers; they are not particularly hospitable. In clothing, ancient types were preferred: for men - a shirt-shirt with a stand-up collar and trousers. The basis of women's clothing was a complex of a shirt with a sundress. Both men's and women's clothing had to be belted.
Until the 1950s, among the Old Believers there were prohibitions on the consumption of a number of products, including tea, potatoes, horse meat, garlic, and hare. “When Jesus Christ was crucified, his wounds were smeared with garlic to make it more painful. That’s why it’s a sin to eat garlic.” Products purchased from non-Old Believers had to be subjected to certain “purification” procedures. Flour and meat were “cleaned” during the cooking process - “passing through fire.” The butter was immersed three times while reading the Jesus Prayer into running water.
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Before the Revolution of 1917, Old Believers made up 1/10 of the entire Orthodox population in Russia (and it should be noted that they were far from the worst part of it). But in 1917, the “golden age” of the history of the Old Believers, which lasted 12 years, ended! Fleeing from the “godless authorities,” the first wave of Ural Old Believers again, as in Nikon’s time, moved deeper into the forests and further into Siberia.
BACK IN THE FORESTS!
The fight against the Christian faith in general and the Old Believers in particular after the Revolution of 1917 acquired the most brutal forms. By the beginning of the twentieth century, in the Perm region alone there were almost 100 Old Believer parishes. After 60 years, there are only two of them left. The Old Believers suffered in 1922–1923. due to the massive decision, under pressure from party activists, to close houses of worship. Priests are shot or exiled. Most Old Believers have strong family peasant farms. They are autonomous, independent and do not depend on party directives, and the authorities can never come to terms with this! Old Believers are declared kulaks and are repressed. During the 1920s. The flow of Old Believers migrating to the east did not weaken. The most daring ones went into the North Ural forests.
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Those escaping from repression settled along the banks of small rivers in such a way as not to be seen when moving along a large river. The schismatics of Ebeliz were hiding in the right tributaries of the Ilych, 2–4 km from the mouths. They built huts, cut down areas of forest and plowed them up for crops. Natural mountain meadows were used as feeding grounds. The main occupation of the Old Believers was fishing, hunting, livestock, and gardening. Communication with the outside world was kept to a minimum. Through reliable people, they exchanged hunting trophies for cartridges and matches.
Small villages of 3–5 houses were formed here, where the Old Believers farmed and prayed. They lived more often in family clans. This is evidenced by the spread of homogeneous surnames in these places - Mezentsevs, Popovs, Sobyanins... Later, when collectivization began, the Old Believers, not wanting to join collective farms, left their villages and went even further into the forest.
“Several decades ago, along the banks of Shezhima, and in many other remote areas of the upper Pechora and its tributaries - Podcherya, Ilych and Shchugor - there were quite a few monasteries of Old Believers. In the abandoned huts, household items, hunting items and ancient handwritten books have been preserved to this day. Researchers from the Leningrad Literary Museum discovered a library of ancient books (more than 200 pieces) in one of these huts. There is a legend that the rarest ancient manuscripts are hidden in deep forests in deciduous logs filled with wax.”
The sacred occupation of the Old Believers was rewriting books. Until the middle of the 20th century, Old Believers used goose feathers for writing, and natural paints for ornamental painting of the manuscripts they created. The most important task of the scribes in the monasteries was updating and rewriting Old Believer manuscripts and printed books. Russian philological science owes a lot to the Russian Old Believers for preserving the most ancient lists of monuments of pre-Petrine literature.
A difficult fate awaited the hermits who remained in the Urals. They were identified and tried for evading socially useful labor and military service. A large group of Old Believers were “neutralized” in 1936. Several dozen hermits were tracked down, arrested and charged under Article 58 “for activities aimed at overthrowing Soviet power.”
“Ivan Petrovich Mezentsev left Saryudin with his family. They went to Kosya, where they founded their monastery and lived. They were looking for them in the forest for a long time. They even searched by plane. After 2-3 years they found him and arrested him. They put me in prison."
Story by Anna Ivanovna Popova, born in 1927: “A mother once gave birth to twins, and among the Old Believers this was considered a great sin. She was forced to plunge into ice water several times, so she was supposed to be cleansed of sin. But after that she fell ill and soon died. Then the father took another woman from Skalyap as his wife, and she persuaded him to go into the forest, and left the children in the village. They went far to the upper reaches of Kosyu, 40 kilometers upstream, at the very foot of Ebeliz. The monastery was built there. But they were found, arrested and then shot.”
