This article provides a comprehensive examination of the demographic policies of both the Tsarist government and the Soviet authorities concerning the regulation of the number of inhabitants in the Kurenevka Old Believer monasteries from the 19th century through the first quarter of the 20th century. It identifies the official figures and social status of the monastery residents, their geographic origins, and analyzes documents authored by the elders in defense of their rights and freedoms, including their appeals to the highest authorities, such as the Russian emperors, whose decrees facilitated the conduct of monastery population censuses. The study highlights the role of both local and high-ranking clergy of the state church in keeping population records, as well as the reasons why the elders of the male monastery refused to maintain independent metric records. The surveillance activities of the local police aimed at regulating the monastery population are explored. It is noted that, under intense pressure from the authorities in the 1850s, the official number of Kurenevka monastery residents sharply declined, threatening the very existence of these Old Believer sanctuaries. The article also examines proposals by regional and central government bodies regarding the potential relaxation of existing state restrictions on the admission of new residents. It could be established that, despite official persecution, the number of residents in the Kurenevka monasteries continued to grow through various forms of registration used by the Old Believers. In the 1880s, local authorities’ views on the Old Believers on the Right-Bank Ukraine significantly shifted, leading to a relaxation of restrictions. The article also explores the number of residents in the Kurenevka monasteries during the early years of Soviet rule.

Keywords: Ukraine, Belokrinitsa hierarchy, Kurenevka monasteries, Old Believers, statistics, population, police, surveillance, persecution.

For citation: Taranets S.V. Demographic Policies Regarding the Regulation of the Population of the Kurenevka Old Believer Monasteries in the 19th — First Quarter of the 20th Century. Old Believer, 2025, vol. 3, no. 3, pp. 5–47. https://doi.org/10.65324/ob001

This issue of the magazine continues the stories of the Old Believer priestless member of the Chasovennye (“chapel-going”) Denomination, Selivestr Fedorovich Valihov. This is a story about how, thanks to the Molokans, the Old Believers came to America, and recorded stories about their work in the first years of life in the U.S. Without education and not speaking English, Selivestr, like other Old Believers, could only do the simplest, lowest-paid work. He pushed wheelbarrows of cement at a movie theater construction site, worked in a blackberry field, tightened sofa springs in a furniture factory, and sawed wood as part of a team made up entirely of Russians. Selivestr Valihov shares his observations on how Old Believers were able to adapt so quickly to completely new living conditions in the U.S. He shows that the Old Believers immediately demonstrated themselves to be good, competitive workers, how they were readily hired, and they quickly occupied the appropriate economic niches. The article also contains stories from Old Believers about how shoes were once made (morshni, baretki, olochki, boots of various types, polovichatyye obutki) and how leather was processed. In his memoirs, Selivestr revisits his life in Brazil and China, and recounts his experiences as a shoemaker. These stories are of great value, as they preserve knowledge about the shoemaking craft of the Old Believers, which has now been lost.

Keywords: Old Believer, stories, beginning of life in Oregon, adaptation, work, shoe making.

For citation: Morris T.B. “Throughout a Lifetime, Like on a Long Drag”: Memories of My Life Selivestr Fedorovich Valihov. Old Believer, 2025, vol. 3, no. 3, pp. 48–67. https://doi.org/10.65324/ob002

This publication attempts to systematize the materials necessary for a comprehensive study of the activities of the Consecrated Councils of the Old Believer Church of the Belokrinitsky Hierarchy. The index includes documents from three archives — the Russian State Archive of Ancient Acts (RGADA), the Manuscript Department of the Russian State Library (OR RSL), and the Archive of the Metropolitan of Moscow and All Rus’ of the Russian Orthodox Old Believer Church (Archive of the MM and AR ROOBC), as well as materials from a unique book of original resolutions held in a private collection and editions of pre-revolutionary council resolutions. The period covered — from 1863 to 1916 — allows us to trace important stages in the development of church governance. In 1863, Anthony (Shutov) became Archbishop of Moscow. At the same time, disagreements with the Belokrinitsky Metropolitanate, whose influence the Russian bishops sought to weaken, began to mount. At the same time, new restrictions were being imposed on the Old Believers within the Russian Empire, hindering their active hierarchical activities. This led to the creation of the Moscow Spiritual Council — a temporary church governing body empowered to replace the Holy Council and resolve the problems of all Church members. Consecrated Councils were held extremely irregularly and disorganized and ceased to function until 1898. In 1898, the first Consecrated Council after a long hiatus was held in Nizhny Novgorod. Thanks to the active work of Bishop Arseny of the Urals, old principles of Church governance were revised, and a new tradition of holding Councils was established. The Moscow Spiritual Council was abolished. This publication provides an opportunity to comprehensively examine the evolution of church governance in the Old Believers and gain a deeper understanding of the decision-making mechanisms during this historical period.

