Compilation Works in Old Believer Journalism

Abstract

Old Believer writers from first-generation opponents of church reform created socially significant works in defense of Russian Church traditions. They present as evidence excerpts from authoritative manuscripts and early printed books testifying to the validity of the defended opinion on innovation. Based on these authoritative works, at the end of the 17th–first quarter of the 18th centuries, new texts began to be compiled, representing a summary of the fundamentals of the doctrine. Analysis of the content of several compilations made it possible to form an idea concerning the purpose of referring to works by the leaders of the first-generation Old Believers. It is shown that the compilers, when using source texts, borrowed and briefly outlined the main arguments in favor of the defended point of view on the reformers’ innovations that violated the traditions of Russian Orthodoxy. However, the focus was on fragments from works by the leaders of the opposition to church reform, in which the current time was characterized as the “kingdom of the Antichrist.” The main theme in the compilations is the assertion of the onset of “the last times” and a warning to powerful tormentors. The authors of the compilations managed to show to “pious readers” the cruelty and inhumanity of the authorities, both ecclesiastical and secular, and the massive scale of executions and persecution of Old Believers. This article uses documentary material to show the secular and church authorities’ assessment of Old Believer journalism and their attitude to it. They understood the danger and propaganda significance of journalistic texts in defense of the “Old Belief,” so they reacted sharply to them, intensifying the persecution of the disseminators of the Old Believer teachings. It is concluded that the compilation texts of the late 17th–first quarter of the 18th centuries that used the writings of the leaders of the first generation of opponents of church reform had a significant influence on the formation of a broad religious and social movement, which researchers call the Old Believers.