Old Believers of the Tomsk Territory are involuntary migrants. Bishop Gregory: “The authorities are trying not to notice the Old Believers

The Old Believer prayer house in Tomsk operated intermittently since 1884, the community was registered in 1907. The current five-domed wooden church in the pseudo-Russian style with a refectory and a tented bell tower was built in 1910-1913.

In terms of architecture, the building is close to exemplary projects. It practically didn't close. In the years Soviet power- one of the few operating Old Believer churches in Siberia, the only one in the Tomsk region.

Mentions of the community on the website:

• 31.08.2013: ;
• 27.09.2013: .

The consecration of the Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary took place on September 22, 1913. Its laying was carried out four years earlier - in 1909. The rite of consecration was performed by the first Tomsk-Altai bishop Joasaph (I.S. Zhuravlev). Bishop Joasaph was co-served by 8 priests, including the rector of the church, Fr. Trifon Sukhov (future Tomsk-Altai Bishop Tikhon, canonized in September of this year), famous diocesan figure, reciter, one of the editors of the magazine “Siberian Old Believer” Fr. Daniil Suvorov and others. The triumph of the event is conveyed by church periodicals of that time: “At 6 o’clock in the morning... the consecration of the water was performed, and then the very consecration of the temple... Thanks to the Lord God, now the Old Believers of Tomsk are rejoicing. Approaching the temple and hearing the powerful waves rushing from it ringing, they come into delight and cry with joy, because something happened in reality that our ancestors did not even think about" (Church. 1913. No. 47.). However, it should be noted that pressure from the authorities was observed even after the granting of religious freedoms, because Tomsk was at that time a provincial center, it housed the episcopal see of the ruling church, a center for combating the “malicious schism” - the so-called. an anti-schism brotherhood, opened in 1884. Thus, a religious procession to the site of the founding of the church in 1909 was not allowed, and other facts of persecution and simply disdainful attitude towards the Old Believers were repeatedly noted. The consecration of the temple became the most important stage in the history of not only the Tomsk Assumption community. In 1911, after the division of the Siberian diocese into Tomsk and Irkutsk, and the formation of the Tomsk-Altai diocese, Tomsk for many years became the diocesan center of the Ancient Orthodox Old Believer Church (repeated attempts to organize an episcopal see in Tomsk are also known during the “persecutive” period). Diocesan activities will be forcibly destroyed in the 1930s, but the spiritual influence of the Tomsk community will continue both in these and subsequent years. It so happened by God's providence that services in the church were interrupted only for the period 1941-1946 (?) - during this period the church building was used as a military food warehouse. Almost always the community had its own priests; as is known, for Siberia this issue has always been extremely acute.

Time has spoken. The temple is in urgent need of repair and restoration, and therefore was included at one time in the list of restoration works of the Center for the Protection of Historical and Cultural Monuments. It began in May 2003 major renovation, the rotten main vault was removed, all 5 domes of the main vault were removed, and a temporary roof was installed. Currently, the repairs are ongoing, the vault has been cut down, and the main drum is being cut. The task is to find craftsmen to make drums who have the skills to do roofing work on domes. This work is expected to begin in the spring. Of course, much will be decided by the availability of funds, but by placing their hopes in God, parishioners believe that Tomsk church will be preserved for future generations.

On October 21, 2015, at a meeting of the Consecrated Council of the Russian Orthodox Old Believer Church, a decision was made to establish Tomsk diocese.

There has been talk about the creation of a diocese with a center in Tomsk for the past two years, and in September 2015 this issue was raised at the diocesan meeting of the diocese of Novosibirsk and all Siberia.

Decision of the Consecrated Council of the Russian Orthodox Old Believer Church

As a result of a lengthy discussion, despite the presence of opposing views on the issue of separation of Tomsk and the parishes of the Eastern Deanery of the Siberian Diocese, the Council, headed by its chairman, His Eminence Cornelius, Metropolitan of Moscow and All Rus', decided by a majority vote the following:

Establish the Tomsk diocese within the following boundaries: Tomsk region, Kemerovo Region, Krasnoyarsk Territory, Republic of Khakassia, Republic of Tyva, with a cathedral church in Tomsk.

Also, the Consecrated Council approved Hieromonk Gregory as a candidate for bishop Tomsk department and ordered that he be consecrated as a bishop after the approval of his candidacy at the Council of Bishops (clauses 1.2, 2.1, 2.3, 2.4 of the Resolutions).

Bishop's consecration of His Grace Gregory

His Eminence Bishop Gregory (Korobeinikov) after his episcopal consecration in Moscow on October 25, 2015. Photo by Priest Alexei Lopatin

On October 25, 2015, at the Intercession Cathedral on Rogozhsky, the episcopal consecration of Hieromonk Gregory (Korobeinikov) as bishop to the see of the newly created Tomsk diocese took place.

The consecrated Council of the Russian Orthodox Church takes place every year in the spiritual and administrative center of the Old Believer Church - in the Rogozhsky village of Moscow, with the participation of clergy and laity from Old Believer communities that are part of the Russian Orthodox Old Believer Church.

