The History and Traditions of the Russian Old Believers

Old Believers or Old Ritualists (Russian: староверы, starovery or старообрядцы, staroobryadtsy) is the common term for several religious groups, which maintain the old liturgical and ritual practices of the Russian Orthodox Church, as they were before the reforms of Patriarch Nikon of Moscow between 1653 and 1657. The old rite and its followers were anathematized in 1667, and Old Belief gradually emerged from the resulting schism. The antecedents of the movement regarded the reform as heralding the End of Days, and the Russian church and state as servants of the Antichrist. Fleeing persecution by the government, they settled in remote areas or escaped to the neighboring countries.

The Nature of the Reform and Religious Identity

While Old Belief is highly diverse, all its branches are defined above all else by the rejection of the liturgical and ritual reforms enacted in the Russian Orthodox Church between 1653 and 1657, and by strict adherence to the Russian rite and traditions which preceded them. Instituted by Patriarch Nikon, the reforms were intended to eliminate all differences between the Russian use and that of the Greek Orthodox Churches: wherever a certain detail in local custom was found to diverge, it was corrected to resemble the parallel Greek one. The reform was not concerned with theology, and in this respect, there is no real difference between the Old Believers and the official Orthodox Church. It did touch upon numerous matters of form, totaling hundreds of pages in details.

Their communities were marked by strict morals and religious devotion, including various taboos meant to separate them from the outer world. They rejected the Westernization measures of Peter the Great, preserving traditional Russian culture, like long beards for men. Lacking a central organization, the main division within Old Belief is between the relatively conservative popovtsy, or "priestly", who were willing to employ renegade priests from the state church, maintaining the liturgy and sacraments; and the more radical bezpopovtsy, or "priestless", who rejected the validity of "Nikonite" ordination, and had to dispense with priests and all sacraments performed by them, appointing lay leaders instead.

Classification of Old-Rite Religious Groups

The following list categorizes the various branches of the movement based on their organizational structure and tradition:

Popovtsy (Priestly): Russian Orthodox Old-Rite Church, Russian Old-Orthodox Church, Lipovan Orthodox Old-Rite Church, Old-Orthodox Church of Ukraine, Edinoverie.
Bezpopovtsy (Priestless): Pomorian Old-Orthodox Church, Old-Pomorian (Fedoseean) Old-Orthodox Church.

Regarding their general characteristics, the following data points describe the movement:

Region: former USSR, Western diaspora
Language: Russian, Church Slavonic
Liturgy: Traditional Russian variation of Byzantine Rite
Founder: Anti-reform dissenters
Origin: early 1700s Tsardom of Russia

Historical Evolution and Global Presence

From the mid-18th century, under Catherine the Great, Old Believers gained nearly complete tolerance, and large urban centers emerged, the members of which had a leading role in Russian economy and society. Persecution and discrimination were renewed under Alexander I, and especially Nicholas I, from 1820 onward. Total freedom of religion and equal rights were granted by the Russian Revolution of 1905, followed by a brief golden age.

In the beginning of the 20th century, demographers estimated the number of Old Believers to have been between 10 million and 20 million. The destruction wrought during the Stalin era decimated the communities, leaving few who adhered to their traditions, and a wave of refugees established new centers in the West. Despite centuries of presence in North America, starting in what we now know as Alaska, the Orthodox church in the U.S. is still relatively small. Alexei Krindatch, a sociologist of religion, estimates that active adherents make up about 0.4% of the population.

The movement enjoys a renewal in the post-Soviet states, and in the dawn of the 21st century, there are over 1 million Old Believers who reside mostly in Russia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Ukraine, Belarus, Estonia, and the United States.