Latest / The Romanov Dynasty: Rise, Power, and Bloody End — Fexingo History / The Romanovs and the Old Believers: A Schism That Shaped Russia
Transcript
- Lucas: So we've talked a lot about the Romanovs as rulers, their wars, their secret police, their tragic end. But I've been thinking about something that's been a thread through many of those episodes but we haven't really pulled on: the Old Believers, the starovery. Luna: The starovery — that's the schism in the Russian Orthodox Church, right? Lucas: Exactly. The raskol, the great schism. It started in the mid-1600s, under Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, the second Romanov. His patriarch, Nikon, decided the Russian church books had accumulated copy errors over centuries, and he wanted to bring them in line with Greek originals. So he ordered reforms: three fingers instead of two for the sign of the cross, spelling changes, minor ritual adjustments. Luna: Sounds pretty minor. Why did that cause a schism? Lucas: Because to many Russians, those rituals weren't minor — they were the essence of true faith, handed down from the apostles. Changing them was heresy. And Nikon didn't just suggest changes; he enforced them with brutal authority. Those who refused became known as Old Believers, starovery, or Old Ritualists. They saw themselves as defending the true Orthodoxy against an Antichrist tsar and patriarch. Lucas: And the most famous early defender was a priest named Avvakum Petrov. He was a charismatic leader who wrote a vivid autobiography — arguably the first Russian autobiography — describing his exile, his torture, his defiance. He was eventually burned at the stake in 1682. But his writings became sacred texts for the Old Believers. Luna: So from the start, the Romanov state was persecuting its own people over a sign of the cross. Lucas: Exactly. And the persecution drove the Old Believers to desperate acts. One of the most dramatic episodes was the siege of the Solovetsky Monastery, on an island in the White Sea. The monks there refused to accept the new books, and from 1668 to 1676 they held out against the tsar's army. When the monastery finally fell, the defenders were massacred — hundreds of them. Lucas: But that siege became a symbol. Old Believers started seeing themselves as martyrs. And some took an even more extreme step: mass self-immolation. Entire villages would lock themselves in wooden churches and set them ablaze rather than submit to the Nikonian reforms. It's estimated that tens of thousands died in these 'garis' over the centuries. Luna: That's horrifying. But also shows how deeply they believed. Lucas: Absolutely. And the Romanov response varied. Peter the Great, for instance, saw the Old Believers as backward and subversive. He taxed them double — a special beard tax, even, because they refused to shave. He forced them to wear a distinctive patch of cloth on their clothes to mark them. But he also needed their labor, especially in the mines and factories of the Urals, so many were sent there. Luna: So they became a kind of internal exile population. Lucas: Exactly. And over time, some Old Believer communities became very prosperous — especially the merchant families. The most famous were the Morozovs. Savva Morozov was a textile magnate in the 19th century, a Old Believer who built a massive industrial empire. His family funded the Bolsheviks later on, ironically, because they resented the tsarist restrictions. Lucas: But there's another layer. In the late 19th century, some Romanovs themselves looked to the Old Believers with a kind of romantic nostalgia. The Slavophiles, intellectuals who idealized pre-Petrine Russia, saw them as preservers of the true Russian soul. Even Nicholas II, in 1905, issued a decree of religious toleration that legalized the Old Believers for the first time. Luna: Wait, so after more than two centuries of persecution, the last tsar finally gave them freedom? Lucas: In theory, yes. The 1905 Edict of Toleration allowed them to worship openly, build churches, and even hold public processions. But it was too late for reconciliation. By then, the Old Believers had their own hierarchies, their own traditions, and a deep-seated distrust of the state. Some even saw the 1917 revolution as divine punishment on the Romanovs. Luna: And then under the Soviets, they were persecuted again, I imagine. Lucas: Yes, the Soviet regime was hostile to all religion, but the Old Believers were seen as particularly stubborn. Many of their communities survived by fleeing to remote areas — Siberia, the Altai mountains, even abroad to places like Oregon and Australia. There are still Old Believer villages today, in Russia and the diaspora, that maintain 17th-century rituals. Lucas: It's incredible to think that a dispute over how many fingers to use in a blessing created a parallel society that lasted四百 years. And it really shows how the Romanovs' drive for religious uniformity actually created a permanent fracture in Russian society. Luna: It's like the state's attempt to control belief ended up creating a counter-culture that outlasted the dynasty itself. Lucas: Exactly. And that counter-culture influenced Russian capitalism, Russian literature — Tolstoy and Dostoevsky both wrote about Old Believers — and even Russian politics. In a way, the Old Believers were the original dissidents in Russia, a model for later resistance movements. Luna: I want to know more about Avvakum. What was his autobiography like? Lucas: It's extraordinary. He writes in a raw, colloquial style — very different from the formal church language of his time. He describes his exile to Siberia, where he had to walk through frozen rivers and eat raw meat. He talks about miracles and visions. And he condemns Nikon and the tsar in the most vivid terms, calling them forerunners of the Antichrist. It's a passionate, defiant book. Lucas: And Avvakum's story connects to another famous figure: Boyarynya Feodosia Morozova, a noblewoman who became a patron of the Old Believers. She was arrested, tortured, and starved to death in an underground prison. There's a famous painting by Surikov showing her being dragged away in chains — it's a powerful image of resistance. Luna: So the Old Believers had both peasant and aristocratic support. Lucas: Yes, across classes. That's part of what made them so threatening to the state — they weren't just a sect, they were a cross-section of society. And the Romanovs never really managed to integrate them. It's a story of failed assimilation, and of the limits of autocratic power. Lucas: And you know, thinking about that — about how a state's control can backfire — it reminds me of something. If you've been stepping into history with us episode by episode, you know that we try to bring these stories to you without ads, without interruptions. That's because we really believe in this kind of deep, conversational history. And listener support is what makes that possible. Luna: Yeah, it's a small way to keep the show going for anyone who finds value in it. Lucas: Exactly. If you'd like to help, you can find us at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. No pressure, just a simple way to support the conversations we have here. And it genuinely makes a difference. Luna: Alright, back to the Old Believers. So after the 1905 toleration, did they ever reconcile with the main church? Lucas: Not really. There was a movement called Edinoverie, 'unity in faith,' where some Old Believers accepted the official church hierarchy but kept their old rituals. But most remained separate. And after the revolution, the Soviet regime persecuted both branches. In the 1970s, the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia actually reached out to Old Believers, but the schism remains to this day. Luna: So the raskol never healed. Lucas: No, it didn't. And that's a legacy of the Romanovs — a religious divide that they created and then never could close. It's a reminder that even the most powerful dynasty can't always control the forces it unleashes.