Metropolitan Korniliy with the newly installed Bishop Gregory (Korobeinikov) on the porch of the Intercession Rogozh Cathedral

Basic information on the formed Tomsk diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church

Area: 3,007,086 km2
Diocesan center: Tomsk
Number of temples: 7
Cathedral Church: Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Tomsk)

From the history of the Tomsk-Altai diocese

After the church schism in the 17th century, already in the 1850s an Old Believer diocese was formed in the Urals and Western Siberia. It included Belokrinitsky communities of Tomsk, Irkutsk, Yenisei provinces, Amur, Yakutsk, Transbaikal, Akmola, Semipalatinsk and Semirechensk regions. By the beginning of 1887, it separated from the Tobolsk-Siberian diocese Tomsk diocese.

After the government decrees of 1905-1906, most communities received official registration. And after 1905, annual diocesan congresses began to be convened in Siberia, which served as the body of diocesan administration (Barnaul, Novonikolaevsk, 1906-1928).

In the Tomsk province by 1920, the Old Believers of the Belokrinitsky consent organized 5 deaneries, which formed Tomsk-Altai diocese. 4 deaneries were located on the territory of the present Altai Territory and one deanery - on the territory of the modern Tomsk region.

At the diocesan congresses of 1913-1914, the question of transferring the episcopal residence from Tomsk to Barnaul was raised, but it was not possible to resolve it due to the events taking place in the country.

In 1923-1925, an attempt was made to divide the Tomsk-Altai diocese.
In 1925, one of the decisions of the next council held in Moscow, the Altai district was allocated as a separate diocese with the right to choose a candidate for bishop. The Council approved the resolution of the diocesan congress of 1924 on the division of the Tomsk-Altai diocese into two independent ones: Tomsk and Altai. Regarding this division, energetic debates took place at diocesan congresses with a detailed interpretation of the relevant canonical rules. Subsequent events in the country left the question of the division of the diocese unresolved.

In 1992, by resolution of the Moscow Council, the diocese of Novosibirsk and All Siberia was created; Since October 1992, it has been headed by His Grace Bishop Siluyan (Kilin). At the time of the division of the diocese in October 2015, the diocese occupied an area of ​​13.1 million km 2, and the total number of churches exceeded 36. The Novosibirsk and All Siberia diocese also served 16 priests and two deacons in two deaneries: Western and Eastern.

In October 2015, by the decision of the Consecrated Council of the Russian Orthodox Church Tomsk diocese newly created.

As a result of persecution by the authorities, many Old Believers had to go to sparsely populated areas, which is how they appeared in the territory of what is now the Tomsk region and other places in Siberia.

In the Tomsk region, one of the two main directions of the Old Believers is represented, the followers of which do not have a clergy. When, after the schism, the Old Believers were faced with the problem of a shortage of priests, some of them began to accept fugitive priests from the Russian Orthodox Church(Beglopopovtsy), the other part decided to abandon the institution of the priesthood altogether, citing the fact that the bad, from their point of view, “Nikonian” church cannot have good priests. The final formation of the non-priest movement occurred in the last decade of the 17th century. In 1692 and 1694, under the leadership of Khariton Karpov, Feodosius Vasilyev and other supporters of the old faith, councils of Novgorod Old Believers-bespopovtsy were held, at which the main provisions of this direction were developed. At these councils, in particular, it was proclaimed that the Antichrist had finally reigned in the world, grace no longer existed, the priesthood had been transferred, which made it impossible to perform the sacraments of communion and marriage. The councils declared celibacy mandatory for non-priests. Of all the sacraments, only the sacraments of baptism and repentance were retained, which in the Russian Orthodox Church, in the absence of a priest, in exceptional cases are allowed to be performed by the laity.

Bespopovtsy were characterized by belief in the imminent end of the world and the second coming of Christ. That is why among his supporters “gari” (self-immolation) became quite widespread, which was considered as the only way of salvation from the kingdom of the Antichrist. The leadership of non-priest communities is carried out by “mentors”, “statutors” and “readers”. The total number of Old Believers-bespopovtsy is more than 1 million people. They live in different regions of Russia, as well as in Lithuania, Latvia, Belarus, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Poland. The overwhelming majority are Russians; there are also Karelians, Finns, Komi, Udmurts and representatives of some other peoples. The decisions of the Bespopov councils of 1692 and 1694 were not recognized by all Old Believers and therefore the bespopovsky direction was divided into different agreements and rumors: Chasovnoe, Pomorskoe, Fedoseevskoe, Spasovo consent, Filippovsky, Strange and other rumors. Chapel concord introduced in Tomsk region.

