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Why are the Old Believers so rich? Life, observations of "developing"

M. SOKOLOV: Good evening. On the air of “Echo of Moscow” and the TV channel “RTVi” “The Price of Victory. The price of revolution." Mikhail Sokolov is at the microphone. Today in our studio is Alexander Pyzhikov, professor of the Russian State University for the Humanities, Doctor of Historical Sciences. We are talking today about the Old Believers, or schismatics, in the era before and during the Great War. The initiators were the NRZB sponsors of the revolution, as some suggest. Actually, I will start with a general approach. Alexander Vladimirovich, official statistics gave the figure of 2 million schismatics in Russia. But in fact, what part of the population of the Russian Empire at the beginning of the 20th century was in different senses, trends, agreements of the old faith?

A. PYZHIKOV: Good evening. Of course, the issue of statistics of Old Believers is the most painful pressing issue in the study of this entire phenomenon of Russian history. It's not just important. As important as it is, it is also confusing. Because, of course, there are no reliable statistics about how many Old Believers were in our country at different times in history. To answer it, one must, of course, remember the decree of Peter I - this was the time of the first revision in 1716. That is, this is the first revision that described how many people are on the territory of the Russian Empire, then for the first time the question was raised of who would classify themselves as an Old Believers, as schismatics, as they said then. The result was that of those who participated in this census, in modern terms, 2% of the population called themselves Old Believers - 191 thousand people, a little more. This amounted to 2% of the population of the Russian Empire. Since then, from 1716 until the end of the 19th century, namely until the 1897 census, the census of the Russian Empire, which was carried out by decree of Nicholas II, this figure - 2% of the population - practically did not change. And 1897 gave the same results. In the “Religious affiliation” column, again, the same 2% of the population classified themselves as schismatics. Only the population of the empire increased and therefore it was no longer 191 thousand people, as in 1716, but already about 2 million people. But nevertheless, this is still the same 2% of the empire’s population. These are quantitative data. They tried to cast doubt on them. They tried to question them and find out what the real state of affairs in this matter was by the imperial power itself, namely Nicholas I. Emperor Nicholas I initiated and conducted large-scale geographical, as they were called then, statistical in spirit, studies regarding the community of Old Belief. He checked the great interest in this religious denomination, which existed on the territory of the country, and was constantly told that, of course, we are not talking about any 2% here, it is simply inappropriate to talk about this. Then Nicholas I had a reasonable question: how much exactly? Three, as they were then called, expeditions (commissions, expeditions, to use the terminology of those years) were organized selectively in the provinces of the central region - namely, to Kostroma, Nizhny Novgorod and Yaroslavl. These expeditions were organized by the central apparatus of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. It was the Ministry of Internal Affairs in those years that was the main ministry and was in charge of the affairs of the split. Why through the central apparatus? Because the data provided by local provincial authorities was known. They did not inspire confidence in the authorities. Therefore, in order to clarify the real true state of affairs, it was decided to send officials of the central apparatus, who were in no way connected with the local authorities, to give them the broadest powers in this matter, so that they could somehow clarify this issue.

M. SOKOLOV: So how?

A. PYZHIKOV: By the way, we were lucky. Historians are lucky. Because we have a very complete understanding of these commissions. Especially about the Yaroslavl commission, which was headed by Count Stenbock-Fermor, there was this... A 27-year-old official of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the central apparatus, Ivan Sergeevich Aksakov, a future Russian writer and publicist known to everyone, worked on this commission. So, Aksakov wrote letters from there - from the Yaroslavl province - to his family back home, where he shared his impressions, which he had gleaned a lot there. By the way, these expeditions were not short-term. They lasted 2-3 years.

M. SOKOLOV: Alexander Vladimirovich, don’t be tormented. How many were actually counted for the provinces?

A. PYZHIKOV: These officials and the Ministry of Defense came to the conclusion that the figures that appear in provincial reports need to be multiplied by 11 times. But they made the comment: “Apparently, this does not reflect the true state of affairs.”

M. SOKOLOV: That is, apparently, the ratio remained approximately the same, that is, at least 25-30% actually belonged not to the Nikonian faith, but to the Old Belief...

A. PYZHIKOV: In 1897, when the census was carried out and the same 2% of schismatics - 2 million - were indicated, then a lot of articles immediately appeared in the Russian press of those years that began to comment on this. The articles were titled: “2 million or 20?” That is, again this is a tenfold, elevenfold increase. That is, even the increase, which was recorded in good faith in the Nicholas era (Nicholas I), has been preserved. Apparently, if we are to put an end to this issue, it must be said here in this way: if 2% is really of the population of the empire, and in general there were over 70% of Orthodox Christians in the Russian Empire, then, it seems to me, taking into account all those events that then happened to this empire - the fact that it ceased to exist allows us to talk about a figure of 35% of the population of the Orthodox who lived in our country.

M. SOKOLOV: Let me remind you that Alexander Pyzhikov, Doctor of Historical Sciences, is on the air of Echo of Moscow. We are talking about schismatics, Old Believers... The phone number for SMS so you can send your question is +7-985-970-45-45. Alexander Vladimirovich, didn’t the empire perceive the Old Believers as foreign agents? After all, as I understand it, the highest hierarchy, for example, of the priests, was outside Russia, but, in my opinion, in Austria-Hungary. Is that how it was?

A. PYZHIKOV: Yes. The white cornice is, of course, a well-known historical plot...

M. SOKOLOV: That is, they tried to control them all the time, so to speak, as such a suspicious community.

A. PYZHIKOV: Yes, especially the same Nicholas I, whom we just mentioned. He was generally preoccupied with various revolutionary ideas and movements that developed at that time and gained popularity in the West. Therefore, he was worried about everything that poses a threat to his throne, so to speak. And the Old Believers as well.

M. SOKOLOV: Okay. If we talk about, in fact, that part of the Old Believers who rose up, got rich, and so on... If you look at your book, you get the feeling that something interesting happened there, I would say, with morality at the end of the 19th century. After all, many Old Believers actually got rich with community money, with public money. And then it turned out that they privatized this common, so to speak, confessional property, and became merchants and factory owners. However, they seem to have retained their influence over their fellow believers, yes? Interesting, isn't this phenomenon? On the one hand, they seemed to have robbed them a little, but on the other hand they could influence them. How to explain this?

A. PYZHIKOV: Yes, indeed. This interest of Nicholas I in the Old Belief ended with the Old Belief falling under the harsh repressive pressure that he imposed. That is, he decided that since the matter here is dark and murky with this old belief, then it all needs to be destroyed. Nicholas I first of all tried to destroy the economic model, the economic model of the Old Belief. And rightly so, as you said, the economic model of the Old Belief was based not on private property, but on communal property. In our language, on public property. That is, such collective principles in economics. Why was this? Where did this come from? Why has it been preserved this way? It's very simple. Because the Old Belief was the losing religious denomination that was always subject to persecution and pressure. In order to survive in an environment that was alien to them, first of all, from a religious standpoint, then, of course, some kind of collective effort was required. Therefore, their entire development and the building of their lives did not occur around the establishment of the institution of private property, but around collective communal principles. That is, “all together must support life and preserve our faith.” Hence such conservation and glorification of such collective principles. All this really was in the Old Belief. On the part of the authorities, this was not revealed so clearly and clearly at first. This understanding came only in the mid-19th century. Again, it was Nicholas I and his officials who established this first. What happened? It turned out that Nicholas I decided to simply stop this practice and transfer everything to the normal, so to speak, rails of Roman law...

M. SOKOLOV: That is, register the property to private owners.

A. PYZHIKOV: Yes, everything is as it should be. That is, the heirs must inherit, there, the right of inheritance cannot be called into question by anything and everything else. Although there, inside this confessional Old Believer society, there was a different logic and other, so to speak, laws, if they can be called laws. The managers were not the owners. They were the managers of these enterprises. They were not the true owners. And they could not convey to someone if the children ceased, as it were, to be related to the faith or did not show the same business qualities as their parents. Now, in the mid-19th century, this model is completely broken under pressure from the authorities. And it is being normalized from the point of view of civilized civil law. The right of inheritance has been fully restored. And it must be said that these managers, who looked like owners in the first half of the 19th century to the authorities, quickly realized how this power press gave them advantages. What are the benefits? The benefits are simple. Dependence not on gentiles, but on imperial law, of course, seemed more promising. They quickly accepted these rules of the game that the authorities imposed. And, in fact, from the middle... More precisely, after the abolition of serfdom, already in the post-reform period, they completely integrated into the civil and legal field of the empire and became the same capitalists as those from St. Petersburg or the south or some others.

M. SOKOLOV: As I understand it, in Russia, somewhere towards the end of the 19th century, a fairly powerful Moscow group of merchants, manufacturers and people from the Old Believers appeared who found mutual understanding with the authorities, at least under Alexander III. On what basis did this mutual understanding arise at that moment?

A. PYZHIKOV: Of course, it appeared. You're right. This must be highlighted and said that this is such an integral and important feature of the history of the 19th century. Since the middle of the 19th century, the entire second half of this century is characterized by the fact that the most powerful economic player entered the economic arena - the Moscow merchant group. Why Moscow? This is not in the sense that it acted exclusively within the framework of Moscow. Moskovskaya is somewhat of a common noun. They lived in Moscow. But their factories, manufactories and enterprises were located throughout central Russia. This is a huge enclave. Center of Russia, Volga region. This Moscow group grew up absolutely on market conditions, absolutely without the help of the government, they did not ask for help and they did not think that there was any need to help anyone... They had their own interests - foreign, noble circles. So, this group, which grew up on confessional market peasant foundations, they all came from peasant backgrounds, semi-literate. Especially the first ones. This group began to lay claim to its rightful place in the Russian Empire, arguing that “We are, in fact, original Russian people. We are locals, we are not foreigners, we are not half-Germans, like this bureaucracy and so on. And we have the right, so to speak, to a controlling stake in the Russian economy. We are Russian people, we have this right.”

M. SOKOLOV: And, in general, it somehow fortunately coincided with the change in the official ideology...

A. PYZHIKOV: Of course. Alexander II seemed to be tolerant of them, but at a distance. Many facts speak about this. That is, he did not strive to meet them, but at the same time, of course, he stopped the practice that Nicholas I used. That is, these are diametrically opposite things. But he did not cooperate. There was such a quiet, friendly neutrality. With Alexander III the situation changes. And it changes very noticeably. We all remember that Alexander III was such a nationally oriented sovereign, so to speak... Alexander II, by the way, spoke French most of the time. With Alexander III the situation, of course, changes absolutely radically. It is nationally-emphasized. He relies on national forces, since the ideological course of Alexander III was ensured by the so-called Russian party, as it is called in history. This is a Russian party, which included Slavophiles, Aksakov, whom we mentioned, Samarin, Chizhov - this is such a businessman of the Slavophile spill, a group led by Katkov, who, naturally, also showed himself in the national field, Prince Meshchersky is a childhood friend Alexander III, who, so to speak, the branch of the Russian Party in St. Petersburg, as it was called, arranged...

M. SOKOLOV: The newspaper “Citizen”...

A. PYZHIKOV: Yes, the newspaper “Citizen”. And it was these people who gathered a different audience... Moreover, the writer Dostoevsky was there. He participated in these meetings. Melnikov-Pechersky, who wrote about the Old Believer epic in the forests on the mountains. That is, everything was imbued with such a national spirit.

M. SOKOLOV: Dostoevsky advised them: “Call the gray zipuns,” that is, “Turn to the peasantry, to the people”... They, the merchants, were called, people from the people...

