The Russians' Secret - Book Review (Part 4 of 6)

Russian Nonconformity and “Unofficial” Religion in Russia

Chapter 8 of The Russians' Secret (hereafter TRS) is entitled “Nonconformity” and the theme itself is central to the book with the actual words “nonconformity” or “nonconformist(s)” appearing over 30 times throughout the book. The authors champion various Russian religious sects. For a more objective and impartial story of Russian nonconformity and “unofficial” religion in Russia, I recommend Russian Nonconformity (1950) by Serge Boshakoff, which proved to be a helpful resource for reviewing TRS (and it is ironically also found in the TRS bibliography). From an Orthodox perspective, schism from the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church cannot be justified, but it is important to understand why most of these small religious sects began with their struggles for religious freedom and social justice in Russia. In the words of Bolshakoff:

The Nonconformists are those who refuse to conform to the State-prescribed pattern of religion, and they are by definition champions of religious freedom. . . . 

Russian Nonconformity, broadly speaking, was a protest against State intervention in the affairs of the Church. . . . 

Russian Nonconformity, however, is not merely a protest against State intervention in the affairs of the Church; it is also a protest against the secularization of the Church and the clerical support of social injustice. (Russian Nonconformity [Philadelphia, PA: Westminster Press, 1950], 13, 17, 18).

Strigolniki being thrown into the Volkhov River from a bridge in 1375

The Strigolniks and the Judaizers

Chapter 7 of TRS features the Strigolniks (barbers), a Russian religious sect which appeared in the mid-14th century in Pskov before spreading to Novgorod and Tver. Along with the Judaizers, they were one of the major sects in medieval Russia. Some think the Strigolniki (barbers) name came from a special initiation ceremony involving a haircut performed by the founders of the sect, excommunicated Orthodox deacons Karp and Nikita. According to them, the sacraments had been accompanied by simoniac fees, so they sought to abolish the holy mysteries such as priesthood, communion, repentance, and baptism. They also “taught vehemently against monasticism,” and “no longer wanted to be in fellowship with the balance of Orthodox clergy” because they “lived a life unworthy of their vocation” (Daniel H. Shubin, A History of Russian Christianity, Vol. I: From the Earliest Years through Tsar Ivan IV [Algora Publishing, 2004], 122). The Strigolniks considered themselves to be the elect of God – true, spiritual Christians. 

TRS authors claim, “Orthodox authorities arrested them [Karp and Nikita]. They beat the two men and tortured them, but they refused to recant. . . [Orthodox] authorities threw them down from a bridge in Novgorod” (p. 46). Actually they were thrown off of a bridge by a mob of enraged citizens, not Orthodox authorities. When the Strigolniks were established during the middle of the 14th and first half of the 15th century, there were also many Orthodox Saints who chose not to leave the Church and start a schismatic group of their own. The patriarch Nilus of Constantinople from 1380 to 1388 and St. Stephen of Perm (1340–1396) wrote against the Strigolniks. In the early 15th century, St. Photius, Metropolitan of Kiev and all Russia (d. 1431), also denounced their teachings. By the early 15th century, the small proto-Protestant movement had disappeared due to both persecution and divisions within the sect.  

Moreover, Bolshakoff writes, "The sudden rise of the powerful sect of the Judaizers at Novgorod a few decades later can hardly be explained unless the survival of the Strigolniks is admitted” (Russian Nonconformity, 31). While the Judaizers are not mentioned by TRS, they were also one of the major nonconformist sects in Medieval Russia who destructively criticized the Orthodox Church. The Judaizers denied the Holy Trinity, as well as the Incarnation and Divinity of Christ. They observed the Mosaic Law and rejected all the Holy Mysteries of the Church, as well as the cult of saints, icons, relics, fasts, and feasts of the Church. 

The struggle against the Judaizer adherents was led by the "Possessor" St. Joseph of Volokolamsk (1439–1515) and his followers, and St. Gennady, Archbishop of Novgorod (d. 1505). In 1491, Skhariya was executed in Novgorod by the order of Ivan III. Other adherents were executed with Gennady's approval. Religious persecution in Russia, such as that of the Judaizers, was historically unusual for the time and paled in comparison to the frequency and scale of religious persecution in the West under Roman Catholics and Protestants. 