By 1930, in the Alexandrovskaya volost (the Asinovsky and Krivosheinsky districts of the Tomsk region), there were several Old Believer monasteries. During the years of Soviet power, everything changed. The Assumption Monastery for men was destroyed. In 1929–1930 On the territory of the Gorshkovsky village council, where the Novo-Arkhangelsk monastery and the Pokrovsky convent were still located, the process of liquidation of Old Believer monasteries was underway and was carried out in two stages: on November 27, 1930, 37 “disenfranchised” were evicted from the territory of the village council, i.e. deprived of voting rights. Among them were 31 monks, 2 clergy, 1 merchant, 2 kulaks. In 1930 and 1931, according to the nun of the Intercession Monastery N. Shmagrina, the convent was subject to an excessive tax. To pay it, the nuns had to sell all their property and then leave, i.e. the monastery liquidated itself.

In Tomsk there is an Old Believer Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary on the street. Yakovleva. Previously, the Holy Trinity Church on the street. October was Edinoverie.

Nowadays, a tradition has arisen of making a religious procession to the location of old monasteries on the Yuksa River. In 2004, during a trip to Siberia, the religious procession was led by Metropolitan Andrian (Chetvergov). In the fall of 2007, the religious procession was held for the third time.

The Old Believers of Tomsk began publishing their own magazine in 2008. The first issue of a public-church publication called “Sofia” came out of print. The pages of the magazine will publish materials devoted to the history and modern life Old Believers of Tomsk and Siberia. So, in the first issue there is an interview with the head of the Tomsk community Vasily Korobeinikov, a story about the history of the Cossacks, and an article by the pre-revolutionary publicist Senatov about the foundations of the Old Believers. The magazine's circulation is small - only 300 copies. It will be published once a quarter.

In Tomsk, on Krylova Street, 6, a memorial plaque was unveiled to the Old Believer deputy Ivan Merzlyakov, an Old Believer peasant, former deputy of the third State Duma Russia in 1907-1912.

In search of Belovodye

Old Believers without priests themselves, as you know, do not make contact with the outside world, much less tell anything about themselves. Bespopovtsy are divided mainly into wanderers and strangers. Wanderers are those who do not have money or passports and spend all their time wandering and praying. The hosts help them and provide them with everything they need. There are grandmothers who live on a pension and sell pies at the station every day, and all the income from the trade goes to the monastery of the Old Believers. She herself dreams of going to the monastery, but for now she understands that without her they will be lost...

Moreover, everything that is accepted from the stranger must be prayed away by the stranger. These are ritually pure people who cannot eat with the worldly, pray a lot, dress in special clothes, their communication with the world is reduced to a minimum or stops altogether. Wanderers are the so-called “small cup”, the path for the chosen ones. The strangers maintain a compromise; they still belong to this fallen Antichrist world. Wanderers live in their monastic cells, in shelters; if, if necessary, they go out into the world, they stay with strangers. It was the wanderers who were searching for the legendary Belovodye. Until the 19th century, Belovodye was searched for in Altai, in Central Asia.

Later, among the Old Believers it was believed that Belovodye was found in the north of the Tomsk region, which is perhaps why the north of the Tomsk region is so densely populated by Old Believers.

Links

• Pril L. N. History of the Tomsk Old Believers: bishops and monasteries
• Literary heritage of I. G. Pryzhov. Notes on Siberia: part II / Old Believers

Pril L.N.
History of the Tomsk Old Believers: bishops and monasteries

The Old Believers, now represented by several directions, have a long tradition, their own leaders and their own spiritual centers. Among the Old Believers, the memory of their history is well preserved. External people, as the Old Believers say, “worldly” people, are little familiar with it. But if we do not know the history of the Tomsk Old Believers, this does not mean that it did not exist.

Authoritative figures of the Old Believers visited Tomsk; Tomsk monasteries were known far beyond the borders of Siberia; and the activities of local leaders of the Old Believers left a mark not only in our local history, but also in the history of the Ural-Siberian region. From the small brethren of one of the Tomsk monasteries came a number of hierarchs who headed the episcopal sees of Perm, the Urals, Orenburg, Tomsk, Altai, Minusinsk, and the monastery itself became the center of attraction for the Old Believers of the Ural-Siberian region and European Russia.

The first Siberian Old Believer bishop with the name “Tobolsk and All Siberia” was Bishop Savatiy (Stepan Vasilyevich Levshin, ca. 1825 - September 8, 1898). Having been ordained to the department on December 6, 1862, he began active work in the Urals and Siberia, for which he was repeatedly arrested. During one of the trips to review the flock in February 1867, Savatiy was arrested in the Kuznetsk district of the Tomsk province. He was under investigation for several years, until the summer of 1871. According to some reports, all this time he was in the Tomsk prison castle. During the investigation, the books belonging to him and the camp church were transferred to the Tomsk Mother of God-Alekseevsky Monastery; later, some of them were lost, some were transferred to other repositories. Doctor historical sciences V.A. Esipova identified part of the books of Bishop Savatiy as part of the collection of the Department of Rare Books and Manuscripts of the Scientific Library of TSU.