Investigation documents show that all the cases of “counter-revolutionary Old Believer organizations” in the Urals, the so-called “Groups of Militant Christians” and “Brotherhood of Russian Truth,” were invented by the NKVD investigators themselves. The investigation materials contain certain denunciations of the KGB agents that the defendants, who did not agree with the Soviet regime, were engaged in distributing leaflets, carrying out sabotage, creating a network of underground organizations, etc. It is clear to any sane person that the Old Believers, who lived in the remote and completely uninhabited mountains of the Urals, never did anything like this.
Currently, the remains of the monasteries are difficult to find. Nevertheless, in the middle reaches of the Valganyol stream there are characteristic hills overgrown with weeds, and in the Kosyu valley, participants of the search expeditions of 2000–2001. discovered a preserved hut.
“We decided to try to find a person who knows where a monastery is located and will agree to take us to it. Cordon worker Ivan Sobyanin kindly agreed to be our guide. With his help, having overcome great obstacles, having walked a considerable number of kilometers, first along the Kosyu River, then away from it, we finally reached the monastery. It turned out to be a small hut, carefully cut from spruce. A hut of 10 crowns, slightly taller than a man, with a roof that was covered with large pieces of birch bark intertwined with willow twigs. A thick layer of earth up to 25 cm high was poured onto the roof for warmth. The house was built “into a cup.” On one side of the hut there was a small window, probably for the escape of smoke, since the hut was heated in a black way. The door of the hut overlooked a small lake (or rather, a karst depression) with a diameter of no more than 3 m, quite deep. Another larger window was located on the opposite side of the small window. He, as the guide claimed, had not been there before. It was later that the hunters cut it through. Inside the hut, everything fell apart; they found the remains of some simple household items: wooden hooks, a mortar, a shovel, a high chair, etc. Near the hut we found traces of some buildings, completely collapsed, overgrown with moss and covered with a layer of earth. They were at a distance of 10–15 steps from the hut. But what especially caught our attention were the strange buildings located in front of the door, 3-5 steps away. Between the hut and the lake. One got the impression that these were tombstones - half-rotten log houses of a wooden 2-3-crowned frame, characteristic of the funeral rite on Ilych. An eight-pointed cross is placed at the feet of the grave, the top of which is crowned with a gable roof. There were three of these houses..."
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REVENGE OF A REJECTED PARTY MEMBER
The remaining untouched Old Believers existed in the vast expanses of the Urals until 1952. For over 30 (!) years they led an autonomous existence in harsh climatic conditions. During the war, some women and children returned to Ilych villages under the guise of settlers. Some monasteries were inhabited mainly by men. They sometimes went to the villages. Participation in haymaking was especially practiced. Men dressed in dark women's clothing mowed the grass without arousing any suspicion.
Unfortunately for the Old Believers, that year a representative of the Troitsko-Pechora regional party committee arrived in the area on some party business. His attention was drawn to the disproportionate number of women in remote forest villages. Perhaps he would not have paid attention to it - there were few men everywhere after the war. Most likely, some village resident (or maybe several) rejected his attentions. This angered the party member, and he, finding fault with some little thing, wrote a report.
Senior lieutenant of the NKVD Kurdyumov from Troitsko-Pechorsk was sent to the investigation. It was he who later drew attention to a curious fact: at about the same time, in villages almost devoid of a male population, children were born together. This prompted the senior lieutenant to become suspicious. Under the guise of a young teacher, an agent provocateur arrived in the area, she gained the trust of the local residents - and the case of the hiding Old Believers was soon solved. There were arrests and charges under articles of evasion of military duty and labor activity (parasitism - what an irony of fate! - it is difficult to imagine more hardworking people who managed to live autonomously for years in the harsh conditions of the Northern Urals). About one and a half dozen Ebeliz Old Believers were sentenced to various terms. After leaving, they all returned to the Pechora villages. Their descendants still live there today.
The dwellings of the arrested Old Believers were mostly abandoned, partially looted by poachers and “developed” by hunters, but, nevertheless, much of what remained in the huts was discovered in 1959 by members of the expedition of the Institute of Russian Literature. They found costumes, icons, folds, painted boards for grave crosses and - the main thing for which the expedition was equipped - handwritten books. Some manuscripts were sealed with wax in sealed birch bark tubes and hidden in leafy logs. Undoubtedly, they have survived to this day and are hiding somewhere on the slopes of Ebeliz.
