http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2000/russia ... believers/
Old Believers end isolation in Siberian borderlands
These religious fundamentalists hope tourists will pay money to experience the old ways of Mother Russia their ancestors preserved during two centuries of exile
By Steve Nettleton
CNN Interactive Correspondent
CNN Interactive Correspondent Steve Nettleton is traveling east across Russia on the Trans-Siberian Railroad in advance of the March 26 presidential elections. His dispatches from towns and cities along the way will report on what ordinary Russians beyond Moscow and St. Petersburg are thinking and feeling during this uncertain time in their nation's history.
Galina Chebunina wears a traditional headpiece, a kichka decorated with a jeweled brooch. "Our traditions are sort of fading. The younger generation doesn't care. Our ways are lost for the younger ones," she says.
TARBAGATAY, Russia (CNN) -- The Old Believers came here in exile. Violently opposed to changes in the Russian Orthodox Church, they were sent to villages scattered across Siberia. Out of sight and regarded with mystery, they secluded themselves from the rest of Russia, preserving the traditions of the past.
Unlike her ancestors, however, Galina Chebunina speaks with a spirit of openness.
"This region was closed to foreigners in Soviet times because there were so many troops stationed here," she says. "But now the borders are open ... society is open, mentality is being renewed. Old people still fear expressing themselves. We have less fear. Our children will have even less."
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As if she were expecting tourists, Chebunina, an enthusiastic woman in her 30s, has presented herself in traditional dress. Her kichka, a glittering headpiece crowned with a jeweled brooch, is draped in a brilliantly colored scarf that falls to her waist. Dozens of giant beads of amber coil around her neck in four strands, pressing heavily against her blue and red dress.
Along with four others clad in similar attire, she insists on sharing the distinctive singing of Old Believers. In moving harmony, the quintet bursts into a carol composed of an unintelligible mix of old Russian, Polish and Ukrainian.
"Our singing made us special," Chebunina says. "Even under Stalin there was an understanding that our singing traditions were unique. Folklore specialists were coming to study it."
Now it is tourists who are coming to be entertained. Chebunina welcomed several groups of American schoolchildren to her village last summer and more are expected this year.
Liturgical change provokes schism
The Old Believers sing
Click arrow to advance pictures
"Our singing made us special," Galina Chebunina says. "Even under Stalin there was an understanding that our singing traditions were unique. Folklore specialists were coming to study it."
Sounds of the Starovery
Listen to these Old Believers sing, starting with a solo and blending into five-part harmony
327K/30 sec.
AIFF or WAV sound
The Old Believers were not always known for being so hospitable.
In the mid-17th century the Russian Orthodox Church began to tear apart. For centuries all texts on the rites and expressions of the church had been translated and copied by hand. But translations often differed, and scribes reproducing the texts frequently made mistakes.
Seeking a single, authoritative liturgy, the patriarch of Moscow, Nikon, adopted the practices of the Greek Orthodox Church exactly as they existed in 1652.
Believers suddenly were required to cross themselves with three fingers (representing the trinity of God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit), instead of two in the previous ritual. They likewise were expected to issue three "alleluias" at prayer and accept the Greek forms of clerical dress.
Nikon's decree unleashed a wave of violence across Russia. Traditional believers viewed the changes as the work of the devil. Some burned themselves to death in their homes or churches. Others cut off fingers to spare them the indignity of using the Greek sign of the cross.
A faction of the Russian church led by archpriest Avvakum Petrovich revolted against Nikon in an abortive attempt to restore the liturgy. Petrovich was executed. The dissenters fled to Poland and Ukraine.
A century later Czarina Catherine the Great ordered them to move to Siberia. In great convoys escorted by Cossacks, these Old Believers (known in Russian as "Starovery") trekked for a year to the steppes of central Asia.
Nearly 500 arrived in Tarbagatay, a village south of the regional capital of Ulan-Ude (about 200 kilometers, or 124 miles, north of Mongolia), in an area dominated by Buddhists and shamans.
'Here things are pure'
Round logs, colorful shutters and fences distinguish the Old Believers' houses in Tarbagatay. The villagers customarily clean their houses thoroughly at least twice a year by washing the ceiling, walls, floors and exterior.
Old Believers here have maintained the old ways for 235 years. They were known as "semeiskiye," or "family," having brought their entire families with them in exile. They shunned Western innovations and mostly kept to themselves.
"The split helped preserve the old way of life," Chebunina says. "In central Russia things are mixed. Here things are pure."
Their Siberian isolation has not always been peaceful. The Old Believers were not spared the purges of Josef Stalin in the 1930s. Entire families were taken away. Old practices were banned from public display, forcing followers to perform their religious rituals in the woods or at night.
"I grew up thinking that we had always prayed in the dark. I never knew it any other way," Chebunina says.
Priceless antique icons dating back centuries were seized and put to more mundane use.
"I remember when we were children, people came with orders to destroy churches. They were taking icons to a place where they destroyed them or made them into stools," says Osip Medvedev, known by locals as "Uncle Osip." Medvedev says he was born in 1916, "under the czar."
'Not much optimism left'
Townspeople sing
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Townspeople gather and sing in Tarbagatay's cultural center
Sounds of Tarbagatay
Listen to these women villagers sing, accompanied by an accordion
325K/30 sec.
AIFF or WAV sound
In 1971 the Russian Orthodox Church recognized the validity of the old rites and restored the status of the Old Believers within the church. But it would take another 20 years, until the fall of communism, before the people of Tarbagatay would sense true religious freedom.
By then only the eldest Old Believers had any idea of their history. "Unfortunately no one prays anymore," says Medvedev. "Only old people like me."
"Our traditions are sort of fading," admits Chebunina. "When we went underground, we had to try to keep our knowledge and collect old habits. But not everyone appreciates it now. You can go to a wedding and hear wonderful singing, but the younger generation doesn't care. Our ways are lost for the younger ones."
The economic changes of post-Soviet Russia have also taken a toll on the Starovery. State farms collapsed. Jobs in the village disappeared. The stress drove some Old Believers, including Chebunina's brother, to commit suicide.
Many Starovery see hope in the opening of Russian society (along with an influx of cash-carrying tourists).
"Old Believers always stood strong on their feet -- under the czar, under communism, in troubled times," Chebunina says.
"We are genetically optimists. We want to hope for the better. But there is not much optimism left."