In 1882, Bishop Savatii visited Tomsk again, this time to get acquainted with the life of the newly created monastery, the Archangel Michael Monastery, in which he placed Theophylact and Anthony in the ranks. The first, the founder of the monastery, became an abbot, and the second, a holy monk. At the end of the same year, Savatii was elected archbishop, heading the priesthood of the Old Orthodox Church of Christ, and remained the head of the Russian Old Believers for almost two decades.

The mentioned St. Michael the Archangel Monastery was located near the river. Yuksa (tributary of the Chulym River), a hundred miles from the provincial Tomsk. The monastery was small, so it was called either a monastery or a monastery. In the first years of its existence, between 10 and 15 people lived there. The founder of the monastery and its abbot, Father Theophylact, was an intelligent and well-read man, who had clear qualities of an organizer and leader. His monastic life was not in the full sense a withdrawal from the world and was not limited only to prayer services. He founded not only the Michael-Arkhangelsk Monastery, but also the New Arkhangelsk Monastery; Thanks to his efforts, a prayer house was built in Tomsk. During his life he was repeatedly arrested for active propaganda of the Old Believers. He was diocesan secretary under two bishops: Anthony of Perm, and then, after the creation of a new Tomsk diocese in 1898, and under Theodosius, Bishop of Tomsk.

The named monastery was the episcopal residence for 20 years, i.e. a place where the threads of control of the Old Believers-priests of the Urals, Siberia and the Far East converged. Beginning in 1885, bishops lived here: Methodius of Perm and All Siberia (M.M. Ekimov, also known as Kuznetsov); then Bishop Anthony of Perm and Tobolsk (A.G. Poromov) who replaced him; later, from the moment the Tomsk diocese itself was allocated, its first bishop, Theodosius; Bishop Joasaph (I.S. Zhuravlev) who replaced him also visited the monastery.

In 1894, the Old Believers of the Urals and Siberia were headed by Anthony (Afanasy Grigorievich Poromov). He became the first bishop from the brethren of the Archangel Michael Monastery. Researchers note that he himself passed good school monastic life, and his activities were largely aimed at organizing new monasteries on the territory of his huge diocese.

The beginning and end of his ministry are associated with the Tomsk Old Believer monasteries. As already mentioned, he himself was a monk of the Archangel Michael Monastery. Under him, the monastery and its expanded skete surroundings were transformed into two monasteries: the Assumption Monastery and the Pokrovsky Women's Monastery.

In 1918, Anthony visited Siberia again. As it turned out, this was his last visit, during which he managed to found the last monastery in his life - a convent in the Narym region. It was alleged that after the establishment of Bolshevik power in the Urals, Bishop Anthony went “to choose a new place for the location of the see.” The archives of the FSB Directorate for the Tomsk Region revealed a deed of land for the “monastery of Mother Seraphim” on the river. Nurse. Returning from this trip, he died on the way to the Urals in September 1918. But already from several ruined monasteries, the mothers began to move to the Narym region on the land purchased for them. Later they moved to live on the river. Shudelka, where the monastery existed until 1933. It consisted of 4 separate farms. It is known that there were two priests, services were held regularly and, probably, there were small churches, but their names were not preserved in the documents. On Shudelka lived the nuns of the Miass, Shamar, Semipalatinsk, Tomsk Intercession Monasteries and other small Ural-Siberian monasteries that were ruined during the years of forced “atheization.” Bishops Amphilochius and Tikhon visited him. During his second visit in March 1933, Amfilohiy was arrested there.
In August 1899, the huge Perm-Tobolsk and All Siberia diocese, led by Bishop Anthony, was divided into two, Perm and Tomsk bishoprics. The first Old Believer bishop at the Tomsk See itself was Theodosius, Bishop of Tomsk, Irkutsk and All Siberia of the Old Orthodox Church of Christ (Old Believers who accepted the Belokrinitsky hierarchy). He was also from the brethren of the Archangel Michael Monastery. Being an archimandrite, he was elected bishop by the Consecrated Council at the request of the parishioners of the diocese. Anthony took part in his ordination, transferring part of his huge diocese to him for management. At the end of his life in 1905, Theodosius accepted the schema and lived in retirement in Uralsk.

In 1906, after Theodosius left, he was replaced by Joasaph (I.S. Zhuravlev). Under him, the Tomsk Old Believer community received a site for the construction of a temple and a religious school in the place where the Old Believer Church of the Assumption is now located. However, land acquisition and construction progressed rather slowly due to insufficient funds. And the bishop's chambers themselves, according to reviews of Siberian newspapers of that time, even in the fall of 1916 were distinguished by modesty - a small wooden rickety house on a dilapidated estate, where Old Believers talked with a journalist.

The temple in the name of the Dormition of the Blessed Virgin Mary was built in 1913 and already in the first years of its history it became an important place for the Old Believers of the Urals and Siberia. In Soviet times, during excursions around Tomsk, guides said that it is the easternmost active Old Believer temple in the country.

