The Way of Life of the Old Believers of Buryatia: the Crisis of Religious Identity in the 1920s.

Khomyakov Sergei Vasil'evich PhD in History Junior Research Associate, Institute of Mongolian, Buddhist and Tibetian Studies, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences  670045, Russia, respublika Buryatiya, g. Ulan-Ude, ul. Tret'yakova, 25A, kv. 29 khomyakov777@yandex.ru Other publications by this author

         The religious everyday life of the Old Believers of Buryatia in the context of the "new way of life" was considered by researchers in line with the general study of their way of life before and in the 1920s. The notes of the Decembrist A.E. Rosen and the traveler Paul Labbe about the pre-revolutionary life of the Semeyskys, mentioned by A.M. Selishchev ^[23], in the context of his own observations of 1919 demonstrate crisis changes in the external the periphery of their lifestyle. Soviet scientists of the 1920s (A.M. Popova, A.S. Dolotov ^{[18, 8]}) explained such changes solely as a result of the weakness of the religious worldview in comparison with the new communist one. Modern researchers of the Old Believers of Transbaikalia (F.F. Bolonev, S.V. Buraeva, S.V. Vasilyeva, V.A. Kostrov, V.M. Pykin ^{[1, 3, 14]}), conducting a detailed study of the development of Ancient Orthodoxy in the region, note the layering and complexity of the processes taking place here, not reducing them ultimately to the struggle of religion and the new reality.  

        Of great importance for the work were the reports of the meetings of the Buryat-Mongolian Regional Committee of the CPSU (b), essays by party workers and researchers about the life of Old Believers, memos stored in the State Archive of the Republic of Buryatia (GARB), the State Archive of the Trans-Baikal Territory (GAZK) and the State Archive of the Irkutsk Region (GAIO), as well as materials of the periodical press of 1920-x. ("Buryat-Mongol truth". Based on them, it turned out to be possible to show transformational changes in the Old Believers' environment.         

The transition of the multimillion peasant population of the former Russian Empire into a homogeneous aggregate – Soviet citizens, could not but affect the Old Believer population – one of the main rural communities of Transbaikalia. Before the arrival of the Soviet institutions of power here, she, due to the specifics of her creed, was already undergoing drastic changes in her lifestyle, which weakened her original (religious) identity. To the ongoing processes is added the desire of the new government to give them the direction they need for themselves. The Old Believer population of Transbaikalia, the "family" (who moved to Transbaikalia in large families), began to successfully and quickly master the difficult valley of the Selenga River (near the town of Verkhneudinsky) from the 1760s, having overcome thousands of kilometers of "expulsion" from the eastern borders of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth under escort. "The imperial government and the official Orthodox Church have never ignored such a powerful opposition-spiritual movement as the Old Believers. For example, within the framework of the developed policy, some of the Old Believers in the XVIII century were resettled in Transbaikalia" ^{[3, p. 85]}. In the 160 years that passed before the revolutionary events of 1917, the Trans-Baikal Old Believers, on the one hand, sought an isolated state of the spiritual life of their communities (preserving the semantic component of the hardships that their ancestors had endured since the beginning of the split of the XVII century, minimizing contacts with the authorities to the status of their chapels and prayer houses, hosting runaway Orthodox priests and on the other hand, in all matters that did not concern their religious specifics, the Old Believers here, as in the European part of the empire, actively interacted with the external environment. "There could not be a special isolation of Old-Faith communities in Russia, except for small groups of followers of some interpretations. The Old Believers came into contact and established close economic, household and even family ties with the indigenous population of the places where they were forced to find shelter. This was observed in Karelia, the Urals, Western Siberia and Transbaikalia" ^{[1, 106 p.]}. The economic condition of the Old Believer settlements of the county was stable for most of the XIX century, the departure and migration were not of a mass nature, the absence of external shocks also contributed to the successful preservation of the established features of the religious way of life of the settlers. A.M. Selishchev quotes the Decembrist A.E. Rosen, who was briefly in Tarbagatai and Desyatnikovo in the second half of the 1820s. "The inhabitants are governed by themselves, they themselves have opened the sale of their works and will be blissful until stupid people do not interfere in their affairs, forgetting that the organized community, which itself has been governed for a century, understands the real situation better than all outsiders. their benefit" ^{[23, p. 76]}. Further, he also points to the direct connection of the material self-sufficiency of the Semeyskys with the complex of well-known Old Believer prohibitions unchanged by that time. "They do not use tobacco, tea, wine, or medicine, they regard all this as a sin. They do not vaccinate smallpox, but it is clear that their faith is strong – I have not met a single pockmarked one among them. They are pious, diligently read the Holy Scriptures and strictly observe the rites" ^{[23, p. 76]}.        

