Schism of the Russian Orthodox Church

The formal cause of the schism in the Russian Orthodox Church was the correction of worship and books according to the Greek model. Its beginning is traditionally considered to be the publication by the Printing House of the Traced Psalter under Patriarch Nikon in 1653. Some changes were made to the liturgical instructions and the article on the two-fingered chant was removed. This caused violent rejection among the clergy and laity, but the church councils of 1654 and 1655 condemned the opponents of the innovation and decided to continue the reform. Patriarch Nikon printed the ideological justification in the collection Tablet in 1655, which, however, was not to spread. "The Book Correction" had been known in Moscow since the time of the Venerable Maxim the Greek (c. 1470-1555), but the stormy discussions never went beyond the narrow circle of the clergy and ended, at worst, with sending them to a monastery to repent. Now Russian society was split into two parts. For many, the opposition was epitomised by the patriarch on the one hand and the Protopope Avvakum on the other, but deeper causes were soon revealed. Nikon's voluntary resignation in 1658 because of disagreements with Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich did not change the situation. The Great Moscow Council of 1666-1667 finally deposed Nikon from the cathedra, but decided to continue the work of correcting the books.

In the future, the struggle against schism and executions of the Old Believers continued. This was largely due to their perception of the tsar as the incarnation of the Antichrist. The Old Believers were popular among the peasantry, both free and serf, among the townspeople and merchants, including the most wealthy. Gradually the authorities were forced to make concessions. Peter I imposed special taxes on the Old Believers, but attracted a wealthy upper class inclined to compromise. Under Empress Catherine II, and officially under her son Emperor Paul, the idea of Metropolitan Platon (Levshin) of Moscow about monotheism with the Old Believers received legislative expression. Persecution of those who, unlike co-religionists, did not accept the official church, continued, but among Russian industrial and commercial capital the weight of Old Believership only increased. It belonged to such famous families as the Morozovs, the Ryabushinskys, the "porcelain king" M. S. Kuznetsov. The contribution of Old Believers to the preservation and study of Old Russian culture was great. A significant part of modern manuscript collections of libraries are Old Believers' collections, both private and communal, such as those of the Rogozhsky cemetery in Moscow.

The collection includes digital copies of official documents, archival materials, research, reference and periodicals held in the collections of the Russian State Library, the Russian National Library, the State Public Historical Library (Centre for Social and Political History), the Russian State Historical Archive, St. Petersburg State University, Tomsk State University, St. Petersburg State Institute of Culture, the Russian Institute of History, the Russian Institute of History, and the Russian Institute of Social and Political History.