Fr. John Strickland, who holds a Ph.D. in Russian and European history and is the author of The Making of Holy Russia (2013), provides a helpful commentary on this event:

In the history of Russian Christendom, there was an almost total absence of religious persecution, so very different from contemporary Western Christendom, where, by this time (the 1500's), not only have there been Crusades fought and religious warfare waged, but there has [also] been the creation of the Inquisition. . . . Western Europe is ready to go through the Protestant Reformation which will bring not only religious wars, but also an increased level of persecution … [and] the burning of supposed witches throughout Western Christendom. . . . This was very foreign to Russia and Orthodox Christendom. There were cases of persecution over the course of time, but nothing on the scale that Western Christendom produces after the Great Schism. (Fr. John Strickland, “The Third Rome III: The Possessor Controversy and Its Consequences,” Paradise and Utopia (podcast), October 2, 2015 [20:30-22:00])

Old Believers

The Old Believers or Raskolniks were Russian Orthodox schismatics, who maintained the liturgical and ritual practices of the Russian Church as they were before the reforms of Patriarch Nikon of Moscow between 1652 and 1666. In his book, Russia, Ritual and Reform (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, 1991), Paul Meyendorff points out, “Because the Old Believers believed that externals in themselves expressed the content of the faith, they saw any change as heretical” (p. 28) TRS sympathizes with the Old Believers as those who “let go of their wealth, respect, and honour to suffer affliction with the people of God” (p. 61). While TRS authors speak contemptuously of the Holy Eucharist and other Holy Mysteries, infant baptism, the priesthood and clergy, icons, crosses, relics, incense, Slavonic hymns, and temples with towers and shinning domes, TRS readers should know that the early Old Believers, although nonconformist, had no objection at all to any of these elements essential to Orthodox worship. 

Avvakum's Exile in Siberia

In the words of TRS authors, Archpriest Avvakum (d. 1682), one of the most fanatical of the Raskolniks, “sought to please Christ no matter what it cost,” (p. 55) “warned the faithful not to have anything to do with Nikon’s fallen church” (p. 56) and denounced “Nikon's heresy” (p. 57). For the record, there was nothing “heretical” with the Nikonian liturgical reforms. While Avvakum was burned at the stake in the reign of Peter the Great's brother Feodor III, Peter the Great (r. 1682-1721) himself would not burn the schismatics. Several thousand of the fanatics, disappointed in failing to obtain a crown of martyrdom, decided to burn themselves. Peter the Great, through much effort and difficulty, managed to stop the practice of mass-destruction, although it made him still more contemptuous of religion. Beginning with the reign of Catherine the Great (1762-1796), penal laws against the Old Believers became inoperative and the Russian government took pride in its religious toleration. 

TRS glorifies the schismatic Old Believers, but Orthodox ecclesiology cannot sanction their departure from the Church because of ritual reform, which, by the way, was sanctioned by the bishops of both the Russian and Greek Orthodox churches. In his excellent and well-balanced book on the subject, Paul Meyendorff gives the following conclusive summary:

The consequences of the reform are well known. A large portion of the Russian Church refused to accept the new books, and the resulting schism endures to the present. . . . Tsar Alexis, brought up in grecophile circles, sincerely desired the unification of the Greek and Russian churches. . . . The way to do this, the tsar believed, was to unify Greek and Russian liturgical practice. . . . The tsar tried to pacify the opposition with repeated attempts at compromise, but by then it was too late. Thus, while the reform succeeded in its primary aim of aligning Greek and Russian practice, it failed to achieve its underlying goal (Russia, Ritual, and Reform, 226-227).