A. PYZHIKOV: Well, it happened... This group, called the Russian Party, found an object worthy of applying its ideological views. Moreover, these merchants willingly went to this meeting, because they understood that not everyone at the top of that time was ready to cooperate with them. They understood everything perfectly. They were happy to play people who came from the people, who needed to be taken care of, whose business needed to be helped in every possible way.

M. SOKOLOV: They helped,

A. PYZHIKOV: Of course, they helped. Alexander III took a step towards them. In general, I even say in my book using this formulation that the Moscow Old Believer merchants represented a kind of economic branch of the Russian Party. They fed Katkov and Aksakov with economic ideas. What economic ideas? This is protectionism. Strict protectionism. Of course they helped. Alexander III agreed to this. His Minister of Finance is Vyshnegradsky, who was promoted to a key economic post through the efforts of Katkov, Aksakov, and Meshchersky instead of Bunge, whom they considered liberal and unworthy of responding to national ideas. Vyshnegradsky established the most powerful, it is known, protectionist customs tariff... The largest in Europe. And under the protection of his tariff...

M. SOKOLOV: That is, he closed the market and made their business opportunities more profitable?

A. PYZHIKOV: Yes, so that they become stronger, so that the internal economy becomes stronger, so that representatives of this internal economy can reach a new level. And they left. This is absolutely accurate. By the end of the 19th century, the Moscow merchant group became stronger than ever.

A. PYZHIKOV: Yes. In the history of the Old Believer merchants there are 2 key points. We have already talked about one - this is the mid-19th century, when they, in fact, entered the civil field of the empire. And the second nodal point, which affected the fate of the entire Russian Empire, was the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, associated with the change in the course of tsarism. What exactly was this change? Of course, the protectionist tariff was high, and it remained high. Minister of Finance Witte, who by that time had become Minister of Finance, naturally did not attempt to assassinate him. But he put forward the following idea, which he personified himself. The idea was to attract foreign capital in volumes unprecedented before. The logic was simple: “Russian merchants are good, no one says. But it can take a very long time to wait until they reach the required conditions when they grow up. We will be hopelessly behind the West. Therefore, you need to make a leap immediately. First of all, we need to open the gates for foreign capital here. Let them come here, equip production facilities, enterprises, make some industrial assets. This will allow you to make a leap forward. What about the merchants? Good, but let it wait.” That is, thereby indicating to them the second role. And they laid claim to the most important violin in the economy. And they were told that from now on there could be no talk of any first roles. This was very offensive for them because Witte started out absolutely as a person in the circles of Aksakov and Katkov. He was published in their publications, in their newspapers. His uncle - Fadeev - was the leader of the Russian Party, who wrote its manifestos and published them in circulation... They considered him one of their own and now this man (why did Witte have such a reputation as a chameleon) reoriented himself so much that St. Petersburg bankers led by Rodshtein, director of the International St. Petersburg Bank. This, of course, was just a slap in the face for the merchants that the person they considered one of their own treated them this way.

M. SOKOLOV: That is, it turned out that, as Alexey NRZB writes to us, that the conservatives turned into reformers and, it turns out, inclined towards such an active political position at some point, from which they shied away...

A. PYZHIKOV: The essence of the matter is absolutely right in this matter. I'll tell you a little more. Of course, when under Alexander III there was a renaissance of the Moscow merchants, even a renaissance of the Old Believers... Preobrazhenskoye and Rogozhskoye cemeteries felt better than ever... These are their spiritual centers. They were no longer financial arteries as before... Everything seemed to be going according to their scenario. And their policy, the policy of loyalty - crawling on their knees around the throne - is completely justified. Economic dividends are flowing into our hands. The Russian Party correctly formalizes these dividends and, so to speak, materializes them into specific policies. Everything is fine. But then, when Witte’s turn happened, which we are talking about, a turn towards foreign capital, the volume of which has never been seen in Russia... I will emphasize. Neither under Peter I, nor under Catherine II, this can even be said. This is in no way comparable. When such a new financial emphasis occurred, they realized that kneeling at the throne could not solve the issue. And the loyal spells to which they devoted all their time no longer work. Some other mechanisms are needed to get out of this situation, to somehow minimize their disadvantaged position in which they so unexpectedly found themselves.

M. SOKOLOV: So what? How did this bloc come about - on the one hand the merchants, on the other hand a certain zemstvo liberal-democratic movement. How did they find each other?

A. PYZHIKOV: The liberal movement, in fact, until the end of the 19th century was a rather pathetic sight. Even all those police sources who monitored and analyzed all this - they did not hide their irony towards this movement. They said that there are 10-15 people there who are capable of taking some decisive steps, the rest are just not serious, there are no fears. That's how it remained. Until the beginning of the 20th century, no one succeeded in trying to interest the merchants in some kind of liberal constitutional projects. This

The attempts were absolutely doomed. Now the situation has changed. The merchants quickly and actively began to look for new mechanisms. What new mechanisms? Mechanisms to limit autocracy and the ruling bureaucracy, so that there would be no such things as Witte did with them, so to speak primitively. These mechanisms were immediately found. They were already tested in Europe a long time ago, they bloomed there. This is what constitutional government is like. That is, all legal rights should be expressed not by the supreme will, but by the constitution, first of all. And the ruling bureaucracy should not have a monopoly on governance. That is, parliamentary forms should limit it in implementing policies. The merchants saw this mechanism and began to invest in it.

M. SOKOLOV: And which of the groups of the same Old Believers - priests, non-priests, whatever - turned out to be the most active in supporting these movements?

A. PYZHIKOV: This is a very important point, which is often overlooked. Namely, when we say “Old Believers”, “schismatics”, “Old Believers merchants” - this is not entirely correct. Because to be ideologically precise, you must always keep in mind which Old Believers are priests or non-priests. Of course, all we are talking about is this Moscow merchant group - the backbone of it was the priests, this is the Belokrinitsky hierarchy, which we mentioned. The main backbone of millionaires who grew up from a peasant environment - they were representatives of the Belokrinitsky hierarchy, that is, the Rogozhsky cemetery. There were only a few Bezpopovites there. There are very few of them in the first row of leading millionaires.

M. SOKOLOV: Well, we will continue our conversation with Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor of the Russian State University for the Humanities Alexander Pyzhikov about the Old Believers, merchants before and during the Great War after the news release.

NEWS

M. SOKOLOV: On the air of “Echo of Moscow” and the TV channel “RTVi” “The Price of Victory. The price of revolution." Today our guest is Doctor of Historical Sciences Alexander Pyzhikov, author of the book “The Facets of the Russian Schism.” We continue our conversation about the role of Old Believers merchants in the changes that took place in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century. Well, right off the bat I have a question. Alexey asks: “Which of the groups of Old Believers was already most active in the revolutionary movement?” And Alexey Kuchegashev wrote: “What connected Savva Morozov and the Bolsheviks?” Truly the most interesting figure. Apparently, maybe the brightest. Merchants appeared who sponsored not only the liberals and the zemstvo movement, but also the Social Democrats. Why?

A. PYZHIKOV: Firstly, the merchants had a special position in the opposition movement. Because we talked about how they ended up in this opposition movement. They invested in establishing the formation of a mechanism for limiting the ruling bureaucracy headed by the emperor, then their interest was immediately focused on all those who shared these ideas. These ideas always smoldered among the intelligentsia, zemstvo people, some third element...

M. SOKOLOV: I think the bureaucracy too.

A. PYZHIKOV: Yes. This is a special article. There, of course, yes. This is also a little-known page. But if now we are talking about the merchants, yes... That is, such different groups have always existed. Small groups. This is at the circle level. This never went beyond the circle level until the beginning of the 20th century. It always remained there. Therefore, when I looked at all these police reports on this topic in the archives, no one expressed any concern. This is absolutely true. But everything changed at the beginning of the 20th century. And according to these police reports, by 1903, one can feel that they were filled with anxiety. They feel that something has changed. What has changed? A fashion for liberalism and a constitution arose. This fashion arose in Russian society, primarily among the intelligentsia. Where? How did this happen? The answer here is very simple. The Moscow merchant class has done one very significant thing since the end of the 19th century, which everyone knows about, but no one understands and they have now forgotten the purpose of this cultural...

M. SOKOLOV: Everyone was in the Tretyakov Gallery.

A. PYZHIKOV: Yes, a cultural and educational project, so to speak, initiated and paid for, most importantly, by the Moscow merchants. Prominent representatives of the Moscow merchant clan actually created this entire cultural and educational infrastructure, in modern terms. What am I talking about? The Tretyakov Gallery, which was going... Let's not forget how it was going. She was going to spite the Imperial Hermitage. The Hermitage was filled with paintings by Western European artists. Here the emphasis was on our own people, on the Russians. And, in fact, this is the backbone of the Tretyakov Gallery. Then the theater is the Moscow Art Theater, the Moscow Art Theater is nothing more than the invention and implementation of a merchant’s idea. This is a very significant phenomenon. It goes beyond the boundaries of cultural life... It has survived the boundaries of 1905, 1917, and 1991. That is, how good and fruitful an idea it really was. The head of the Moscow Art Theater was, as you know, Konstantin Sergeevich Stanislavsky. Not everyone knows that this is the Old Believer merchant family of the Alekseevs. He is one of Alekseev’s relatives, who was even the Moscow city mayor in the capital city... The Moscow Art Theater circulated, carried liberal-democratic ideas. He made them fashionable. Gorky’s plays are well known to everyone... For example, “At the Lower Depths” is known to everyone - this is nothing more than the fulfillment of the order of the Moscow Art Theater, which asked Gorky to write something so democratic, touching the soul, and Gorky produced this play “At the Lower Depths”. There were all these premieres, which ended with huge sell-outs, and then demonstrations honoring Gorky and the Moscow Art Theater for making such a cultural product. Mamontov's operas, Mamontov's private operas, where the discovery of Russian culture shone - this is Fyodor Chaliapin. This is all Mamontov’s discovery. And what operas this private opera staged! What performances! “Khovanshchina” is an absolutely Old Believer epic that is unpleasant for the Romanovs. “Boris Godunov” is, again, an unpleasant page for the House of Romanov. Such tricky ideas were taken out and circulated to the public. That is, this infrastructure created such a liberal-democratic atmosphere. And many educated people from the intelligentsia immediately began to show interest in her. A fashion has emerged, as I have already said, for liberalism. But the Moscow merchants did not stop there.

A. PYZHIKOV: You said the right thing in your question, the radio listener is asking the question correctly. How are these revolutionary elements? That's right, because the merchants understood perfectly well that different respectable zemstvos of noble origin and knowledgeable professors were not enough - this was not enough to push through the model of limiting autocracy and ruling democracy. Yes, this is good, it is necessary, but it is not enough. It will be much more convincing if all these ideas sound against the backdrop of explosions, bombs and gunfire. Here they needed an audience that could provide this background. And the merchants occupied, as I said, a unique position in the opposition movement. It communicated with professors and zemstvo people, who were princes and counts, some of them... And it felt just as comfortable with those layers that could carry out these terrorist acts and something like that...

M. SOKOLOV: And Savva Mamontov? Was he an exotic character in this case?

A. PYZHIKOV: A normal merchant character. Why is he on everyone's lips?

M. SOKOLOV: Because such a tragic fate is suicide...

A. PYZHIKOV: In May 1905... There are different versions. Some say that he was killed, others that he shot himself. This can be found out...