At the turn of the XIX – XX centuries, the traveler Paul Labbe, in the book "At the Lamas of Siberia", also gave a high assessment of the moral state of the Old Believer communities. "The morals of these peasants have often been set as an example to emigrants who have arrived in such large numbers from Europe to Asia over the past 30 years. From a young age they are able to read and write, jealously preserve their ancient customs and even today it is possible to gather from them an abundant harvest of ancient songs and wonderful legends" ^{[23, p. 148]}. However, already in the 1900s and 1910s, domestic researchers noted the growth of crisis phenomena affecting the periphery of the identity of Trans-Baikal Old Believers (taboo practices). A. Dobromyslov cites the case of the beginning of the XX century . "How much wine played a prominent role in everyday life is evidenced by such a case. We got up early in the morning. Barely had time to wash – the samovar has not yet been served, as we see, the owner and the hostess are walking in a row with a tray in their hands, and glasses of vodka on the tray. To the question why it was so early, they answered: "we have such a custom, at least take a sip"" ^{[5, d. 34, l. 23]}. Similar changes were recorded in relation to smoking, shaving. The gradual and heterogeneous (by time and localities) rejection of prohibitive practices, which was fixed at the turn of the century and became a trend in the 1920s, could not occur without the previous loss of understanding of the features of ancient Orthodoxy (including the continuity of ancient piety), the essence of the conflict with the Niconian Church, which, of course, are seen as the core of identity old Believers. After all, including the moral self-control of deeply religious people reading Scripture and thinking about it in the circle of the household, and not so much the inexplicable old man's ban on anything to the younger generation, was the guarantor of sincere adherence to the external attributes of the creed.

         The reasons that led to the gradual loss of understanding of the essence of the "old faith" certainly seem to be the absence of a systematized church organization in the real life of people at that time, the weak connection of the Semeyskys with other Old Believers, the isolation of Old Believers in individual settlements, the lack of opportunities for their spiritual education and hence the free interpretation of the texts of Holy Scripture and the writings of Old Believers., or conducting purely ceremonial sides of services, without explanations to believers. By the 1920s, this led to profanation, distortion of the original foundations of ancient Orthodoxy here, as Selishchev will mention later. "Charters are a terrible evil in Semey societies. These obscurantists are ruining the body and soul of the common man – they are ruining the arbitrariness of their ecclesiastical power. They themselves, wandering through church books, completely not understanding the simplest text and naively interpreting it, think of themselves as an infallible storehouse of wisdom" ^{[23, p. 11]}. Often chosen simply from among the most respected villagers, they (as well as the most faithful old men) were constrained by the level of understanding that they received from the older generation and passed on to the next increasingly diminishing knowledge. Runaway Orthodox priests in the county were a rather rare phenomenon, were not accepted by the Old Believers, were seized by the Upper Udine authorities ^{[20, d. 3061, l. 19]} and could not particularly affect the weakening of religious tradition.   

         It is unequivocal that by the 1920s the decline of the religious way of life of the Semeyskys was intensified by external events. The revolution and the civil War broke the generational ties of obedience to the elderly parents. An atmosphere of uncertainty about the future was established, Old Believer settlements often found themselves in the combat zone of red partisans and various gangs, young guys, the future owners of their yards, were involved by different sides in the confrontation, often deserted, breaking away from their usual life. The results of such a blow to the spirituality of the Semeyskys in the Tarbagatai district were recorded by Professor A.M. Selishchev in 1919. "Bad swearing, like the croaking of crows, stands over the village. Everyone is swearing: men, women, and guys. Drunkenness stunned everyone. “I drink moonshine, I drink a lot!”. Not only men and boys get drunk, but also women and brag about it. And there is no mention of what the Old Believers scribes wrote about in Transbaikalia: "fornicator, drunkard, lazy on a single chariot"" ^{[23, p. 16]}. But such a reality was an objective consequence not only of the hard years of trials, but also of the generational inability of the leaders of the creed to self–organize and develop it - of course, even in conditions of separation from other centers of Old Believers. What absolutely could not be said about the constantly enriching folklore, the specifics of the material and spiritual culture of the Semeyskys.    

