December 12, 2023
On December 7, the International Old Believer Forum took place in Moscow in the Pashkov House of the Russian State Library. The forum was organized by the Russian Orthodox Old Believer Church, the Ancient Orthodox Pomorian Church, and the Ancient Orthodox Old-Pomorian Church of Theodosian denomination with the assistance of the “Pravda Russkaya” charitable foundation. About two hundred delegates and guests gathered at the forum in the Pashkov House on this day.
The current forum was the third one and was timed to coincide with the 300th anniversary of the publication of the book “Pomorian Answers” – one of the earliest Old Believers’ treatises defending their doctrinal positions. The forum brought together representatives of Old Believer communities from Russia with a very wide geography, from Smolensk to Vladivostok and from Arkhangelsk to Barnaul, as well as the delegates from Belarus and Moldova. Representatives of the recently formed communities of the Russian Orthodox Old Believer Church from Pakistan and Uganda were greeted with great interest by the forum members.
The leaders of the main Old Believer communities addressed the delegates of the forum with welcoming speeches: Metropolitan of Moscow and All Russia Korniliy, Primate of the Russian Orthodox Old Believer Church; Alexey Bezgodov, Deputy Chairman of the Russian Council of the Ancient Orthodox Pomorian Church Konstantin Kozhev, representative of the Transfiguration community of the Christians of the Old-Pomorian Theodosian denomination, director of the Charitable Foundation of the Transfiguration Old Believer Monastery.
As Metropolitan Korniliy said in his speech, “All denominations of Old Believers in Russia are united by their love for our Motherland, its culture, and traditions, as well as the desire to help it now, in this difficult time that our Fatherland is going through. Help with our prayer, our truth, because, indeed, both Truth and God will always be on the side of Orthodox Russia, and I have no doubt that, with God’s help, the victory will be ours.”
As usual, the host of the forum was Mikhail Olegovich Shakhov, Doctor of Philosophy, professor, coordinator of the Inter-Old Believer Working Group, .qand director of the “Pravda Russkaya” Foundation. He began by giving the floor to Igor Nikolaevich Zavyalov, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the “Pravda Russkaya” Foundation and Deputy General Director of the State Corporation for the Promotion of the Development, Manufacture, and Export of High Tech Products “Rostec”.
Then representatives of various branches of government and other significant persons addressed the audience: Alexander Aleksandrovich Terentyev, chief adviser to the Department for Interaction with Religious Organizations of the Office for Internal Policy of the Administration of the President of the Russian Federation; Evgeniy Aleksandrovich Primakov, Head of the Federal Agency for the Commonwealth of Independent States, Compatriots Living Abroad, and International Humanitarian Cooperation (Rossotrudnichestvo); Konstantin Leonidovich Blazhenov, Deputy Head of the Department of National Policy and Interregional Relations of the City of Moscow, Head of the Department for Relations with Religious Organizations; Viktor Aleksandrovich Moskvin, director of the Alexander Solzhenitsyn House of Russia Abroad, and other officials.
The forum program included 24 reports on various topics. Many speeches were accompanied by interesting presentations. Several speakers chose topics related to various aspects of the creation and reception of the book “Pomorian Answers”, to the 300th anniversary of which the forum was dedicated. These were such scholars, as Mikhail Shakhov himself, Yelena Yukhimenko, Viktor Bochenkov, and others.
In his report, Mikhail Shakhov described the two main approaches to the defense of their faith by Old Believers. The first approach says that one should not judge the salvation of another faith, the righteousness of people of another faith, but preserve one’s faith and firmly stand for ancient piety. The second aspect, according to the professor, was formulated by the modern old believer Alexander Vasilyevich Antonov, who masterfully paraphrased a quote from Leo Tolstoy: “Old Faith is resisting evil through non-violence.” That is, in response to discrimination and injustice, the Old Believers do not rebel, but resist evil by doing good, creating something of their own, and not destroying someone else’s. And that is why, in order to preserve a pious way of life and divine worship in accordance with the old Orthodox canons, the Old Believers, after the church schism of the 17th century, went far into the forests and outside the Russian Empire, to be able to pray to God the way their Orthodox ancestors prayed.
The result of these tragic events is huge Russian Old Believer communities outside of Russia today, which are now represented on almost all continents of the Earth. Of these, the most active, outside of the CIS, are in Australia, North and South America, and more than 100 thousand Lipovans who live in Romania, a quarter of whom are Old Believers.
As we know, recently, foreign Old Believers have begun to return to Russia. For many, families from Brazil who are now actively developing the Far East have become an example. Repatriation from Australia has already started. Avraam Kalugin, a famous Old Believer from Brazil (you can find several films about him and his relatives on the Internet), who decided to move several years ago to the Primorsky Kray, described his feelings in brief but deep and sincere words:
-There was a lot to do. And we did it. We already live here in Russia, and we are already growing. I was born and raised in Brazil. I saw Russia for the first time only in 2018. And now we have been living here permanently for two years. And you know, there’s no desire to go back to Brazil, and we don’t even go there anymore. I feel at home here. And the word “how” is already superfluous. Simply: we are home!
The report of the priest of the Russian Orthodox Old Believer Church, Roman Dontsov, “The relationship between the Russian Orthodox Old Believer Church and the state authorities: the example of the Republic of Tatarstan” was accepted with great attention. The speaker on the topic of interaction between Old Believers and state institutions was not chosen accidentally. Priest Roman Dontsov is not only the rector of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God Cathedral of the Russian Orthodox Old Believer Church in Kazan and the ikonom of the Kazan-Vyatka diocese, but also a member of the Public Chamber of the Republic of Tatarstan, as well as the director of the Museum of the History of the Old Believers, known far beyond the borders of Kazan.