M. SOKOLOV: The money went partially to the Bolsheviks.

A. PYZHIKOV: Of course, he communicated. Gorky testifies to this. But why do they say?.. Savva Timofeevich Mamontov...

M. SOKOLOV: Savva Morozov.

A. PYZHIKOV: Morozov, excuse me. Savva Timofeevich Morozov is such a bright character, you’re right. But the matter is not limited to them. This is not some kind of personal initiative of his. This is an initiative that was shown by a whole clan, this is a community of merchants. This is the merchant elite. There are many other names there. The same one that was mentioned, Mamontov, the Ryabushinsky brothers, who also did much more on this path than the same Savva Morozov. And then there are a lot of surnames. Moreover, not only from Moscow.

M. SOKOLOV: They write to us: “The Chetverikovs, Rukavishnikovs, Dunaevs, Zhivagos, Shchukins, Vostryakovs, Khludovs” - all this is one group, right?

A. PYZHIKOV: The Khludovs, the Shchukins, the Chetverikovs - this is all one group, this is the so-called Moscow group.

M. SOKOLOV: Alexander Vladimirovich, okay. A revolution took place, so to speak, they achieved the State Duma, achieved some limitation of autocracy, although the Duma did not control approximately 40% of the budget of state-owned companies and state banks, and did not have direct influence on the government either. That is, it turned out like this: we fought and fought, sponsored and sponsored, but there was no result. What happened before the First World War, again, with this group? What was its political activity, this Moscow merchant group, I would say?

A. PYZHIKOV: Of course, the Duma was established. In general, in my opinion, Nicholas II would have established this Duma anyway, only, of course, according to his own scenario, with his own logic, in his own sequence, which he planned to observe. But he didn't succeed. These turbulent events, especially in the autumn of 1905, are the so-called Moscow aggravation. The December uprising is the highest point of this aggravation. The December armed uprising in Moscow disrupted this scenario.

M. SOKOLOV: Yes, when merchants purchased weapons for their workers.

A. PYZHIKOV: Yes. This is absolutely, as it were... I am absolutely not a pioneer here. Many authors pointed out that the entire strike wave in Moscow began with plants and factories that belonged to merchants. The mechanism is very simple. They paid wages, but said that you didn’t have to work that day. As you understand, there were a lot of people willing. Everyone was happy to participate in this. This was encouraged. This initiated this whole strike wave. This mechanism has long been discovered. Many scientists have written about this. In this case, I simply summarized most of what was written. Of course, not everything. So, the establishment of this Duma took place. Yes, the Legislative Duma. We have not yet applied for more. It was necessary to see how this new state mechanism would work. That is, it was necessary to test how it would function in action. Here, from the merchant clan, the famous Moscow figure Alexander Ivanovich Guchkov undertook to carry out this testing, so to speak. His position in the Moscow merchant class is special. He did not belong to the main backbone of this Moscow merchant class, namely to the Belokrinitsky hierarchy. He left the Feodosievo Bespopovsky Consent. But by the end of the 19th century he was a fellow believer. It was such a camouflage network, such an image. He was a fellow believer, although, of course, he treated Orthodoxy no better than his ancestors. This is understandable. But this Guchkov Alexander Ivanovich is an active political figure. He advanced in 1905. He undertook to become a kind of leader who expresses the interests of the Moscow merchants in relation to the authorities, to the government, to St. Petersburg. He established a very warm and trusting relationship with Prime Minister Stolypin. This is a known fact. He convinced all these Moscow circles that he could make this model, which was pushed in 1905, work, work the way he would like, and he would be responsible for it. He heads the largest faction in the State Duma, the Octobrist faction, he has complete trusting relationships with Stolypin, so he can,

In our language, resolve all commercial issues.

M. SOKOLOV: But it didn’t work out.

A. PYZHIKOV: His first experience was positive in 1908. Still, Guchkov and the Duma were able to persuade Stolypin to stop initiatives to create a trust from metallurgical activities in the south, where foreign capital was at the core. This was a very big victory in 1908. Economic historians know it, I think they remember it. Then, of course, the slippage began. Feeling this, Guchkov decided to take an extreme step. He decided to head the third State Duma in order to gain access to the Tsar. He then received the right of permanent reporting to the emperor. He decided to use this right to influence him. And therefore, in 1910, from the leader of the largest faction, he became the chairman of the State Duma. But communication with the king did not work out. Specifically, Guchkov planned... He was convinced that he had persuaded the Tsar to appoint one character as Minister of the Navy. Nicholas II agreed, saw him off with a smile and appointed another - Grigorovich in 1911, after which it became clear to everyone what kind of influence Guchkov had, that it was close to zero, if any could be talked about here at all. After this, the merchants began to comprehend, realizing that this model would lead to nothing.

M. SOKOLOV: Alexander Vladimirovich, it turns out that somewhere in 1914 we see a real political aggravation by the summer of 1914, exactly similar to the same scenario in the summer before 1905 - practically the same slogans, strikes begin at various enterprises, Moscow in particular. What is this? That means they're back to their old ways again, right? Only by finding allies, as I understand it, also in the bureaucracy. A. PYZHIKOV: Here is the most interesting episode of our history of the tsarist empire, which for some reason falls out of the field of view of researchers. We just talked about Guchkov, that he tried to play some role as an intermediary between the government and Moscow business circles. All this ended in his complete political bankruptcy at that time. Then another character was found who took on this role with great success and reason. We are not talking about some person from the merchant class, but about one of the royal favorites, the favorites of the royal couple - the emperor and empress. I'm talking about Alexander Vasilyevich Krivoshein. This is an extremely interesting figure in Russian history. What's interesting? He moved up the royal bureaucratic ladder, moving very confidently and quickly. That is, it was a very turbulent career. She was provided by one of the tsar's close associates - Goremykin. This was the Prime Minister, the Minister of Internal Affairs. He provided patronage to Krivoshein. Krivoshein moved very quickly and ended up in Stolypin’s government almost as his right hand. But one detail is overlooked. Krivoshein was not just a tsarist bureaucrat. He married at the end of the 19th century the granddaughter of Timofey Isaevich Morozov, the very pillar, father of Savva Morozov, Elena Karpova, to be precise in her last name. And he became related to such a merchant clan, which was in the center of this entire Moscow bourgeoisie and Moscow merchant class. He became his own. And here we are, for the first time in Russian history, which did not happen throughout the entire 19th century, and there is no need to talk about an earlier time, we are witnessing a strange coincidence of circumstances that the Tsar’s favorite and his own man were among the Moscow merchants. It was precisely his special position in these power and economic structures that allowed him to become central in promoting the parliamentary project, that is, transforming the Duma from a legislative one into a full-fledged parliament in the Western sense of the word. That is, the Duma, which not only makes laws, but also which influences appointments in the government, which governs. Krivoshein wanted to do this. The Moscow merchants, naturally connected with him by family ties, entered into a stronger alliance with him than with Guchkov. At that time, he had already moved into second or third roles, he is not visible. It was Krivoshein who undertook to push this from above. This is 1915. In 1914, before the war, it all started, it started successfully, Krivoshein took very successful steps to eliminate his opponents from the government. Of course, there was a corresponding strike fund in St. Petersburg. It all started again. Of course, other people were in charge here - this is the Social Democratic faction of the Duma “Trudoviki”, where Kerensky is already appearing. They were already led by representatives of the merchant class, in

In particular, Konovalov is a major capitalist, Ryabushinsky’s closest ally, a whole group ally... He is also a very prominent and respected merchant of Moscow. He was in touch, he was also a member of the State Duma, he was responsible for this direction. That is, this whole situation has become agitated again. In 1915, there were already war conditions, but nevertheless, due to the fact that there were failures at the front, it was decided to raise this topic again. Krivoshein started it...

M. SOKOLOV: That is, a progressive bloc was created from the right to actually social democrats in the Duma under the slogan of such a responsible government of people's trust. In fact, it turns out that you believe that it was the Moscow merchant group that stood behind him.

A. PYZHIKOV: In economic terms, if all this had worked out and been implemented, then in an economic sense the Moscow merchant class would have been the main beneficiary of this whole business. This is beyond any doubt.

M. SOKOLOV: Why didn’t Nicholas II make such a decision? On the contrary, he somehow turned his back, eventually dismissed Krivoshein, and went into confrontation. What was the point? The project was quite profitable during the war. They promised stabilization, complete mutual understanding with a virtually stable majority in the Duma. Why did he make such a suicidal decision?

A. PYZHIKOV: Still, probably, the key words here are “During the war.” This whole epic, the whole story with the progressive bloc, developed during the war. Nicholas II refused to make such political steps under military conditions. He believed that it was still necessary to first bring this war to a victorious end and then, on the laurels of the winner, return to this topic, but not before. It was precisely this sequence of actions that he advocated very firmly. And Krivoshein could not convince him. Krivoshein said that we need to do this, it will have a better effect on our military affairs and we will win faster. But Nicholas II believed that it was still better to lead the army. He became supreme commander just in August 1915. “This is now more timely than getting carried away with political combinations. Political combinations,” he believed, “will wait until the end of the war. We’ll return to them later.” In the meantime, he laid down his authority, which, by the way, Krivoshein did not advise him to do - to put his authority and his figure, his royal persona on the altar, that it was better to let the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich, lead the troops. Even in case of failure, everything can be attributed to him. But Nicholas II decided that he would take it all upon himself, this was his duty. And he was completely committed to the military direction, which is natural during the war years. And he decided to leave all political combinations and political actions for later. But since Krivoshein and his allies from the government insisted, he was forced to part with them, so to speak.

M. SOKOLOV: Okay. Well, nevertheless, with the participation of the merchants, who are already familiar to us, military-industrial committees and working groups were created. The police, in particular, I see, considered them a network of conspirators, destabilizers and so on. But in their core activities they were not effective enough... What is your opinion? What kind of structures were these anyway? Were these structures that helped the army or were they structures that prepared some kind of political actions?

A. PYZHIKOV: During the war years, it was in Moscow that she was the initiator... Bourgeois circles, zemstvo circles initiated the creation of public organizations to help the front. That is, the idea is that the bureaucracy cannot cope with its responsibilities, cannot ensure victory, so the public must get involved. Here in the person of the Zemstvo City Union and such a new organization... This is an invention of the First World War - these are military-industrial committees, where the bourgeoisie gathers its strength and helps the front forge victory. But let us note that all military-industrial committees operated with government funds. All this from the budget went to these military-industrial committees. They operated with these amounts, but naturally did not really want to report. Here, in addition to helping the front, so-called working groups arose under the military-industrial committees... Again, this is a signature sign of the Moscow merchants,

When the popular strata again came together to solve some problems that they needed to push through at the top. Such a fund was created. These working groups, so to speak, demonstrated the voice of the people in support of the initiatives being implemented by the merchant bourgeoisie. By the way, there are a lot of working groups... For example, under the Central Military-Industrial Committee - this is under the Central Military-Industrial Committee - they did very big things. With the help of the working group, the Putilov plant, which belonged to the banking group of the Russian-Asian bank, was sequestered. The Moscow merchants always opposed the St. Petersburg banks and tried to infringe on them as much as possible. Work groups contributed here even during the First World War. And of course, immediately before February 1917, all those memoirs that have been published and studied in emigration now allow us to assert that the working groups were truly a combat headquarters, I’m not afraid of this word, to undermine the tsarist regime immediately at the last stage. It was they who coordinated all actions together with the Duma in order to show tsarism that it was doomed.

M. SOKOLOV: Tell me, the Guchkov conspiracy, the military-merchant conspiracy, which many of your colleagues write about, allegedly against Nikolai and Alexandra Fedorovna - is still a myth or an unrealized possibility due to such a spontaneous start of a soldier’s revolt in February 1917.