         As a result of the processes of the early 1920s, a strong power was established in the district, which brought some calming of morals to the Old Believer village. "The best part of the youth currently finds satisfaction in a book, newspaper, visits reading huts, etc. The weaker and unstable begins to hooliganism, bad swearing, drunkenness, found a place among the same Old Believers who despised him among the Orthodox" ^{[2, d. 961, l. 12]}. However, as can be seen, the arrival of the new government by itself did not cause the crisis of the religious identity of the Old Believers, although it certainly had the potential to strengthen it to some extent, struggling with church holidays, rituals, everyday habits – that is, with external factors. Of course, it is necessary to take into account the desire of communist propaganda to discredit the old way of life, to reconstruct the features of their social life according to the same patterns. It makes sense to talk about the gradual transformation of identity, its simplification, reinforced by external circumstances. As a result, the core of the religious component is no longer awareness of the peculiarities of the Old Belief, but in itself a firm belief in God as an unchangeable constant ("customs have been forgotten, but do not touch faith in God", "customs that have already been forgotten, but we keep faith in God", "at least take it off I will not give up my head, but I will not give up my faith in God. Well, the children are there as they want" ^{[5, d. 34, l. 25]}). The periphery of identity is no longer the numerous prohibitions from which the majority (except for a certain percentage of persistent people) gradually departed, but the remaining household religiosity. It was expressed in the practice of celebrating religious holidays and correlating the agricultural calendar with them, by sending prayers at home, by visiting the charterer to conduct rituals, the need for which was not questioned, by storing and transmitting sacred books and oral traditions (that is, at the same time, the peculiarities of the creed themselves continued to exist both in writing and orally, had the opportunity to partially survive) and much more.

         The level of influence of the Soviet government on the intensification of the crisis of the identity of the Semeyskys in their religion and everyday life in the 1920s is quite clearly noticeable by the reactions of people to the events held. However, first of all, it is worth noting that the workers of the Buryat-Mongolian Regional Party Committee, recognizing the fundamental difficulties in the work of communist propaganda among Old Believers (primarily due to the lack of activity of local party activists), were aware that they were dealing with a community that had already changed in its main essence, as can be seen from the reports of the end 1920s. "For a long time, the Old Believers adhered to their faith, observing it in purity, keeping the precepts of the holy Scriptures exactly. But gradually fanaticism fell and now once a living thought, for which hundreds of people died, turned into a dead form, custom, superstition" ^{[2, d. 961, l. 28]}. Here is an interesting thought that was voiced at the debate on the report on cultural and household work in the "Semey" districts of 1928. "Despite the fact that in our opinion, the Semeyskys are very religious, in fact 50% or more are non-believers" ^{[22, d. 1420, l. 73]}. Such a statement of the thesis speaks of a clear separation for the authorities of everyday religious habits and the same firm faith (based on reading the texts of books brought and written here, justifying all the strict prescriptions of religion) of the Semey ancestors who came here. Although speaking of "unbelievers", the authorities clearly gave wishful thinking, since even in the next decade, with the defeat of the institution of charters and the closure of churches, prayer houses, faith in God itself passed into more hidden forms, having survived a certain period of time under the external forms of socially approved behavior of Old Believers who composed ditties about collectivization and organizing cultural camps in the fields and so on ^{[19, p. 3]}. Of course, the Bolsheviks also noted the external signs of the decades-long transformation. "Over the past 3-4 decades, drunkenness among the "family" has developed more than before, it was not considered a sin, and there was no other restraining principle, and in general, the moral foundations of the Old Believers have noticeably shaken in everything, both in the family and in public life" ^{[2, d. 961, l. 3]}. 

