In Search of the “Native Antiquty”: Latvian Orthodox Old Believers’ Cultural Contacts with Organizations of the Russian Émigré (1920s — 1930s)

Abstract

The period of 1920s — 1930s contents the experience of collective identity formation within the Latvian Russian community considering its new political and social status of national minority in the independent Latvia. But the Russian community in Latvia was not a homogeneous one. The “local” Russians historically were built of two confessional groups: the Russian Orthodox Old Believers and the Russian Orthodox, an important part of Russian inhabitants was made of Russian émigrés, appeared in the territory of Latvia in 1919—1921. The activities of Ivan Zavoloko and the circle of the young Old Believers is an example of co-working with emigrants’ organizations and practical preservation of the traditions of Russian culture. Owing to Ivan Zavoloko’s research and social activities experience, obtained in Prague (1922—1927), the Latvian Old Believers established contacts with several important organizations in network called “Russia Abroad”, authoritative in study of Russian cultural heritage, among them the “Icon” (Paris), the Nikodim Kondakov Institute of Archeology (Prague), and the Russian Historical Archive Abroad (Prague).