Grigorijus Potašenko, Klaipėdos sentikių bendruomenė. Istorija, žmonės, tradicijos 1946–2018, Vilnius: Petro ofsetas. ISBN 978-609-420-731-0

Abstract

Grigorijus Potašenko continues his research into Old Believer communities and their culture in Lithuania and the Baltic region.1 This time, he turns his focus to the history of the formation of the Old Believer community in Klaipėda (KOBC), and its development and religious life from when it was created in 1946 until 2018. This is a case study where, in addition to traditional historical research methods and sources largely unveiled by the author for the first time ever (archival documents and Old Believers’ works), oral history material collected from members of the community, the religious fathers and parishioners of the KOBC are also used. Memories and recollections were very valuable for describing and reconstructing the community’s early history in Lithuania’s port city. ‘The Klaipėda Old Believer Community’ is a rather large book (444 pages), richly illustrated with photographs the author collected from both state archives and the personal photograph albums of community members. Potašenko’s book is very important for understanding the history of both Lithuania’s Old Believers and of ethnic and confessional communities in the port city, as practically no one else has devoted separate research to the Klaipėda Old Believer community. According to him, despite ‘widespread and active interest in the rich history of