Russian Orthodox Old-Rite Church paschal procession in Guslitsa, Moscow region, 2008

In their disdain for the Orthodox Church, TRS authors identify with the Raskolniks in the seventeenth century schism and esteem the Old Believers as foundational to other nonconformist groups when they write, “Without them [the Old Believers], the story of all Russians who followed them on the narrow way (Spirit Christians, Stundists, and Evangelicals) would be unthinkable” (p. 70). Though some “Spirit Christians” originated from the Bezpopovtsy (Priestless) Old Believers, most came from Protestant movements imported from Europe to Russia by Western missionaries, travelers and workers. Similarly, the Shtundists were the predecessors of several Evangelical Protestant groups and the Russian Union of Evangelical Christians is a Baptist denomination. As we shall see in a future post, these denominations had very little in common with the Old Believer schism, so how can they all simultaneously be on the narrow way? What all of these sectarian religious groups do have in common is not their beliefs and practices or a unified Christian faith, but their “nonconformity” and rejection of the Orthodox Church.  

Popovtsy, Bezpopovtsy, and Edinovertsy

Common to all schismatic groups, the Old Believers soon broke up into more and more denominations: the Popovtsy (Priested), Bezpopovtsy (Priestless), and Edinovertsy (“People of the same faith”). TRS pays very little attention to the historical developments of the Popovtsy (Priested), perhaps due to their more moderate conservatism and striving to continue religious and church life as it had existed before the reforms of Patriarch Nikon. In 1846, they convinced a former Greek Orthodox bishop, Metropolitan Ambrose (1791–1863), to become an Old Believer and to consecrate three Old Believer priests as bishops in order to establish their own episcopate. 

Metropolitan Ambrose (1791–1863), the first Old Believers' bishop of the Old-Rite Church.

On the other hand, the Bezpopovtsy (Priestless) continued their adherence to the old ritual of the Russian Orthodox Church and claimed that any priest who ever used the Nikonian rites had forfeited their apostolic succession. To the priestless Old Believers, Christ's true Church had ceased to exist, and they therefore renounced priests and all holy mysteries (including marriage), except baptism. Even still, the TRS authors note, “it became common for [Bezpopovtsy] converts to baptise themselves by trine immersion” (p. 62).  The Bezpopovtsy not only had no priests, but also had no Eucharist. Priestless churches divided into many sects, the subgroups centered around the problem of marriage and relations with the state: Danilovtsy who initially they rejected marriage and prayer for the Tsar; Novopomortsy (or “New Pomortsy”) who accepted marriage; Staropomortsy (“Old Pomortsy”) who rejected marriage; Fedoseevtsy who denied marriage and practiced asceticism; Filippians who started practicing self-immolation as a means for the “preservation of the faith”; and Chasovennye who initially had priests, but later decided to change to a priestless practice. Bolshakoff writes, 

Such disorder led several eminent monks to abandon the Priestless and return to the Church. Concubinage often led to abortion child murder, and illegitimacy; and this moral degeneration of the Priestless alarmed their best elements (Russian Nonconformity, 73).  

TRS makes sense of these incompatible divisions when it is said: 

The Bespopovtsy . . . in particular had little use for officially ordained men, central authority, and organisational ties linking communities one with another. While communities in one place apostatised or got strange ideas, others improved and drew closer to Christ. (p. 69)

By 1870, there were 130 different Raskol sects in Russia. “This multiplicity of sects and their continuous subdivisions could not fail to confuse many Raskolniks,” writes Bolshakoff (Russian Nonconformity, 83). TRS draws our attention to an “exciting movement” (p. 66) known as the Stranniki (wanderers or “road Christians”), a much more minor Old Believer sect. Yefim Pereyaslavsky, a convert from Poltava, decided that Old Believers had grown too comfortable, so he took on the rule of the Rechabites and John the Baptist and called for total forsaking of houses and lands. To be a Christian or Stranniki, one must die to the world, baptizing himself in a river by triple immersion. Bolshakoff observes, 

Highly individualistic, recognizing no authority whatsoever, perfect anarchists in fact, the Wanderers occasionally fell into grievous sins of the flesh and even committed crimes. Then they purified their lapses with most extraordinary penances. It seems that well-known Gregory Rasputin knew intimately this sect and even lived as a Wanderer for a time. (p. 79) 

Due to their multiplicity of sects and abysmal doctrine, the Soviet Revolution practically ended the Priestless Old Believers in Russia.