A. PYZHIKOV: Of course, this is not a myth. The entire sequence of actions performed by the Moscow merchants convinces us that this was done consciously. For this there were different allies - Guchkov, Krivoshein... By the way, when the tsar dismissed Krivoshein in September 1915, they quickly forgot about him, the entire Moscow merchant class. He is already becoming a nobody for them. They are already completely determined to openly undermine the tsarist regime. And here the theme of Rasputin reaches its climax. It has been smoldering for so long, and now it is becoming a powerful tool with the help of which the royal couple is discredited. The soldiers' riot, yes, happened. This is in February 1917. There really was a soldiers' revolt. Of course, they created the entire atmosphere in which it could happen, but they hardly expected those consequences.

M. SOKOLOV: And lastly, perhaps, I would still like to look into what you have not yet written about 1917. Why were these people, who were so actively striving for power, unable to retain it?

A. PYZHIKOV: Well, yes. Well, firstly, the February revolution of 1917 ended in bankruptcy. It was replaced by the October one and further... Well, because after all, the liberal project that the Moscow merchants promoted - it suffered a complete collapse, it was a fiasco. That is, the restructuring of state life on liberal, constitutional, liberal lines, as they wanted and believed that it would help Russia, did not completely come true. The masses turned out to be absolutely deaf to this liberal project, absolutely deaf. They didn't perceive him. They did not understand the charms that were obvious to the Moscow merchants, the political delights. The masses had completely different priorities, a different idea of how to live...

M. SOKOLOV: That is, the same communalism and the same idea of the old schismaticism?

A. PYZHIKOV: Yes. These deep layers... They lived in their communal, collective psychology. It was she who splashed out. The liberal project has become irrelevant here.

M. SOKOLOV: Thank you. Today the guest of the Echo of Moscow studio and the RTVi television program was Alexander Pyzhikov, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor of the Russian State University for the Humanities. This program was hosted today by Mikhail Sokolov. All the best to you.

A. PYZHIKOV: All the best.

M. SOKOLOV: Goodbye.

Mar. 14th, 2013

09:11 pm - Russian merchants-Old Believers at the beginning of the 20th century: initiators of reforms or sponsors of revolution? Continuation

M. SOKOLOV: Alexander Vladimirovich, Nicholas II comes, so what? Is the situation really changing? The Empire begins to pursue a policy of partially open doors and the introduction of foreign capital. This, in fact, leads to a conflict between the Moscow Old Believer merchants and the gradualist authorities, right? That is, they are trying to change something... This was really the most fundamental question for them - there, on the customs tariff, on some kind of export duties, and so on?

A. PYZHIKOV: Yes. In the history of the Old Believer merchants there are 2 key points. We have already talked about one - this is the mid-19th century, when they, in fact, entered the civil field of the empire. And the second nodal point, which affected the fate of the entire Russian Empire, was the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, associated with the change in the course of tsarism. What exactly was this change? Of course, the protectionist tariff was high, and it remained high. Minister of Finance Witte, who by that time had become Minister of Finance, naturally did not attempt to assassinate him. But he put forward the following idea, which he personified himself. The idea was to attract foreign capital in volumes unprecedented before. The logic was simple: “Russian merchants are good, no one says. But we can wait a very long time until they reach the required standards, when they grow up. We will hopelessly lag behind the West. Therefore, we need to immediately make a breakthrough. We need to open the gates here for foreign capital first of all. Let them come here, equip production facilities, make some industrial assets. This will allow them to make a leap forward. But let the merchants wait.” That is, thereby indicating to them the second role. And they laid claim to the most important violin in the economy. And they were told that from now on there could be no talk of any first roles. This was very offensive for them because Witte started out absolutely as a person in the circles of Aksakov and Katkov. He was published in their publications, in their newspapers. His uncle - Fadeev - was the leader of the Russian Party, who wrote its manifestos and published them in circulation... They considered him one of their own and now this man (why did Witte have such a reputation as a chameleon) reoriented himself so much that St. Petersburg bankers became his best friends in headed by Rodshtein, director of the International St. Petersburg Bank. This, of course, was just a slap in the face for the merchants that the person they considered one of their own treated them this way.

M. SOKOLOV: So what? How did this bloc come about - on the one hand, the merchants, on the other hand, a certain zemstvo liberal-democratic movement. How did they find each other?

A. PYZHIKOV: The liberal movement, in fact, until the end of the 19th century was a rather pitiful sight. Even all those police sources who monitored and analyzed all this - they did not hide their irony towards this movement. They said that there are 10-15 people there who are capable of taking some decisive steps, the rest are just not serious, there are no fears. That's how it remained. Until the beginning of the 20th century, no one succeeded in trying to interest the merchants in some kind of liberal constitutional projects. This

the attempts were absolutely doomed. Now the situation has changed. The merchants quickly and actively began to look for new mechanisms. What new mechanisms? Mechanisms to limit autocracy and the ruling bureaucracy, so that there would be no such things as Witte did with them, so to speak primitively. These mechanisms were immediately found. They were already tested in Europe a long time ago, they bloomed there. This is what constitutional government is like. That is, all legal rights should be expressed not by the supreme will, but by the constitution, first of all. And the ruling bureaucracy should not have a monopoly on governance. That is, parliamentary forms should limit it in implementing policies. The merchants saw this mechanism and began to invest in it.

M. SOKOLOV: And which of the groups of the same Old Believers - priests, non-priests, whatever - turned out to be the most active in supporting these movements?

M. SOKOLOV: On the air of “Echo of Moscow” and the TV channel “RTVi” “The Price of Victory. The Price of Revolution.” Today our guest is Doctor of Historical Sciences Alexander Pyzhikov, author of the book “The Facets of the Russian Schism.” We continue our conversation about the role of Old Believers merchants in the changes that took place in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century. Well, right off the bat I have a question. Alexey asks: “Which of the groups of Old Believers was most active in the revolutionary movement?” And Alexey Kuchegashev wrote: “What connected Savva Morozov and the Bolsheviks?” Truly the most interesting figure. Apparently, maybe the brightest. Merchants appeared who sponsored not only the liberals and the zemstvo movement, but also the Social Democrats. Why?

M. SOKOLOV: I think the bureaucracy too.

M. SOKOLOV: Everyone was in the Tretyakov Gallery.

A. PYZHIKOV: Yes, a cultural and educational project, so to speak, initiated and paid for, most importantly, by the Moscow merchants. Prominent representatives of the Moscow merchant clan actually created this entire cultural and educational infrastructure, in modern terms. What am I talking about? The Tretyakov Gallery, which was going... Let's not forget how it was going. She was going to spite the Imperial Hermitage. The Hermitage was filled with paintings by Western European artists. Here the emphasis was on our own people, on the Russians. And, in fact, this is the backbone of the Tretyakov Gallery. Then the theater is the Moscow Art Theater, the Moscow Art Theater is nothing more than the invention and implementation of a merchant’s idea. This is a very significant phenomenon. It goes beyond the boundaries of cultural life... It has survived the boundaries of 1905, 1917, and 1991. That is, how good and fruitful an idea it really was. The head of the Moscow Art Theater was, as you know, Konstantin Sergeevich Stanislavsky. Not everyone knows that this is the Old Believer merchant family of the Alekseevs. He is one of Alekseev’s relatives, who was even the Moscow city mayor in the capital city... The Moscow Art Theater circulated, carried liberal-democratic ideas. He made them fashionable. Gorky's plays are known to everyone... For example, "At the Lower Depths" is known to everyone - this is nothing more than the fulfillment of the order of the Moscow Art Theater, which asked Gorky to write something so democratic, touching the soul, and Gorky produced this play "At the Lower Depths". There were all these premieres, which ended with huge sell-outs, and then demonstrations honoring Gorky and the Moscow Art Theater for making such a cultural product. Mamontov's operas, Mamontov's private operas, where the discovery of Russian culture shone - this is Fyodor Chaliapin. This is all Mamontov’s discovery. And what operas this private opera staged! What performances! "Khovanshchina" is an absolutely Old Believer epic that is unpleasant for the Romanovs. “Boris Godunov” is, again, an unpleasant page for the House of Romanov. Such tricky ideas were taken out and circulated to the public. That is, this infrastructure created such a liberal-democratic atmosphere. And many educated people from the intelligentsia immediately began to show interest in her. A fashion has emerged, as I have already said, for liberalism. But the Moscow merchants did not stop there.

M. SOKOLOV: And Savva Mamontov? Was he an exotic character in this case?

A. PYZHIKOV: A normal merchant character. Why is he on everyone's lips?

M. SOKOLOV: Because such a tragic fate is suicide...

A. PYZHIKOV: In May 1905... There are different versions. Some say that he was killed, others that he shot himself. This can be found out...

M. SOKOLOV: The money went partially to the Bolsheviks.

A. PYZHIKOV: Of course, he communicated. Gorky testifies to this. But why do they say?.. Savva Timofeevich Mamontov...

M. SOKOLOV: Savva Morozov.

M. SOKOLOV: They write to us: “The Chetverikovs, Rukavishnikovs, Dunaevs, Zhivagos, Shchukins, Vostryakovs, Khludovs” - all this is one group, right?

A. PYZHIKOV: The Khludovs, the Shchukins, the Chetverikovs - this is all one group, this is the so-called Moscow group.

M. SOKOLOV: Yes, when merchants purchased weapons for their workers.

in our language, to resolve all commercial issues.

M. SOKOLOV: But it didn’t work out.

M. SOKOLOV: Alexander Vladimirovich, it turns out that somewhere in 1914 we see a real political aggravation by the summer of 1914, exactly similar to the same scenario in the summer before 1905 - practically the same slogans, strikes begin at various enterprises, Moscow in particular. What is this? That means they're back to their old ways again, right? Only by finding allies, as I understand it, also in the bureaucracy. A. PYZHIKOV: Here is the most interesting episode of our history of the tsarist empire, which for some reason falls out of the field of view of researchers. We just talked about Guchkov, that he tried to play some role as an intermediary between the government and Moscow business circles. All this ended in his complete political bankruptcy at that time. Then another character was found who took on this role with great success and reason. We are not talking about some person from the merchant class, but about one of the royal favorites, the favorites of the royal couple - the emperor and empress. I'm talking about Alexander Vasilyevich Krivoshein. This is an extremely interesting figure in Russian history. What's interesting? He moved up the royal bureaucratic ladder, moving very confidently and quickly. That is, it was a very turbulent career. She was provided by one of the tsar's close associates - Goremykin. This was the Prime Minister, the Minister of Internal Affairs. He provided patronage to Krivoshein. Krivoshein moved very quickly and ended up in Stolypin’s government almost as his right hand. But one detail is overlooked. Krivoshein was not just a tsarist bureaucrat. He married at the end of the 19th century the granddaughter of Timofey Isaevich Morozov, the very pillar, father of Savva Morozov, Elena Karpova, to be precise in her last name. And he became related to such a merchant clan, which was in the center of this entire Moscow bourgeoisie and Moscow merchant class. He became his own. And here we are, for the first time in Russian history, which did not happen throughout the entire 19th century, and there is no need to talk about an earlier time, we are witnessing a strange coincidence of circumstances that the Tsar’s favorite and his own man were among the Moscow merchants. It was precisely his special position in these power and economic structures that allowed him to become central in promoting the parliamentary project, that is, transforming the Duma from a legislative one into a full-fledged parliament in the Western sense of the word. That is, the Duma, which not only makes laws, but also which influences appointments in the government, which governs. Krivoshein wanted to do this. The Moscow merchants, naturally connected with him by family ties, entered into a stronger alliance with him than with Guchkov. At that time, he had already moved into second or third roles, he is not visible. It was Krivoshein who undertook to push this from above. This is 1915. In 1914, before the war, it all started, it started successfully, Krivoshein took very successful steps to eliminate his opponents from the government. Of course, there was a corresponding strike fund in St. Petersburg. It all started again. Of course, other people were in charge here - this is the Social Democratic faction of the Duma "Trudoviki", where Kerensky is already appearing. They were already led by representatives of the merchant class, in

in particular, Konovalov is a major capitalist, Ryabushinsky’s closest ally, a whole group ally... He is also a very prominent and respected merchant of Moscow. He was in touch, he was also a member of the State Duma, he was responsible for this direction. That is, this whole situation has become agitated again. In 1915, there were already war conditions, but nevertheless, due to the fact that there were failures at the front, it was decided to raise this topic again. Krivoshein started it...

