The Raskol and the Old Believers
The Raskol, the schism of the Russian Orthodox Church that began in the mid-seventeenth century, was one of the most important events in Russian religious and cultural history. The schism was caused by the reforms of Patriarch Nikon, which sought to bring Russian Orthodox liturgical practices into closer alignment with contemporary Greek Orthodox practice. The opponents of the reforms, the Old Believers, refused to accept them and were subjected to severe persecution by the state. The Old Believers developed a distinctive religious and cultural tradition, and they became an important economic and cultural force in Russia, particularly in Moscow and the Volga region.
The Raskol had a profound impact on Russian history. It created a deep division within Russian Orthodoxy that would persist for centuries, and it produced a rich tradition of Old Believer literature, iconography, and community life. The Old Believers were also important in the development of Russian commerce and industry, especially in the Volga region and Moscow, where they became known for their trading and manufacturing activities. The Raskol also bifurcated Russian religious culture, producing a distinctive Old Believer tradition of iconography, manuscript copying, and church architecture that operated entirely outside the official Church for two centuries and survived into the twentieth.
The background of the schism
The Russian Orthodox Church had developed its own distinctive liturgical and theological traditions over the centuries following the Christianization of Rus in 988. These traditions, while originally derived from the Greek Orthodox tradition, had developed independently of the Greek Church, and they included a number of practices that differed from the practices of the Greek Church.
The relationship between the Russian Church and the Greek Church was a complex one. The Russian Church had become autocephalous in 1448, but it maintained close ties with the Greek Church, and the Greeks had an important influence on Russian religious life. The Russian Church, however, also had its own distinctive traditions, and the question of how to relate to the Greek Church was an issue in Russian religious life.
The most important development in the background of the schism was the growing movement for the reform of Russian religious practice. The reformers argued that the Russian liturgical texts had been corrupted over the centuries, and they called for a revision of the Russian liturgical books to bring them into closer alignment with the contemporary Greek practice. The movement was supported by many of the leading churchmen of the time, including the future patriarch Nikon, who was then the metropolitan of Novgorod.
The reforms of Patriarch Nikon
The most important event in the history of the Raskol was the appointment of Patriarch Nikon as patriarch of Moscow in 1652. Nikon was a forceful and ambitious churchman, and he used his position to push through a sweeping program of liturgical reform. The reforms included changes to the sign of the cross, the spelling of “Jesus,” the number of prostrations, the direction of processions, and other practices.
The reforms were presented as a return to the original Greek practice, and they were supported by many of the leading churchmen of the time. The reforms, however, were deeply controversial, and they provoked a powerful conservative reaction. The opponents of the reforms, who came to be called Old Believers, argued that the Russian liturgical traditions had been sanctified by centuries of use, and that the reforms were an unwarranted innovation that would corrupt the true Russian faith.
The most important figure in the opposition to the reforms was the archpriest Avvakum (1620-1682), who led the resistance to the reforms and who became the most famous of the Old Believer martyrs. Avvakum was a passionate and eloquent defender of the old ways, and his autobiography, the Life of the Archpriest Avvakum, is one of the great works of Russian literature.
The persecution of the Old Believers
The Old Believers were subjected to severe persecution by the state. The Russian government, which had supported the reforms of Nikon, treated the Old Believers as dangerous heretics, and they were subjected to a range of punishments, including exile, imprisonment, torture, and execution. The persecution was particularly severe in the 1660s and 1670s, and it continued in various forms throughout the imperial period.
The most famous episode of the Old Believers’ resistance was the Solovetsky uprising of 1668-1676. The monks of the Solovetsky Monastery, on an island in the White Sea, refused to accept the new liturgical books, and they resisted the government’s efforts to enforce the reforms. The siege of the monastery lasted nearly eight years, and it ended in 1676 when government troops, let into the fortress by a defector, stormed the monastery and executed most of the monks.
In the decades that followed, mass self-immolations occurred in various places throughout Russia, most notoriously at the Paleostrovsky Monastery in 1687-1688, as a dramatic form of resistance to the new practices. The Old Believers believed that the end of the world was at hand and that the new practices were a sign of the coming of the Antichrist. They preferred to die rather than submit to the new practices, and they often immolated themselves in groups, in acts of collective martyrdom.
The development of the Old Believer community
Despite the persecution, the Old Believers survived and even flourished. The Old Believers fled to the most remote regions of Russia, including the northern forests, the southern steppes, and Siberia, where they established communities that preserved the pre-Nikonian traditions. The Old Believers also developed a complex system of organization, with a hierarchy of bishops and priests who maintained the religious traditions of the Old Believers.
The Old Believers eventually split into two main groups. The Popovtsy (priested) Old Believers eventually accepted a hierarchy of priests who had been ordained by the established Church, and they developed a more institutional form of religious life. The Bezpopovtsy (priestless) Old Believers rejected the possibility of a valid hierarchy of priests, and they developed a more decentralized form of religious life, with the guidance of lay elders and the celebration of the sacraments without a priestly hierarchy.
The Old Believers developed a rich spiritual and literary tradition, including important theological works, distinctive iconographic styles, and a body of religious poetry and music. The most important Old Believer literary works include the Life of the Archpriest Avvakum, the various writings of the Old Believer leaders, and the rich body of religious poetry and prose that was preserved in the Old Believer communities.
The Old Believers and the Russian economy
The Old Believers became an important economic and cultural force in Russia, especially in Moscow and the Volga region. The Old Believers were known for their trading and manufacturing activities, and they played an important role in the development of the Russian economy in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The major Old Believer families, including the Morozovs, the Soldatenkovs, and the Ryabushinskys, became major economic figures, and they played an important role in the development of Russian industry and commerce.
The Old Believers were also important in the development of Russian culture. The Old Believer communities preserved a rich tradition of religious and secular music, and they supported the development of Russian literature and art. The Old Believers also established a network of schools and charitable institutions, and they played an important role in the development of Russian education.
The end of the persecution
The persecution of the Old Believers gradually eased in the late imperial period. The most important development was the Edict of Toleration issued by Tsar Nicholas II in 1905, in the wake of the 1905 Revolution. The edict ended the legal discrimination against the Old Believers, and it allowed them to worship freely, to establish churches and monasteries, and to participate fully in the religious life of the empire.
The end of the persecution was a major event in the history of the Old Believers, and it allowed them to take their place as a recognized part of Russian religious life. The Old Believers, however, continued to maintain their distinctive traditions and their separate identity, and they have remained an important part of Russian religious life to the present day.
The legacy of the Raskol
The legacy of the Raskol is complex and contested. Russian Orthodoxy never fully healed the division that the schism had opened, while the communities it cast out went on to enrich the country’s religious art, its letters, and its commercial life.
The Raskol was also a major event in the history of the Russian state. Muscovy had never been notably tolerant in religious matters, but the scale and persistence of the campaign against the Old Believers were something new, and they demonstrated the willingness of the Russian state to use force to enforce religious conformity. The Raskol also contributed to the development of a more critical and independent tradition in Russian religious life, with the Old Believers preserving a tradition of dissent that would influence the development of Russian religious and political thought in the late imperial period.
The Russian Orthodox Church formally lifted the anathemas on Old Believer rites only in 1971, three centuries after Nikon’s reforms. The two principal Old Believer bodies — the Beglopopovtsy (who accept priests) and the Bezpopovtsy (who do not) — have remained formally separate from the Moscow Patriarchate; efforts at reconciliation have produced dialogue but not union.
The Raskol was thus a watershed in Russian religious and cultural history, with consequences for church, state, and society that have persisted to the present day.