Vladivostok Flight Magazine. History and ethnology. Data. Events. Fiction

Russia is rich in hermits, but the Old Believers are an original phenomenon of the past. It turns out that in Gulja there is a real Russian community of Old Believers, which has preserved the customs and Russian language of the 19th century, which was spoken by the common people. Kerzhak Old Believers are adherents of asceticism, they avoid contacts with idle people, greet strangers unfriendly, and absolutely do not allow people of other faiths to attend their meetings. They have almost no entertainment events, they do not build churches or regulate their religious community, and they marry only with fellow believers.

The Kerzhaks, persecuted by the official church, settled in China with early XIX century. Their foundations and morals are so conservative that they have hardly changed in two centuries. The only exception is the last generation, which could not withstand the onslaught of the new life of China and the danger of incest.

I was received hospitably, but various rules were observed: for example, I did not shake hands in greetings and farewells, I could not use the community utensils even to drink water, we could not eat food together, since it was preceded by prayers, which a non-believer should not see (these are numerous prohibitions of the Old Believers). But they answered my curiosity with all the explanations, they told me a lot about China and Russian emigrants. They showed me the community houses, a cemetery, a workshop for repairing musical instruments, a bakery, and they kindly allowed me to take a steam bath in a real Russian bathhouse, which the community had built to the surprise of the Chinese.

It is amazing that for two centuries these people, living in a foreign country, have preserved all the rituals and external features of antiquity, which have long been forgotten in modern Russian life. But they still failed to remain only ancient Old Believers. They bear a complex overlay of life from the past, the present, both Russia and China. And the stamp of Russia on these people is more noticeable, even though not only they, but also their grandfathers were born and lived in China.

In the thirties and fifties of the last century, the Russian population in Gulja amounted to several thousand people. There were two Russian gymnasiums here, and the accordion gathered not only Russians, but also Uyghurs and Chinese for rehearsals in the evenings. This village gathered in different streams in a foreign land. The Kerzhaks were the first to come to Gulja. In the middle of the 19th century, Russian trade was concentrated here and a Russian consulate was organized. In the seventies and nineties, large-scale resettlement of Russians was organized to strengthen Russian influence. Kazakhs, Tatars, and Uzbeks who speak Russian well also settled here from Russia. During the civil war, the White Guards of generals Dutov, Bakich, Novikov fled to Xinjiang. In the thirties of the 20th century, thousands of Soviet citizens left for China, crossing the border, hiding from hunger and Stalinist repressions; in the forties, deserters fled, hiding from the war with Japan and German fascism. People of very different social strata and destinies, different ideas and concepts, habits and skills grew into Chinese life. Past pain and grievances dulled, long-standing events began to be forgotten, Russians were partly dissolved by marriages in multinational China, and families that retained their language and customs began to acquire stable features of a national minority big country. Already by the end of World War II, all-Russian sympathy for the victory of the USSR over fascism was felt in the city, and when Russian gymnasiums opened in Gulja, teaching in them was based on textbooks purchased in the USSR. No matter how life in Russia changed, and no matter how fenced off by borders the Russians living in China were, they were drawn to their homeland.

The Zozulin family is probably especially noticeable among the Old Believers of Gulja. There are eleven children in the family, all grown up and working. Some live with their own families, but most live in the community, where their parents are. It seems that everyone has an occupation that brings income and they can live, but still there is confusion in their souls: it is difficult to find a life partner. Many Russians assimilated among the Chinese, and those who remained were all relatives. The Zozulins are Old Believers - they are supposed to marry fellow believers. They are probably ready to break the ban, but for the Russians they are not Russians, and for the Chinese they are not Chinese. It is difficult for them to find people on their own. And they carry doubts within themselves: are they Russian or Chinese, will they be able to create families or are they doomed to loneliness, are they Old Believers in the fast-paced new life of China. Now there are few Russians in Ghulja and loneliness has begun to be felt more. Maybe, like their ancestors, they should emigrate? Many Russians of Gulja, having left for better times to Australia, returned back to China. A decade earlier, I still wanted to go to my historical homeland, but now Russians go to China to trade and scare people with stories about their homeland. And do they have a homeland? They know the Russian language, but they don’t know Russian life at all.

In the musical instrument workshop, one of the Zozulin brothers played Russian melodies on the accordion and accordion for me, then Kazakh, Uyghur, and Mongolian pentatonic scales sounded. Alexander is almost illiterate: his childhood was marked by the “cultural revolution” of China, by the will of which the Russian gymnasium was closed. Having no general education, Alexander is nevertheless a great musical authority in the city. While demonstrating his art, he suddenly asked me:
- Do many people leave Russia?
- Millions emigrated in a decade.
“They will all be unhappy, just like their children,” he pronounced his sentence.

His words were spoken without any doubt, as a truth born throughout his life. Truth stated biblically. In the Tien Shan mountains there is a wonderful snow massif with the highest ridges and peaks, reaching a height of seven kilometers. Here is the heart of the Tien Shan. This is an amazingly beautiful mountain cluster, and the peaks of Khan Tengri and Pobeda Peak (7495 meters above sea level) are an ever-alluring dream for climbers. The massif occupies areas stretching for hundreds of kilometers, broken by ridges, ice walls, dizzying gorges and spiky peaks. This area is an eternal generator, shaking the mountains with snow storms, electrical discharges, avalanches and ice falls, and mudflows of entire lakes. No matter how great the unbridled elements are, no matter how dangerous these mountains are, their amazing beauty will always force the will of climbers to be tested. The border between Kazakhstan and China runs through this mountaineering Eldorado, so visiting this area is complicated not only by the elements of the mountains, but also by the elements... of bureaucracy.

On one of the expeditions of past times, I was lucky enough to see the heart of the Tien Shan from the side of the former USSR, and now I planned to visit this node from the Chinese side. But where the border zone begins in China is a state secret. What if there is no such zone in China? And I decided to drive until they stopped me. It didn't take long to drive. I was stopped and, like everyone else, local residents, checked the passport. The locals had a special mark indicating their residence in the area, but I was arrested. They studied me carefully, looked at documents and things for a long time, and found a Russian translator who spoke Russian worse than I spoke Uyghur. Manipulating two languages, we agreed that the next day I would be sent to the regional center, where I could apply for permission to travel. The next day I was sent by a passing car, with strict instructions to the driver to take me to the district police station. The driver vigilantly fulfilled his duty, but he apparently did not understand the services well and took me to the fire department. I, too, was not familiar with the varieties of Chinese uniforms and spent a long time asking the firefighters for permission to enter the border zone. In the end, some committee sent me, and they took me to the police. Luckily, I met a Chinese man who spoke Russian well and who studied Russian at Xinjiang University. He agreed to be my translator at the police, where I explained my request, and within an hour I was given permission to visit the area I needed.

