Our land gave Russia in the 17th century. the main leaders of the schism are Patriarch Nikon and Archpriest Avvakum.

The future head of the church, Nikita Minin, was born into a peasant family in the village of Veldemanovo in the Knyagininsky district of the Nizhny Novgorod district in 1605. Left without a mother, at the age of twelve he went to the Makaryevsky monastery, but then he married and took the priesthood. However, the death of his children pushed him to divorce and seek a strict monastic life in the North. There, his religious zeal, and energy, and inflexibility were manifested. He was forced to leave one skete, in another desert he was elected abbot a few years later.

Portrait of Nikon in the "Titular" 1672.

Nikon's meteoric rise began after his trip to Moscow and his acquaintance with Alexei Mikhailovich in 1646. He made an impression on the young king, became his spiritual mentor and friend. The seat of the abbot of one of the Moscow monasteries, then the metropolitan see in Novgorod and, finally, the election of the patriarch in 1652. - these are the steps of Nikon's dizzying career.

In Moscow at that time for several years already a circle of "zealots of ancient piety" was noticeable, who, like Nikon, advocated strict adherence to the commandments of Orthodoxy and the goodness of church rituals. A notable "zealot of piety" was another Nizhny Novgorod citizen - Avvakum Petrov. He was born into the family of a priest from the village of Grigorov, Nizhny Novgorod district in 1620, at the age of twenty he married and also became a priest. Avvakum did not go into his pocket for a word and cut the truth-uterus right in the eyes, making enemies both among high-ranking people and among ordinary people. But sincerity, conviction and firm adherence to the principles found him supporters and defenders. He received the rank of archpriest (archpriest) in Yuryevets-Povolzhsky, from there he left for Moscow, where he led the opposition to the reform begun by Nikon in 1653.

The change in rather minor details of church rites (baptism with three fingers, not two, three-fold "Hallelujah!" At the end of the prayer instead of a double one) caused a real split in Russian society. Resistance to reform can be explained by an extraordinary adherence to antiquity for our days. It is not difficult to notice among the "schismatics" and indignation at the harsh rule of Nikon, who became a real church autocrat. Having approved the new liturgical rules at the church council, he punished with exile and defrocking any dissenting person. Church discipline replaced piety for him.

The handwritten signature of the patriarch: "Humble Nikon, by the grace of God, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia"

However, the main reason for the split is to be found in the mass dissatisfaction with the hardships of worldly life. The growth of taxes and duties, illness and other disasters answered the sermons of the Old Believers: they say, Orthodoxy is persecuted, the servants of the Antichrist are in power, and the end of the world is already coming. In the dense forests, the schismatics were looking for a life not only pious and harsh, but also free.

The persecution of the ecclesiastical and secular authorities was distinguished by unparalleled cruelty. Avvakum spent the rest of his years in exile and prisons: walking on foot through the whole of Siberia, confinement in chains or in an earthen hole replaced each other. Meanwhile Nikon in 1658. lost the royal closeness, and, offended, left the patriarchal service to the monastery. Aleksey Mikhailovich even returned Avvakum from exile and sought his favor. But at the same time, the tsar and the church continued the reform begun by Nikon, and Habakkuk continued to denounce the "Nikonian heresy." New punishments followed.

In 1681. died, returning from exile, Nikon, and on April 14, 1682. was burned alive with two of Habakkuk's comrades - because he continued to oppose the church and blasphemed the already deceased king.

The "Life of Archpriest Avvakum", which he wrote in the conclusion, remains a monument to the elder - one of the best literary works of the 17th century. And the dense forests of the Nizhny Novgorod Territory for many years have become a refuge for thousands and thousands of Old Believers.

From the first days of the schism, the Nizhny Novgorod region became one of the strongholds of "ancient piety." This is not surprising if we take into account the fact that the key figures of the schism - the initiator of church "innovations" Patriarch Nikon and his fierce antagonist Archpriest Avvakum - both came from the Nizhny Novgorod land.

Finding themselves outside the sphere of influence of the official Orthodox Church, the adherents of the "old faith" quickly disintegrated into different directions and trends ("talk", as they said at the time). The most important difference was between "priestly" and "bespopovskoy" sense. The difference lay in the fact that the former recognized the rite of priesthood and monasticism, the latter did not, and in their communities it was not the priests but the elected persons from among the laity that were in charge. In turn, other trends and sects spun off from these rumors. As for the Nizhny Novgorod Territory, the Nizhny Novgorod Old Believers for the most part belonged to the "priesthood" and recognized priests and monks. It is about these Old Believers that we will mainly talk about.
At the end of the 17th century, fleeing persecution, the Nizhny Novgorod schismatics went into deep forests, beyond the Volga, where they set up their sketes (a union of several Old Believer monasteries). Especially many of them settled on the banks of the Kerzhenets River.