Joasaph's younger brother also became a bishop, although the brothers came to this rank in different ways: Joasaph was a priest, Amphilochius was a monk from his youth. Dramatic pages in the history of the Tomsk and Ural-Siberian Old Believers in the 20th century are associated with the name Amphilochia. He spent a significant part of his life in the Tomsk region - in Old Believer hermitages and monasteries, and somewhat less in prisons. For 10 years (1891-1901) he was first a novice, then a monk of the most famous, St. Michael the Archangel Monastery. Almost the entire history of another monastery, the Novo-Arkhangelsk monastery, is associated with his name. He was one of its official founders in 1910, and in 1930 - one of the last inhabitants.

When appointed to the episcopal Ural-Orenburg see, Amphilochia, at his request, was allowed to continue to visit the New Arkhangelsk monastery and observe its life. According to ancient regulations, a bishop carries out activities only within the boundaries of his diocese and must not, without permission, visit the territory cared for by another bishop. For this reason, bishops always bear a title that includes the name of the area they govern. Therefore, the possibility of further visits to the monastery, located on the territory of the Tomsk diocese, by the Bishop of the Ural-Orenburg, was agreed upon immediately, as an exception from general rule. In 1917, Amphilochius, in the rank of bishop, left for his Ural-Orenburg diocese, in the city of Uralsk, where he lived until 1918. In the years civil war The monastery not only did not lose its significance, but even became the center of administration of three dioceses. This was also connected with the personality of Amphilochius.

In 1918, he came to the Novo-Arkhangelsk monastery and here he received notice of the death of Anthony, Bishop of Perm and Tobolsk. After this, he was temporarily entrusted with the management of the orphaned diocese. And a year later, in November 1919, his brother, Bishop Joasaph, died, and at the request of the Council of the Diocese, Amphilochia had to take into his own hands the temporary management of another, now Tomsk see. As he later said, “in 1920, I moved my residence from Perm to the Tomsk diocese, spending more time in the monastery.” So in 1918–1920. the secluded taiga place where the hermit bishop lived became the residence from which three Old Believer dioceses were ruled at once - Ural-Orenburg, Perm-Tobolsk and Tomsk-Altai. In 1920, Amphilochius transferred control of the Perm department to Ioannikiy (Ivanov), and the Tomsk department to Tikhon (Sukhov).

In the 1930s in the Alexandrovskaya volost, where there used to be several Old Believer monasteries, everything changed during the years of Soviet power. The Assumption Monastery for men was destroyed long ago. In 1929–1930 on the territory of the Gorshkovsky village council, where the Novo-Arkhangelsk monastery and the Pokrovsky convent were still located, the process of liquidation of the Old Believer monasteries went faster and was carried out in two stages: on November 27, 1930, 37 “disenfranchised” were evicted from the territory of the village council, i.e. deprived of voting rights. Among them were 31 monks, 2 clergy, 1 merchant, 2 kulaks. In 1930 and 1931, according to the nun of the Intercession Monastery N. Shmagrina, the convent was subject to an excessive tax. To pay it, the nuns had to sell all their property and then leave, i.e. the monastery liquidated itself.

The Old Believers could take part of the monastery property and church vestments to the Shudelsky Monastery, where the inhabitants of the monastery went in 1927 and the nuns of the Intercession Monastery in 1931. They tried to hide or bury what they couldn’t take away. This became known quite recently, when in 2001 a resident of the village. Chikura brought the brocade ribbons from a priest’s robe he found to the Tomsk Regional Museum of Local Lore to show. Golden thread from this brocade, left by the forester as a souvenir of the visit, I gave it to representatives of the Russian Orthodox Old Believer Church.

Nowadays, a tradition has arisen of making a religious procession to the location of the old monasteries on the river. Yukse. In 2004, during a trip to Siberia, the religious procession was led by Metropolitan Andrian (Chetvergov). In the fall of this year (2007), the religious procession was held for the third time.

Now the diocese of Novosibirsk and all Siberia of the Russian Orthodox Old Believer Church is headed by Bishop Siluyan (Kilin), who lived in Kolpashevo for several years as a child.

L.N. Pril,
head sector of use
and publication of documents, Ph.D.

INQUIRIES:

1. The names of Old Believer bishops are associated with the Tomsk land: Savathia, Methodius, Anthony, Theodosius, Joasaph, Amphilochia, Tikhon.

Currently, the Siberian Old Believers of the Russian Orthodox Old Believer Church are led by Bishop Siluyan (Kilin) ​​of Novosibirsk and All Siberia.

Metropolitans of the Russian Orthodox Old Believer Church Alimpiy (Gusev) and Andrian (Chetvergov) visited Tomsk.

2. In the Church of the Assumption Holy Mother of God have undergone consecrations several times, i.e. ordination to the rank of bishop. The following were ordained in the Tomsk church:

• Amfilokhiy (Zhuravlev) in the fall of 1916 to the Ural-Orenburg diocese;
• Ioannikiy (Ivanov) in 1920 to the Perm-Tobolsk diocese,
• Tikhon (Sukhov) in December 1920 to the Tomsk-Altai diocese;
• Afanasy (Fedotov) in 1929 in the Tomsk church was ordained to the diocese of Irkutsk-Amur and the entire Far East by Bishops Tikhon and Amphilochius.