In the 19th century The Russian government was interested in developing the Far Eastern lands. Among the first settlers were Old Believers of various consents. At the first stage, the majority of them were priests of the Belokrinitsky hierarchy. Having learned that free lands could be found in the Far East, they were joined by the Lipovans, Russian Old Believers who returned to Russia from Austria and settled in the Amur region. There were large Old Believer settlements in the South Ussuri region. In 1911, the Irkutsk-Amur Old Believer diocese was established, which included parishes in the Amur, Primorsky, Transbaikal, Yakutsk regions and Irkutsk province.
October Revolution and Civil War made significant changes to Old Believer life. The end of the war in the Far East forced the Old Believers, mainly the "priests", to leave their homes in Siberia, Primorsky and Khabarovsk territories. Through Altai and Primorye they emigrated to China, where Harbin became the center of the Old Believers. Here in 1917, the Old Believers-priests founded a community in honor of the holy supreme apostles Peter and Paul. Several communities of Old Believers-priests were formed in Three Rivers. At the beginning of 1921, the see of the Bishop of Amur-Irkutsk and the entire Far East was moved to Harbin, and Old Believer printed publications appeared.
One of the initiators of the construction of the Old Believer St. Peter and Paul Church in Harbin was Archpriest Father John Kudrin. He came from a family of Old Believers of the Chapel Consent of the Perm province. His parents joined the Old Believers-Priests, that is, those who accepted the priesthood, when the boy was seven years old. From the age of eight he served in the church, and at the age of 19 he became an accountant. In 1906 in Moscow he was promoted to deacon, then he was rector of a church in the Ufa province. Kudrin wanted to get an education and in 1913 he became a student of agricultural courses in Moscow. Working in cooperation, he published articles in the magazines “Church” and “Old Believer Thought”, and was chairman of the Diocesan Council of the Perm-Trbolsk diocese. During the civil war, Kudrin was a preacher in the 3rd Army of the government of A.V. Kolchak. In China, Ivan Kudrin proved himself to be a missionary who was not afraid of polemics with Orthodox priests. Another figure of the Old Believers was Archpriest John Shadrin, rector of the Ancient Orthodox Church of the Dormition Holy Mother of God in Harbin (since 1929). He lived in Trekhrechye, in the village. He was a top coolie and was considered a very knowledgeable priest.
Further events V Soviet Russia led to a significant increase in Old Believers in China. By 1930, collectivization had reached the Far East, destroying the traditional life and culture of Russian peasants, for most of whom religion was the binding moral principle. Dispossession began to take place in all villages and hamlets, and all Old Believer parishes, both priests and non-priests, were closed. Having suffered in 1931 - 1935. defeat in the resistance to the new government, they crossed the border river Ussuri near Hutou, north of Lake Khanka, as well as in other places on the Soviet-Chinese border and settled in Harbin, Three Rivers, and other villages in the depths of Manchuria, not far from Russia. The emigrants expected to return to their homeland after the fall of the Soviet system. The Old Believers constantly kept in touch with each other.
The largest and most characteristic settlement was the village of Romanovka, founded in the summer of 1936 in a small valley in the vicinity of Hendaohezi, which was discovered by the Kalugin brothers. The first settlers were Ivan Seledkov with two sons and Pavel Ponosov. At first they lived in a tent, and in November 1936 they built a hut from wood cut down in the surrounding forest with the permission of the authorities. They spent the winter there with great difficulty, hunting. In February of the following year, 14 more men, including Ivan Kalugin, came to them from different places in Manchuria, and brought horses. After surveying the arable land and estate plots, the men began building homes for their families. In March, wives and children arrived at the ready-made huts. Soon plowing and sowing began.
By the end of 1937, an entire village had formed in the valley. In their petition to the authorities, the Old Believers noted: “We have one faith (we are all Old Believers), one homeland and occupation (peasant hunters). We fervently wish to live together, serve the people, society and the state. Therefore, we kindly ask you to rent out the plot land suitable for farming and building a village... Now in our group there are 25 families, including: men - 33, women - 28, children - 61. Available livestock and equipment: horses - 28, cows - 23, plows - 2 , carts - 2, harrows - 4".
In the center of Romanovka there was a chapel, built in 1939, where there were ancient icons and books. In addition, everyone carefully kept the shrines taken from Russia. The rector was Ksenophon Petrovich Bodunov, whose hut was located opposite the chapel. The Old Believers were excellent carpenters and blacksmiths: they built huts themselves and made various household utensils. Externally, the huts were simple and devoid of decoration, but the constructive thoughtfulness satisfied all the requirements of rationality and convenience. In particular, the great advantage of their homes was good protection from frost and winds.
Romanovka's economy was predominantly subsistence. The more forests were cleared for arable land, the more agriculture prevailed over cattle breeding and hunting. According to data for 1940, each family had two acres of arable land. They grew wheat, buckwheat, beans, potatoes, oats and barley (for livestock feed), corn (for poultry), etc. As for livestock, the Romanovites kept horses, cows, goats, pigs, chickens, etc. In the summer they were grazed in the pasture, and in the winter they were kept in a stable. In the garden they planted cabbage, cucumbers, pumpkins, beets, tomatoes, watermelons, melons, radishes, radishes. They also engaged in beekeeping. The Romanovs did not fully provide themselves with food and fodder and were forced to buy wheat, rice and onions from Koreans living near their village.
The interior of each hut was elegantly decorated: bright curtains embroidered with flowers, icons in the red corner, photographs in frames under glass, ficuses and geraniums in pots, painted chests, etc. were striking. But there was no electricity, and the house was lit with beeswax candles.
Bread was baked mainly from wheat from yeast or unleavened dough. Meat was given to livestock Domestic bird or the prey of hunters. Fish often appeared on the table: trout (lenok) was caught in the river near the village. On weekdays they drank kvass, and on holidays they made mash or mead from honey, berries or wild grapes. Jam was made from sultanas, wild grapes and viburnum. Everyone was amazed by the beauty of the festive attire of the Romanov women: against the backdrop of the landscape of Manchuria, their National costumes seemed unusual.
The Romanovs lived unusually unitedly. Money from the sale of a captured animal, such as a tiger, was distributed among all families. Even gifts from visitors did not fall into the exclusive possession of anyone. The villagers helped each other not only with labor, but also with livestock and agricultural tools.
In the first half of the 1940s. In addition to Romanovka, there were several other Old Believer settlements in eastern Manchuria: Colombo, Xilinghe, Handaohezi, Mergen, Tatitswan, Chipigu (Masalovke) and Medyan. In Silinkh, formed in 1932, lived the brothers Dmitry and Login Gostevsky, Gerasim Yurkov, and Sazon Bodunov. In the village of Dajiquan, in the valley of the Tanwanhe River, 12 versts from the Velin railway station, lived Ignatius Basargin, his son Efim and his four cousins, the sons of Kondraty. Old Believers had settlements in or near large cities such as Harbin, Qiqihar, Buhedu and Hailar.
One of the most popular activities of the Old Believers was hunting, especially since the Manchurian taiga was considered very rich in game. In the area of ​​three lines of the CER, up to three thousand Russian hunters hunted. Most preferred to hunt birds or fur-bearing animals, and not most of hunted a tiger. Semyon Kalugin, a resident of Handaohezi, was considered especially lucky, who killed seven tigers during the winter season of 1936. Other famous professional hunters were Luka Malakhov, Fyodor Martyshev and Pyotr Kalugin. According to Chinese doctors, a drug made from tiger heart gives a person extraordinary courage and resilience, and amulets made from tiger claws and whiskers bring back lost love. Typically, a tiger carcass was valued at between 900 and 1,500 gobi, and one tiger killed could yield more profit than the best hunting season. Hunting was regulated by the rules of the Manchurian government and the Harbin Society for Proper Hunting and Fishing, which was then transformed into the hunting and fishing section of the BREM (1936). The Old Believers also captured live tigers for sale to zoos.
The extraction of antlers, which were used to prepare traditional Chinese medicine, was also popular. Antlers in China were very expensive: for a pair of antlers average size gave from 500 to 600 gobi, and for large ones you could get about 1000 gobi.
The hunt for pantach deer began in Manchuria at the beginning of summer and lasted almost until August. This type of hunting did not pose such a danger for the hunter as tiger hunting, but required great experience, skill and dexterity. The main difficulty was that during the period of antler growth, the deer becomes especially nervous and sensitive. At this time, he goes deep into the taiga, occasionally going out to drink and feed. Deer hunting was based on a deep knowledge of the habits of the animal and the skills of the hunter. Having tracked the deer, the hunter sat in ambush for hours. The Rubezh magazine wrote: “The last season (1936) of antler hunting was, in general, quite successful. A group of well-known large game hunters here, led by the brothers Kalugin, Martyushev and Nazarenko, managed to get a whole collection of antler, which brought them quite a substantial income ".
