![]() The first migrants were mainly Bezpopovtsy from the Pomor’e. Russian Old Believers appeared in the United States at the end of the 19th century. A Short History of Old Believer Migrations to the United States The Old Believers were subject to persecution, which was officially legalized during the Synod of 1666–1667.īy the end of the 1660s, in an effort to escape persecution, the Old Believers began to leave the central regions of Russia and to migrate to the outskirts of the country-northward to the Pomor’e, southward to the Don, eastward to the Urals and Siberia, and westward, beyond the borders of Russia. The former were called the Novoobriadtsy or Nikoniany, and the latter were called Raskolniki, Starovery, or Staroobriadtsy. The scale of the reforms and the, unusual even for that time, brutality with which they were enacted led to the split of the Russian Orthodox Church into two groups: those who accepted the church reforms and those who refused to recognize them. The reforms were carried out under the banner of a return to Byzantine roots, but they were not based on ancient Greek or Russian texts, as was declared, rather on the Greek texts published in the 17th century. Starting in 1653, Patriarch Nikon, with the support of Tsar Aleksei Mikhailovich, began church reforms of a predominantly political nature. Also necessary was the concordance of the ritual practices of the Russian Church with the church practices of Ukrainians and Belarusians, in order to facilitate their unimpeded absorption into the Russian state. Tsar Aleksei Mikhailovich was convinced of his calling to create a panorthodox tsardom with its center in Moscow, which required the complete unification of the practices of the Russian Church with the modern practices of the Greek Church. To many, Russia seemed like the only country that had preserved true Christianity. i During this period, the idea of Moscow as the Third Rome-that the Moscow sovereigns inherited the Orthodox Christian Empire from the Byzantine emperors-was popular in Russian society. The middle of the 17th century was a tragic time in the history of the Russian Orthodox Church. This article will illuminate the interaction between the economic changes happening in the lives of the Russian Old Believers during a half-century of their residence in the United States and their preservation of their native (Russian) language. It also provides an overview of the measures taken for the preservation of the Russian language in the state of Oregon.īecause Old Believers are a special ethno-confessional group, this article will cover several concepts necessary for the understanding of their confession and provide a short history of their migration to the United States. This article is dedicated to the Old Believers’ preservation of the Russian language and their beliefs in North America in the 21st century. Russian Old Believers from all over the world came to the United States for various reasons and in various ways. University of California, Los Angeles Russian Old Believers in the USA: Language and Belief Ĭourtesy Professor of Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies
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