Keywords: Old Believers, Consecrated Council, Church administration, archival index.

For citation: Sviridonova A.I. Church Governing Bodies in the Old Believers of the Late 19th — Early 20th Centuries: An Annotated Index of Sources. Old Believer, 2025, vol. 3, no. 3, pp. 68–108. https://doi.org/10.65324/ob003

The history and modern life of the Old Believers of Western Prichudye during the XIX—XXI centuries. more than once became the subject of various scientific studies both in Russia, Estonia and other Baltic countries. Russian and foreign researchers have published several documents on the history of Prichudye Old belief. However, there are still many documents that have not been published, and which can complement the existing research in some ways. Some of them, discovered by the author in the Russian State Historical Archive in St. Petersburg (funds of the Department of General Affairs of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Office of the Chief Prosecutor of the Synod and the Office of the Synod) and related to the 1820s and 1830s, are published in this article. Thanks to the meticulous investigations of the secular and spiritual authorities, who were intensively searching for a certain handwritten book “filled with the most terrible various Blasphemies depicted in the pictures”, rare information about ancient books and icons that existed among the Prichudye Old Believers in the XVIII — early XIX centuries, as well as information about Old Believers’ prayer houses, spiritual mentors and local customs, has reached us. The second group of documents we discovered in the Russian State Historical Archive dates to the 1830s and concerns the closure of most of the Prichudye prayer houses (Kikita, Krasnye Gory, Voronya, Kolki, and Chernaya) during the Nicholas persecution of the Old Believers in the Empire that unfolded during this period.

Keywords: schism, Old Believers, Prichudye Old Believers, fedoseevtsy, Dorpat district, bespopovtsy, prayer houses, Old Believers’ bookishness, marriage issue in the Old Believers.

For citation: Kozhurin K.Ya. Old Believers of Prichudye in the 1820s and 1830s (based on the materials of the Russian State Historical Archive). Old Believer, 2025, vol. 3, no. 3, pp. 109–138. https://doi.org/10.65324/ob004

The article is devoted to a comprehensive analysis of the little-studied French-language work “Le Raskol”, published in Paris in 1859. The main objectives of the work were the translation of the book into Russian, a comprehensive study of its ideological content and the introduction of Russian historiography. The study shows that the anonymous author of the essay most likely belonged to the circles of the Russian bureaucracy, as evidenced by his deep knowledge of the administrative structure of imperial Russia. His worldview is a complex synthesis of conservative-protective and moderate-liberal ideas, typical of some thinkers of the era of Nicholas I and Alexander II. On the one hand, the author is a consistent statistician and a supporter of the Uvarov triad, considering Old Believers as a socio-political threat. On the other hand, he allows criticism of certain aspects of public policy, condemns corruption, and advocates flexibility and enlightened paternalism in religious matters. The article examines in detail the fourth chapter of “Le Raskol”, which describes the system of measures to combat Old Believers implemented by the Nikolaev government after 1852. It assumed increased administrative pressure on the leaders of the Old Believers’ protest. According to the author’s logic, the intimidation actions against the leaders of religious communities (along with some leniency towards ordinary believers) were designed to undermine the resistance of the adherents of the old rite and encourage them to reunite with the official church. It is concluded that the book “Le Raskol” does not have significant academic value as a historical study, but it is an important historical and cultural monument reflecting the fears, aspirations and ideological evolution of conservative thought on the eve of Great Reforms. The work is a valuable source for studying the history of social thought and state-church relations in Russia in the mid-19th century. The article provides a table of confessiononyms, systematizing the French-speaking nominations used by the author of “Le Raskol” to designate various faiths that were in use in Russian society of the XIV–XIX centuries.

Keywords: Old Believers, church schism, Old Belief, Fedoseyevtsy, Guchkov dynasty, Philaret (Drozdov), Loggin Ivanov, Preobrazhenskoye Cemetery, Edinoverie, Romanov-Borisoglebsk.

For citation: Bytko S.S. The Schism. Historical and Critical essay on religious sects in Russia (chapter 4). Old Believer, 2025, vol. 3, no. 3, pp. 139–158. https://doi.org/10.65324/ob005