Kerzhenets river

Since then, the Old Believers in the Nizhny Novgorod Territory began to be called "kerzhaks", and the word "kerzhachit" began to mean "adhere to the old faith." Kerzhaks lived in different ways: relatively peaceful times were replaced by periods of brutal repression. The persecution was especially strong at the time when Pitirim was appointed Bishop of Nizhny Novgorod. Under him, the famous "acceleration" of Kerzhenets began, or

Pitirim's Rending

Pitirim was at first a schismatic, he adopted Orthodoxy already at a mature age and considered the struggle against schism to be his life's work. In 1719 he was appointed bishop of Nizhny Novgorod and Alatyr and in his "report" to Tsar Peter proposed a whole system of measures against the schismatics. Peter was a man deeply indifferent to purely religious issues, but he had no reason to love the schismatics: they participated in the Streltsy riots that darkened Peter's childhood and youth, and, in addition, were the most ardent critics and opponents of Peter's innovations. A materialistic moment also played a significant role: it was proposed to take a double per capita salary from the schismatics, from which the sovereign's treasury would benefit a lot. The tsar approved all the undertakings of Pitirim, and ordered the governor of Nizhny Novgorod Yu.A. Rzhevsky to provide him with all kinds of assistance.
Mass persecution of the Old Believers began. From 1718 to 1725 up to 47 thousand schismatics were discovered in the Nizhny Novgorod diocese; up to 9 thousand of them converted to Orthodoxy; part was recorded in a double salary, so that for 1718 and 1719. Rzhevsky collected about 18 thousand rubles from 19 thousand people; stubborn monks were exiled to eternal confinement in monasteries, and the laity were punished with a whip and sent to hard labor. Military teams were sent into the forests, which by force drove the schismatics out of the sketes, and destroyed the sketes. One of the ways to resist the arbitrariness of the church and civil authorities was self-immolation - when schismatics, priests and laity with their wives and children, locked themselves in a building, most often in a wooden church, and set themselves on fire. Several such cases were recorded on the territory of the Nizhny Novgorod Territory.
But more common were shoots, when the schismatics were removed from their homes and fled wherever they looked, most often to Siberia, where they brought their nickname. Therefore, in Siberia, schismatics are still called "Kerzhaks" - too many people from Kerzhenets moved there at the beginning of the 18th century.

Archbishop of Nizhny Novgorod and Alatyr Pitirim

After the death of Pitirim (1738), the persecution of schismatics decreased. During this period, migration flows of Old Believers from the Urals, Siberia and other regions rushed to the Nizhny Novgorod Volga region. Not only are those who previously lived here and were forced to leave their native lands because of the repressions of Pitirim, but associates of the “old faith” from other regions of the country are also sent here. Under these conditions, there is a revival of the Old Believer sketes in the Trans-Volga region. The most significant hermitages were considered Komarovsky, Olenevsky, Ulangersky, Sharpansky. All these sketes are mentioned in the novels "In the Woods" and "On the Mountains", and the most famous and richest Komarovsky skete is one of the scenes of the novel. The abbess of one of the monasteries of the Komarovsky skete, mother Manefa, appears as one of the heroines of the novel.
The schismatic monks and nuns lived mainly at the expense of alms from local schismatics, but most of all - at the expense of considerable financial assistance from wealthy "benefactors" from among the merchants of the Old Believers: both from Nizhny Novgorod and from other cities. In addition, monks and nuns collected alms both at the Makaryevskaya fair, which took place in the summer in Nizhny Novgorod, and at all kinds of festivals organized by the Old Believers. One of the most notable was the celebration of the icon of the Vladimir Mother of God. It was performed annually on the shores of Lake Svetloyar, with which it was inextricably linked

The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh

Lake Svetloyar is a holy place, especially revered by the Nizhny Novgorod schismatics. Its history is associated with a poetic legend about the miraculous immersion in its waters of the city of Great Kitezh, which did not want to surrender to Batu's army. "When Batu's troops approached the great city of Kitezh, the righteous elders turned with a prayer to the Queen of Heaven, crying for help. Suddenly, divine light illuminated all the suffering, and the Mother of God descended from heaven, holding in her hands a miraculous veil that hid the city of Kitezh." "That city is still intact - with white stone walls, golden-domed churches, honest monasteries, ornamented towers and stone chambers. The city is intact, but we don't see it." And only the righteous ringing of Kitezh bells is heard on the lake.
Gathering at the shores of the lake, the Old Believers arranged something like an "all-night vigil": they prayed, read excerpts from ancient legends about the city of Kitezh. And at dawn they began to listen and gaze: it was and still exists a belief that at dawn the most righteous can hear the ringing of Kitezh bells and one can see the reflection of the golden domes of the churches of the invisible city in the clear waters of the lake. This was considered a sign of the special grace and mercy of God.