In 1971, the official church lifted the curse that it had placed on them during the schism from the Old Believers. So, after 305 years, the old faith was rehabilitated.
The literature mainly deals with communities of Old Believers living in populated areas, but there is practically no information on monasteries. This is understandable, since most of them were secret and were not widely known even during the period of their existence.
“Altai region in faces”: A story about. Nikola on Katun-24
Archpriest Nikola Dumnov, rector of the Barnaul Church of the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary of the Russian Orthodox Old Believer Church, tells about the history of the emergence of the Old Believers in Altai.
The host of the program “Altai Territory in Persons” on the Katun 24 TV channel is Anatoly Korchuganov.
Watch the video:
What is the phenomenon of the Old Believers?
A. Korchuganov: What is the phenomenon of the Old Believers? The question is more than complex, the origins of which go back centuries: Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, Nikon, Avvakum, persecution and schism of the Orthodox Church, scattering Russian people all over the world. So who are they - Old Believers, Old Believers, Kerzhaks?“I asked this question to Father Nikola Dumnov, a priest who cares for the Old Believer community of Barnaul.
Archpriest NikolaWho are the Old Believers, Old Believers, Kerzhaks?
O. Nikola:“We usually adhere to the statistics that 10% of the population are descendants of Old Believers, those who were once resettled and came to Altai.
In general, of course, this story is very instructive and entertaining. As is known, after the reforms of Patriarch Nikon, the Old Believers turned out to be dissidents in the state. They were openly called schismatics. And they were forced to endure persecution and all kinds of infringements from the state, both secular authorities and partly church authorities, and were forced to settle on the outskirts of the Russian State.
By the time of Catherine II, a significant part of the Old Believers lived in the area of modern Belarus and Ukraine, then these were the lands of Poland. And Catherine II, since she cared about raising the economy in the Russian state, so that life would somehow improve, she was in favor of resettling the Old Believers from these lands. Resettle from abroad to many empty lands in Russia, in particular Siberia. Her speeches are known; in September 1763, she spoke in defense of the Old Believers; there was a fiery speech. And soon after these events, several state acts were issued ( manifestos - ed.), which ordered to call, and in some cases force, Old Believers to move to Russia. They were promised some benefits. And from that moment, from the mid-60s of the 18th century (1764, 1765, 1766), resettlement began. These relocations are designated by scientists as “forcings.” Quite a lot is now known about forcing. I, of course, will not go into so much detail, but I will say that a significant part of the population, in families or individual villages, was resettled to Siberia, in particular to Altai.
Where are the Old Believers “Poles” and Bukhtarma “masons” from in Altai?
Here in Altai these settlers began to be called “Poles” because:
- “Where did you come from?” - “From Polish lands,” - “That means Poles.”
For example, in Eastern Kazakhstan they began to be called “masons” ( Bukhtarma masons). These were the same Old Believers who settled from the Polish lands, the modern Gomel region, the lands of Ukraine - in general, the south of Russia. If further - in Transbaikalia, then these same Old Believers began to be called “semeiskie”, since they lived in families.
But by that time there were already Old Believers in Siberia who, as if spontaneously, moved here, fleeing persecution and oppression. They emigrated, fled here (to Altai) from the Nizhny Novgorod region. There is Kerzhenets River, which flows into the Volga, and this is where the name comes from "Kerzhaks".
- “Who are they, where are they from?” - “From Kerzhenets” - “Kerzhaki, Kerzhaki.”
That's why Name "Kerzhaks"- this is the generally accepted name for the Old Believers.
It is clear that it was in the interests of the government to raise the agricultural part of the region in Altai, since the ore industry was developing here, troops were stationed, they had to be supplied with food, fodder and other things. And this role was offered to the Old Believers. It must be said that the Old Believers skillfully took advantage of this. True, it was not without violence, as is usually the case in Russian history: they were forced with carrots and sticks, by force, under escort, somewhere, maybe some people went voluntarily, especially the first settlers. When they saw the fertile lands here, they already had good reviews.
Development of Altai by Old Believers
From that moment - the middle of the 18th century - the history of the development of the Altai lands and Southern Siberia by the Old Believers began. Some part initially ended up in the steppe zone, since this zone was close to the place where they were born, where they had previously lived. Some of the Old Believers began to settle in the forest-steppe zone: this is the modern Zalesovsky district, then the Solton, Krasnogorsk districts, the foothills of the Ai - Altai region. And then - more.
