On January 21 and 22 of this year, a series of events took place in Yekaterinburg dedicated to the 30th anniversary of the consecration of the Church of the Nativity of Christ by the local Old Believer community. The celebration was honoured with the presence of Metropolitan of Moscow and All Russia Korniliy, Bishop of Tomsk, Yeniseysk, Irkutsk, Transbaikalia, and all the Far East Grigoriy (Korobeynikov) and other clergy of the Russian Orthodox Old Believer Church. The two-day events had been prepared by the community of the Church of the Nativity of Christ.
Metropolitan Korniliy arrived in Yekaterinburg the day before, on Saturday, January 20, and immediately led the all-night vigil in the Church of the Nativity of Christ. The next morning, on the Sunday after the Enlightenment, January 21, Metropolitan Korniliy celebrated the Divine Liturgy in the church, the jubilee of which was celebrated, together with Bishop Grigoriy, the rector of the church Priest Pavel Zyryanov, Priest Roman Dontsov (Kazan), Protodeacon Viktor Savelyev (Moscow), Deacon Anthoniy Slepushkin (Ekaterinburg), Deacon Viktor Pesterev (Miass), and Deacon Ilya Ustinov (Pristan). After the liturgy, many years were proclaimed to all those celebrating that festive day.
In that way, with the bishops’ service, as befits such important days, the program of celebration of the 30th anniversary of the Church of the Nativity of Christ began. Father Yekaterinburg greeted his guests on those days with moderately frosty and sunny weather. After a meal in the church, the clergy and parishioners set off by bus to the Museum of the History of Yekaterinburg, where everything was ready to receive guests.
Opening the program of the second day of ceremonial events in Yekaterinburg, Metropolitan Korniliy addressed the audience with an archpastoral word:
— I would like to begin my speech with the words of the great Russian poet Fyodor Ivanovich Tyutchev: “Blessed is the one who visited this world in its fateful moments.” We are now living in these fateful moments, when it is decided: to be or not to be – for our Orthodox Russia, to be or not to be for our great, independent, sovereign country – this is very important and relevant for us now. We are Christians, Orthodox and, so to speak, the Orthodox of the Orthodox — the Old Believers. We are not just spectators, but also participants in these events. And we continue to pray for our Motherland, Russia, so that the Lord will grant us peace and forgive us our sins. As Holy Hierarch John Chrysostom said, the Lord could stop any war and any battle at any moment, but He does not do this in order to admonish those who live in wickedness. The Lord, as it were, reminds us of Himself and prompts us not to forget God.
We see very well what terrible forces are now accumulating against Russia in the West. Over the past thirty years, the soul-ruining influence of the destructive forces of the West on Russia has been strong, especially affecting young people. It’s like radiation: it is invisible, but destroys human body. In the same way the influence of the long-corrupted West corrupted and destroyed the souls of the Russian people.
As our great writer Dostoevsky said: “If you want to conquer the whole world, defeat yourself!” But conquering yourself is a difficult science. Terrible things are happening now on the fronts of the special military operation: people are dying, blood is being shed, the number of orphans is increasing. In fact, the West pitted two fraternal Slavic peoples against each other in order to act as it has been used to – to divide and rule. Many of our Old Believers fight at the front, get wounded, and die. We pray for them, we constantly conduct special prayer services in addition to the regular ones.
On the eve of a meeting with the Russian President on the National Unity Day in early November, I visited our wounded Old Believers in the hospital and asked them what they would like to convey to the President. And they answered: so that the goals that were set within the framework of the SMO would be achieved as quickly as possible. And so the fraternal peace and friendship of the Slavic peoples reign in Ukraine, as it has been from time immemorial. And I conveyed all these words the next day to the President of Russia, who fully supported them.
Presidential elections will soon take place in Russia. Russian President Vladimir Putin was the first head of our state to make an official visit to the Old Believers in 2017, the first time in 350 years since the 17th-century church schism. This is why his name is already inscribed in the history of the Old Believers in golden letters. It is thanks to him and his support that the restoration of our historical and architectural complex at Rogozhskoye has proceeded at a much faster pace: one after another, our historical buildings are being restored and reconstructed, renovation continues, and spiritual life is strengthened. The support of the Old Believers by Russian President Vladimir Putin is invaluable. Thanks to his personal participation, the beautiful Church of the Intercession and Dormition in Moscow was returned to the Russian Orthodox Old Believer Church. Thanks to this attitude of the President of the Russian Federation towards the Old Believers, many governors in the regions turned to us. Everyone sees that those spiritual and moral values, about which so much is now said at the highest level of government and about which even a special presidential decree No. 809 was issued, are best preserved in the Old Believer world. The Old Believers see the preservation of these values as their historical task; moreover, during these 350 years they have carefully preserved them, and have stood firm on this, and continue to stand. To stand on guard of their Motherland, their beloved Fatherland, protecting it from all enemies and continuing to develop and strengthen our Orthodox Church. We believe that the Lord will be with us, and we will win!
The two-day program of Old Believer events at the museum was very rich. After welcoming words from the clergy and the director of the museum, the opening of four exhibitions took place: two photo exhibitions, “Altai. Nature. Old Believers” and “Ekaterinburg Old Believers”, “Most Pure Intercessor. The main types of iconography of the Mother of God”, and the exhibition-collection of traditional costumes of the Old Believers of the Urals and Siberia of the 19th–20th centuries.
Everyone’s attention was attracted by the performances of Old Believer choirs – of the Yekaterinburg community, as well as those from Perm and the Ural settlements Baranchinsky and Shamary. The choir from Shamary had learned a long-forgotten beautiful znamenny chant with the canonarch – the stichera “Today Christ is born of the Virgin” to perform it at the concert. The Cossack ensemble “Bagrenye” sang Cossack songs, combining them with the recitation of a historical poem, performed by a local author, Andrei Rastorguev, which tells about the feat of the Ural Cossacks.
