The publication presents the materials of an official interview with the founder and advisor of the Japanese Society for Old Believers Research (JSOBR) — the distinguished Japanese specialist in Russian studies Professor Yoshikazu Nakamura, recorded on June 1, 2025, in Tama (Tokyo). The meeting was organized at the initiative of JSOBR members (founded in 2012) — H. Sakamoto, N. Igaue, and M. Arimune. The paper captures the scholar’s unique oral memoirs covering half a century of Slavic studies in Japan — from his research at Moscow State University in the 1970s to the first international conferences in Heidelberg (1986), Zagreb (1988), Novosibirsk (1990), and Warsaw 1992). Special attention is paid to P. I. Melnikov-Pechersky’s dilogy “In the Forests” and “On the Hills” for an understanding of the essence of Old Belief, the history of the Rogozhskoye kladbishche and Preobrazhenskoye kladbishche. In the context of Far Eastern studies, the article touches on the history of the preparation and publication of the album “Days in Romanovka” (2012) based on S. Yamazoe’s materials, and prospects for studying contemporary resettlement of Old Believers in Primorye (Tavlinka, Dersu, Terney).

Keywords: Old Believers, Old Believers, Japanese Society of Old Believers Research, Yoshikazu Nakamura, oral memoirs, international scientific cooperation, Slavic studies, Japan, Romanovka, Far East, Melnikov-Pechersky.

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Arimune M. Interview with Professor Yoshikazu Nakamura: Living Memory and New Horizons in Japanese Old Believer Studies. Old Believer, 2026, vol. 4, no. 3, pp. 5–22. https://doi.org/10.65324/ob023

The publication is dedicated to the author’s academic visit to Japan (May 17–29, 2026) and the development of cooperation with Japanese philologists and historian specializing in Slavic studies. The paper presents an overview of the materials of the 13th annual meeting of the Japanese Society for Old Believers Research (JSOBR), held on May 23 of the same year at Doshisha University (Kyoto). The author analyzes the content of six papers presented at the meeting, which were prepared by researchers from Japan (T. Tsukada, H. Sakamoto, K. Miura), Russia (E. S. Danilko), the USA (T. B. Morris), and the UK (D. Martin), covering a wide range of linguistic, anthropological, ethnographic, historical, and religious aspects of Old Belief. Furthermore, the article highlights the outcomes of meetings with the founder of JSOBR, the distinguished Japanese specialist in Russian studies, historian, and literary scholar Professor Yoshikazu Nakamura. During the discussions, particular attention was paid to the preparation stages of the international (Japanese-Russian-American) research project dedicated to the history of the Old Believer settlement of Romanovka (1936 — late 1950s).

Keywords: Old Belief, Old Believers, meeting materials, international scientific cooperation, Romanovka village, Manchuria, Japan, Oregon, Yoshikazu Nakamura, Japanese Society for Old Believers Research.

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Morris T.B. International Cooperation and the Study of Old Believers in Japan: Results of the 13th Meeting of the Japanese Society of Old Believers Researchers. Old Believer, 2026, vol. 4, no. 3, pp. 23–39. https://doi.org/10.65324/ob024

This article analyzes the Russian government’s repressive policies against the monastic community and clergy of the Kurenevka Old Believer monasteries in the 1860s–1880s. Based on documents from the offices of the Podolsk governor, the Kyev governor-general, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs, now available for scholarly circulation for the first time, the methods of state oversight and strategies for adapting the Old Believer community in the village of Kurenevka are reconstructed. The author examines the evolution of imperial policy from the period of the Great Reforms of Alexander II to the era of counter-reforms under Alexander III. Contrary to the established historiographic thesis of a total reaction in the 1880s, it is proven that in Right-Bank Ukraine, government policy during this period was more moderate than in other regions of the country. This regional specificity is explained by a geopolitical factor: in the context of the “Polish question” and the border status of the Podolsk province, the imperial administration sought to utilize the Great Russian Old Believer population as a reliable ethnopolitical support for the autocracy on the southwestern border. This article explores the complex behind-the-scenes struggle within the highest echelons of power in the Russian Empire, which was tied to the continued existence of the monasteries. It establishes that, unlike the Synod, the highest regional and ministerial authorities were fully prepared to legalize the Kurenyovo monasteries, recognizing the Old Believers’ public and economic contributions. As a result, the monasteries received a state guarantee of immunity, agreeing in exchange for transparency in their internal affairs. The use of historical-comparative and microhistorical approaches allowed the author to uncover the mechanisms of interaction between central and local authorities, as well as the specifics of governing the empire’s border territories.

Keywords: Podolsk province, Kurenevsky monasteries, Belokrinitsky hierarchy, Old Believers, reforms, counter-reforms, state-church relations, confessional policy.

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Taranets S.V. Church-State Relations in Right-Bank Ukraine in the 1860s–1880s: the Kurenevka Precedent. Old Believer, 2026, vol. 4, no. 3, pp. 40–71. https://doi.org/10.65324/ob025

The article publishes an original source — an album with a photo reportage taken in September 1947 during the return of Russian Old Believers (Lipovans) from Romania to the Soviet Union. This historical subject has been sufficiently well covered in specialized historiography. In particular, reconstructions of the stages and circumstances of the relocation of more than 5,000 representatives of the original and oldest Russian diaspora to the Krasnodar Territory and the Astrakhan region are known. These same events are an important component of the historical memory of the descendants of both the remaining Romanian Lipovans and the new Soviet citizens in the above-mentioned regions of Russia. The identification of direct visual evidence of this migration should be considered an archaeological find. Despite the obvious ideological and propagandistic nature of the source, it allows for a clear reconstruction of the preparation and implementation of the repatriation of Romanian Old Believers in 1947. At the same time, its heuristic potential makes it possible to recreate the material aspects of Old Believer migrations as a whole.