It is worth noting that the relationship between the local Old Believer diocese and the government and leadership of the Republic of Tatarstan can be taken as a model. Let’s give just one example. When, three years ago, in Kazan, a museum of the Old Believers was opened at our cathedral, the President of the Republic of Tatarstan, Rustam Minnikhanov, was present at the ceremony, along with Metropolitan Korniliy.
The speeches of delegations of Old Believers from Pakistan and Uganda aroused great interest among the forum participants. Priest Mikhail Rodin, head of the Educational Department of the Russian Orthodox Old Believer Church, who cares for the Pakistani communities, spoke about how the language barrier in understanding of church books and services by Pakistani parishioners is overcome. A priest from Pakistan, Father Pavel (Rehmat) Nazir, and a student from Pakistan, Vera (before baptism – Arisha) Babar, were standing next to Fr. Mikhail during his speech.
According to Fr. Mikhail, now we have to solve the same problems that Saints Kiril and Mefodiy, who enlightened the ancient Slavs, faced in their time: a different language, a different worldview, a different culture. Pakistanis have not yet deeply studied the intricacies of the Typikon regulating the Old Believer services, but they willingly accept the severity of fasting, bowing, and pious life, for the Pakistani society is accustomed to preserving traditional values and ancient customs, and in this we are similar to them.
But solving the problem of the language barrier is at the forefront. In 2022, with the assistance of Rossotrudnichestvo, the first student from the local Old Believer community, Vera Babar, came to Russia from Pakistan to study. Today, there are already seven Pakistani Old Believer students studying for free at various Russian universities and learning Russian. Vera Babar spoke at the forum after Fr. Mikhail. She gave a heartfelt speech in good Russian, and at the end of her speech, she raised her right hand with two fingers, like boyarynia Morozova, and said: “Now we know how to pray correctly, by two fingers!”
The speech by Priest Nikola Bobkov, who ministers to the Old Believers of the Republic of Uganda, was no less interesting. The first Orthodox Old Believer community in Uganda appeared in 2012. After several years of correspondence with the Moscow Metropolis, the community was accepted into the fold of the Russian Orthodox Old Believer Church. The community is slowly growing, becoming stronger, and, like believers of Pakistan, plans to send its representatives to study in Russia. Five people arrived in snowy Moscow from Uganda, from the hot African continent early in the morning on the day of the forum.
The second part of the forum, after a break, opened with the singing of spiritual poems by the Old Believer girl Kapitolina Savina. Kapitolina performed “The Verse of Ioasaph the Prince” and the spiritual verse “About Saint Anthony.” From the very first sounds, Kapitolina’s pearly voice literally captured the attention of all those present. Carried away by the wonderful singing, people listened without moving, and at the last lines, many had tears in their eyes.
Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor of the Russian State University for the Humanities, Alexander Anatolyevich Prigarin, gave a very interesting report on the topic “Unity and diversity of the Old Believers. Southwestern versions: Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, Romania.” Its long-term director, Anatoliy Ivanovich Shatokhin, spoke about how the only educational institution of Old Believers in Russia, the Moscow Old Believer Theological School (MSDU), lives today.
The Ural diocese of the Russian Orthodox Old Believer Church was represented by the editor-in-chief and publisher of the newspaper “Obschina [Community]” and co-editor of the project “Old Believer of the Urals”, Maxim Olegovich Gusev from Yekaterinburg, who made an informative report-presentation “On current problems of information activities of Old Believer communities on the example of the Ural diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church.” Priest of the Russian Orthodox Old Believer Church from Krasnoyarsk, Ioann Oshin, made a presentation “Church and community as the basis for the preservation of our Motherland.”
Already at the beginning of the forum, Metropolitan Korniliy spoke very precisely about the preservation and protection of the Motherland in his speech. He told the delegates that he had recently received a letter from the Administration of the President of the Russian Federation with the question: How do Old Believers participate in the implementation of the main provisions of the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation No. 809 of November 9, 2022, “On Approval of the Fundamentals of State Policy for the Preservation and Strengthening of Traditional Russian Spiritual and Moral values.” Bishop Korniliy noted that the Old Believers have been carrying out a historical mission to preserve traditional Russian values for more than 350 years.
In the final report at the forum, Dementiy Ivliev, editor of the Russian Orthodox Old Believer Church magazine “Bulletin of the Metropolis,” proposed, firstly, to change the name of the forum to “International Assembly of Old Believer Denominations” and, secondly, to change the frequency: currently the forum is held once every two years, and he proposed to make the assembly annual and hold it alternately in Moscow and in one of the regions of Russia. For example, the government of the Tomsk region is already offering to host this representative Old Believer meeting in June 2024.
Dementy Ivliev also said that not so long ago in Russia, at the state level, such a concept as the Russian cultural code was included in the current agenda. Based on this, we can talk about the fact that the Old Believers absolutely have their own cultural code, which not only coincides with the Russian one but also goes beyond its borders. Preserving this code is one of the tasks of the Old Believers and everyone connected to them. No less important is the further structuring of the activities of often disparate Old Believer initiatives for the realization of various cultural, publishing, and other projects. He proposed to continue the discussion of these initiatives at a meeting of the Inter-Old Believer Working Group.
In general, the International Old Believer Forum, held on December 7, as was the case with the previous forums, became a good platform for exchanging experience, stimulating the development of Old Believer culture, and creating strong ties between representatives of different denominations. The Forum once again showed that Russia and the Russian people attract other nations precisely because of their commitment to the traditional values of family and faith, their openness, and age-old moral guidelines. The Russian word is dear to us both in Church Slavonic and in the contemporary Russian literary language. And the Old Believers are usually fluent in both versions.