In parallel with the performances, master classes of belt weaving, Church Slavonic calligraphy, and carpet embroidery were held. Also on this day there was an Old Believer fair, where household items, icons, books, souvenirs, traditional Old Believer clothing, hats, and, of course, delicious treats were presented.
Opening the festive program at the Museum of History of Yekaterinburg, Metropolitan Korniliy in his greeting speech recalled the role of the Old Believers in the history of the capital of the Middle Urals. That role was great, both in the development of spirituality in the city and in its development as one of the most powerful industrial centers in Russia. As it became clear from the speeches at the round table, which took place the next day, the full history of the Old Believers in the Urals has yet to be written.
Separate words of gratitude that evening were addressed to the director of the Museum of History of Yekaterinburg, Igor Evgenievich Pushkarev. Igor Evgenievich provided excellent organization of educational events important for the Old Believers, providing that convenient and cozy site in the city center, including Monday, a day off for museum workers.
According to the director of the museum, the history of Yekaterinburg and the local Old Believers are inextricably intertwined. When Yekaterinburg just began to be built, more than 50 years had already passed since the church schism of the 17th century. The Old Believers are associated with such significant events of the history of the city, as the establishment of the Demidov metallurgical plants, the discovery of gold deposits in the Urals, the founding of an Old Believers settlement on Lake Shartash, and much more.
Metropolitan Korniliy repeatedly thanked the Yekaterinburg Old Believer community during these two days for such an informative program dedicated to the Old Believer culture, and awarded the participants with diplomas and books. The first day was mostly connected with the creative aspects of the activity of Old Believers, and the second day – with educational and scholarly aspects. On the second day, the museum hosted the round table “Old Believer Urals: from the past to the future”; in fact, it was a one-day scholarly conference dedicated to the Old Believer culture, including intangible culture, art, book printing, and scholarly research.
The round table took place from 11 a.m. to 6 p. m., and all this time, with a short break for tea, the bishops of the Church listened to all the reports and presentations with attention. We invite curious readers to go to the online media “Starover of the Urals” on the social network “VKontakte”, where video recordings of many presentations are posted.
Priest Pavel Zyryanov, rector of the church in Yekaterinburg, made two reports at the round table: “The history of the construction of the Church of the Nativity of Christ” and “The role of the Old Believers in the formation and industrial development of the Urals and the development of Yekaterinburg.” In particular, Fr. Pavel told that he had recently found a clear confirmation that in the fall of 2024 the Church of Christ in Yekaterinburg will be exactly 200 years old!
Successfully complementing these topics, Maxim Gusev, a professional journalist and editor-in-chief of the local diocesan newspaper “Community” also gave two reports: “The history the Old Believers of Yekaterinburg” and “The consecration of the Church of the Nativity of Christ and the 30-year history of the community.” Writer, publicist, and historian Dmitriy Urushev gave a report on the history of the Old Believers.
Agafya Lykova… It is always interesting to hear about this amazing hermit and ascetic, whom God revealed to the world back in the dark Soviet times. Thanks to Agafya and journalist Vasiliy Peskov, the censorship taboo was lifted from the word “Old Believers” in the USSR. Agafya’s cousin, a representative of the Vereschagino community, Anton Lykov, told the participants of the round table about Agafya Karpovna. He told about how he lived with his aunt for a long time, how he asked her about her childhood and youth years. Involuntary tears come to anyone looking at the video footage of Agafya, speaking in amazingly beautiful Old Russian language, in a melodious murmuring voice – as if the waters of the Yerinat River (on which she lives) are rolling pebbles along the bottom with their rapid flow.
The Laboratory of Archaeographic Research of the Ural Federal University (UrFU) was represented by Nadezhda Scherbakova and Anna Mikheeva. Archaeography is a historical discipline that elaborates the theory and practice of publishing written sources, which implies a thorough scholarly study of ancient books and manuscripts. Of course, pre-schism books, as well as those created by the Old Believers, occupy a place of honour in the collections of archaeographic laboratories.
It is very important to ensure the proper storage for such books. “Preservation of Old Believer handwritten and printed books in our days” was the topic of the report given by Nadezhda Scherbakova, an artist-restorer of the archaeographic laboratory of UrFU. The senior researcher at that laboratory, candidate of historical sciences Anna Mikheeva, not only gave a very interesting report on the topic “The separation of soul and body in Russian spiritual poems,” but also sang ancient spiritual poems.
Another speaker, Alexander Emelyanov, a famous Old Believer figure, the leader of the choir (golovschik) of the Novosibirsk community, organizer of courses for the church signers and readers, golovschiks and those responsible for following the prescriptions of the Typikon (ustavschik), drew attention to Anna Mikheeva’s speech. Alexander Nikolaevich also offered the presentation “The Way of the Church Singer,” illustrating it with professional performance of the hook znamenny singing.
We should also note the presentations of Georgiy Nesterov, director of the “Radetel” Cossack culture center and head of the “Bagryanye” Cossack ensemble (also accompanied by the performance of Cossack songs), Vyacheslav Pechnyak, ethnographer and ethnologist, researcher at the Museum of History of Yekaterinburg, and Alexander Kaluzhnikov, leading restorer of Yekaterinburg , who spoke about the life of the Ural hermitages (skity).
In conclusion, there is one thing left to add. If the Old Believers had more such large-scale events as that one in Yekaterinburg, then the good news about our Church would have long ago, like a dove, flown around all, even the most distant, corners of our vast Motherland.
