The folk orthodox movement of the “canonists” and movement of the “kurdukovitsy” in the late 1920s in Orenburg district of the Middle Volga region

Abstract

A Christian 's need for extra-liturgical evangelical activity has always existed in the Christian Church and it msanifests itself in intracommunal interation and in service to God, in living the Gospel and in the fullness of life in Christ. Such spiritual aspirations could lead to creating new orthodox communi-ties or to church splits and secrarianism. Those movements often were a reaction to some doubtful or misunderstood activities of the church hierarchy. Various movements of laymen in the Russian Ortho-dox Church through the centuries of its history have been littke-studied and arouse genuine interest in the church environment. The srticle describes the activitiy of orthodox communities such as so-called «canonists» first discovered in the archival documents in the Buzuluk county of Samara province and in the Orenburg county of Orenburg province (since 1928 the Orenburg area of the Middle Volga region). The «canonists» were assessed ambiguously by their contemporaries. The problem is by the in-fluence of so-called «khlystovism» widespread in Russia at the turn of the 20 century. There are exam-ples of alternative communities of so-called «talkers» and «adherents of the orthodox church» and the opposite example of the religious community under the direction of hieromonk Erast (Kurdukov). Like the «canonists» they lived in apocalyptic expectations and existed in late 1920s in Orenburg and in the Orenburg county (later area). The study of laymen community phenomenon helps to adopt positive ex-perience and to avoid mistakes in the activitiy of modern religious organisations.