If at the beginning of the development of the territory there were a lot of animals here, then over time there were fewer and fewer of them. Already in the mid-1930s. the question of reserves was raised. According to N.A. Baykov, up to 40 thousand people were engaged in hunting in these places, including the Chinese and representatives of indigenous peoples. Hunters caught animals and game worth about 20 million yen.
The most difficult test for the Old Believers in the first years of life in Manchuria was the fight against the Honghuzes. Old Believer villages were located far from others settlements, so they often became victims of attack. In the fall of 1933 in the village. Xilinghe, which at that time consisted of thirteen households, was attacked by a large gang. Despite the fact that there were twice as many bandits, the Old Believers were able to repel the attack by cunning, destroying about fifty bandits. In the winter of 1938, Elisey Kalugin, Ivan's youngest son, was killed in the taiga while hunting.
While living in China, the Old Believers completely preserved their culture. First of all, this was facilitated by life in closed communities and settlements located in the depths of Manchuria, close in natural and climatic conditions to the Far Eastern region. Methods of adaptation to local natural-ecological, socio-economic, demographic and cultural conditions their lives had already been spent in Russia, where the Old Believers had to adapt to life in new conditions.
The degree of openness among the Old Believers-priests and the non-priests was different. The former actively participated in social life emigration, without fear of open polemics with Orthodoxy, which was impossible in Russia. Bespopovtsy, on the contrary, preferred to stay away from this, choosing the appropriate settlements. Both of them were engaged in arable farming and cattle breeding, but among the former it was at a more commercial level, with involvement in economic activity region and contacts with other social strata, and the Bespopovtsy mainly farmed for their own needs.
In this regard, the degree of preservation of traditional Russian culture was also different. The priests, understanding the importance of education, sent their children to various schools and gymnasiums, often far from home, which did not contribute to the preservation of not only traditions, but also the faith itself. Differences in the level of traditional culture were also observed among different generations: among the older and middle generations of priests it was high, among the younger generations it was very low. Despite the peculiarities in the way of life of the priests and the bespopovtsy, they were in contact with each other: for example, the bespopovtsy used Old Believer literature, in particular calendars, buying it from the priests in Harbin.
When moving to China there were no big changes in material culture Old Believers, in particular, wearing traditional clothes and shoes on everyday days and holidays, except for the fact that in China they borrowed some items from the Chinese, for example, fabric. Clothes became more elegant than before while living in Russia. No new design features were introduced into the construction of the housing or its interior: the “red corner” with the iconostasis, photographs of relatives on the walls, and printed drawings on the fabrics that decorated the room were preserved. There were no differences in food either. The range of food products, methods of their preparation, storage, preparation, and kitchen utensils were traditional.
Nothing has changed in family and marital relations. Traditions were strictly observed in everything, and they were especially attentive to the degree of blood and spiritual kinship. Bespopovites almost never had the chance to choose a partner from a different ethnic background, especially since at this stage there were enough brides and grooms. In rural areas, people got married quite early: girls aged 14-16 years, boys - at 15-18 years old. In urban areas, the Old Believers-Priests often had marriages with representatives of a different faith, but the age for marriage was higher than among the non-Popovites.
There were no major changes in the traditional distribution of production and household labor into men's, women's and children's work. Men usually hunted and worked in other areas. Women were the keepers of the hearth, did all the housework and raised children. Old Believer families were large. From 5 to 10 children grew up in them, and sometimes more. True, there was a high infant mortality rate, especially since the Old Believers lacked medical care.
The education system of priests and non-priests in China was different. The first had an initial level in a parochial school, and also had a higher level of education, up to higher education. Among the Bespovoites, education was limited to the first stage: learning to read the Old Russian language, which was necessary for religious service. At the same time, there were cases when Old Believers hired Russian emigrants to teach their children. In addition, the low level of education was made up for by communicating with Chinese or Japanese children and mastering their languages: the Old Believers knew them perfectly.
Confessional community and cultural identity were determined by the older generation. It was it that established norms of behavior that carried a number of religious prohibitions, and monitored the observance of traditional customs and rituals. The elders determined religious and cultural rules for members of their community, supervised strict weekly and longer fasts, mandatory prayer hours, etc.
Adults had the responsibility to introduce their children to the way of life of communities, the degree of reverence for parents, consanguinity and kinship by property, and to create a hierarchical structure of family responsibilities. They also preserved traditional calendar and family (maternity, baptism, wedding, funeral and memorial) rituals.
The Japanese occupation of Northern Manchuria hardly changed the life of the Old Believers. The Japanese did not pay any attention to the internal structure and features of the Old Believer community. Like all Russian emigrants in northern China, the Old Believers were required to register with the Main Bureau of Russian Emigration in Manchuria (BREM) by filling out the appropriate form. The Old Believers communities elected from among themselves a representative of the BREM, who was responsible for communicating between the Old Believers and the authorities.
Like all Russian emigration, Old Believers were obliged to participate in public works, including providing livestock for road construction or taking part in the Japanese system civil defense. Japan was making plans to invade the territory of the Russian Far East, and Russian emigrants were supposed to become a link between the Russian population and the Japanese. Old Believers were also recruited for military service: they were trained to serve as guides. They were mainly trained in the Asan formations.
There were also Old Believers communities in Xinjiang, in northwestern China, where those who fled Russia through the Altai Mountains settled - not only Old Believers, but also ordinary emigrants, for religious or religious reasons. political reasons not accepting Soviet power. Here the Old Believers settled mainly near the cities of Ghulja and Urumqi, where they found fertile lands. Their life was no different from the life of their compatriots in Manchuria. There were no special contacts between Harbin residents and Xinjiang residents. They began only on the way to the American continent, in Hong Kong.
1945 put an end to the well-functioning life of the Old Believers. Soviet army captured the BREM archive in Harbin and identified those who, to one degree or another, had contact with the Japanese. Almost all male Old Believers, except for a few old men, were immediately arrested and deported to the USSR. Soviet diplomats began campaigning in Manchuria and Xinjiang for the return of families to their homeland. For some time, the families of the Old Believers who remained in China waited for the men to return, but every year the hope faded. Russian Baptists and Pentecostals managed to leave through Shanghai to the Philippines and other countries. Through them, the Old Believers learned about the rules of emigration from China.
Since the mid-1950s. From the deepest regions of China, family after family, leaving their farms, with modest belongings, the Old Believers traveled on passing trucks and carts to the nearest railway station, and there, by train, with or without documents, they went to Tianjin and Shanghai. From there they left on ships for Hong Kong (1958-1959). Chinese customs officers strictly ensured that the Old Believers did not export any valuables from China, including gold and paper money.
For many months, while in the offices of embassies and consulates their further fate, hundreds of families of Old Believers sat waiting, most often without work, content with a small allowance. The International Red Cross and the United World Council of Churches helped them get settled and survive in Hong Kong. From here they were able to travel to different countries. Archpriest Ivan Kudrin left China for Australia in 1958. Through his efforts, a church was opened in the suburbs of Sydney, where Father John served until his death in 1960.
Old Believers from different parts of China met each other only in Hong Kong. At first, they decided to move to South America, where, as it seemed to them, they could find conditions for compact living away from civilization, the harmful influence of which they always tried to avoid. But the climatic conditions of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Bolivia were very different from those in which they lived in Russia and China. While still on the way to South America, during a short stop in Los Angeles, the Old Believers met the Russian Molokans. Through them they contacted the Molokans in Woodbourne, Oregon. At this time, seasonal agricultural workers were needed there. At first, only a few people left for the United States, but after some time several hundred Old Believers already lived in Oregon, which demonstrates a high degree of mutual support.
