The Old Believers of Burytia in the 1920s and 1950s: Transformations of the Way of Life

Abstract

The subject of the research in the article is the problem of transformational modification of various aspects of the life of the Old Believers of Buryatia in the 1920s and 1950s. The object of the study is the Old Believer population of the Buryat-Mongolian ASSR (since 1958 – the Buryat ASSR). Based on the purpose of a comparative analysis of the transformations of the Old Believers' lifestyle in the 1920s and 1950s, this article examines such aspects of the topic as: characterization of examples of both negative and positive processes for preserving identity (atheistic campaign, introduction of communist ideology, cultural modernization) in designated time periods, as well as the attitude of generations of the 1920s and 1950s to these processes, which allows us to show the evolution of various social practices. The historical-genetic method used to consider a social group at different time intervals is necessary to demonstrate changes in the lifestyle of Old Believers in the 1920s and 1950s. The comparative historical method was needed when comparing the contribution of the Soviet government and internal movements among the Old Believers in the process of the decline of religious identity. Atheistic propaganda, as well as the communist ideology introduced among the Old Believers, were the main channels for the group's incorporation into the unified Soviet society that had been under construction since the 1920s. By the 1950s, based on the stable potential of the cultural identity of the Old Believers (even with the decline of the religious one), these tools gradually adapted in the form of a set of formal instructions and recommendations, which in turn led to the transformation of the way of life of the Old Believers in the context of mutual adaptation to reality (socially approved behavior). The novelty of the study lies in the fact that personal memories of Old Believers of the 1920s and 1950s (from the village of Nadezhino, Tarbagatai district of Buryatia) are introduced into scientific circulation, allowing to compare the real attitude of people to the processes taking place with the official market position of the designated period.