Keywords: Old Believers, diaspora, re‑emigration, migrations, Romania, USSR.

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Prigarin A.A. The Visual Source on the resettlement of Old Believers from Romania to the USSR in 1947. Old Believer, 2026, vol. 4, no. 3, pp. 72–116. https://doi.org/10.65324/ob026

The article reconstructs the procedure for admitting non‑Old‑Believers into the Old‑Believer Church of the Belokrinitskaya hierarchy in 1898–1917, based on archival materials (RGADA, OR RGB, Archive of the MM and VR RPSTs) and conciliar documentation. Particular attention is paid to the activities of the Consecrated Councils and diocesan structures that developed the normative framework for the rite of admission, as well as to the mechanisms for coordinating decisions at the pan‑church and local levels. The analysis focuses on the practices of admitting former Nikonians, Bespopovtsy, Beglopopovtsy, and participants in schismatic movements, including issues related to the completion of baptism and marriage, the recognition of sacraments performed outside the hierarchy, and the permissibility of deviations from the established rite. Problematic cases are examined separately: disagreements over the procedure for admission (including options for performing the rite without immersion), conflicts surrounding the status of clergy who transferred from other confessional groups, and the adaptation of norms to the extraordinary conditions of wartime. The paper demonstrates how, under the influence of the changed legal status of the Old Believers after 1905 and new social challenges (in particular, the frontline’s need for pastoral care), the Belokrinitskaya hierarchy adjusted its practices for admitting non‑Old‑Believers — moving from a strict codification of canons to the search for compromise solutions while maintaining conciliar control. The key factors determining the dynamics of the normative development of the admission rite are identified: intra‑church regulation, the diversity of confessional groups and local practices, and administrative and everyday constraints. The materials presented in the article are valuable for studying the history of the Old‑Believer Church, the evolution of its institutional mechanisms, and its canonical approaches to the issues of church unity and the boundaries of the community.

Keywords: Old Believers, the Consecrated Council, rite of admission, canonical practice, Bespopovtsy, Beglopopovtsy.

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Sviridonova A.I. The Procedure for Receiving Heterodox Christians into the Old Believer Church of the Belokrinitskaya Hierarchy: Conciliar Practice and Its Documentation (1898–1917). Old Believer, 2026, vol. 4, no. 3, pp. 117–182. https://doi.org/10.65324/ob027

The article is devoted to the history of the first temple of the Bespopovtsy Fedoseevtsy community in St. Petersburg, the Kostsovskaya Transfiguration prayer house, which was founded in 1723. The prayer house was located in a private building and was subsequently moved several times, but continued to be the most important spiritual center of the metropolitan Fedoseevtsy. Based on historical sources and archival data, the article examines the peculiarities of the spiritual and economic life of this influential center of the Fedoseevtsy in the Northwest. Like other Bespopovtsy urban centers, the Kostsovskaya prayer house with an poorhouse attached to it was a real monastery with its own charter and internal regulations. Special attention is paid to historical figures whose names are inextricably linked with the Kostsov prayer house — Philip Fomich Kostsov (1737–1804), Sergei Nikiforovich Klosny (1724–1826), Peter Fedorovich Starodubsky (1733–1811), Yakov Vasilyevich Kholin (1753–1819), Andrei Alekseevich Varakin (1761–1839) and others. As an appendix to the article, there are lists of Old Believers who lived at the prayer house and in the poorhouse.

Keywords: schism, Old Believers, St. Petersburg Old Believers, fedoseevtsy, bespopovtsy, Kostsovskaya prayer house, prayer houses.

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Kozhurin K.Ya. “Under a plausible pretext, they founded their nest among the capital…” (from the history of the Kostsovskaya prayer house in St. Petersburg). Old Believer, 2026, vol. 4, no. 3, pp. 183–241. https://doi.org/10.65324/ob028

The article continues the previously undertaken work on a comprehensive study of the little-known French-language work “Le Raskol,” published in Paris in 1859. The main objectives of the research have been the translation of the book into Russian, a thorough analysis of its ideological content, and its introduction into the corpus of Russian historiography. The present paper examines the eighth chapter of “Le Raskol,” which is devoted to the policy of the Russian government toward the Old Believers (raskol) during the initial stage of Alexander II’s reign. Of conceptual significance in the text are the author’s reflections on the fundamental opposition of two administrative paradigms — the absolutist-repressive one, inherited from the Nicholas I era, and the liberal-humanistic one, which gradually took shape during the new reign. The text consistently advances the argument that policy toward the Old Believers cannot be reduced to a primitive dichotomy of “persecution versus toleration.” The author insists on the need for a clear distinction between genuine religious convictions deserving the right to exist and pseudo-religious civil abuses requiring an immediate and uncompromising response. The principal shortcoming of both the former and the new administrations is identified as the absence of a systematic approach within the framework of their religious policy. The central thesis of the chapter is that true state wisdom lies not in vacillating between severity and leniency, but in simultaneous progress along two tracks: the legislative enshrinement of freedom of conscience and the steadfast suppression of any anti-social manifestations.

Keywords: Old Believers, church schism, Old Belief, history of Christianity, Alexander II, administrative system, officialdom, bureaucratic apparatus.

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Bytko S.S. The Schism. Historical and Critical essay on religious sects in Russia (chapter 8). Old Believer, 2026, vol. 4, no. 3, pp. 242–260. https://doi.org/10.65324/ob029