Then the era of Nicholas I began. This is the era of oppression, persecution, and taxation. And then the Old Believers were forced to hide here, flee to the mountains, to the mountainous part of Altai, the modern famous Uimon Valley - Ust-Koksinsky district. This is how migration went throughout Altai. They built houses, housing, built churches, chapels, and engaged in farming. Moreover, it is interesting that those researchers who visited those times were amazed at the speed with which these once virgin lands were developed. Some civil officials cynically admitted: “we thought that you were here,” roughly speaking, “you would die, but everything has developed like this: the bread is good, even better than the rest.” And moreover, the Old Believers had an interesting status: they did not have the status of exiles, although they were actually exiles, but were the sovereign's people. But the principle of carrots and sticks still operated: on the one hand there were some benefits, and on the other hand there was oppression, they were schismatics, discriminated against from the position of secular authorities.
Old Believer Center in Altai
There are significantly more Old Believers in Altai. There were once four deaneries here before the famous repressions of the 30s. There were a significant number of churches, parishes, and priests. Of course, here, without exaggeration, was the center of the Old Believers ( local - ed.). And although formally the administrative capital was in Tomsk, and there was also the residence of the Old Believer bishop, nevertheless, the question was raised in order to move the bishop’s residence to Altai, since a significant part of the parishes was here.
A. Korchuganov: The Old Believers Church is located on Partizanskaya Street, and a new one is being built on Georgiy Isakov Street. It was here that Bishop Cornelius came - Primate of the Russian Orthodox Old Believer Church at the end of July 2014.
Turova E. "Mysterious world, my ancient world..."
A physicist's view of ancient Orthodoxy
Every year, some sorrowful mind, calling himself an Old Believer, begins to suffer foolishness in public. Either he will wander into the taiga, or he will bury himself in the ground... False horror stories, once composed to counter the schism, are readily replicated by some modern writers who present the Old Believers as half-crazed religious fanatics. Effective for the gullible and those prone to going crazy. And so it’s all nonsense, of course. Kerzhak the Old Believer was healthy, sober, clean, hardworking, prolific, thought sensibly and was extremely disinclined to any stupidity.
Are there still secrets in the old faith? Of course I have. The Old Believers are a complex historical and social phenomenon. I think that a real understanding of the “peasant faith” is still very, very far away. And my reasoning is deliberately narrowed thematically, this is an attempt to show the natural science aspect of the Old Believers. Therefore, please do not scold me for not displaying such and such. Others will display. And I will try to reflect what I, a physicist, think. For some reason, an atheistic view is immediately assumed. This is completely false.
In the beginning there was... what? WORD? No. In the beginning there was LOGOS (as in the original Greeks). And this, in exact translation, is THE LAW. (Compare: geology, biology...) And everything that is available to man is “following the thought of the Creator” (Newton), to comprehend Nature. The laws of the Creator, the complexity of which is infinite, unfold in the process of study, and there is nothing that could change them. The creator is not a State Duma deputy; he did not create laws in order to break them himself.
From the point of view of a physicist, the peasant - Kerzhak - is my colleague, he was in constant dialogue with the Creator, with Nature, he is a natural scientist like me. But peasants, deprived of access to education, who did not have the means of communication for intellectual connection with society, could record the achievements of the mind only in their way of life.
The Old Believers peasants treated work on the land with the same fervor and with the same reverence as they did prayer. Actually, this was a kind of prayer. The peasant comprehended the great Laws, tried to become a co-Creator, forming a family Universe. The house, the cattle, the field - all this was built in the image and likeness of God.
It is worthy of regret that the cultural part of Russian society looked at the peasantry with disdain, at their life as darkness, backwardness, game and stupidity.
I think that the strongest fusion of natural science, moral and ethical, organizational and dogmatic principles is the result of a collective brainstorm, literally a folk intellectual feat, and was later called the peasant faith, ancient Orthodoxy. More precisely, part of it and only in the form that was accessible to the intellect of the 17th century. Through the efforts of the ideologists of the split, folk knowledge, as sociologists say, was verbalized and rationalized: turned into a coherent worldview. And at least in this form, the intellectual achievements of our ancestors became known to society. If the split had not happened, no one would have known.