A. PYZHIKOV: Still, probably, the key words here are “During the war.” This whole epic, the whole story with the progressive bloc, developed during the war. Nicholas II refused to make such political steps under military conditions. He believed that it was still necessary to first bring this war to a victorious end and then, on the laurels of the winner, return to this topic, but not before. It was precisely this sequence of actions that he advocated very firmly. And Krivoshein could not convince him. Krivoshein said that we need to do this, it will have a better effect on our military affairs and we will win faster. But Nicholas II believed that it was still better to lead the army. He became supreme commander just in August 1915. “This is now more timely than getting carried away with political combinations. Political combinations,” he believed, “will wait for the end of the war. Afterwards we will return to them.” In the meantime, he laid down his authority, which, by the way, Krivoshein did not advise him to do - to put his authority and his figure, his royal persona on the altar, that it was better to let the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich, lead the troops. Even in case of failure, everything can be attributed to him. But Nicholas II decided that he would take it all upon himself, this was his duty. And he was completely committed to the military direction, which is natural during the war years. And he decided to leave all political combinations and political actions for later. But since Krivoshein and his allies from the government insisted, he was forced to part with them, so to speak.

A. PYZHIKOV: During the war, it was in Moscow that she was the initiator... Bourgeois circles, zemstvo circles initiated the creation of public organizations to help the front. That is, the idea is that the bureaucracy cannot cope with its responsibilities, cannot ensure victory, so the public must get involved. Here in the person of the Zemstvo City Union and such a new organization... This is an invention of the First World War - these are military-industrial committees, where the bourgeoisie gathers its strength and helps the front forge victory. But let us note that all military-industrial committees operated with government funds. All this from the budget went to these military-industrial committees. They operated with these amounts, but naturally did not really want to report. Here, in addition to helping the front, so-called working groups arose under the military-industrial committees... Again, this is a signature sign of the Moscow merchants,

when the popular strata again came together to solve some problems that they needed to push through at the top. Such a fund was created. These working groups, so to speak, demonstrated the voice of the people in support of the initiatives being implemented by the merchant bourgeoisie. By the way, there are a lot of working groups... For example, under the Central Military-Industrial Committee - this is under the Central Military-Industrial Committee - they did very big things. With the help of the working group, the Putilov plant, which belonged to the banking group of the Russian-Asian bank, was sequestered. The Moscow merchants always opposed the St. Petersburg banks and tried to infringe on them as much as possible. Work groups contributed here even during the First World War. And of course, immediately before February 1917, all those memoirs that have been published and studied in emigration now allow us to assert that the working groups were truly a combat headquarters, I’m not afraid of this word, to undermine the tsarist regime immediately at the last stage. It was they who coordinated all actions together with the Duma in order to show tsarism that it was doomed.

M. SOKOLOV: And lastly, perhaps, I would still like to look into what you have not yet written about 1917. Why were these people, who were so actively striving for power, unable to retain it?

M. SOKOLOV: That is, the same communalism and the same idea of the old schismaticism?

A. PYZHIKOV: Yes. These deep layers... They lived in their communal, collective psychology. It was she who splashed out. The liberal project has become irrelevant here.

The other side of Moscow. The capital in secrets, myths and riddles Grechko Matvey

Merchants-Old Believers

If you walk straight along Bakuninskaya Street, under the bridge, passing the Yauza, you can go to Basmannaya Sloboda and continue the tour of the surviving palaces. But Bakuninskaya Street is quite long, and historically unremarkable, and next to the Elektrozavodskaya metro station there is a lot of interesting things. Therefore, for a while it is worth emerging from the Petrine era and transporting ourselves to slightly later times.

The Elektrozavodskaya station is named after the existing plant. Its Gothic building was designed in the mid-1910s for the Riga partnership of Russian-French factories, which evacuated the enterprise from Riga (it was the beginning of the First World War, and industrialists were afraid of occupation), at the same time the Kauchuk plant was moved to Moscow.

Initially, the plant building was conceived as a semblance of a medieval castle with rose windows and high towers, but due to the war, the project was trimmed down and retained the architectural delights only on the side of the main entrance.

Previously, there was a “laundry pond” here - on the Khapilovka River, which was dammed along its entire course, mostly enclosed in a pipe under Paul the First. Now in place of the pond is a narrow Zhuravlev Square, more like an ordinary street. On the square there are several merchant houses of characteristic architecture. The most significant entrepreneurs here were the Old Believers merchants Nosovs from the Preobrazhensk community. Their factory is house number 1 on Malaya Semenovskaya Street, and is actually located right there, on the square. The Nosovs also lived nearby - house number 126 on Lavrentyevskaya Street, now Elektrozavodskaya.

The founders of the factory, the Nosov brothers, began to independently engage in weaving and dyeing in 1829, having founded a factory on the shore of the Khapilovsky Pond that produced dradedam scarves - that is, rather cheap scarves made of thin cloth, very popular at that time. This is exactly what poor Sonechka Marmeladova wore. The brothers wove, dyed and dried the scarves themselves, and the wives decorated them with fringes. Later, the factory began to produce higher quality thick and strong cloth - army, Caucasian (Circassians were sewn from this)...

The head of the business for many years was Vasily Dmitrievich Nosov. It was he who built the first house here. Nosov's son, Vasily Vasilyevich, married the beautiful Euphemia Ryabushinskaya, a girl, although raised in the old faith, but educated and somewhat eccentric. Then old Vasily Dmitrievich decided to move out, leaving the old house to the young. Probably, secretly wanting to wipe the nose of his overly sophisticated daughter-in-law, he invited the famous architect Kekushev, a master of the Art Nouveau style (it was he who previously built the Nosovsky factory, the Old Believer hospital and the houses of the Grachev merchants, also Old Believers), and placed an order, choosing a project from a foreign magazine. The mansion turned out to be a great success: with all the achievements of comfort, water heating, hot and cold water. At the same time, the house was built not of stone, but of wood - this is what the owner wished, considering wood to be a healthier material. The house was divided into two halves: the lower, male, where Nosov himself and his servants lived, and the female, where his sister and female servants were located.

Now the house is occupied by a branch of the Russian Youth State Library, and you can go there; the interiors have been partially preserved. Sometimes classical music concerts are held there.

Not wanting to lag behind her father-in-law, Evfemia Pavlovna organized an art salon, where fashionable writers and artists were invited. The beautiful Mrs. Nosova loved painting, following the example of her father, she collected paintings, and artists willingly painted her portraits. She invited the young architect Zholtovsky to rebuild the large hall and was going to order Serov to paint it, but the artist died before finishing the job. After the revolution, the Nosovs had to emigrate, leaving everything behind. Evfemia Pavlovna went to Rome and lived there to an old age. Her house became first a local history museum, then a nursery... Now it is occupied by a bank.

The Nosov merchants belonged to the Preobrazhensk Old Believer community and donated a lot to its churches. With the money of the merchants Nosov and Khludov, in particular, the bell tower of the monastery was built, which has survived to this day. The architect Kekushev designed the building for the community hospital (now it houses a tuberculosis clinic).

Along Malaya Semenovskaya and Devyataya Rota Street (on both of them there are remains of old buildings) we come out onto Preobrazhensky Val, which connects the Preobrazhenskaya Ploshchad and Semenovskaya metro stations. It is here that the Preobrazhenskaya Old Believers Settlement and the Nikolsky Edinoverie Monastery are located (it also once belonged to the Old Believers).

Nowadays the Preobrazhenskaya Old Believer community is very closed; it unites the Bespopovtsy Old Believers, or Feodosians, whom many consider sectarians. They themselves call themselves Old Orthodox Christians who do not accept the priesthood, that is, they do not recognize any priests and, therefore, the sacraments they perform: in their opinion, the Antichrist has already come to the world, the last times have come and the grace of the priesthood has been interrupted. Baptism and confession are performed by elected laity, and on issues of marriage there is a division: into those who accept and those who do not accept marriage, because the sacrament of marriage is also performed by a priest. One of the most significant preachers who did not accept marriage was Theodosius Vasiliev. His followers created the Preobrazhensk community in 1771 (after the plague). However, no one wanted to live without a family or in sin, and gradually even the Feodosians were inclined to recognize the marriage, and sometimes even a marriage performed by a Nikonian priest. You will not be allowed into the territory of this community under any circumstances: it is surrounded by a high wall and completely closed to outsiders. You can walk around it and walk through the old Preobrazhenskoye cemetery - also formerly an Old Believer cemetery, but now it has become common. Many ancient tombstones and chapels have been preserved here.

The Preobrazhenskoe cemetery is located approximately equal distance from two metro stations - Preobrazhenskaya Square and Semyonovskaya. Both of them are named after Peter's regiments.

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On major church holidays, a fair is held near the walls of the Rogozhskoe cemetery in Moscow. The stalls sell fabrics and honey, children's toys and wooden carvings, vegetables and pickles. You can also find amazing things - old theological books that are three hundred years old. Miraculously preserved rarities. Where are they from?

Our contemporaries don’t really care about who sells at the fair. Meanwhile, the Rogozhskoe cemetery is the traditional center of Moscow Old Believers. Today no one persecutes them for their faith, and no one is particularly interested in it.

Old Believer communities are slowly dying, modern Old Believers occupy a rather modest place in both the spiritual and economic life of Russia, and the fair at the cemetery wall is a distant echo of a powerful economic movement that once, without exaggeration, determined the fate of Russia.

Few people know, but at the beginning of the 20th century, the Old Believers owned about 40% of the economic capital of the entire Russian Empire. Followers of the old faith actually monopolized entire sectors of the economy, such as manufacturing and linen production.

What kind of old faith is this, who are the Old Believers, and how did it happen that an isolated group of people found themselves in conditions that gave rise to an unprecedented surge in business activity?

The prerequisites for the greatest Russian tragedy were the intrigues of the Vatican and the ambitions of Russian autocrats. The laurels of the world's rulers do not give rest to many of the powerful of this world, and they did not in the past. The idea floated to Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich to become famous as the defender and unifier of the entire Orthodox world fell on fertile ground. To do this, it was necessary to defeat the Ottomans, clear Constantinople of them and reign in Constantinople.

For Russia, with its inexhaustible resources, the matter is not the most difficult. A trifle got in the way; it was necessary to adjust Russian church rites and holy books to Greek standards. Patriarch Nikon took up the matter, carrying out church reform in the mid-17th century.

The reform split Russian society. A huge part of the population did not accept the innovations. In 1666, the Great Council anathematized the dissatisfied. Soon, unheard of repressions fell upon adherents of the old rituals, which lasted for centuries.

Punitive detachments destroyed rebellious peasants and burned villages. Their bodies were floated down the rivers on floating gallows to intimidate those who wavered.

