Latest / The Romanov Dynasty: Rise, Power, and Bloody End — Fexingo History / The Romanovs and the Old Believers: A Dynasty's Religious War
Transcript
- Lucas: We've talked a lot about the Romanovs' wars with foreign powers — Sweden, the Ottoman Empire, Napoleon. But one of their longest, bloodiest conflicts was fought against their own people, over how to make the sign of the cross. Luna: Wait — you mean the Raskol? The Old Believers? Lucas: Exactly. The schism that split the Russian Orthodox Church in the 1660s. It started with a seemingly minor issue: Patriarch Nikon decided that Russian worshippers should cross themselves with three fingers instead of two. That single change ignited a religious war that lasted centuries. Luna: How could three fingers versus two cause such violence? Lucas: Because to the devout, ritual wasn't just custom — it was the literal, unchangeable truth passed down from the Apostles. The two-fingered sign — index and middle fingers extended, the rest folded — represented the dual nature of Christ, human and divine. Nikon's three-fingered sign, imported from Greek practice, seemed to deny that mystery. For people like Archpriest Avvakum Petrov, changing it was heresy, the mark of the Antichrist. Luna: Avvakum — he's the one who was burned at the stake, right? Lucas: Yes, after fifteen years of exile in Siberia. He was a brilliant, fanatical writer — his autobiography is one of the first great works of Russian literature. He described his sufferings in vivid detail: being dragged through frozen rivers, beaten, starved. But he never wavered. In 1682, he was burned alive in a log house in Pustozersk, along with three of his followers. His last words were reportedly, 'We suffer for the two-fingered sign — with that sign we shall stand before the Judgment Seat.' Luna: That's incredible. What about the siege of the Solovetsky Monastery? I've heard that story. Lucas: That's the most dramatic episode. In 1668, the monks of the Solovetsky Monastery, on an island in the White Sea, refused to accept the new books and rituals. They barricaded themselves inside this massive fortress-monastery, which had its own cannons and supplies. Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich sent army after army to storm it — but the walls held for eight years. Finally, in 1676, a traitor monk showed the troops a secret entrance. The massacre that followed was horrifying: the ringleaders were executed, their bodies left unburied. Even the monastery's library and icons were destroyed. Luna: Eight years of siege — that's longer than most of the Romanovs' foreign wars. Lucas: And the state's persecution only intensified. Under Peter the Great, Old Believers were taxed double, forced to wear distinctive clothing, and barred from holding public office. Many fled to the remote forests of Siberia or the northern coasts. Some — whole communities — chose self-immolation rather than surrender. 'Gari', they called them — 'burnings'. In one recorded instance, over two thousand people burned themselves alive in a wooden church rather than accept Nikon's reforms. Luna: That's horrifying. Did the state ever try reconciliation? Lucas: Sporadically. In the late 18th century, Catherine the Great, who hated religious fanaticism, did relax some restrictions. But it was under Nicholas II, ironically — the last tsar — that something like reconciliation began. In 1905, after the Revolution of that year, he issued the Edict of Toleration, which finally legalized the Old Believer faith. By then, the Old Believers had become a powerful economic force — especially the merchant dynasties of Moscow, like the Ryabushinskys and the Morozovs. Their capital helped finance Russian industry. Luna: So it's a real flip: from persecuted heretics to pillars of capitalism. Lucas: Exactly. The Rogozhskoe Cemetery in Moscow became the spiritual and commercial heart of the Old Believer community. They built magnificent churches — still standing today — and ran banks, textile mills, and railways. But they never forgot the centuries of persecution. When the Bolsheviks came, many Old Believers actually supported them at first, hoping for liberation from tsarist oppression. That hope didn't last, of course — the Soviets persecuted all religion. Luna: That's a powerful arc. Before we get into the Soviet era — I want to mention something practical. If today's episode gave you a clearer picture of how religious schism shaped Russia, the way this show stays ad-free is through listener support. You can find us at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. Lucas: Yeah, it's a small way to keep these conversations going without interruptions. And we really appreciate it. Anyway — one figure I think sums up the tragedy of the Raskol is Boyarynya Feodosia Morozova. Luna: Morozova — she was the noblewoman painted by Surikov, right? The one being dragged away in chains? Lucas: Yes, that iconic painting. She was a wealthy, aristocratic widow, a close friend of Avvakum. When the state demanded she conform, she refused. She was stripped of her estates, tortured, and eventually starved to death in an underground prison in Borovsk. Her sister, Princess Urusova, suffered the same fate. Their courage became legendary — even their jailers were moved. But the state made an example of them: no one, not even the highest-born, could defy the tsar's church. Luna: It reminds me of the early Christian martyrs. The regime just couldn't break them. Lucas: And that's what made the Raskol so dangerous for the Romanovs. It wasn't just a doctrinal dispute — it was a fundamental challenge to the idea of a unified, autocratic state. The Old Believers argued that the tsar had betrayed Orthodoxy, that he was the Antichrist. That made rebellion not just possible, but holy. The Streltsy revolts, the Cossack uprisings — many had Old Believer leadership. Even Pugachev's rebellion in the 1770s used Old Believer rhetoric. Luna: So the dynasty's religious war created a permanent undercurrent of resistance. Lucas: Exactly. And it never fully healed. Even after the 1905 toleration, the Old Believers remained separate — they had their own bishops, their own calendars, their own way of life. When the Bolsheviks destroyed the mainstream Orthodox Church, the Old Believers were better prepared to survive underground. Today, there are still communities in remote parts of Russia and the diaspora — in Oregon, in Australia — that preserve the two-fingered sign, the old chants, the beards. Luna: It's amazing — a living link to the 17th century. Lucas: Yeah. I think about Avvakum sometimes, sitting in his frozen pit in Pustozersk, scribbling his defiance on birch bark. He lost everything — his family, his freedom, his life. But he never recanted. And his writings survived, passed from hand to hand by Old Believer families for generations. That's a kind of victory, even if a bitter one. Luna: A victory of memory over power. Lucas: Exactly. And that's a theme we'll pick up next time, when we look at how the Romanovs themselves became objects of legend — the false Dmitrys, the Siberian hermits claiming to be Alexander I. The dynasty's end was as strange as its beginning.