3. One of the unexplored pages of the Tomsk Old Believers is connected with the Cossacks. In Uralsk, the Ural-Orenburg episcopal see was headed by two former monks of the Tomsk Old Believer monasteries, first Evlogiy (Algazin), and after his death Amfilohiy (Zhuravlev). The first Bishop of Tomsk, Theodosius, retired to Uralsk after accepting the schema.

The material was prepared with the support of the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS), project 2006-2007. "Old Believer Bishop Amfilohiy (Zhuravlev, 1873-1937): personality in the context of the era."

On the site of the Novo-Arkhangelsk monastery there was first a cell in which Father Theophylact and two or three other novices lived. Later, in 1910, inhabitants of the Ural Shamar monastery moved in with them - monks Amphilochius and Paphnutius, and novice Nikola (Blinov), who later took monastic vows under the name Nifont. Later the monastery was officially registered as Novo-Arkhangelsk. There were about thirty kilometers between the place where the Michael-Arkhangelsk Monastery was and the Novo-Arkhangelsk monastery.

The Tomsk City Duma decided: “to allocate to the Tomsk Old Believer Community for the construction of a church and school for temporary use, as long as they exist, a plot of city land in the amount of 1200 square fathoms on Aleksey-Alexandrovskaya Street next to the place of Lekotarchuk so that Aleksey-Alexandrovskaya Street. , in this place was 12 fathoms wide and that the place had a length along the street of 30 fathoms and in depth of 40 fathoms.”

Now the territory of the Asinovsky and Krivosheinsky districts of the Tomsk region.

“The land stretches far away... Who can count the wilds, forests and deserts in it? Who has explored in it all the “hidden places” where “people live in hiding”, having abandoned their hateful homeland and living out their lives in wilds unknown to the world, far from big cities and villages.” P.A. Melnikov (Andrey Pechersky). Novel "In the Woods".

Nuns of Pomeranian consent. Rudny Altai

A little over thirty years ago, the publication of the documentary story “Taiga Dead End” by Vasily Peskov aroused great interest among Soviet readers. The author told in detail the epic of the Lykov family, who, of their own free will, lived in complete isolation from people for a very long time. It was difficult to write about Old Believers hermits without falling into anti-religious rhetoric in 1982. Vasily Peskov managed to do this and told the world a story, the heroes of which were the believing Old Believers from the taiga river Erinat.

Vasily Peskov and Agafya Lykova

The Lykov family was discovered by geologists. They informed Vasily Peskov about the “strange” inhabitants of the Sayan taiga. In Siberia, such meetings with hermits were not uncommon, but not all of them turned into topics for journalistic stories. Hunters and loggers often reported to party bodies and the police about the presence in remote areas of significant groups of people who called themselves “guardians of the old faith.”

Old Believers of Pomeranian consent. Rudny Altai

The funds of the State Archive of the Tomsk Region contain a document from the mid-70s of the last century. The paper was compiled by the chairman of the village council of the village of Krasny Yar A.B. Tau. He titled his memo “Some data on the life of Old Believers in the forests of the Krivosheinsky forestry enterprise” and outlined in detail the details of the hermit’s life. “Old Believers live in small huts covered with birch bark. The front corner is occupied by icons. The dishes are divided into your own and “worldly” (they are marked). Some don't handle money at all. They are talkative, hospitable, and will always offer food. Almost all of them are elderly. They feed from gardens and almost never eat meat. They collect nuts, mushrooms, and berries. In conversations they explain that they are refugees from a new era, which is wrong."

In those same years, historians, philologists, and archaeographers from the Siberian Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences conducted research expeditions in Rudny and Gorny Altai, in the Krasnoyarsk Territory and in Tuva. Scientists visited Old Believer villages and monasteries, managing to collect unique collections of ancient manuscripts, books, and household items. In 1982, the search success was with the specialists of the Tomsk Regional Museum of Local Lore. In the Narym taiga they discovered an ancient settlement preserved (with all the utensils and old printed texts), abandoned by the owners for some reason. Valuable finds can be seen in rare newsreels.

Report from the West Siberian newsreel studio. 1982

In 2017, Tomsk scientists state university are going to launch an electronic resource about taiga Old Believer communities in the Tomsk region.

The monasteries formed a religious identity, retaining this role even in Soviet times. And now they continue to create manuscripts there, relying on the ancient Russian Cyrillic tradition, noted the scientific secretary of the TSU Scientific Library Artem Vasiliev.

A specialized site will primarily be useful to those who study monuments of ancient writing in order to read them, determine their authorship, place and time of creation.