Here is such a simple phrase: a peasant sowed rye. What's interesting here?! Well, peasant. Well, I sowed. And who doesn’t know rye? Meanwhile, there are two historical riddles in three words. Let's start with rye. More precisely, with winter rye. This plant played a huge role in the history of Russia. There is not a bit of exaggeration here.
Winter rye is a weed by origin, considered everywhere to be just an ineradicable admixture of wheat. Rye survived in the most unfavorable years, when the main crop died. And black rye bread was considered the bread of a bad harvest. In the ancient Russian states, winter rye was sown only in the Novgorod lands, the coldest, where the wheat simply did not ripen. It was on the cultivation of rye that the great northern peasant grew up - the Novgorod peasant, who created the so-called steam farming system.
Sown in mid-August, rye rises in the autumn rains and casts its roots to a depth of 1 meter; it no longer cares about weeds. Rye cleanses, ennobles the land, and even copes with such a villain of fields and vegetable gardens as wheatgrass. It is also important that rye seed material does not need to be stored for the whole winter and protected from damping off, freezing and rodents. Thus, rye is simply ideal for sowing on newly cultivated land. It was with rye that our peasants passed through the Urals and Siberia and provided the basis for life in these vast spaces. If we didn’t have our own bread, no one would be able to live here. The Urals are the world's northernmost seed growing zone.
Rye, capable of growing even on the poorest and, very importantly, acidified soils (and that’s what we have), very sharply increases the yield when manure is applied. If you want to have a good harvest, keep livestock. Rye dramatically increases yield if sown exactly when needed. Not before and not after. Get ready to die, but this rye - that's what the men said.
Since rye quickly crumbles when ripe, it is reaped in a waxy state, that is, incomplete ripeness. If you compress earlier than necessary, the grain will turn out thin, the yield will be lower, and germination will be worse. If you are late, the grain will fall off. So rye is the highest peasant aerobatics; it requires skill, responsibility and enormous experience accumulated over generations. And a certain prosperity. A poor man who does not have a proper farm will never receive a good harvest. In our area, only the Kerzhaks, the Old Believers, knew how to properly grow rye.
It was rye that was the basis for the economic independence of the Kerzhaks for centuries. The grove is historically the first and still unsurpassed raw material for moonshine. The Vyatka ancestors of the Perm peasants were the creators and subsequently the main suppliers of this raw material. The state monopoly on distilling in Russia has waxed and waned, but the men are always with them. In the Perm province, we also have Udmurtia nearby, where they always drove their kumyshka, even if they were forbidden three hundred times. The benefit was double. Firstly, there has always been a market for rye. Secondly, being ferocious teetotalers, the Kerzhaks themselves did not drink vodka and moonshine, but drank rye mash and kvass made from the grove. These were the drinks of every day, liquid bread.
Just think: a drink made from sprouted grains - every day! Modern science provides a sensation: germinating grain, its sprouts and roots are enriched with biologically active substances, they are strongly recommended for baby food, as well as for restorative diets. And the Kerzhaks consumed this unique product for centuries, every day... Isn’t this where the famous Kerzhak fertility and bubbling vitality come from?
An outsider, if he were allowed into a peasant’s hut, would see the cramped conditions, there’s not much room in the hut, but there’s a lot of people. The man himself with the mistress, and the old woman, and some guys, maybe four, maybe eight. But the name is not too tight! And there is nothing to be surprised about. Your fingers aren't cramped, are they? Well, it’s not crowded for families. The house is the abode of a single multi-headed creature - the Kerzhak family. Everyone has a place. And day and night, and in prayer, and at the table. Like the fingers on a hand.
As if from shaky legs he became - they will put him in a round dance at the festival. A little man will grab hold of his sisters and brothers, but you won’t be able to separate them for the rest of your life. And everyone has something to give. And everyone knows and sees for themselves what to do. And if fate throws someone far from their relatives (to serve as a soldier, for example), they will write a letter at the first opportunity. You are surprised now, reading these letters. Consider the entire letter - greetings and bows. “We bow to you, sister Maremyana, from the white face to the damp earth...” And then all the greetings and bows to our family, from the old grandfather to the baby in the unsteady state. “Does dear uncle Alexei Filimonovich come to see us? Say hello to him from me too."
Collectivization destroyed the foundations of the life of the traditional peasantry, including the Old Believers. ... The destruction of Kerzhatism will be understood for a long time. And until they understand, until the minds of those who understand are cleared of arrogance. From the confidence that they themselves, educated people, are, of course, at a higher level of development compared to these bast workers. What is forcibly, sometimes bloodily established, a hierarchical pyramid of subordination of one person to another, and of many people to one, is a constantly progressing form of Russian life. Western society, atomized by individualism and armed with personal freedom, is seen as a completely unattainable ideal. Whereas family harmony and the community established on this basis are archaic, antediluvian, in a word, primitive.