In the first years in Oregon, the Old Believers had a difficult time: there was no money and housing, in English they did not know. An unexpected influx of cheap work force Local farmers took advantage: Old Believers, whole families, and they have large families - ten or more children - worked tirelessly in the fields for sixteen or even more hours. Many men went to cut wood. Some worked in factories, agreeing to any job just to feed their families and pay off the debts associated with the resettlement. Old Believers were not always favored at American enterprises, which was primarily due to religious holidays: the owner did not like the fact that his worker was taking unplanned days off. The ability to adapt to local natural-ecological, socio-economic, demographic and cultural conditions, developed over the years, allowed the Old Believers to successfully settle in a new place. Over time, large farms owned by them appeared in the United States.
In Oregon, Russian Old Believers lived surrounded by Americans, and the younger generation began to actively contact American youth. According to the elders, this could lead to a further departure from the faith. “It became difficult for us in Oregon,” recalls Olympiad Basargin, “and for the benefit of the children, we began to think about moving to another place. We sent people to Alaska to inspect the area.” In the spring of 1967, the first Old Believers P. Martyushev and G. Gostevsky went to Alaska. Upon their return to Oregon, a council was held at which they shared their impressions. At first, there were no people willing to move to Alaska: no one wanted to leave Good work and an established life and starting life over again. But then the opinion turned in favor of resettlement. The Old Believers traveled to Alaska several more times until they found a place that was suitable for their village in all respects. On June 22, 1967, 640 acres of land on the Kenai Peninsula were purchased. Martyushev and his family (parents, daughters, married sons) were the first to go there. They also invited A. and S. Kalugin, who recently arrived from South America.
The Tolstoy Foundation helped the Old Believers move to Alaska. They were able to buy a truck and a crawler tractor. The displaced families borrowed a 20-ton dump truck, loaded it with a tractor and hitched a truck. On May 13, 1968, they drove up to the mountains and stayed with future neighbor Bill Rebick. His wife showed him where to put up tents and get fresh water. “The next day, the men made a roof and put a wood-burning stove under it, which the Americans gave us. It became a kitchen for everyone. The Americans brought fish and shrimp, which the Old Believers did not eat. Some brought clothes. Most of all the Aleuts came.” For the Aleuts, the desire to help the Russian Old Believers was natural, since from generation to generation they passed on stories about the times of Russian Alaska, and some knew the Russian language well, continued to follow Russian customs, went to Orthodox churches American Orthodox Church. It was the Aleuts who taught the Old Believers how to fish.
One of the first buildings in the new village was a bathhouse: a simple tent with a heater. The Old Believers constantly supported this tradition in Russia, China, and South America. Until now, almost every Old Believer house has its own bathhouse.
The village was named Nikolaevsk in honor of St. Nicholas, one of the most revered saints among the Old Believers. The first chapel was in the trailer of P. G. Matryushev, who became the first rector. After the prayer, everyone gathered together and discussed plans. A volost council was also elected in the village.
Gradually the welfare improved. Others began to join the first settlers. The men worked at a canning factory in Ninilchik. Four years later we bought a mower in Oregon. The Old Believers were not afraid to go into the forest, to which they were accustomed back in China: they picked mushrooms, made jam from wild plants (blueberries, cloudberries, lingonberries), and hunted, even women, for small game.
“All the Old Believers of our settlement,” wrote P. G. Martynenko, “wear exclusively national costumes: embroidered shirts, wide colored sundresses. Also, children go to school in their own costumes. Fortunately, in America there is no uniform. Teachers of both sexes bought our suits and often come to work in them. Our life in Alaska is stabilizing every year. We raised dairy cattle, chickens, vegetable gardens, and greenhouses. The main source of income is fishing."
The Old Believers took up fishing around 1970, hiring for the first time to the Americans. At the same time, the Russians got a job building fishing boats. After some time, they began to build them themselves, opening several shipyards. They gave their boats Russian names “Amur”, “Sailor”, “Swan”, “Rainbow”, “Ruslan”, Niva”, etc. The Americans immediately drew attention not only to the skillful hands of the Old Believers, but also to their fearlessness: Russians went to sea even in stormy weather, and there were frequent cases of death at sea. At the same time, there was great mutual assistance. Now the Old Believers fishermen are mainly based in Homer Bay.
In Nikolaevsk, the first major split occurred among the Old Believers. If the first groups were almost all non-priests, then an initiative group appeared, which again turned to the ancient books and decided to accept the priesthood, that is, to choose a priest from among them. At the beginning of January 1983, representatives of the Old Believer community of Nikolaevsk went to Washington with a request to allow a trip to Romania for them. ordination in the Belokrinitsky Metropolis. And again help came from the Tolstoy Foundation: its employee, Prince Kirill Vladimirovich Golitsyn, helped prepare all the documents for the trip. Thus, the Church of St. Nicholas and a priest appeared in Nikolaevsk. This was K.S. Fefelov, a native of China who was a mentor in this village for many years.
Not everyone was unequivocal about this decision. The Basargins, who lived on the Nakhodka farmstead, adjacent to Nikolaevsk, as well as the Revtovs from the Klyuchevaya farmstead, refused to accept the priesthood. They continued to go to their house of worship. The Revtov family founded the settlement of Kachemak after the split on the shores of the bay of the same name, nicknamed Hawaii for its warm climate. Many Bespopovtsy Old Believers also lived in another village - Voznesenka.
Faith and family life are the basis on which the lives of Old Believers are built today. In foreign countries, no matter what hardships befell them, the Old Believers strictly adhered to the ancient religion, the Russian language and their customs.
The head of the school, Bob Mohr, who came to Alaska from Tennessee in 1969 and worked at the Christian school in Homer before Nikolaevsk, did especially much to popularize customs and culture among the Old Believers. When he arrived in Nikolaevsk in September 1970, the school was located in a simple trailer. By 1974, residents of Nikolaevsk built a new school, which participated in a program to reveal the history of the construction workers. In this regard, a federal grant was received to publish literature on this topic, and the Nikolaevsk Publishing Company was organized at the school. A total of 23 stories were published. Publication ceased in 2007.
O. Basargina told the life story of her aunt S. Kalugina, ending it with these words: “There are more stories - as many as there are people who came here with hope, and with a dream, and with the desire to live and raise their children according to their beliefs. Few of the stories will be written and told in the same words; but these stories exist, and will exist as long as one person lives with memories and another with the desire to listen and learn from past events."
One of the biggest problems that young Old Believers face is finding a bride or groom. Here it is necessary to comply with all requirements regarding age, degree of blood and spiritual relationship. For example, marriages based on physical and spiritual kinship are strictly prohibited. In China, where there were a sufficient number of Russians, the Old Believers easily found brides and grooms. In America, it has become more difficult to find a match, so parents are sometimes forced to buy plane tickets for their grown-up children, some from Alaska to Woodbourne, some from Woodbourne to Canada, some from Argentina and Brazil to Oregon, or vice versa. The pretext is always the same: “let him go and stay.” Often children know that they are going “to a viewing party”, where young people will “inadvertently” make the necessary acquaintance in families they know.
The so-called Turks were also concerned about the problem of getting married. They lived in Turkey, where in the Aksehir region, having founded the village of Kazakuy, they were engaged in agriculture and fishing. The Turks - or Nekrasovtsy - were descendants of the Cossacks-Old Believers, who, led by Ataman I. Nekrasov, left Russian borders after the defeat of the peasant uprising of 1707 - 1710. under the leadership of Kondraty Bulavin. Nekrasov then took several thousand families to Kuban, which was in Turkish possession in those years. Russian peasants followed the Cossacks. Large group Nekrasovtsev (999 people) repatriated to the USSR in 1962. While they were sailing from Turkey to Novorossiysk on the ship "Gruzia", ​​the thousandth Nekrasov was born. They settled in the Stavropol Territory.
A small group of Nekrasov Old Believers (244 people), who did not want to go to Soviet Russia, soon moved with the help of the Tolstoy Foundation to the USA. They first settled in New Jersey, not far from New York, where some took root and live to this day. Some, having learned that there were Old Believers in Oregon, decided to move to them on the west coast of America. The clothes and speech of the Turkish people are slightly different from those of the Harbin and Xinjiang people. Another difference is that they were forced in Turkey to change their surnames to the Turkish version. So, for example, the Steklovs, having freely translated their surname into Turkish language, became Kemami.
Marriages between American Old Believers and Russians almost never take place: it is expensive to travel and there are difficulties in obtaining American visas. Unions of Old Believers with Americans are even rarer. They mean that a son or daughter has gone into the world, breaking with the family and the covenants of their ancestors. The exception is when an American or American converts to the Old Believer faith

