Old Belief in Glazov District (Vyatka Province) in the 18th and 19th Centuries in the Context of Migration

Abstract

This article is dedicated to the formation of local centres of Old Belief in Glazov district, Vyatka Province. The author notes that movement in search of more beneficial living conditions was a constant throughout Old Belief’s existence. The intersection of multidirectional, diachronic migration streams defined the regional characteristics of Old Belief, in many ways influencing the compact form of Old Believer settlement that developed in the course of their transit. The article analyses the formation of several local centres of Old Belief in Glazov. During their flight from the centre in Kerzhenets in the first quarter of the eighteenth century, Old Believers fled as far as possible from the central authorities to the Ural forests: this played an important role in the development of Vyatka Old Belief. Some of them settled along the roads, establishing new settlements and sketes amidst the private factories then being created in the Ural regions. To a considerable extent, migrant routes crossed the territory that, at the end of the eighteenth century, became Vyatka province. On the basis of documents published by the Ural researcher N. S. Korepanov, the article identifies settlements created by the Old Believers in Verkhokamye, where representatives of the Pomortsy concord were dominant. To the west of this region, in the south of Glazov district, Filippovtsy communities formed: the establishment of a spiritual hierarchy there was connected with communities in Nizhny Novgorod province. Also considered is the unfolding of Beglopopovtsy centres. One of these was located in the northeast of the district, while the other was in the southwest. On the basis of the analysis of archival documents, the article’s author explains why contradictory information has arisen in the scholarly literature about the concord to which the Old Believers of the Omutninsk factory belonged, considers the history of the largest Beglopopovtsy chapels in the Porez area, and focuses on the personalities of the Old Believer leadership in this territory. As a result of this analysis, the author concludes that by the last quarter of the nineteenth century, Old Believer migration had essentially ceased. Changes in state policy towards Old Belief had created the conditions for the latter to enjoy a more peaceful existence.