This structure was destroyed by a much more crude, primitive cannibalistic structure. Well, this has happened in history. And the fact that the village land has been depopulated, the people have become wild, degenerated, exhausted - there is also nothing new. There are many places on earth where only the wind sweeps sand over the ruins of a vanished civilization, and in some places even the ruins are sparse, buried deep in sand.
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I'm afraid to offend, but the author does not know the basics of Ancient Orthodoxy. Monday, May 28, 2018 23:30 ()
Original message Zvon_RunTurova E. "Mysterious world, my ancient world..."
A physicist's view of ancient OrthodoxyEvery year, some sorrowful mind, calling himself an Old Believer, begins to suffer foolishness in public. Either he will wander into the taiga, or he will bury himself in the ground... False horror stories, once composed to counter the schism, are readily replicated by some modern writers who present the Old Believers as half-crazed religious fanatics. Effective for the gullible and those prone to going crazy. And so, all this is nonsense, of course. Kerzhak the Old Believer was healthy, sober, clean, hardworking, prolific, thought sensibly and was extremely disinclined to any stupidity.
They weren't surprised at themselves. It was only later, when they had brought them all together, that they began to be surprised. How is it possible, without shouting, without decree, and living by yourself? Did they raise the kids without spanking? Yes, without a command they sowed bread, but without a command they reaped? And how did they think with their peasant minds?!
And since it was impossible to understand, they unanimously accused the Kerzhaks of conservatism, inertia and stubborn adherence to an outdated tradition. It's even funny to listen to. What an outdated tradition?! Cleanliness, family life and purposefulness of life? Where is it, I wonder, in Russia it existed and has already become obsolete?Are there still secrets in the old faith? Of course I have. The Old Believers are a complex historical and social phenomenon. I think that a real understanding of the “peasant faith” is still very, very far away. And my reasoning is deliberately narrowed thematically, this is an attempt to show the natural science aspect of the Old Believers. Therefore, please do not scold me for not displaying such and such. Others will display. And I will try to reflect what I, a physicist, think. For some reason, an atheistic view is immediately assumed. This is completely false.
As a natural scientist, I have been involved in experimental physics for quite a long time. That is, a dialogue with Nature, the only creation of the Almighty available to us. Uniform throughout the Universe, with uniform laws for the most distant galaxies. With the endless complexity of big and small. Such activities quickly develop an idea of how insignificantly weak the human mind is. And how ridiculous is the pride of those who believe that they are able to convey their voice to the Creator, and his method is the only reliable one...
In the beginning there was... what? WORD? No. In the beginning there was LOGOS (as in the original Greeks). And this, in exact translation, is THE LAW. (Compare: geology, biology...) And everything that is available to man is “following the thought of the Creator” (Newton), to comprehend Nature. The laws of the Creator, the complexity of which is infinite, unfold in the process of study, and there is nothing that could change them. The creator is not a State Duma deputy; he did not create laws in order to break them himself.
From the point of view of a physicist, the peasant - Kerzhak - is my colleague, he was in constant dialogue with the Creator, with Nature, he is a natural scientist like me. But peasants, deprived of access to education, who did not have the means of communication for intellectual connection with society, could record the achievements of the mind only in their way of life.
The Old Believers peasants treated work on the land with the same fervor and with the same reverence as they did prayer. Actually, this was a kind of prayer. The peasant comprehended the great Laws, tried to become a co-Creator, forming a family Universe. House, livestock, field - all this was built in the image and likeness of God.
It is worthy of regret that the cultural part of Russian society looked at the peasantry with disdain, at their life as darkness, backwardness, game and stupidity.
“Oh, the demons are swarming all around, you just can’t see them! At night they look for unwashed dishes and all sorts of dirt. It’s such a name, the demons have complete freedom. And they get married, and have weddings, and give birth to devils. And as soon as you start emptying the dishes, they will jump into your mouth and ruin you.” Well, let’s replace the word “demons” with the word “germs.” And let us think that these ideas arose no later than the 15th century. And the “dark, backward” schismatic who uttered these words somewhere in the 17th century was far ahead of all of Europe, which had not yet created the science of hygiene. During the time of Catherine II, our schismatics knew how to resist even the plague, although they did not know the word “quarantine.”