Notes

The article was financially supported by a grant from the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences, project code 09-I-P25 - 01, as well as a Japanese grant - Grant in - Aid for Scientific research (212510)3)(A). Cultural Adaptation to the Natural and Social Environment in the Forest Areas in the Russian Far East (Roshia kyokuto shinrin chitai ni okeru bunka no kankyo tekio).
1. State Archives Khabarovsk Territory (GAKhK), f. 831, op. 2, d. 29, l. 36 - 38.
2. TYUNIN M. Spiritual and moral publications of Harbin. - Bread of Heaven. Harbin, 1940, N 11, p. 38.
3. KUDRIN I. G. Biography of a priest and father of a family. Barnaul. 2006.
4. SHADRIN I. Why there was a schism in the Orthodox Church in the 17th century. - Bread of Heaven. 1941, N 9 - 10, p. 46 - 50; N 12, p. 4 - 11.
5. Old Believer. 2005, N 34.
6. Frontier. Harbin, 1936, N 14 (March 28), p. 17; ZUEV S, KOSITSYN G. Hunting in Northern Manchuria. - Polytechnic. Australia. 1979, N 10, p. 250 - 257.
7. GOMBOEV N. N. Manchuria through the eyes of a hunter. B.m., B.g., p. 22 - 29.
8. Frontier. Harbin, 1936, N 14 (March 28), p. 17; N 17 (April 18), p. 19.
9. Ibid., 1937, N 4 (Jan. 23), p. 17.
10. Ibid., 1936, N 29 (July 11), p. 18.
11. Ibid., 1936, N 29 (July 11), p. 19.
12. BAIKOV N. A. Game animals and the problem of fur farming in Manchuria. - Bulletin of Manchuria. 1934, N 6, p. 94.
13. GOMBOEV N. N. Uk. cit., p. 5 - 10.
14. Honghuzy: Based on the story of Anna Basargina (November 6, 1979, Nikolaevsk) Guerillas: Old Believers life in China. Nikolaevsk. 1980, p. 14.
15. Archive of the Museum of Russian Culture in San Francisco. Collection of A. S. Lukashkin, folder: Old Believers.
16. BASARGIN O. A story of Nikolaevsk: As told to O. Basargin by S. Kalugin. Alaska. 1984, p. 1.
17. MARTYUSHEV P. Nikolaevsk-on-Alaska. - Relatives gave it. 1978, N 292 (July), p. 28 - 30.
18. BASARGIN O. Op. cit., p. 3.
19. MARTYNENKO P. G. Nikolaevsk in Alaska. - Russian life. 15.IV.1978.
20. BASARGIN O. Op. cit., 1984, p. 26..

Khisamutdinov A. A. Old Believers: from Russia to America through China // Questions of History, No. 7, July 2011, pp. 90-102.

After part of the Russian Church did not accept the reform of Patriarch Nikon, persecution began against those who disagreed. At the beginning of the 18th century, under Peter I, entire communities fled from Moscow and from power as far as possible, to the borders of the state and beyond its borders. To Siberia, Transbaikalia, to the North.

Less known are the Old Believers who fled to the west and south - and there were many of them. Until now in Poland, Belarus, Latvia, Lithuania, along the banks Lake Peipsi Russian Old Believer settlements remain in Estonia.

Another part went south, ending up first in the Transdanubian lands (now Romania), and then in Turkey, where the Old Believers Cossacks “Nekrasovtsy” (after the name of their leader, the rebellious Cossack ataman Nekrasov) lived, separated from their homeland for almost three centuries, preserving their faith, way of life and culture.

However, Russian Old Believers were not cut off from the surrounding life and were aware of what was happening in the world. In the same Baltic states in the 18th and 19th centuries, communities were very successful economically; from those times in some cities (such as Rezhitsa or Dvinsk) entire blocks of strong and beautiful stone houses that they built remained.

Therefore, when Europe began to plunge into the abyss of revolutions and world wars, it was decided to look for a new quiet refuge. And together with millions of immigrants from the Old World, Russian Old Believers set foot on the American shore, who by that time had not maintained living contact with Russia for several centuries.

Harbin people

On the opposite side of vast Russia, in Transbaikalia, on the banks of the Angara, Cossacks-Old Believers also lived. It was far from the capitals, the border was vast and turbulent, for local governors and governors every Russian bayonet, pike and saber was a great help. Over time, the severity of oppression from the government weakened, the Cossacks lived freely in villages and served. And, of course, they strictly preserved their ancient faith and culture.[С-BLOCK]

This went on for a long time - until the beginning of the twentieth century, until the onset of the damned days of the Russian Troubles. Like the majority of Cossacks throughout Russia, the Transbaikal Old Believers opposed Soviet power. And, having suffered defeat in the Civil War, they decided to go “beyond the cordon”, to Manchuria - the northern part of China, at that time closely connected with Russia.

In the Manchu emigration, the Old Believers Cossacks lived quite separately, in entire villages. They were sharply hostile to both the Soviet regime and the urban secular life of Harbin; they cultivated the land, built churches, and were ready to defend their way of life and property both from saboteurs infiltrating from Soviet Russia and from local bandits and revolutionaries (it was unfolding in China its own civil war). Therefore, when the communist regime was established in China, the Old Believers Cossacks again had to flee from the “Reds”.

Whole villages left, helping each other, collecting money to buy tickets, to buy seats on ships. They left for the unknown, far from their homeland, to unknown distant countries. Recently I had the opportunity to meet the descendants of refugees who settled in Australia. But the bulk came to Brazil through Singapore. And then, having learned that in North America There are settlements of Old Believers, I went there.

Meeting

It must be said that the Old Believers are very suspicious and jealous of the purity of church teaching and tradition, and not all branches of the once united movement recognize each other. But after thoroughly testing each other’s faith, the community leaders made a decision: both the “Turks” (as the Old Believers who came to America from Turkey call themselves) and the “Harbinites” have “the right faith, pre-Nikon faith, without distortions or untruths.”

Thus, on American soil, two branches of Russian Old Believers were reunited - centuries after parting, on foreign soil, circumnavigating the globe on both sides.

Oregon authorities appreciated the hard work and religiosity of the new citizens, allocated them large plots of land (5-8 hectares per family) and interest-free loans, and exempted them from taxes for 10 years. Soon the region inhabited by Russian Old Believers - "Oregonians" - began to prosper. After trying a variety of crops and economic practices, the Old Believers found their niche in this market: they now grow the best strawberries and blackberries in America. In addition, a significant part of the Christmas trees that decorate American holiday homes were also grown on Old Believer Cossack plantations.

Now the united community numbers about 5 thousand people and inhabits a small town called Woodbourne. The residents there speak to each other in ancient Russian, live in comfortable wooden houses (most often one-story, although sometimes there are two or even three-story mansions), which are called “izba”. The interiors of the house are not very different from the homes of ordinary American farmers, with one exception: they do not use televisions and tape recorders, which are called “Satanists” (interestingly, the ban does not apply to cameras, video cameras and computers).

Here are the words of one of the older members of the community, born in 1938, Makar Afanasyevich Zanyukhin: “When a person sings himself, he develops his thoughts and voice, but a tape recorder and television detract from his mind.” So, since the residents of Woodbourne do not have the habit of spending evenings in front of the TV, the customs of communal evenings with conversations and songs (secular stretches and spiritual verses - psalms) are preserved along with handicraft work: women sew traditional clothes, decorating them with embroidery and woven belts.

Such clothes are used both on holidays and in everyday life. Residents wear traditional Russian hairstyles and headdresses; men do not shave their beards and mustaches. All residents go to church, where the Znamenny chant sounds. Traditions and rituals are preserved, including very complex and amazingly beautiful wedding ones.

This amazing community with its treasures of genuine Russian culture was discovered for the rest of the Russian world by the scientist, folklorist Elena Nikolaevna Razumovskaya from St. Petersburg. Elena Nikolaevna first visited Woodbourne a decade and a half ago.