         When it comes to the adoption of the Soviet institutions of power by the Semeis, it is necessary to take into account the very heterogeneity that was inherent in them in relation to religiosity (somewhere they firmly adhered to old traditions, albeit in terms of a certain given, in other villages there was no such principle, they were more open to a new life). Many villages, where the majority were Old Believers, more or less cohesively (but also passively) withdrew from interference in their community.  "All young people are under the influence of the elderly, they obey their parents implicitly, who protect them from communist influence. A small percentage of Komsomol members in Old Believer villages speaks for this" ^{[9, d. 1318, l. 8]}. Specifically, this was observed in the villages of Novaya and Staraya Bryan. "The ideas of the Communist Party were also hard to graft on recruits. This is observed even now. The facts of deviation from religion and the customs of antiquity are attributed to the influence of the Communists and they hate them even more. The name “antichrists" is firmly rooted in the party members. The population attributes all the troubles and misfortunes to the sins of party members who do not pray to God and do not observe holidays, but instead try to invent some of their "heretical" events" ^{[17, d. 961, l. 49]}. On the other hand, in many other settlements, the general attitude towards the Soviet government was fundamentally different, although there was also the issue of involvement in Soviet structures (the party and the Komsomol) it was the work of an active minority, but the absence of a zealous attitude of people to the faith and so it has been going on for quite a long time. The village of Gashey. "Families with Communist children are very tolerant of religious issues. There is not the fanaticism that exists in such villages as: Kunalei, Kuytun, Novaya Bryan and others. Tobacco smoking is accepted by almost everyone. The founder of the Hasheites, who comes from among the poor, is distinguished by great tolerance in matters of faith. Propaganda against the Soviet government does not lead not only overt, but also secret. But most of the middle-aged men, as well as all the young people, have already fallen behind from fasting and prayer. The family looks at it calmly, without sending reproaches and curses, which usually fall on the heads of children from "family" other villages" ^{[15, d. 961, l. 51]}. The situation in the village of Mukhor-Tala of Novobryansk volost is shown most characteristically for demonstrating the transitional state of the Old Believer community of the 1920s. "The population looks at the Soviet government as the "right" people's government, from which they expected and expect a lot of useful things for themselves. They do not hate communists, allowing their children to join the Komsomol. Church holidays are observed rather poorly and most of the residents continue to work in them. True, some rituals and customs are still strictly observed, but if there is a daredevil and violates them, he will not receive special punishment for it ^{[16, d. 961, l. 55]}.        

As can be seen, the youth, on whom the main bet of the authorities was placed, often quite willingly went to the pioneer and the Komsomol ("infected with new views, begins to lag behind the old people, visits reading huts, sings revolutionary songs" ^{[2, d. 961, l. 10]}), mainly because of the objective interest in the new phenomenon itself and at the same time strengthened the dynamics negative for generational succession – "gets used to smoking, does not observe fasts, stops going to church and prayer houses, and even worse of all begins to rebel against parental authority" ^{[2, d. 961, l. 10]}. Although among young people already in the early 1930s, an easy attitude to exclusion from the Komsomol, a lack of understanding of the goals of their stay there, the absence of changes in their social behavior ^{[12, 2106, 57]} will be recorded, which indicates the weak work of the organization, but also often formal entry into it and into In the 1920s, the older generation (whose lifestyle in youth was also the result of the transformation of the community, although to a lesser extent), having met the Soviet government in mature years - at best, loyally perceiving its legitimacy, did not demonstrate the desire to actively participate in its administrative activities – for example, in the elections of village councils. "In the Verkhneudinsky district, the organization of rural election commissions stretched for a month. The first reporting meetings of the Tarbagatai Village Council show weak voter participation, of which about 10% of voters were present" ^{[24, p. 1]}. Such a reaction could be dictated by the expectation of the usual behavior of the authorities for the majority of Old Believers – the requirement to perform economic and military duties, restriction of religious freedom, but without radical measures and, in general, a certain non–interference in the internal life of the community.

