Old Believers

Categories / Religion. Church/Religious Faiths
OLD BELIEVERS, a sect within the Orthodox Church consisting of those people who rejected the reforms of Patriarch Nikon in the middle of the 17th century and preserved the "old" ceremonies and traditions. Old Believers began settling in St. Petersburg from the time of its very foundation, although initially they were persecuted. Their chapels appeared in the middle of the 18th century near Malookhtinskoe Cemetery, in Volkovskoe Cemetery and in other places. In 1883, Old Believers were allowed to build houses of prayer, but without cupolas or crosses. In 1905, all limitations on worship were removed. In 1917, there were some15, 000 Old Believers in Petrograd divided into two main groups. The Popovtsy retained the priesthood and was itself split into two sects: the Belokrinitskaya Hierarchy and the Beglopopovtsy (now known as the Novozybkovskaya Hierarchy), while the other main groups was the Bespopovtsy, divided into the Pomorskaya, Fedoseevskaya and Filippovskaya hierarchies, which had no priesthood. Adherents of the Belokrinitskaya Hierarchy had six churches in St. Petersburg by 1846, with their centre located at Gromovskoe Cemetery (founded in 1835, now 8-18 Tashkentskaya Street), where the Holy Assumption Church was erected in 1844, and the Holy Virgin Intercession Church was built in 1912-15. In 1939, the cemetery was closed, and all the churches were demolished. Beglopopovtsy, who recognized the priests of the Russian Orthodox Church had their own domestic church, St. Nicholas’ Church, constructed in 1903 on Bolshaya Porokhovskaya Street and closed in the 1920s; the St. Metropolitan Peter Church at Chubyrinskaya Alms-house on Zabalkansky Avenue (now 108 Moskovsky Avenue), built in 1905). The Bespopovtsy confession appeared in the 1730s. Under the reign of Empress Catherine the Great they were permitted to establish communities in St. Petersburg. The Pomortsy (a sect of the Bespopovtsy) consisted of some 5,000 people by 1917 and had three prayer houses, the oldest of them opened in the early 1760s at the Mikhailov Alms-House in Malaya Okhta. In 1906-07, they built the Church of the Holy Sign at 8 Tverskaya Street, a notable example of the Neo-Russian style (architect D. A. Kryzhanovsky; it was closed in 1934; now the building houses an industrial factory). In 1911, they built the Holy Assumption Chapel (now 27 Stachek Avenue, not preserved). The Fedoseevtsy Heirarchy, consisting of some 6,000 people, had three chapels: from the 1780s — the chapel in Volkovskoe cemetery of Old Believers, in 1876 — in the female retreat at 19 Volkovskaya Street, and from 1911 at 12 Kolomenskaya Street (closed in 1936). The Filippovtsy Hierarchy consisted of around 300 people by 1917. Its first chapel was founded in 1767 on the Fontanka River Embankment. After it was closed in 1848, they built another chapel in Peski (31 Bolshaya Bolotnaya Street, now Moiseenko Street) in 1883, which was closed in the 1920s. Before 1917, the Old Believers had actively been involved in establishing and participating in charitable organisations. The largest alms-house of the Popovtsy was the Chubykinskaya Alms-House (now 108 Moskovsky Avenue), the Bespopovtsy maintained the Mikhailov Alms-House (now 6 Pomyalovskogo Street) and an alms-house in Volkovskoe Cemetery. Schools, refuges and other institutions were built near many prayer houses. The most famous Petersburg Old Believers were merchants F. G. Gromov, P. I. Chubykin, F. F. Kostsov, and I. V. Kirzhakov, icon-painter N. S. Racheyskov, and Bishop Geronty (Lakomkin). In 1946, the church of Old Believers of the Pomorskaya Hierarchy was reopened at 12 Kolomenskaya Street but in 1960 was again closed. In 1988, two former Orthodox churches were transferred to Old Believers: St. Alexander Nevsky Church in Preobrazhenskoe Cemetery at 20 Alexandrovskoy Fermy Avenue, was transferred to the Popovtsy of the Belokrinskaya heirarchy and the church of the Holy Sign in Kazanskoe Cemetery in Rybatskoe was transferred to Pomortsy (32 Yunnatov Avenue). In 2002 there were some 1,500-2,000 Old Believers in St. Petersburg.

Reference: Животов Н. Н. Церковный раскол Петербурга в связи с общероссийским расколом: Очерки. СПб., 1891; Буткевич Т. И. Обзор русских сект и их толков с изложением их происхождения, распространения и вероучения и с опровержением последнего. 2-е изд., испр. и доп. Пг., 1915; Антонов В. В., Кобак А. В. Святыни Санкт-Петербурга: Ист.-церков. энцикл. СПб., 1996. Т. 3. С. 202-213; Лурье Л. Я. Петербургские старообрядцы // Английская набережная, 4. СПб., 1997. С. 55-78.

M. V. Shkarovsky. Catherine II, Empress
Chubykin P.I.
Geronty (Grigory Ivanovich Lakomkin), Bishop
Gromov Fedul G.
Kirzhakov I.V.
Kostsov F.F.
Kryzhanovsky Dmitry Andreevich
Nikon (Minov Nikita), Patriarch
Racheyskov N.S.
Alexandrovskoy Fermy Passage/Saint Petersburg, city, house 20
Bolshaya Porokhovskaya St./Saint Petersburg, city
Fontanka River Embankment/Saint Petersburg, city
Koli Tomchaka St./Saint Petersburg, city, house 19
Kolomenskaya St./Saint Petersburg, city, house 12
Moiseenko St./Saint Petersburg, city, house 31
Moskovsky Ave/Saint Petersburg, city, house 108
Pomyalovsky St./Saint Petersburg, city, house 6
Stachek Ave/Saint Petersburg, city, house 27
Tashkentskaya St./Saint Petersburg, city, house 16
Tashkentskaya St./Saint Petersburg, city, house 18
Tashkentskaya St./Saint Petersburg, city, house 14
Tashkentskaya St./Saint Petersburg, city, house 12
Tashkentskaya St./Saint Petersburg, city, house 10
Tashkentskaya St./Saint Petersburg, city, house 8
Tverskaya St./Saint Petersburg, city, house 8
Yunnatov St./Saint Petersburg, city, house 32
Животов Н. Н. Церковный раскол Петербурга в связи с общероссийским расколом: Очерки. СПб., 1891
Антонов В. В., Кобак А. В. Святыни Санкт-Петербурга: Ист.-церков. энцикл.: В 3 т. СПб., 1994-1996
Буткевич Т. И. Обзор русских сект и их толков с изложением их происхождения, распространения и вероучения и с опровержением последнего. 2-е изд., испр. и доп. Пг., 1915
Лурье Л. Я. Петербургские старообрядцы // Английская набережная, 4. СПб., 1997 Memorial Cemetery to the Victims of 9th January
Kazanskoe Cemetery