Kozhurin, K. Yа. NEWLY FOUND DOCUMENTS FOR THE HISTORY OF THE OLD BELIEVERS IN THE VILLAGE KUSHEREKA, ONEGA DISTRICT. Proceedings of Petrozavodsk State University. 2021;43(2):85–91. DOI: 10.15393/uchz.art.2021.588


Old Believers in the Russian North

NEWLY FOUND DOCUMENTS FOR THE HISTORY OF THE OLD BELIEVERS IN THE VILLAGE KUSHEREKA, ONEGA DISTRICT

Kozhurin
K. Yа. 		Herzen state pedagogical University
Keywords:
Old Believers
northern village
Old Believers of the Arkhangelsk north
Old Believers’ population
secret monasteries
confessional politics
government repression		 Summary: In the article, based on newly found archival documents, the author examines the history of one of the little-known centers of Ancient Orthodoxy in the Russian North – the village of Kushereka in the Onega district of the Arkhangelsk Province. The appeal to this topic is very relevant because of its little-studied and practical importance for the confessional history of Russia within the boundaries of the Old Believer community. The article introduces new archival materials covering the situation of Old Believers in the northern village and its surroundings. Documentary corpus, taken by the author for the study, is a group of sources of funds of the Russian state historical archive: case “split” of the Department of General Affairs and the office of the Minister of agriculture. Based on published and unpublished sources, as well as historiographical material, the author examines the history of the village of Kushereka in historical retrospect and tries to identify the real role of the Old Believers in the life and worldview of its inhabitants, who formally belonged to the ruling church. The author raises important issues about the existence of secret Old Believer skeets in the north, about the government policy towards the Old Believers, their activities, and about the repressions of the mid-XIX century. One of the main conclusions of the article is the fact that the authority of the Old Believers among the population of the Pomorian North, despite the persecution by the official administration, was consistently high throughout the XVII–XX centuries.



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