I think that the strongest fusion of natural science, moral and ethical, organizational and dogmatic principles is the result of a collective brainstorm, literally a folk intellectual feat, and was later called the peasant faith, Ancient Orthodoxy. More precisely, part of it and only in the form that was accessible to the intellect of the 17th century. Through the efforts of the ideologists of the split, folk knowledge, as sociologists say, was verbalized and rationalized: turned into a coherent worldview. And at least in this form, the intellectual achievements of our ancestors became known to society. If the split had not happened, no one would have known.
A significant part of the cultural heritage of the Kerzhaks has already been lost, since their way of life has been lost, and the intellectual achievements of the peasants are still not valued. Because the ordinary and familiar often seems simple...
Here is such a simple phrase: a peasant sowed rye. What's interesting here?! Well, peasant. Well, I sowed. And who doesn’t know rye? Meanwhile, there are two historical riddles in three words. Let's start with rye. More precisely, with winter rye. This plant played a huge role in the history of Russia. There is not a bit of exaggeration here.
Winter rye is a weed by origin, considered everywhere to be just an ineradicable admixture of wheat. Rye survived in the most unfavorable years, when the main crop died. And black rye bread was considered the bread of a bad harvest. In the ancient Russian states, winter rye was sown only in the Novgorod lands, the coldest, where the wheat simply did not ripen. It was on the cultivation of rye that the great northern peasant grew up - the Novgorod peasant, who created the so-called steam farming system.
Sown in mid-August, rye rises in the autumn rains and casts its roots to a depth of 1 meter; it no longer cares about weeds. Rye cleanses, ennobles the land, and even copes with such a villain of fields and vegetable gardens as wheatgrass. It is also important that rye seed material does not need to be stored for the whole winter and protected from damping off, freezing and rodents. Thus, rye is simply ideal for sowing on newly cultivated land. It was with rye that our peasants passed through the Urals and Siberia and provided the basis for life in these vast spaces. If we didn’t have our own bread, no one would be able to live here. The Urals are the world's northernmost seed growing zone.
Rye, capable of growing even on the poorest and, very importantly, acidified soils (and that’s what we have), very sharply increases the yield when manure is applied. If you want to have a good harvest, keep livestock. Rye dramatically increases yield if sown exactly when needed. Not before and not after. Get ready to die, but this rye - that’s what the men said.
Since rye quickly crumbles when ripe, it is reaped in a waxy state, that is, incomplete ripeness. If you compress earlier than necessary, the grain will turn out thin, the yield will be lower, and germination will be worse. If you are late, the grain will fall off. So rye is the highest peasant aerobatics; it requires skill, responsibility and enormous experience accumulated over generations. And a certain prosperity. A poor man who does not have a proper farm will never receive a good harvest. In our area, only the Kerzhaks, the Old Believers, knew how to properly grow rye.
They also actively used the so-called “grove”, that is, the same rye, immediately after harvesting, soaked and sprouted in the dark. It is impossible to germinate wheat immediately after harvesting; vernalization is required, that is, cold treatment. It should sprout in the spring, wheat, not in the fall! Rye in this sense is simply beyond competition.
It was rye that was the basis for the economic independence of the Kerzhaks for centuries. The grove is historically the first and still unsurpassed raw material for moonshine. The Vyatka ancestors of the Perm peasants were the creators and subsequently the main suppliers of this raw material. The state monopoly on distilling in Russia has waxed and waned, but the men are always with them. In the Perm province, we also have Udmurtia nearby, where they always drove their kumyshka, even if they were forbidden three hundred times. The benefit was double. Firstly, there has always been a market for rye. Secondly, being ferocious teetotalers, the Kerzhaks themselves did not drink vodka and moonshine, but drank rye mash and kvass made from the grove. These were the drinks of every day, liquid bread.
Just think: a drink made from sprouted grains – every day! Modern science provides a sensation: germinating grain, its sprouts and roots are enriched with biologically active substances, they are strongly recommended for baby food, as well as for restorative diets. And the Kerzhaks consumed this unique product for centuries, every day... Isn’t this where the famous Kerzhak fertility and bubbling vitality come from?
Rye still fills our fields every summer, but most other elements of the traditional peasant way of life have now been lost. This applies, for example, to such subtle matter as the moral, psychological and organizational foundations of the Old Believer community. There were a lot of surprising things there.