In search of shelter from persecution, Old Believers left their homes in thousands. Many secluded places were found in Russia itself, even more on its outskirts and beyond. Streams of people flowed in all directions, to the west - to the Baltic states and Poland, to the south - to the Caucasus and Turkey, to the east - to the Urals and Siberia, to the north - to the shores of the White Sea.

For eight years the Solovetsky Monastery, where opponents of the reform flocked, held a siege by the tsar’s army. Solovki was captured as a result of betrayal and its defenders were brutally dealt with. The White Monastery, desecrated by vandals, became a symbol of Old Believer resistance.

The fall of Solovki was followed by mass self-immolations of Old Believers. Temples filled with people burst into flames throughout the north. Not wanting to come to terms and not seeing a way out, the Old Believers voluntarily left this life, practically depopulating vast territories.

Tsar Michael backed down, sent a message to the Old Believers in which he asked people not to burn themselves and moderated the persecution. Under Princess Sophia, the subsided persecution intensified again, and human rivers again flowed beyond the borders of Russia.

And yet they survived

At the beginning of the 18th century, wealthy families of Old Believers, fleeing repression, settled on Vetka Island, at the confluence of the river of the same name with the Sozh. Then these were the lands of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, where the power of Moscow did not extend, now - the Belarusian city of Vetka, the center of the administrative region of the Gomel region.

The settlement grew quickly, soon 40 thousand people lived in it, and its size reached as much as 50 miles in circumference. In a matter of years, the colony turned into a powerful trading center. Dissenter merchants sold in Poland, Belarus and Ukraine the products of local artisans: coopers, hatmakers, tailors, furriers, saddlers, dyers, and mitten makers. With the proceeds, merchants supplied their co-religionists with raw materials and provided loans.

Handicraft production expanded rapidly. Vetka peddlers pushed out Polish, Ukrainian, Belarusian and even Russian traders. The Old Believers monopolized trade over vast territories.

Seduced by the wealth of the Old Believers, Empress Anna tried to return them to Russia. Without guilt, guilty people were forgiven by the highest command, and they were given the right to freely choose their place of residence on the territory of the empire. But the community, firmly established on Vetka, was in no hurry to break the established way of life.

Anna Ioanovna had to act in a proven way. In 1735, a punitive expedition burned the settlement to the ground. But the rebellious colony rose from the ashes, quickly recovered and began to live its former life. The human losses were restored by another wave of refugees. Catherine II dealt a crushing blow to Vetka. The Vetka Old Believers could no longer recover from the next punitive measures in 1764. Some of the emigrants went even further, others managed to take refuge in their homeland.

The purposeful and consistent policy of repression led to unpredictable consequences. Among the Old Believers, the ideology of relying solely on one’s own strength was firmly formed. No one helped them; on the contrary, they had to live in a hostile environment. To survive and maintain faith, people had to work hard, while limiting themselves in everything.

Money in the Old Believer environment was viewed not as evidence of wealth, but as a necessary tool for survival. A considerable part of community funds was spent on bribing officials and priests so that they would not mention schismatics in their reports and would leave them alone.

By the time the conditions for the development of capitalism were ripe in Russia, schismatic communities were closed and united groups of like-minded people who had serious social capital at their disposal. The Old Believers were better prepared for the coming changes than the rest of Russia.

By the end of the 18th century, the Old Believers took control of almost all trade in the Nizhny Novgorod region and the Lower Volga region. They owned grain wharves, shipyards and spinning factories. Competitors gave in to the assertive and united dissenters.

But for the Old Believers themselves, their trading successes turned out to be only a prelude; without exaggeration, great things lay ahead of them.

State in the Empire

By the middle of the 19th century, the Old Believers, who were actively and successfully earning money for the survival of persecuted communities, actually created their own separate state within the state, even if it did not have a separate territory. They had their own authoritative leaders and an informal management system based on boundless trust in fellow believers.

Old Believer entrepreneurship was based, in the fullest sense, on their word of honor. Business people always kept their promises and trusted their associates, did not use the services of a confusing and hostile judicial system, and simplified their paperwork as much as possible.

The solidarity of the schismatics became the key to their amazing successes in the Urals. In 1736, a secret spy reported to Moscow: “Raskolnikov in the Urals has multiplied. At the Demidov and Osokin factories, the clerks are schismatics, almost all of them! And some of the industrialists themselves are schismatics... And if they are expelled, then of course they will have no one to run the factories. And in the factories of the Sovereigns there will be harm! For there, in many manufactories, such as tin, wire, steel, iron, Olonians, Tulyans and Kerzhents - all schismatics - trade in almost all food and needs.”

The huge capital and impressive economic successes of the Old Believers forced the authorities to change their anger to mercy. Catherine II issued a manifesto calling on schismatics to return to Russia. All discriminatory measures taken previously have been reversed. Repatriates began to return to their homeland and settled throughout the country, creating new centers of entrepreneurship.

The largest Old Believer community was formed in Moscow. Of the current largest cemeteries in the capital, two - Preobrazhenskoye and Rogozhskoye - are Old Believers. About a third of the urban population of that time rests on them.

Formally, two Old Believer religious communities united around these cemeteries. Informally, two large entrepreneurial centers emerged within the communities.

Moscow schismatic merchants, thanks to established connections with fellow believers throughout the country, were always aware of all prices in Russia, skillfully maneuvered their capital, making large wholesale purchases on time. In the 19th century, they reigned supreme at all major Russian fairs.

The last attempt to break the powerful movement of the Old Believers was made by Nicholas I. The Tsar ordered the expropriation of all the property of the schismatics. But it was not possible to fully fulfill the will of the autocrat. Huge community capital was safely hidden. It was with this money that large Russian factories were subsequently built.

Community capital was formed by generations of Old Believers. But due to the fact that the communities were not legally recognized, capital was always recorded in the name of dummies. Money was entrusted to the most respected and enterprising members of the community.

Using community money, Moscow merchants-Old Believers built the first large capitalist enterprises, which used exclusively the labor of hired workers. These were exemplary production facilities for that time, constantly improving technically. The latest foreign machines were used in paper spinning and weaving factories.

The main thing in all matters among the Old Believers was still considered loyalty to this word. It was so strong that it was trusted not only by fellow believers, but also by Western capitalists. The now famous Russian businessman Savva Morozov received more than 100 cars from abroad on credit for the construction of a weaving factory in the village of Zuevo, such was the reputation of an illiterate merchant.

Decline of power

At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, the largest Old Believers merchants acquired unprecedented weight and influence in society. They were respected not only for their enormous capital, but also for their amazing desire for innovation in industry.

With the money of the Old Believers, the first wind tunnel in Russia and the predecessor of the automobile ZIL - the AMO plant - were built. It is amazing how people who were ready to die for the ideals of the old faith, whose entire way of life was focused on the ancient past, introduced the newest and most advanced technologies into the economy. A real paradox: while fighting for the old, strive for everything new. For what and why?

Let us remember that since the church reform of the 17th century, the Old Believers had to survive in a hostile environment, under pressure from the authorities, and resist repression, relying solely on their own strength.

Money guaranteed the independence of the isolated world of the Old Believers. To completely secure it, more and more money was needed, which means it was necessary to work better and better, introduce the most advanced production methods, and increase capital in order to better protect one’s faith.

In the rebellious year of 1905, the famous manifesto on religious tolerance was published. The revolution drew a line under the confrontation between the Old Believers and the official authorities.

The decree was followed by a period called the Golden Age of the Old Believers. In a short time, many Old Believer churches were erected throughout the country, the priestless movement expanded, and the business activity of entrepreneurs increased even more. For example, in the Urals, all private industry was in the hands of the Old Believers, and all state factories were under their control.

But the golden age was short-lived. Having got rid of the pressure of the authorities, having reached the very heights of economic power, the Old Believers lost their main unifying principle - a hostile environment, repression, with which they had to fight. The Old Believers, who had gone through fire and water, gave in to copper pipes...

At the beginning of the twentieth century, most of the influential Old Believers looked and behaved like all the other Russian rich people. Long beards and merchant tunics disappeared from everyday life, and modern European clothes appeared. Religious restrictions were not enforced nearly as carefully as before. Many felt the taste of dubious pleasures, and even began to smoke, which seemed unthinkable just a couple of decades ago. Nothing threatened their world anymore, so why the empty troubles and hardships?

Many of the rich “forgot” about the social origin of the capital they controlled. Instead of directing them, as before, to deeds pleasing to God and beneficial to their fellow believers, they built real palaces for themselves in Moscow, which aroused envy even among representatives of the reigning dynasty. And the breeder Guchkov, for example, simply embezzled money from the Preobrazhensk community.

The history of the Russian Old Believer economic miracle, built on commitment and trust, ended in 1917. But even if the tragic events of that time had not occurred in the Russian state, it is unlikely that the “economy on the word of honor” would have been able to survive much longer.

"SchoolLife.ru", Alexey Norkin

During wars and revolutions, the religious factor plays an exceptional role, because religious motivation penetrates the very depths of the human soul. And the more biased its followers are in their beliefs, the bloodier the consequences. The revolutions in Russia in 1905 and 1917 were no exception. What do Orthodox Old Believers have to do with revolutions and the murder of Russia? Is it too loud?

My first acquaintances with the Old Believers and their shrines made positive, indelible impressions on me: piety, severity, asceticism, hours of worship, humble bows, attractive antiquity, hard work, scrupulousness, accuracy, a certain mysticism. I hope that all this applies to the majority of modern Old Believers. But what was the position of the Old Believers in the period 1905 - 1917? and what was their participation in the revolutions?

Modern Old Believer bishops

It turns out that participation was as direct as it gets. The article will not talk about the Old Believers, about fellow believers - those who joined the Russian Orthodox Church. You will have to take a fresh look at our history, so I will sign reproductions and paintings on behalf of the Old Believers.

What was the Old Believer society like in the Russian Empire?

One can definitely say about them that it was the religion of the merchants.

In pre-revolutionary Russia, the richest and most enterprising people were the Old Believers. Having been oppressed and persecuted by the authorities for several centuries, having a strong communal structure, high morality and asceticism, they created their own internal financial religious-collective empire. The optimal tool allowing them to concentrate both economic and spiritual resources as much as possible was the famous Russian community; communal-collectivist (rather than private property) relations served as the foundation on which the social life of the Old Believers was built.

At the turn of the 20th century, there were only three financially wealthy groups of people in Russia: Old Believers (merchants and industrialists), foreign businessmen and noble landowners. Think about it, the Old Believers accounted for more than 60% of all private capital of the Empire! This means that they financially influenced the entire economy and political spectrum of the country. At the same time, the number of Old Believers themselves of all the existing traditions at that time, according to various estimates, amounted to no more than 2% of the total population and 10-15% of the number of Russians in the Empire.

The Old Believers were not a monolithic religious entity; they were divided into two groups: “priests” and “bespopovtsev”. These names themselves indicate the existence or absence of clergy in these groups. In addition, divisions also occurred within the groups and various rumors were created, which were intertwined with different sects. Over the past centuries, at least seventy such rumors, with terrible distortions of the Gospel truths, have arisen.

Beliefs and attitudes toward rituals within groups were often even mutually exclusive. But all Old Believers were united, at the level of doctrine and cult, by a fierce hatred of the Russian Orthodox Church and the authorities, in particular, the House of Romanov, as the rulers of the Antichrist. There were objective historical reasons for this hatred - persecution for faith, social oppression, a ban on preaching and spreading one's religion. Under far-fetched pretexts, the Old Believers were punished and their property was taken away, they were sent into exile, their churches were closed and destroyed. They were allowed to register (get married) only in churches of the Russian Orthodox Church, and this meant forced conversion to the “faith of the Antichrist.”