Old Believer text on birch bark

But at the philistine level, it is quite difficult to navigate the differences between the numerous Old Believer schools of thought and agreement. For non-professionals, all Old Believers are associated with the following concepts: schismatic, hermit, Kerzhak, and sometimes sectarian. Only a specialist can explain the difference between the Pomeranian Old Believers and the Chapel Old Believers, the Runners from the Dyryniks, the Sredniks from the Subbotniks, the Fedoseevskys from the Danilovskys. The names of associations of Old Orthodox Christians (sometimes exotic) appear in a large array of documents from the 18th to 20th centuries stored in the State Archives of the Tomsk Region. Some of them will be presented in the publication. The reports filmed within the framework of the TV2 Expedition project will also not be superfluous. The author had the opportunity to visit the most hidden corners of Siberia and tell viewers about the everyday and spiritual side of the life of the Old Believers.

The plot of “TV2 Television Company”, 2006

We first met the inhabitants of taiga villages while traveling along the Ob-Yenisei Canal. Over the years, the TV2 film crew repeatedly took routes along an abandoned system of hydraulic structures on the border of the Tomsk region and the Krasnoyarsk Territory. In those places there was a feeling of no border between the past and the present. There were no televisions or tape recorders in the houses, but many Old Believers used cellular communications. Motorized vessels have not replaced dugout boats. Modern clothing has always been combined with girdles traditional for Old Believers. Every adult always had a ladder with him (intended for counting prayers, a kind of rosary).

Old Believer staircase

Homespun girdles

In the houses one could see not only icons, but also handwritten Cyrillic texts of spiritual verses for Znamenny chant. We could sit at the same table, but attempts to treat the hosts or children with sweets or cookies invariably ended with a laconic refusal: “We’re not allowed.” Prayers and liturgical rituals before newcomers were not advertised; Old Believers (especially older ones) were more willing to share stories about how their fellow believers ended up on the watershed between Keti and Kas.

Story by TV-2 Television Company. 2010

In the midst of the Nikonian religious reforms, an association of non-priests will be formed among the Old Believers. This is the name given to Old Orthodox Christians who do not accept the clergy and reject the priests of the new instruction. The Bespopovites, who settled on the White Sea coast, considered themselves part of the Pomeranian consensus. Close to them were considered the Old Believers, who went to the uninhabited places of the Olonets region (Karelia) and to the Nizhny Novgorod lands on the Kerzhenets River (hence the name Kerzhaks).

Old Believers-Kerzhaks of the Nizhny Novgorod province. 1897

In Siberia, chapel agreement was most widespread, which appeared later - in the first half of the 19th century. Bespopovsky services were conducted and are still conducted by spiritual mentors or charterers. They determined the internal order in communities. In chapel agreement, decisions on important religious and everyday issues were adopted at the Councils. The Institute of History of the SB RAS has information about one of these Councils, which took place in December 1990 near the village of Bezymyanka. This is right on the Ob-Yenisei Canal. I will give just a few of the rules established more than 20 years ago. "1. Which of the Christians still have radios in their houses or huts, then such people are not accepted into the brethren and do not accept alms from them. 2. An electric kettle is like a samovar. 5. Those Christians whose children go to the Christmas tree, then for this penance 300 bows. And if the parents go, they will receive 10 penances....11. At Christian marriages it is strictly forbidden to dance and bring in music; this is not Christian, but Hellenic demonization. 12. If someone is a tobacco user and wants to get married, he must wait for 6 months. Then get married. ... 15. About distilling moonshine and drinking it. Anyone who produces and drinks until he gives up this business should not be accepted into the brethren according to the Biysk Council Code. 16. It is indecent for clergy to be a pensioner and a regular employee working on application.” The Council's provisions changed. If the item was considered useful, it was allowed. Boat motors and cellular communications are necessary for hunters and fishermen, which means they can be used. Strong alcohol and tobacco have always been prohibited. Old Believers also deny the usefulness of television...

The village of Verkhniy Uimon in Gorny Altai

At the end of the 18th century, the Bespopovites came to the Altai Mountains. Fleeing from persecution by the authorities, adherents of pre-reform beliefs looked for remote, hidden territories not by chance. Among the Old Believers, legends about the existence of an “earthly paradise” - Belovodye, where a very specific route led, were passed down from mouth to mouth. “You need to travel to the holy country of Belovodye from Moscow to Kazan, and from there to Biysk. From Biysk go up the Katun River. On Katun, look for the village of Uimonka. Monk Joseph maintains a monastery there. He will show the way through the stone and snow mountains. There are wonderful trees and earthly fruits. There they sow grain once, and the harvest is enough for 4 years, because this country lies close to paradise, and from there they take everyone alive to heaven O".

Not only Old Believers, but also fugitive soldiers and factory peasants strove for the “promised land.” They were detained, caught in the mountains and forests, punished, but the flow of people searching for Belovodye did not decrease. In 1836, the Biysk zemstvo police officer reported: “Living in the village of Uimonskaya... factory peasants Vavilo Boltovsky and his brother Khariton intend to escape to a place called Belovodye. Other residents of the village of Verkhne-Uimonskaya may follow them.” The report was addressed to the Tomsk provincial government.