There are not so few real Russians abroad - according to various estimates, from 25 to 30 million people, and the Russian diaspora is considered one of the largest in the world. What made people leave their homes and go into the unknown, how did their new homeland accept them, and how many managed to preserve the Russian language?

BOLIVIA

Who lives
Old Believers who have maintained their faith since the reforms of Patriarch Nikon in the 1650s and 1660s.

Having fled from Soviet power in the 20s and 30s, first to China, the ancestors of today's Bolivian emigrants encountered communism there too, so they did not stay in China. That wave of migration “scattered” numerous families of Old Believers all over the world (today their communities live in Romania, Poland, the USA, Canada, Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia). Bolivian Old Believers do not know new words, so they come up with them themselves.
Residents of the village of Toborochi, founded in the south of the province of Santa Cruz in the 1980s by Russian emigrants-Old Believers, even now look as if they had stepped out of historical photographs.

The men are bearded and dignified, wearing obligatory blouses; the women wear sundresses and tuck their braids under a headscarf. In the jungles of South America, the Old Believers lead a simple rural life: they grow wheat, beans, corn, and breed Amazonian pacu fish in artificial ponds.
They manage to avoid mixed marriages by looking for a couple in like-minded families, including in other countries and even on other continents (with the help of the Internet).

Their children study in school in Spanish, but in home communication they use the Russian language of the 19th century. It contains a lot of old words: a tree is called a forest, a mistress is called a suitor, and about loans they say “take for payment.” Bolivian Old Believers do not know new words, so they come up with them themselves. Cartoons are called hoppers, garlands are called winks, hairbands are called clothes. Some words are derived from Spanish, but in the Russian manner. For example, a gas station is called a gas station from the Spanish word gasolinera, and the phrase “agriculture,” which is unfamiliar to them in Russian, is replaced with the Spanish agricultura: “We are engaged in agriculture, we are agriculturalists.”

It is curious that the dialect of the Old Believers was influenced not by Bolivia, but by China. Those who lived a lot of time in the province of Xinjiang began to replace the sound “ts” with “s”, and “ch” with “sch”: saying “powder” and “sar” instead of “chicken” and “king” and distorting familiar words : “sonny”, “shaynik”, “lavoshchka”. This causes grins from other Old Believers who lived in Harbin: they consider their speech more correct - and indeed, it is more similar to Russian.

CANADA

Who lives
Doukhobors (Dukhobors) are adherents of a Christian sect that appeared in Russia in the 18th century. The Doukhobors reject the church, icons, crosses and advocate the official equality of people.

One of the islands of Russia in Canada is the city of Grand Forks, where there are many inscriptions in Russian, a Doukhobor museum and restaurants with Russian food.

They arrived here at late XIX- the beginning of the 20th century, fleeing the persecution of the tsarist regime. The Doukhobors in Russia were exiled and oppressed for refusing military service and disrespectful attitude towards the church.

The first settlers in the new land had a hard time. Canadian authorities tried to wean them from living in communities and persuade them to work alone - farming. Under pressure from the laws, emigrants had to leave Saskatchewan and buy land in British Columbia, where they could finally live together, as they were used to in Russia. They named their new properties with an area of ​​10.9 million m² symbolically: Solace Valley.

There are now 30,000 descendants of the Doukhobors living in Canada, 5,000 of them keep the faith of their ancestors, many still speak Russian.
Today, the Doukhobors are difficult to pick out from the crowd - they have assimilated with Canadians, but keep in touch with each other thanks to the Internet and communities.

USA

Who lives
More than 3 million Russians live in the United States, more than 700,000 consider Russian their native language. There is a large Russian-speaking diaspora in Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Houston, and New York. However, there are several places that can be called islands of Russia in the United States, for example, the village of Vladimirovo in Illinois. Descendants of former prisoners of war from World War II live here.

The settlement of Vladimirovo was created on the initiative of the parish of the Russian Orthodox Church and Orthodox refugees, who were mostly former prisoners of war. Freed from the camps of Germany after World War II, people did not want to return to the USSR - they went to the USA for freedom, including freedom of religion. Most of the refugee flow settled in large cities such as Chicago. But some, afraid of losing their culture and language, wanted to live separately.

In 1961, in Vladimirov, the local diocese opened a children's camp for Orthodox Russian emigrants, and soon this place began to become overgrown with settler houses.

Vladimirovo consists of Tchaikovsky, Pushkin, Igor Sikorsky streets. There is a church, a cemetery, and a children's camp.

Today, in addition to Russians, Poles, Ukrainians, Belarusians, and Americans live there. The cost of a plot in a Russian settlement is $12,000.

ALASKA

Who lives
Descendants of Russian conquerors of Alaska.
The most Russian settlement in Alaska is Ninilchik on the shores of Cook Inlet. It was founded by employees of the Russian-American Company in 1847.

When Alaska came into the hands of the United States in 1867, some of the inhabitants returned to Russia, and some remained in America. Russian settlers built an Orthodox church and a school and existed for a long time in complete isolation, since ships did not enter Cook Inlet.

In 1917, the Russian school closed. The US authorities did everything to make the population of Alaska forget their native speech. A policy of assimilation was carried out against indigenous peoples; children were punished for using their native language in schools: they were forced to wash their tongues with soap. However, the oldest people of Ninilchik, although they have lost the Cyrillic alphabet, have not yet completely forgotten Russian.

More than 70% of the words of the Ninilchik dialect are ordinary Russian words, which have slightly changed their sound: “agorot”, “butilka”, “babachka”, “chotka” (aunt), “ostraf”, “bear”, “skaska”. Preserved and old words XIX century: “strush” (plane), “vishka” (second floor), “chikhotka” (tuberculosis). Some words are borrowed from the English language: for example, a child here is called “beybichka” from the English. baby. The dialect is rich figurative names: for example, a large mosquito is a “grandfather kamar”, and a stingray fish is a “mara gull”.

The most curious thing that happened to the Russian language in Alaska is the loss of the neuter gender and partly the feminine gender. Ninil residents say: “my daughter has come” or “red currant.” They also mix languages, they can say: “Yevonai’s mother was watching television all night.” Russians in Alaska borrowed some words from their wives - Eskimos and Aleuts. At the same time, in Ninilchik, and even in the surrounding villages where they do not speak Russian, the tradition of shouting “gorko!” at weddings has been preserved.

CHINA

Who lives
Descendants of the White Guards, Old Believers and Orthodox priests, Cossacks, wealthy peasants who were afraid of dispossession.
The peak of Russian emigration to China occurred at the beginning of the 20th century, when those fleeing Soviet rule settled in Harbin, China. Nowadays, those who came to work or study live here.

The most Russian city in China is Harbin. It was founded by Russian builders of the railway to China in 1898 as one of the stations of the Trans-Manchurian Railway. After the invasion of the Japanese army and the creation of the People's Republic of China, many had to leave. But in the old areas of the city, typical Siberian architecture still prevails; the city still retains the Russian spirit and is replenished with a new wave of emigrants. There are Orthodox churches, Russian schools, and the central park is named after Stalin. There is a Russian village near Harbin, which serves as an illustration of the life of the first settlers - railway workers.

Another Russian village, but this time inhabited, is located on the border with Russia: this is the Shivei volost on the Argun River. About half the population (more than 2,000 people) are ethnic Russians: they are one of the officially recognized small nationalities of China. They save traditional culture and the way of life of their Russian ancestors, but in appearance they are more similar to the Chinese: they are mainly descendants of mixed marriages between the Chinese and Transbaikalians.

Russian families in Shivei profess Orthodoxy, build wooden huts and mud huts, perform Russian songs and dances. Many of them, especially older people, have not yet forgotten their native language, although the Chinese authorities tried to eradicate it in the 1960s, during the period of cooling relations with the USSR.