         Of course, a small asset that existed in each settlement (which later became the basis for party cells here), at least in the early years, was for any initiative of the authorities, even in matters of atheistic propaganda. "Verkhny Zhirim, 1925. For a long time our peasants wanted to get acquainted with the life of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin and waited. The chiefs of the GPU cell arrived and arranged a series of conversations about him. The chefs were thanked. With their help, we hope to free ourselves from the Old Believer church" ^{[4, p. 4]}. However, over time, there were cases of weakening of patronage work in villages, fading interest in the ideologically "difficult" terrain, which could not but affect the local asset and the silent majority in a negative sense for the success of Sovietization. "1930 Chief S. Nizhny Zhirim, the People's Commissar completely forgot about his patron. For two years, the bosses have never looked into our village. During this time, a kummuna and a partnership for public land cultivation were organized in the village. The chief has no connection with our collective farms" ^{[13, p. 2]}. A similar situation on the part of not only the city's patron organizations, but also party workers was noted not only by the selkors, but also by researchers who came to the established settlements of Old Believers, such as A. Dobromyslov. "Unfortunately, the Semeyskys are poorly visited by people who could inform them about everything (party workers, workers from the administrative center, etc.). The middle peasants, the poor – for the power of the Soviets. However, both latter categories, not receiving, for example, the necessary goods on the market, not knowing the true causes of this phenomenon, also grumble at the Soviet government" ^{[5, d. 34, l. 26]}.

         The creation of local cells of the CPSU (b) in Old Believer settlements was an objective step of the authorities in the 1920s. In terms of personnel, they were mostly formed from local people, because the regional party committee believed, not without reason, that the Semey (who in the past had a negative attitude even to the Old Believer clergy coming from Moscow ^{[9, d. 1318, l. 8]}) could accept only people from their own environment as "close" authorities, "their own" in mentality and faith, because the religious aspect (the construct of "true" faith in God) was of great importance here. In practice, the opposite effect to the forecasts often came out. "Some communist cells have existed since 1921, but delegate meetings have not been established and there is no hope of creating them for next winter due to the insufficient authority of communist cells among the population" ^{[6, 1214, 33]}. Rural communists preferred to be in line with the sentiments of fellow villagers, more actively implementing the resolutions of the Communist Party of the CPSU (b) (on combating religious worldview, supporting Komsomol youth, equipping reading rooms, red corners, houses of culture, educational centers, etc.) where the level of loyalty to the authorities was higher and trying (or sincerely unwilling) to oppose oneself to people with passive resistance to their innovations (for example, this was manifested in the absence of party members' rejection of everyday religiosity). Such a picture was also noted by their regional leadership in their reports on party building in the "Semey" districts. "1928. For this number, the number of cells is 14, the total number of party members is 125 people. But there are also disadvantages: lack of growth, indiscipline, drunkenness. The weakness of working with the poor and farmhands. The general political backwardness of the Communists. Insufficient work among communists in terms of the restructuring of everyday life, icons in the apartments of communists, costumes, kitsch, the performance of religious rites and holidays, khvostism, weakness of anti–religious propaganda - for reasons of training comrades, the specificity of the religious issue, and partly indecision and fear of aggravating relations with the population from the Communists" ^{[11, d. 1420, l. 60]}. Distracting in this respect from the 1920s, the author of the work recalls his grandfather, the Old Believer S. Nadezhino, Trofim Kuzmich Khomyakov, born in 1935 - a communist of the local party cell since the 1950s, who was the party organizer of the Iskra collective farm. Never having an interest and sufficient knowledge on matters of faith, not praying every day and not observing fasting (unlike an illiterate spouse who spent her whole life "on the farm"), he was just an example of an Old Believer who lost the continuity of previous generations and incorporated into the structure of the Communist party in the countryside. However, all his life he gathered close relatives in the house for the Easter holiday, as a given tradition, and also baptized and turned to the Mother of God with some momentary decisions and events. In the 1920s, such behavior was, of course, pointed out as a serious mistake, but as you can see, it was not possible to achieve a special change here. "Communist cells do almost no work in this area and there are cases when communists celebrate religious holidays. We need to put an end to this. A communist who cannot oppose himself in the circle of non–party members is not a communist" ^{[10, d. 1420, l. 78]}.