An outsider, if he were allowed into a peasant’s hut, would see the cramped conditions, there’s not much room in the hut, but there’s a lot of people. The man himself with the mistress, and the old woman, and some guys, maybe four, maybe eight. But the name is not too tight! And there is nothing to be surprised about. Your fingers aren't cramped, are they? Well, it’s not crowded for families. The house is the abode of a single multi-headed creature - the Kerzhak family. Everyone has a place. And day and night, and in prayer, and at the table. Like the fingers on a hand.
As if from shaky legs he became - they will put him in a round dance at the festival. A little man will grab hold of his sisters and brothers, but you won’t be able to separate them for the rest of your life. And everyone has something to give. And everyone knows and sees for themselves what to do. And if fate throws someone far from their relatives (to serve as a soldier, for example), they will write a letter at the first opportunity. You are surprised now, reading these letters. Consider the entire letter - greetings and bows. “We bow to you, sister Maremyana, from the white face to the damp earth...” And then all the greetings and bows to our family, from the old grandfather to the baby in the unsteady state. “Does dear uncle Alexei Filimonovich come to see us? Say hello to him from me too."
There has always been a certain perplexity in Russian fiction: where exactly is folk wisdom located? Oddly enough, modern information technologies provide significant assistance in understanding this. Namely, the idea of “distributed knowledge”. Modern computer networks are distributed databases, that is, a collection of relatively low-power computers combined into huge systems. Our Russian intellectuals have never been able to understand why each individual peasant does not give the impression of being a great sage, but the wisdom of the people still comes from somewhere?! And this is the information power of the network.
Look: in Russia, the authorities have spread rot on the Old Believers for centuries as best they can. The diaspora, whether in the Baltics, in Canada, or in Brazil, lived as they wanted. In Russia, people from the Old Believers are a constellation of brilliant names of merchants, entrepreneurs, inventors, scientists... Well, the Ryabushinskys, Morozovs, Tretyakovs are well-known. In our area there are a lot of merchants, brilliant inventors at the Demidov factories, the same creators of the steam locomotive, the Cherepanov brothers, etc.
Major economist, Nobel Prize laureate Vasily Vasilyevich Leontyev (Lives in the USA since 1930. All his life he dreamed of making Russia happy, but Russia did not want to.) Grandfather is an Old Believer peasant, father is already a St. Petersburg merchant.
Ivan Efremov, famous science fiction writer, thinker, leading paleontologist. His grandfather, Khariton Efremov, from the Trans-Volga Old Believers, was taken into the Semenovsky regiment in St. Petersburg for joining, and remained there. Ivan's father is already a decent merchant. And Ivan, with all his Kerzhak energy and indescribable talent, went into completely different areas of activity.
Who was nominated by the foreign Old Believer diaspora? It seems like no one.
Collectivization destroyed the foundations of the life of the traditional peasantry, including the Old Believers. ... The destruction of Kerzhatism will be understood for a long time. And until they understand, until the minds of those who understand are cleared of arrogance. From the confidence that they themselves, educated people, are, of course, at a higher level of development compared to these bast workers. What is forcibly, sometimes bloodily established, a hierarchical pyramid of subordination of one person to another, and of many people to one, is a constantly progressing form of Russian life. Western society, atomized by individualism and armed with personal freedom, is seen as a completely unattainable ideal. Whereas family harmony and the community established on this basis are archaic, antediluvian, in a word, primitive.
This arrogance is so ingrained in the brains of domestic thinkers that neither centuries-old economic success nor a people who are physically, intellectually and morally healthy convince them. A people capable of instantly becoming on par with any intellectual achievement of mankind, mastering it, developing it and adapting it to itself. No one doubts that the “archaic” is doomed. And the fact that it was ultimately destroyed in Russia seems in this context to be a sad, but logical thing. They say that the old always dies when it collides with the new.
In fact, the complex, subtle system of human relationships, the centuries-old social experience of self-government, perished.
This structure was destroyed by a much more crude, primitive cannibalistic one. Well, this has happened in history. And the fact that the village land has been depopulated, the people have become wild, degenerated, exhausted - there is also nothing new. There are many places on earth where only the wind sweeps sand over the ruins of a vanished civilization, and in some places even the ruins are sparse, buried deep in sand.
I can give advice to help: Vladimir Shemshuk, “Forbidden History”, “Magi”, “Amulets” and a lot of others!