Old Belief

Subject / Religion. Church
Old Belief. The movement of the Russian Orthodox (Old Belivers, ""schimatics"") having the rites which existed before the reforms of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich and Patriarch Nikon (the middle of the 17th c). Old Belief are divided into the Popovtsy (the Belokrinitsa grouping and the Beglopopovtsy), who preserved the Priest Institution, and the Bezpopovtsy, who are the priestless sect, (the Pomorsky grouping, the Fedoseyevsky grouping and the Filippov grouping). The Bezpopovtsy grouping was formed in the territory of the St Petersburg Guberniya in the 1730s, the Popovtsy grouping was formed in the beginning of the rule of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna. First the Old Belivers were subjected the repressions. During the rule of Empress Catherine II (in the 1760s) the Old Belivers received the right to organize the grouping in St Petersburg, in that time villages of the Old Belivers, who moved from the Rech Pospolita, were founded in the territory of the Guberniya (in the Gatchina District mainly). In 1809 the Assembly of the Fedoseyevtsy took place in St Petersburg . In 1883 the Old Belief was given the same rights as the Orthodox Church and the Old Belivers received the right to built the prayer houses but without the cupolas and crosses; in 1905 all restrictions were canceled. The Belokrinitsa grouping Old Belivers had six churches in St Petersburg (last churches were closed in 1939), the Beglopopovtsy had one church (it was closed in the 1920s). The Pomortsy grouping (about 5,000 members ) had three meetinghouses (the last meetinghouse was closed in 1934), the Fedoseyevtsy grouping (about 6,000 members) had three meetinghouses ( the last meetinghouse was closed in 1936), the Filippov grouping (about 300 members) had one meetinghouse (it was opened in 1767 and it was closed in the 1920s). In the St Petesburg Guberniya the most number of churches and metinghouses were in the Gatchina District (the town of Gatchina, the village of Ratkovo, the village of Lampovo), the Luga District (the village of Logovische, the village of Lubino, the village of Lugovoye) and also in the East part of the St Petersburg Guberniya. Before the October 1917 Revolution about 15,000 Old Belivers of different groupings lived in Petrograd and the Petrograd Guberniya. These groupings worked activly before the end of the 1920s and then the mass repressions were began. In the 1930s – beginning of the 1940s all churches and meetinghouses were closed, last churches were closed in Gatchina (1November 1940) and the village of Ratkovo (7 June 1941). The Old Belief of the Pomortsy grouping (Old Orthodox Pomorskaya Church) and the Old Belief of the Belokrinitsa grouping (Russian Orthodox Old Belief Church) were only revived groupings in the Leningrad Oblast. On 8 December 1946 the meetinghouse of the Pomortsy grouping was officially opened in the village of Lampovo (it works now). During 1946-1960 the meetinghouse of the Pomortsy grouping worked in Leningrad; in 1961 the grouping moved in Rybatskoye and the metinghouse was opened there (now it is the Church of the Mother of God the Sign; the sprityal-charitable centre ""Nevskaya Abode"" worked from the early 1990s ). In the 1960s two registered community of the the Pomortsy grouping , three unregistered community of the Pomortsy grouping (about 4,000 members) and about 2,500 members of the Popovtsy of the Belokrinitsa grouping (they acted illegally) were in Leningrad and in the Leningrad Oblast. Now eight communities of the Old Belivers (about 2,000 members) were registerd in St Petersburg and the Leningrad Oblast . Shkarovsky, Mikhail Vitalyevich
Bertash, Aleksandr Vitalyevich
Alexei Mikhailovich, Tsar
Catherine II, Empress
Elizabeth Petrovna, Empress
Nikon (Nikita Minov), patriarch
Leningrad Oblast, the/Gatchina District/Gatchina Town
Historical Toponyms/Gatchina Uyezd
Leningrad Oblast, the/Gatchina District/Lampovo Village
Historical Toponyms/Saint Petersburg Gubernia, the/Luga Uyezd/Logovishche, Village
Historical Toponyms/Saint Petersburg Gubernia, the/Luga Uyezd/Lubino, Village
Historical Toponyms/Saint Petersburg Gubernia, the/Luga Uyezd/Lugovoye, Village
Historical Toponyms/Saint Petersburg Gubernia, the/Gatchina Uyezd/Ratkovo, Village
Saint-Petersburg City/Rybatskoye Village
Historical Toponyms/Saint Petersburg Gubernia, the
Старообрядчество: опыт энциклопедического словаря / Сост. С.Г. Вургафт, И.А. Ушаков. М., 1996
Шаров В.Г. Религиозные объединения Санкт-Петербурга и Ленинградской области. СПб., 2005., 33-50