         Everyday communication from party members with villagers, joint work, celebration of holidays – were rightly seen by the regional committee as directions of possible ideological work on the ground. "The connection with the masses of our communists should be divided into positive, everyday joint work with non-party members, in the field, social work, rational use of festive pastime (conversations at home, on the rubble, reading huts, etc. And negative, joint drinking, partying on holidays, weddings and other everyday occasions" ^{[11, d. 1420, l. 61]}. But it seems that for the Semey party members themselves, this was rather a normal life activity, which they had before joining the party, they perceived the new status more often by purely external forms (the possibility of education, a change of occupation), and not by the content, which had to be matched ideologically or at least with knowledge of the matter. "Concerning the cultural uplift of the Semey village, in our conditions it is impossible to blame the party cell, since the communists themselves are almost completely illiterate, poorly versed in all issues, but cultural forces in addition to the communist cell, one, two and there are no more" ^{[22, d. 1420, l. 74]}.

            The small number of cells with a gradually decreasing composition, the reasons for expulsion from the party – all this demonstrates the administrative nature of their appearance, the urgent need for their speedy creation and loyalty at the initial recruitment due to the generally indifferent attitude of the Semeyskys. "1929 In the village of Selenginsk, the cell was organized in 1918. At the beginning, the cell united 13 people, and now only 4. Out of 13, 8 were excluded for drunkenness and hooliganism. In the village of Bolshaya Kunalei, the cell was organized in 1924, when the cell was organized there were 27 people, and now there are 16. In Nizhny Zhirim, the cell was organized in early 1923, in 1925-1927. The cell united about 20 people. And now there are only 4 people in the cell" ^{[7, d. 542, l. 101]}. In addition, local representatives of the Soviet government often showed solidarity with the residents in the matter of easing the economic burden on the part of the state. "In the village of Khosurta, Khorinsky district, the situation is bad for the collection of agricultural taxes and insurance payments. The work is slowed down by the chairman of the Village Council Kazazaev. This is explained by the fact that malicious defaulters-kulaks are not described and do not conduct a shock campaign to collect" ^{[21, p. 1]}.

         Thus, the organs of Soviet power, party cells, Komsomol organization, being at the stage of formation and deployment in the 1920s, both in material and personnel aspects, could not yet be an instrument of decisive influence on the "family" community. But they had a fairly clear prospect of becoming a concomitant factor in deepening the crisis of the religious identity of the Old Believers of Buryatia in the future.

             The 1920s were a decade when, in the conditions of the beginning of the construction of a new socialist future, the attitude of the authorities to stable traditions and regional peculiarities in the culture of diverse communities was not yet guiding, and in religion – radicalized. As for the Old Believers of the Buryat-Mongolian ASSR, the figures of the Regional Committee of the CPSU (b) and anti-religious scientists of the Institute of Culture during this period directly pointed out the wrongness of the line of administrative pressure on ancient Orthodoxy, prohibitions of religious holidays and arrests of charters for their activities, which could create a negative public background. Instead, it was supposed to carry out a gradual departure of people from religion, based on its "revelations", emphasizing the negative factors of the old existence and building trust in Soviet structures (with local personnel) – the conductors of communist propaganda. The revolution in attitude to education and medicine, technical innovations was started in the 1920s and carried out in subsequent years, which was undoubtedly positively appreciated by the generations of the Semeyskys. The grandfather and grandmother of the author of the work were given the opportunity to study for free, although in difficult conditions so far (the grandmother was never able to take advantage of this, and the grandfather then reached the stage of higher education), and all 7 brothers and sisters of the grandmother overcame the dangerous infancy and childhood periods of life quite recently. But as for the religious worldview, in the 1920s, as in the pre-war years of militant atheism, it was difficult for the Bolsheviks to achieve their intended goals. The religious identity of the Old Believers has been going through a transformation crisis for a long time and its compromise result can be considered a significant simplification of the semantic component. As a defensive reaction to the permanent loss of understanding of the peculiarities of the creed, she focused on the immutability of the very idea of faith in God and maintained the most stable everyday ritual practices. Hence, the Bolsheviks' "exposure" of religion as such, its justification as the root cause of everything dark and outdated for the Semeyskys, could not fundamentally affect the modified identity, which, having lost its genetic continuity with the past, having departed from its prohibitions, did not question faith itself. The small number of party cadres in the villages, their frequent lack of awareness of their duties, the desire to be noticeable, respected in their environment by people without opposing the sentiments of fellow villagers – all this also did not contribute to the concept of the ideology of communism as a replacement for the religious basis of Old Believers.