Recently, ethnographic tourism has begun to develop in the village with the support of the authorities. About a hundred Russian Chinese families are involved in the hospitality industry: they introduce visitors to the customs, morals and folklore of the Russian village. Since 2008, a Russian ethnographic museum has been operating in Shivei.

Revealing story
The history of the Romanovka project began strangely and ordinaryly, like most non-trivial stories. In the early 1990s, when previously silent facts of the recent Soviet past began to be revealed to the public, at one of the scientific symposiums in Novosibirsk, for the first time in Russia, the topic of foreign migrations of the Old Believer population of the Primorsky Territory was raised. The report was made by the President of the Japanese Association for the Study of the Eastern Branch of the Russian Abroad, honorary member of the Russian Academy of Sciences and Lomonosov Prize laureate, Slavist Mr. Yoshikazu Nakamura. Specialist in Russian Old Believers, employee of the Primorsky State Museum named after. VC. Arsenieva Vera Kobko attended the symposium and was quite surprised to learn that in China, not far from Harbin in the thirties - sixties of the last century, there was a diaspora of Old Believers originally from Primorye.
Active correspondence began between Russian and Japanese specialists, which resulted in an international project for the study of history and modern life former residents of Romanovka and their descendants, a village that, by the will of fate, became the core of the “dispersion” of Russian Old Believers almost throughout the world. The project was based on materials from the scientist Saburo Yamazoe, who worked in the 1930s and 1940s as a researcher at the Japanese Institute of Land Development, located in Manchuria. The materials included unique, not yet published photographs that are of great interest to Russian history experts.
Mr. Nakamura had the idea on this basis to create a photo album with extensive captions in Russian, to bring to the light of day those images and meanings of the history of Russian schismatics that are interesting not only to rare scholars, but also to contemporaries in general.
Painstaking field work began to collect detailed facts that could explain the material collected by the Japanese in Manchuria to a wider audience. How did photographs of Russian people end up in Japanese archives? In the 30s and 40s of the last century, the Japanese, who claimed dominance in the Far Eastern part of the world, faced serious economic difficulties, so the idea of ​​​​relocating the surplus rural population of one million people to the mainland, to the puppet state of Manchukuo, seemed very promising to them. The Japanese needed the experience of surviving and thriving peasant communities in harsh conditions. Russian Old Believers who fled to Chinese province Manchuria from the hardships of Soviet collectivization. With their characteristic scrupulousness, the Japanese studied the economy, way of life, and other features of life in Russian settlements in alien and unfavorable conditions, in order to later use it for their settlers. Old Believers in Manchuria are a phenomenon of interest to any researcher, regardless of nationality. But for the heart of a Russian person this phenomenon needs detailed description. Japanese researchers of the Old Believers did not leave any surnames, first names, or other emotionally significant notes under their professional photographs. In addition, the researchers who formed the core of the Romanovka project were well aware that the Romanovs and their descendants, after the beginning cultural revolution in China they settled widely around the world, spreading Russian Orthodoxy to the most remote corners of the world. Some of them again ended up in Russia, in the Khabarovsk Territory, and most of them settled in the USA, in the state of Oregon near the city of Woodburn. From the American side, Richard Morris, a professor at the University of Portland, Oregon, and Tamara Morris, a doctor of philological sciences at the Institute of Linguistics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, joined the historical and ethnographic project “Romanovka”. Many wonderful little discoveries were made during the research process. For example, in the Old Believer village of Tavlinka, Khabarovsk Territory, one of the former residents of Romanovka recognized herself in a girl who flashed in numerous Japanese photographs. Little by little, growing in detail, the history of the “Chinese” Old Believers took on flesh and reality, and grew into modern times.

"New wave" of Old Believers
How many waves of Russian emigration to the West were there? If we do not take into account the tales of the “new chronology” about pharaohs of Russian origin, then everyone knows the first wave caused by the revolution, the second - dissident and the third - “Jewish” in the perestroika era. But few people know about the small Old Believer wave, which was caused by the beginning of collectivization in the Far East. Since the time of Peter and Patriarch Nikon, schismatics have chosen exodus as a way to preserve the faith and foundations of their orthodox Orthodoxy.
They moved to the East for a better life, for religious freedom, avoiding living next to the “suga,” as they called the morally unstable migrants who came to their well-equipped villages after them. In Primorye they reached the ocean, founding the most northern and remote settlements. Communities of Old Believers seemed to have no fear of difficulties and organized prosperous villages in completely wild places. Possessing colossal diligence, fearlessness, mutual assistance as a principle of life, and the strongest moral Christian foundations, these people achieved success faster than others in any area they took on, and this in the conditions of centuries-old depressions and persecutions due to schism.

Flight from the USSR
Soviet power threatened the very possibility of the existence of communities, the personal life of each bearer of the tradition. For the first time, Old Believers began to build huts on an abandoned plot of land located two hundred kilometers southeast of Harbin in the fall of 1936. The life cycle of an Old Believer village proceeded in accordance with centuries-old foundations: according to the old rites, church service, worshiped icons of the old script, prayed according to pre-reform holy books, and were engaged in farming, hunting and beekeeping.
The homeland of most of the Old Believers of Romanovka were the seaside villages of Petropavlovka, Arkhipovka, Kamenka, Varpakhovka. Having crossed the border, the Old Believers fled to Manchuria. At first they scattered throughout Northern Manchuria, and finally, in 1936, the Kalugin brothers, while hunting, accidentally came across a place that seemed to them suitable for founding a village.

Without fear and reproach
The Kalugins’ request was soon granted, but the arrangement in the new place was not easy: in 1938, one young man from the Kalugins’ family was killed by a gang of Honghuz. Then the men of Romanovka rose up and destroyed the entire gang; during the battle, only one person died on the Russian side - another of the Kalugin brothers.
Otherwise, Romanovka flourished. The people were diligent and worked hard. They made most of their money by hunting Amur tigers, which could be sold at high prices to zoos different countries peace. The proceeds from the sale were divided among all the households of the village.
According to a Japanese researcher who visited the village in 1945, there were more than forty households in Romanovka, the population numbered more than two hundred people, and, on average, each household had three horses and two cows. Almost every family had its own Singer sewing machine. The prosperous village attracted many Old Believers from different places in China and Sakhalin.
Fate gave the Old Believers refugees a brief moment of freedom in China lasting just over a decade. Soon new tests began. During the defeat of the Kwantung Army and the Army of Manchukuo, little Romanovka found herself in the thick of military events. The population of Old Believer settlements generally greeted the liberators friendly. It was hard to believe in the bad, after all, they were our own, Russians, but the Romanovites soon realized: what they left Russia from in the 1930s overtook them in China in 1945.

Back to USSR
The Red Army units stationed in Romanovka requisitioned almost all the livestock from the population. As the Old Believers later recalled: “In short, the Red Army freed us from bread and salt.” Arrests began. On September 3, 1945, SMERSH military counterintelligence officers deceived 16 men from Romanovka. That same fall, almost the entire remaining adult male population was arrested - more than 30 people. All those arrested were taken to Russia, where they were charged with treason and espionage for Japan.
In 1947, the wait for the investigation ended: “Guilty, sign, fifteen years of forced labor camps. They took pity on the old people and gave them ten years.” After the investigation, the Romanovites were divided into stages: some to Siberia, some to Karaganda, some to Mordovia, some to Kolyma to the mines.
After the arrests, women, children and several old people remained in the village. Ivan Ivanovich Kalugin was only 13 years old in those years. He recalls: “In the spring of 1946, my aunt and I went to sow. We've arrived. We prayed to the east. The father says: “Start, son, study.” And I say: “I can.” - “Who taught you?” And as boys we played on the river and learned how to sow: we collect sand and sow it so that it lies evenly. Dad went first, I was next. He throws the grain and looks at me to see if I’m doing the right thing: “Thank God.” And pours again: “Come on!” Father soon got ready to help others, I was confused: “Dad, where are you going?” And he: “Get on the cart, look there,
in field. Do you see at least one hat?” - “No, just scarves.” The father went to help the women. The father will get so busy and tired... Everyone tries to treat him: here they will bring a mug in gratitude, there a mug there. Out of tiredness... He comes home drunk, and mom starts grumbling. And daddy: “Say, Christ save me, that I’m home, and look, a helper has grown up.”
Well, she forced him somehow. Tyatya grunted and grabbed his belt. Swung at her. And the mother fell to her knees, crawling, asking for forgiveness. Dad: “You weren’t burned like others, so pray to God!” Oh, God forbid!”