The economic and managerial model formed by the split was challenged in the 50s of the nineteenth century. The main blow was directed at the merchants. From now on, only those who belonged to the Synodal Church (ROC) or Edinoverie could get into the merchant guilds; all Russian merchants were obliged to provide evidence of this from Orthodox clergy. In case of refusal, entrepreneurs were transferred to temporary guild rights for a period of one year. As a result, all Old Believer merchants faced a tough choice: lose everything or change their faith. There was an alternative - to join Edinoverie, while maintaining the old rituals; the majority favored the latter option.

In Russia at that time there were Old Believer riots, which later, during the USSR, were presented as a manifestation of class struggle, keeping silent about their religious motivation.

The Old Believers hated P.A. with fierce hatred. Stolypin for his reform activities, so they rejoiced at his murder. Despite the success of his reforms, new civilizational challenges of urbanization, such as, for example, the resettlement of peasants to Siberia, destroyed the established communal way of life of the Old Believers. In addition, the peasant settlers competed with the enterprises and banks of the Old Believers in that they were paid loans and allowances from the state treasury, were allocated free plots of land, and they successfully developed their farms.

P.A. Stolypin kept under personal control the issue of transferring the Old Believers-schismatics to Edinoverie and achieved success in this: the overwhelming majority of the Cossacks-Old Believers switched to the Russian Orthodox Church or Edinoverie.

Murder of P.A. Stolypin

But then the long-awaited freedom came - effective measures were taken “to eliminate restrictions in the field of religion”: with his Decree of April 17, 1905 “On strengthening the principles of religious tolerance,” Sovereign Emperor Nicholas II equalized the rights of Old Believers and Orthodox Christians. Since then they have ceased to be called schismatics. This was an outbreak of prosperity and development for the Old Believers until the end of the 20s.

Organization of the 1905 Revolution by Old Believers

In August 1905, a closed “private meeting of Old Believers” was held in Nizhny Novgorod, which decided that the freedoms granted to the Old Believers could be taken away from them. It was decided to continue the struggle until a faction of Old Believers with a decisive vote appeared in the State Duma. Millionaire Ryabushinsky proposed creating a system of “traveling propagandists” for this purpose.

Old Believer millionaire Vladimir Pavlovich Ryabushinsky trained revolutionary agitators

More than 120 people, financed by the Old Believers, dispersed to all corners of the Russian Empire calling for revolution and social justice. Their main slogan was: “Freedom has arrived! You can take land from landowners by force.” At the same time, of course, there were no calls for the expropriation of factories and factories, 60% owned by Old Believers. This was explained by the fact that they were not driven at all by the desire to fight for social justice, but by the fact that the landowners were competitors for them. Religious motivation also mattered: after all, the landowners and government officials were Orthodox, that is, in the eyes of the Old Believers, heretics - Nikonians, New Believers - “servants of the Antichrist”.

The ground for the revolution of 1905 had been prepared by the Old Believers for a long time. So, in 1897 in Zamoskvorechye they founded the “Prechistensky Courses”, at which everyone was given lectures on socialism and Marxism. By 1905, 1,500 people were already enrolled in the courses. Naturally, these professional revolutionary agitators were schismatics by religion—Old Believers of various persuasions, dissatisfied with the “power of the Antichrist.” More people could have attended the courses, but the size of the room did not allow it. However, this turned out to be a fixable matter. The famous Morozov clan of Old Believers contributed 85 thousand rubles for the construction of a three-story Marxist school, the land for which was allocated by the City Duma, represented by its leader, Old Believer Guchkov. With the money of the same Old Believer Savva Morozov, revolutionaries purchased weapons in 1905.

Old Believer merchant Savva Morozov, whose money was used to purchase weapons for fratricide

It would seem that there is a contradiction: how could deeply religious people help opponents of any religion? But in reality there was no contradiction! The Old Believers did not fight against private property, but only against the power of the Antichrist, from their point of view, using the Marxists for their own purposes, thereby cultivating the beast that devoured them themselves.

Revolution is a profitable business!

A series of strikes and riots swept across the country. A classic example is the legendary Lena execution. Before the start of the unrest, the Lenzoloto company was owned by the British, Old Believers merchants and Baron Gunzburg. The company's shares were traded on the London, Paris and Moscow stock exchanges. The protests, which began after the sale of rotten meat in a factory store, ended, as usual, in a popular revolt. This was followed by the shooting of workers by soldiers, a massive campaign in the press, as well as a series of angry reports in the Duma, initiated by the same Old Believers. The British were forced to leave, and the shares were bought for pennies by the Old Believer millionaire Zakhary Zhdanov, one of the former owners of Lenzoloto, who successfully sold his stake shortly before the start of the riots. He won 1.5 million gold rubles on the deal. Similar, one might say raider, seizures, carried out for the good purpose of depriving foreigners of the right to own assets in the Russian Empire, took place everywhere.

The February Revolution completed the work begun in 1905: the Old Believers received full power. More than half of the 25 most influential merchant families of Moscow were Old Believers: the Avksentievs, Buryshkins, Guchkovs, Konovalovs, Morozovs, Prokhorovs, Ryabushinskys, Soldatenkovs, Tretyakovs, Khludovs. Power in the city belonged to the Old Believers. They were members of the Moscow City Duma, members of public committees, and dominated the Moscow Exchange. The leadership of the largest opposition bourgeois parties - the Cadets, Octobrists and Progressives - was carried out by the same people. N.D. Avksentyev, A.I. Guchkov, A.I. Konovalov, S.N. Tretyakov was also in charge of the Provisional Government.

Old Believer socialism

Already by the beginning of the 20th century, the Old Believers introduced high social standards at their enterprises: a 9-hour working day, free dormitories for workers, medical offices, a nursery for children, and libraries. To build their own stone houses, interest-free loans were issued. Its own free hospital was equipped with an operating room, an outpatient clinic, a pharmacy and a maternity hospital. There was a sanatorium and an almshouse for the elderly. There were vocational schools for young people. A pension was also assigned in the amount of 25-50% of the average salary. So high social standards in the USSR were an invention not of the communists, but of the Old Believers.

It is not surprising that the workers of the enterprises owned by the Old Believers supported their owners in everything. During barricades, strikes, strikes, workers were still paid for their working day. Barricades during the 1905 revolution in Moscow were located according to their belonging to the enterprises of the Old Believers. The barricades of Sokolnichesky and Rogozhsko-Simonovsky districts were in the zone of influence of the Preobrazhensky and Rogozhsky Old Believer communities. Large forces were sent to the revolutionary struggle by the factory of the Old Believer Mamontov and the furniture factory of the Old Believer Shmit. Representatives of the Rakhmanov Old Believer community stood on Butyrsky Val.

Old Believers organized strikes to fight the “Antichrist” government

The merchant elite decisively said goodbye to Slavophile ideas about the possibility of development on a monarchical basis. The merchants turned to radical elements, who were concentrated in the circles of Social Democrats and Social Revolutionaries. It was from such a circle that Dmitry Bogrov, Stolypin’s killer, came. This was a betrayal of Holy Rus'!

Beginning in 1905, a wave of murders of officials, governors, and city leaders swept across the country. The revolutionaries were doing their job - shaking the country.

Professional revolutionaries and terrorists were hired to work at the enterprises of Old Believers industrialists. They were rarely seen in the workshops, but they received their salaries regularly. The salaries of revolutionary mechanics ranged from 80 to 150 rubles (quite a lot of money for those times). Those workers who were indignant were declared police agents, henchmen of tsarism and fired, because the enterprises were private.

Old Believer aiding terrorists

So, historical facts confirm that in 1905 the Old Believers and their capital took an active part in the revolution.

The Joy of the Old Believers: The Provisional Government and the Bolsheviks of 1917

The arrival of the Provisional Government and the abdication of the Tsar was greeted with frantic delight by all Old Believers of various persuasions, especially the “Old Orthodox priests.”

At their meeting on April 17, 1917, the Old Believers of Yegoryevsk adopted a resolution where they noted that “they sincerely rejoice at the overthrow of the painful oppression of the despotic power of an irresponsible government, alien to the Russian spirit - an oppression that fettered the development of the spiritual and material forces of the country; they also rejoice in all the proclaimed freedoms: speech, press, personality.”

In April 1917, an extraordinary congress of Old Believers of the Belokrinitsky hierarchy took place. His resolution stated: “The complete separation of Church and state and the freedom of religious groups located in Russia will only serve the good, greatness and prosperity of a free Russia.”

The provisional government announced its intention to lift all restrictions on the activities of religious associations. On July 14, 1917, a corresponding decree “On Freedom of Conscience” appeared. It caused great joy in all Old Believer agreements; meetings of communities and dioceses expressed their support to the Provisional Government.

In the fall of 1917, the Provisional Government fell, the Bolsheviks came to power, dispersed the Constituent Assembly and established the dictatorship of the proletariat.

The Old Believers really liked the word “Bolshevik”. In the communal way of life of the Old Believers, there was a position called “bolshak,” which meant the eldest in the family, in the house, in the rural and church communities. Bolshaki resolved important community issues. Bolshaks were especially revered among the Bespopovites, for whom they played the role of religious leaders, instead of priests. It is difficult to imagine that such consonance could be just a coincidence; most likely, it was a thoughtful religious manipulation of behind-the-scenes revolutionaries.

Bolshevik-Bolshak-Old Believer, artist B. Kustodiev

Now the Old Believers do not want to admit their mistake - conscious participation in the bloody revolution, but it was on the arrival of the Bolsheviks that they pinned their hope for a new era of Christ after the reign of the “power of the Antichrist.”

If you look at the statistical data on where in central Russia the Bolsheviks received maximum support, then these turn out to be Vladimir (which included the city of Ivanovo), Kostroma and Nizhny Novgorod provinces - regions in which both priests and non-priests of various persuasions settled very densely.

The portraits of the German Bolshevik leaders aroused confidence among the Old Believers - after all, they had big beards! This was important for the Old Believers. The red color of the banner was associated with Red Easter, and they quite seriously wrote on revolutionary posters: “communist Easter.”

Participants in the revolution had religious motivation. Easter card from the revolutionary period.

The Old Believers took an active part in the revolution of 1917 and supported the Bolsheviks and Lenin personally. Both sides were united by hatred of the House of Romanov. Just look at the paintings and posters of revolutionary themes, where the characters are bearded Old Believers: Vladimir Serov’s “Walkers at Lenin’s”, Boris Kustodiev’s “Bolshevik”, his poster “Loan of Freedom”, etc.

Old Believers walkers near Lenin, artist V. Serov

Most of the Old Believers in Russia were talking about non-priests. The Bespopovites enjoyed moral authority among the people. By the end of the 19th century, approximately 80% of the proletarian lower classes were made up of Old Believers-bespopovtsy: the emerging factories and factories absorbed streams of Old Believers from the Center, from the Volga region and the Urals, from the northern regions. The channels of the Old Believer concords (community communities) acted as a kind of “personnel services”. After the revolution of 1917, it was from among these “conscious workers” that new people’s party cadres were recruited, the “Leninist call”, “the second conquest of the soul of the working class”, etc. It was the Bespopovites who formed the basis of the first Soviet generation of managers, party workers and commissars.

Lenin and the Freemasons behind him knew very well the religious ins and outs of Russia and manipulated public consciousness, pitting and killing the people. Lenin needed those who hated tsarism and Orthodoxy, and these were sectarians, Old Believers.