In May 1837, classified as “secret,” the provincial authorities received another report “On the intention of the peasants of the Altai volost to hide in some Belovodye and about the captured four schismatics.” Such documents are not isolated in the GATO collections.

Document from the funds of the State Archive of the Tomsk Region

Descendants of the Old Believers still live in the Altai village of Verkhniy Uimon. According to local historian and curator of the local Old Believers Museum, Raisa Kuchuganova: “Despite Stalin’s repressions, changes in the way of life of the community, much remains the same. If small children cross themselves with two fingers, I immediately see that they are Old Believers. This means that the canons in the family, even if not completely, at the everyday level, are respected.”

Raisa Kuchuganova - curator of the Old Believers Museum in Verkhniy Uimon

Let's return to the events of the past. More than 200 years ago, Old Believers were prohibited from holding government and public positions and being witnesses in courts. They paid double tax for the right to live in the city. However, everything more people“signed up for the schism,” that is, they went over to the Old Believers. This became an alarming signal for the state authorities and the official church. Measures were taken to create a special structure of the “United Faith Church” under the general jurisdiction of the official Orthodox Church. Thus, another direction appeared in the Old Believers, whose supporters, recognizing the supremacy of official church authority, preserved all pre-reform rituals. In the 40s of the 19th century, the Holy Trinity Church was built in Tomsk at the expense of parishioners of the Edinoverie community.

Holy Trinity Church at the beginning of the 20th century

Modern view of the Holy Trinity Church

The compromise on the part of the authorities had little effect on the independent processes within the Old Believer movement. In 1846, after the conversion to the “old faith” of Metropolitan Ambrose of Bosnia, the Belokrinitsky hierarchy arose, recognizing the priesthood. A new Old Believer “priestly” consensus was formed, which became the basis for the future Russian Orthodox Old Believer Church, but many more years would pass before its official recognition and independence...

Old Believer Metropolitan Ambrose Belokrinnitsky

The priesthood will eventually turn into the most representative association of Old Believers. In 1907, Tomsk was recognized as the center of the Siberian diocese, which would include the Yenisei and Irkutsk provinces. In September 1913, the Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary will be consecrated in the city. One of the local newspapers published a report. “The Old Believers of Tomsk are rejoicing. Approaching the temple and hearing the ringing carried by powerful waves, they are delighted and cry with joy, because something has happened in reality that our ancestors never even thought of.”
Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, 1913

Modern view of the Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

In the mid-19th century, on the territory of the vast Tomsk province, more than 25 thousand Old Believers were registered as having received the priesthood. There were 13 thousand people who did not accept the priesthood. Statistics do not indicate the affiliation of believers with agreements and sects. With priests and non-priests, everything was more or less clear to the authorities; it was more difficult with those who preferred radical hermitage, strict asceticism and avoided contact with the “Antichrist world.” Such Old Believers did not recognize civil and church laws. They lived illegally and hid their names. It was no coincidence that they were called runners, wanderers, lurkers, underground workers, and also idiots. Cases of runners being detained were recorded with particular care. On June 22, 1874, the Tomsk governor was reported: “3 guild merchant Pyotr Vikhryaev was taken in Tomsk with a fake passport, many Old Believer books and things. The detainee belongs to the Runners religious sect.” Travelers found shelter with fellow believers in monasteries. Sometimes such monasteries were found in relative proximity to the capital of the province. Please note the contents of the document from the funds of the State Archives of the Tomsk Region:

Document from the funds of the State Archive of the Tomsk Region

The information received by serious departments was confirmed. The Tomsk district police officer reported that, indeed, “100 versts from Tomsk, in the distant apiaries of the Nelyubinskaya volost, 4 monasteries were discovered, in which 21 males and 22 women were found who lived in a special monastery (separately). They are all tramps from different places in Russia and Siberia.” Why the “tramps” set up a farm intended for complete self-sufficiency, and what happened to it and its inhabitants, the police officer did not explain.

Old Believer with a prayer book

This long-standing story repeated itself in the most bizarre way at the end of 1985. Then, in the Tomsk region, numerous settlements of hermits were discovered from a helicopter. During police raids, 57 cells were found, in which more than 70 people aged 65 to 80 lived. This incident was reported to the regional committee of the CPSU. The epic of the Lykov hermits could well have been continued on Tomsk soil. However, local newspapers did not write about this, but a unique (in my opinion) archival document was preserved.

Document from the funds of the State Archive of the Tomsk Region

No weapons were found in the monasteries. Persons hiding from investigation and trial too. The children were sent to a boarding school. Measures were taken to cut off the supply channels to the hermits with food and clothing. "Monasteries" were recommended to be liquidated. How all this happened is unknown. But what’s interesting is that hunters and tourists still continue to talk about meetings in the taiga with the inhabitants of “secret” villages and call them Old Believers. Similar meetings take place in different areas of the Tomsk region. It seems the time is coming for a new expedition. I'll go get my skis ready...

Tags: Tomsk, Tomsk region, Old Believers, hermits, Ob-Yenisei Canal, church schism, Belovodye, Gorny Altai