How to be and what to do?
I stood before the orphaned Romanovites eternal question: what to do? In 1945, employees of the Soviet “authorities” gathered the Romanovites and began to persuade them to return to the Union. The women shouted: “We won’t go, you’ll starve us there again, we’d rather die here.” The Romanovs began to think about emigrating from China, but it was not easy to escape.
For those whose relatives served time in the USSR, the question was resolved unambiguously: return to the USSR and wait for the return of their husbands and fathers, wherever they were. Almost all Romanovites who returned to the USSR, under the terms of repatriation, passed through the virgin lands of Kazakhstan, Khakassia and the south of the Krasnoyarsk Territory. As soon as the opportunity and permission to move to Far East, the Romanovs set off again. The first desire of many was to return to Primorye.
Unfortunately, meeting with my native places brought more disappointment than joy. The taiga was being actively cut down, hunting was only allowed according to plan, and relatives were invited to the Khabarovsk Territory. In 1956 new try finding a place to settle was crowned with success; the attention of the Old Believers was attracted by a valley in the Khabarovsk Territory, sandwiched by the hills hanging above it and the Amgun River. Having heard about the new Old Believer village, relatives and fellow countrymen of the Romanovites, including repatriates from China, began to come and settle here. In 1980, the Old Believer village of Amgun was renamed Tavlinka.
As was the case before, the Romanovites quickly got to their feet and today every farm has a lot of equipment, all the Old Believers are at work. The valley where Tavlinka is located no longer accommodates those wishing to settle their own farm; a new farmstead, Gusevka, quickly grew nearby, the founders of which were the Old Believer Guskov families. Today it also has 20 houses and is home to more than 300 people. A few tens of kilometers from Tavlinka in the village. Berezovy also has an Old Believer community, strong and large. Rumor has it that young people from Tavlinka are getting ready to hit the road again, to Primorye. Maybe this was how the Romanovs were destined to complete their long history of circumnavigating the world in the homeland of their ancestors, where they were the pioneers of settling these lands? Many different roads were traversed by several generations of Romanovites. Everyone chose their own.

American Old Believers
Another part of the Romanovites, with the help of the World Council of Churches and the Red Cross, first went to Hong Kong, and from there by ship and plane to Australia and Brazil. Some Old Believers live in these regions to this day.
“Let us work abroad. This Red Cross... started to bother. We were the first to receive documents in Hong Kong. And when we got to Hong Kong, where are we, say, who, what country will accept us. Ours indicated themselves as grain growers, then Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay accepted, Australia accepted, and Zealand. America didn't want anyone back then. According to our documents, we are Chinese, but they looked at our documents. Brazil accepted us."
In South America, in Brazil, the Romanovs intermarried with other Old Believers from Manchuria and other regions of China. The last Old Believers left Hong Kong for Brazil and Argentina. This is how Romanov scholar Timofey Stakhievich Kalugin recalls life in Hong Kong and Brazil: “We lived in Hong Kong for seven months, but we were paid for everything. They just said that when we get there, then we will repay from there, but those who went to Brazil were all forgiven [of their debts]. We moved to Brazil... it was also very difficult there. The work was so cheap... And then, let’s say, they started working, they started getting more money there, and then more. But we bought one tractor for four or five families. They rented land, began to quietly sow, quietly rise.”
Life in Brazil turned out to be difficult for the Old Believers; they wanted to move to America and turned to the Molokans for help. “They started to write off, and then our people asked how they could move. These Molokans helped ours. And that’s how our guys went through the Molokans. Then these first families, let’s look for others again, again our own, and let’s go like this.”

Dissident businessmen
In the first years of their life in Oregon, the Old Believers were engaged exclusively in manual labor, usually working on the farms of sponsors who helped them with the move, since they had no education and did not speak English. However, thanks to their hard work and natural ingenuity, the Old Believers quickly adapted to new living conditions. Here they also benefited from the experience of surviving in extreme conditions, acquired in China.
In 1963, a small community of Old Believers from Turkey (Turks), whose ancestors fled from Russia to Turkey after a split in the Russian Orthodox Church, came to New Jersey and then to Oregon. Over the past forty years, Old Believers different groups live in the same area of ​​Oregon, get married, adopt traditions, linguistic features. Gradually the Romanovs mixed with Old Believers of other groups.
Old Believers men began to receive contracts to work in the forest. During the berry picking season, Old Believers families worked for days in the ozhin (blackberry) field. At the first opportunity, some families bought pharmacies (farms) for themselves. In winter, Old Believers worked in factories, most often furniture factories.
Among the Old Believer youth there are many talented, energetic and enterprising people. Life for the Old Believers in Oregon was getting better. Many young men have now switched to the construction business, have lucrative contracts and hire workers themselves, many have become wealthy, and quite a few are rich. Many are also involved in commercial fishing in Alaska.
In order to preserve their religious principles and way of life, as well as to develop new territory and have an income, some Old Believers of America began to look for more remote places and found them in the depths of Alaska. The families of Prokhor Grigoryevich Martyushev and Anisim Stakhievich Kalugin moved to the Kenai Peninsula, bought a huge sector of land and founded the village of Nikolaevsk, which later became main village Alaska. About a year later, two more small villages appeared near Nikolaevsk, Nakhodka and Klyuchevaya, founded by former Romanovites Vasily Abramovich Basargin and Epifan Mikhailovich Revtov.

Back into the wilderness again
Another group of Old Believers found a remote place in Canada in the mid-1970s. In the north of Alberta, near the town of Plamondon, the Old Believer village of Berezovka arose. Now the Old Believers from Oregon have dispersed to other US states: Minnesota, Washington and Montana. But all these communities have constant contacts with each other and are connected by kinship and marriage. In all these communities there are Romanovs or their descendants.
The Old Believer population is growing rapidly. However, no one knows the final number of Old Believers who settled in Oregon. In houses of worship they usually count by family. According to rough estimates, there are about 7-10 thousand people. Early Old Believers immigrants often had up to 16 children in a family. Now families that have four generations can have from 50 to 80 people, including daughters-in-law and sons-in-law. Young people now speak English fluently and prefer to speak English among themselves, but this is to the detriment of the Russian language.
“And now you meet young people, but they no longer speak Russian; in American, it becomes their native name. This one is already Russian, he speaks the same language as his grandfathers and great-grandfathers, he is already lagging behind.” The Church Slavonic language is still in demand in religious services. However, there is a real threat of losing the Russian language and the ability to understand religious services. Therefore, young married Old Believers asked the elders to teach lessons from the holy books and organized evening lessons for this. It is important that young people also have an interest in learning how their fathers and grandfathers lived.
Old Believer communities are still under the control of their elders. Despite some disagreements between them, all communities try to preserve the old rite as they understand it. Religious services on Sundays and holidays, as well as traditional social events such as weddings and name days, bring together members of different communities. Houses of worship and churches are crowded during major holidays. The fear of God and strong traditions instilled from childhood contribute to a common understanding and continuation of the traditional way of life. For those born in China, Turkey and South America, the traditions are very strong and will probably stay with them forever. For younger Old Believers, the knowledge that they are participants in a unique part of history can keep them connected to their ancestors.
The editors express great gratitude to the Primorsky State Museum named after V.K. Arsenyev, personally Vera Vasilievna Kobko and Nina Beslanovna Kerchelaeva, as well as Messrs. Yoshikazu Nakamura, Richard and Tamara Morris for the right to publish part of the materials from the photo album about the Old Believers of the village. Romanovka, which is just being prepared for publication.