The Soviet government invited everyone who fled the previous regime to return to the country: “The workers' and peasants' revolution has done its job. All those who fought against the old world, who suffered from its hardships, sectarians and Old Believers among them, must all be participants in the creation of new forms of life. And we say to sectarians and Old Believers, wherever they live throughout the entire earth: welcome!”

Bolshak-Bolshevik Bonch-Bruevich, aka Old Believer Semyon Gvozd, personal friend of Lenin

In 1921, the Old Believers signed the “Act of Loyalty” with the Soviet authorities. A typical example of the interaction between Old Believers and revolutionaries can be the fate of the famous Bolshevik Bonch-Bruevich, a personal friend of Lenin. In the late 1890s, millionaire Old Believer Pryanishnikov helped Bonch-Bruevich move to the West under the pseudonym Uncle Tom. One of the tasks of the revolutionary agent was to transport Doukhobors and Molokans from Russia to England and the USA. In 1904, the tireless Uncle Tom began publishing abroad a number of magazines and the periodical “Rassvet”, in which he appeared under the pseudonym Old Believer Semyon Gvozd. The most interesting thing is that immediately after the revolution of 1917, Bonch-Bruevich actively helped many sectarians, whom he had previously helped to leave Russia, return to their homeland. After all, it was necessary to destroy Orthodox Russia.

Cossack Old Believer who accepted Bolshevik ideas

Old Believer Red Terror

But how could it happen that deeply religious people, ascetics, zealots of antiquity, who wanted justice and truth, arose such hatred, expressed in murder, destruction and explosions of Orthodox (not Old Believer) churches, burning of icons, shooting of the clergy, denunciations?

Old Believers and sectarians formed the backbone of Soviet power. Therefore, they borrowed the entire complex of anti-religious measures from the Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church, which was engaged precisely in the fight against schismatics, which was expressed in the destruction of their churches, deprivation of legal rights and the right to register marriages, denunciations and executions, exile, including hard labor, and etc. But, in addition to the feeling of revenge, they were also motivated by religious motives.

All priests and non-priests considered the official state Church to be devoid of grace and a servant of the Antichrist, just like the ruling Royal dynasty. Therefore, hatred of them was at the level of doctrinal truths. I will briefly touch on some of them.

Desecration of the “servants” of the Antichrist

Bespopovtsy are Old Believers who rejected the priests of the new installation, after the reforms of Patriarch Nikon. They decided that it was impossible to accept not only the priesthood, but also baptism from Nikon’s followers, so everyone who came to them from the New Believers Church was baptized anew. The sacraments of baptism and repentance began to be performed by ordinary laymen; They also conducted all church services, except for the liturgy. Over time, the Bespopovites formed a special rank of mentors - laymen elected by society to perform spiritual services and affairs.

Old Orthodox Pomeranian Church- this is the trend of non-priests. In it, the Sacraments of baptism and confession are also performed by laymen - spiritual mentors.

Aaronites they did not recognize a wedding performed in the Orthodox Church, demanding in this case a divorce or a new marriage. Like many other schismatics, they shunned passports, considering them “seals of the Antichrist.”

Fedoseevtsy were convinced of the historical depravity of the Russian state. They believed that the kingdom of the Antichrist had come and denied praying for the Tsar in his name. Subsequently, the teachings of the Fedoseevites were adopted by the Pomeranians. During the Great Patriotic War, the Fedoseevites proved themselves to be malicious collaborators who collaborated with Nazi Germany.

Defaulters rejected worship, sacraments and veneration of saints. They did not make the sign of the cross, did not wear a cross, and did not recognize fasting. Their prayers were replaced by religious home conversations and readings.

"Runners" called those who rejected new baptism, believed that it was necessary to break all ties with society, to evade all civil obligations.

Self-baptizers- Old Believers baptized themselves, without priests.

Sredniki, unlike other self-baptizers, did not recognize the days of the week. In their opinion, when during the time of Peter I the New Year celebrations were moved from September 1 to January 1, the courtiers made a mistake by 8 years and moved the days of the week. Thus, for them, Wednesday is the former Sunday.

Ryabinovtsy they refused to pray to icons where anyone else was present other than the image depicted. They began to carve eight-pointed crosses from rowan wood without images or inscriptions for prayers. In addition, the Ryabinovites did not recognize church sacraments.

Dyrniks They didn’t venerate icons, praying for holes.

Pastukhovo consent: His followers condemned the use of passports and money with the image of the imperial coat of arms, which they considered the seal of the Antichrist. New supporters of their teaching were rebaptized.

The fight against the Antichrist “seal”

Netovsky agreement (Spasovtsy): the main idea of this teaching is that the Antichrist has reigned in the world, grace has been taken to heaven, the Church no longer exists, the sacraments have been destroyed. The Spasovites descended from the Strigolniks, who rejected the church hierarchy. The followers of this agreement are divided into Starospassovtsy and Novospasovtsy, who, in turn, were divided into small-starters and big-starters.

Aristov's sense: created by the St. Petersburg merchant Aristov, who believed that any relationship with secular power, which, in his opinion, is heretical and serving the Antichrist, is illegal. As a result, a true Christian must avoid the orders of authority and not relate to it in any way.

Unbaptized Old Believers are the most radical direction of the Old Believers, created in Vasilsursky and Makaryevsky districts of the Nizhny Novgorod province. His followers went so far as to deny the possibility of carrying out the sacrament of baptism even by a layman (that is, a priestless rite), so representatives of this agreement remained without baptism at all, replacing it by putting a cross on the newborn while reading the 50th Psalm.

Neo-okrugniks (anti-okrugniks, dissenters) are part of the adherents of the Belokrinitsky consent (priests), who did not accept the “District Letter of the Russian Archpastors of the Belokrinitsky Hierarchy” of 1862. The greatest indignation among radically minded members of the Belokrinitsky consensus was caused by the statements of the “District Epistle” that “the Church now dominant in Russia, like the Greek Church, does not believe in another God, but in one with us,” that under the name “Jesus” the Russian Church professes the same “Jesus” and therefore calls “Jesus” another God, Antichrist, etc. there is a blasphemer. Anti-environments, on the contrary, argued that the Antichrist reigns in the Russian and Greek churches. They insisted on the eight-pointed shape of the cross and the spelling of the name "Jesus" on the grounds that Jesus Christ was born eight years after Jesus. At its core, this was an extreme manifestation of the priestless teaching that penetrated among the Old Believers-priests, against which the “District Message” was directed.

Destruction of the temples of the “Antichrist”

So, summing up the doctrinal truths of the Old Believers of various persuasions, we can come to the conclusion that they were convinced: for the sake of the reign of the era of freedom - the era of Christ, denouncing Nikonian heretical priests, shooting them, blowing up Orthodox churches and burning icons is a holy and godly deed, and not a sin. And the more servants of the Antichrist are destroyed, the more the “seal of the Antichrist” (royal symbols) is destroyed and overthrown, the better!

I would like to make a reservation that, of course, not all Old Believers accepted Bolshevik power, but there were a minority of them, they were mainly Cossack Old Believers of Siberia, the Urals, the Far East, the Don, and the Terek. For them, it was the power of the Bolsheviks that was the power of the Antichrist.

Benefits from the Soviet regime and the future fate of the Old Believers

For their active participation in the revolution, the Old Believers had some temporary benefits. If the Red Terror immediately affected the Russian Orthodox Church, executions and destruction of its churches began, then the Old Believers, even before the end of the 1920s, could freely open and build their churches, have their own printed publications. But the “honeymoon” did not last long; they were also destroyed, like the Russian Orthodox Church, although some managed to leave. The Old Believers millionaires who were more daring were allowed by the Soviet government to withdraw their capital abroad.

There were many Old Believers (by origin) in the top leadership of the USSR. There is convincing evidence that they included Kalinin, Voroshilov, Nogin, Shvernik (real name - Shvernikov), Moskvin, Yezhov, Kosarev, Postyshev, Evdokimov, Zverev, Malenkov, Bulganin, Ustinov, Suslov, Pervukhin, Gromyko, Patolichev and many other. Many heroes of the Great Patriotic War were also Old Believers.

Having gone through fratricide, human nature becomes different; So many Old Believers have nothing left of their faith in God, only ideology. Former Old Believers began to build a Soviet person, a Soviet society, a Soviet country. But at the same time, the famous Soviet scientist and science fiction writer, an Old Believer by birth, Ivan Efremov described in “The Andromeda Nebula”, “The Hour of the Bull” the ideal of a highly moral Soviet man. These ideal ideas, of course, were drawn from Christianity.

Interesting facts. It turns out that Rome was well aware of the religious situation in Russia; they made attempts, based on their common hatred of the Russian Orthodox Church and the House of Romanov, to conclude a friendship-union with the Old Believers. But for Old Believers, dealing with shaven-bearded heretics is nonsense. But, nevertheless, the popes expressed their unspeakable joy in connection with the fratricidal revolution, they said: “the iron broom of God, with the hands of atheists, swept Orthodoxy out of Russia for the Catholic mission in the future.”

Another interesting topic has emerged; internal party purges in the leadership of the USSR, when active revolutionaries were shot, also had a religious ideological overtones. It was a struggle between two parties: Leninists-Masons and Post-Orthodox. The final point in this discord was put by the former seminarian Comrade I.V. Stalin, who said: “As Moses led the Jews out of the desert, so I will lead them out of the apparatus of the Communist Party.”

Moral and theological conclusion

The Fall is the first schism, it is the tragedy of all humanity, and later in history schisms, deviations from the truths of God, take on various perverted forms.

The Old Believers strove to preserve the ancient truthful faith, ancient piety (the Pharisees had similar postulates, and there is nothing wrong with this desire), but turned into the same pharisaism and legalism that crucified Christ. History repeated itself: “they caught a mosquito,” “they saw a speck in someone else’s eye,” and they crucified Russia.

The Old Believers replaced Christ with the rite of Christ. Therefore, under pious motivation, countless rumors appeared, claiming to be the ultimate truth. Old Believers hate each other with fierce hatred (I mean supporters of different beliefs), because it turns out that their relatives have distorted the faith. Even in ancient times, the Lord warned about such a model of attitude towards faith in God: “beware of the leaven of the Pharisees.”

In fact, the Old Believers, willy-nilly, became accomplices in the murder of Russia, became its executioners. Religious manipulations were precisely used in the civil fratricidal war, and they themselves turned out to be hostages and victims of these manipulations.

Today Russia and the Russian Orthodox Church are again beginning to rock things under various pretexts, of course, with the most pious intentions. This is the same struggle against Antichrist seals and codes, against Antichrist power, but at the same time the most important thing is forgotten - the value of the unity of the Church of Christ. Centuries-old technologies and models of religious manipulation were again successfully used during the period of modern color, Maidan revolutions to pit people against each other. Isn't it time to draw conclusions?

Now you still need to gain courage, moral strength, spiritual courage to admit your mistakes and ask forgiveness from God and Russia for your crimes. The only way to overcome the schism for the Old Believers is repentance, a return to the bosom of the Church of Christ. This form, in the form of Edinoverie, has existed quite successfully since 1800.

The local council of the Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate in 1971 recognized the old rites as equally graceful and lifted the oaths that had been placed on them. But this was done de jure, and de facto from the very beginning of our dominant Church it recognized the sanctity of the ancient rites. In 2000, the Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church brought repentance to the Old Believers for the persecution caused to them.

Archpriest Oleg Trofimov, Doctor of Theology,
Master of Religious Studies and Philosophical Sciences

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