Bird's eye view of Lake Svetloyar

All this "Kitezh legend" has come down to us in the Old Believers' reworkings-retellings of the 17-18 centuries. This is "The Book of the Verb Chronicler", the second part of which is the legend "On the Secret City of Kitezh".
Thanks to the Old Believers, a huge number of early printed and handwritten old books survived, which after the introduction of Nikon's "innovations" were recognized as heretical and were subject to destruction. The Old Believers' merit was also considerable in the preservation of objects of Old Russian use. Most of these items, of course, were preserved in wealthy boyar and noble families, but it was the representatives of the upper class who in the post-Peter the Great era most quickly squandered their grandfather's heritage. Antique brothers, ladles and bowls; women's and men's headwear embroidered with precious stones; ancient weapons, and sometimes rich vestments from icons - all this was mercilessly given to the melting and alteration of the "enlightened" nobles in order to quickly acquire for themselves items of new-fashioned luxury. When in the middle of the 19th century interest arose in the ancient Russian heritage, it turned out that the noble families, whose ancestors were mentioned in all Russian chronicles, had nothing to see or study. But the Old Believers had in their bins considerable treasures of Russian culture of the pre-Petrine time.
As for Lake Svetloyar, holidays are held there today, but not only Old Believers, but also Orthodox, Baptists, and even representatives of non-Christian confessions, such as Zen Buddhists and Hare Krishnas, take part in them. And this is not at all surprising: there is something amazing and fascinating in the beauty of Lake Svetloyarsk. Where did it come from - deep and transparent - in this not at all lakeside land, where in the depths of the forests there are only swamps with rusty water, and tiny reed oxbows of small forest rivulets? Nizhny Novgorod local historians and geologists are still arguing about this. And Svetloyar Lake itself is silent, stubbornly, in a Kerzhackian way, is silent ...

The invisible city of Kitezh

But even taking into account the generous collection of alms at various festivals like Svetloyarsk, the Old Believer monasteries still had to live a little bit. And the hand of the rich "benefactors" became less and less generous every year. The old people died, and the young became "weak in the faith": they began to shave their beards, wear "German" dress, smoke tobacco. The monasteries grew poorer and poorer. Such was, for example, the fate of the Boyarkins' monastery in the Komarovsky skete (the monastery was founded in the middle of the 18th century by the princess Bolkhovskaya from a noble boyar family - hence its name) or the Manethin monastery in the same Komarovsky skete. The Manefin monastery (otherwise the Osokin monastery) was named after its founder - Abbess Manefa Staraya from a wealthy merchant family of the Osokins who lived in the town of Balakhna, Nizhny Novgorod province. At the beginning of the 19th century, merchants Osokin received a title of nobility and converted to Orthodoxy. Help from them to the monastery ceased, the monastery became impoverished, “crumbled” and received a new name - the Rassokhin monastery.
A very powerful blow to Nizhny Novgorod, and indeed to the entire Russian Old Believers, was struck by a compromise current, which went to an agreement with the official Orthodox Church

Unity. Austrian priesthood

Unanimity arose at the end of the 18th century and represented something like a compromise between Orthodoxy and the Old Believers of the “priestly” sense. Unanimity immediately received strong support from both the civil and ecclesiastical authorities of the Russian Empire - they realized how effective this movement could be in the fight against schism. Old Believers, stubbornly adhering to the old church customs, were allowed to pray according to their canons, but at the same time they were placed under the strict control of the state and the Orthodox Church. At the beginning to the middle of the 19th century, some of the Old Believer sketes and monasteries of the Nizhny Novgorod Territory passed into common faith.

Malinovsky skete in the 19th century

This further strengthened the "zealots" of the old faith in their striving to remain faithful to the "ancient piety." Old Believer communities in all corners of Russia are trying to get closer, to unite on the eve of the changes that are inevitable and unhappy for them. In the 40s of the 19th century, they even decide to elect their own bishop, and then a metropolitan. To this end, their gaze turned to their fellow believers living outside the borders of the Russian Empire. Since ancient times, schismatics fugitives from Russia settled on the territory of the Austrian Empire in Belaya Krinitsa (now it is the territory of Ukraine) and established their diocese there. It was from there that the Russian schismatics of the "priestly" persuasion decided to take a bishop for themselves. The relations of the schismatics with Belaya Krinitsa were conducted according to all the laws of the detective genre: first, secret correspondence, then direct communications, accompanied by illegal border crossings on both sides.
The news that Russian schismatics wished to establish an "Austrian priesthood" in their homes alarmed all the then Russian authorities. It was not a joke for Nikolayev's Russia, where everyone had to march in formation and start public affairs only with the permission of the authorities. The times were troubling: in Europe there was a revolutionary ferment, which soon broke out in the revolutions of 1848, relations with Turkey and European neighbors were aggravated, the Crimean War was approaching. And then suddenly the news that the subjects of the Russian Empire, but not just any schismatics, suspicious of the authorities, have direct and illegal relations with a foreign state. The Russian authorities feared that in the event of a military conflict with Austria, 5 million Russian schismatics could play the role of a “fifth column”. This was certainly not true, but the then authorities of the Russian Empire saw "sedition" in everything.
Russian Old Believers, especially those who lived in sketes, have long been in bad favor with the authorities, and not only because they did not recognize the official church. In the Old Believer sketes, there were many "state criminals" (for example, participants in the Pugachev rebellion) and fugitive serfs hiding. All of them lived without documents, without passports, and the police regularly raided the sketes in order to identify and arrest the "passportless".
The attempt to establish an "Austrian priesthood" overwhelmed the patience of the Russian authorities. They decide that it is time to begin to eradicate and "drive out" the schismatic sketes and begin to act in this direction in 1849. A young official of special assignments of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for schism took an active part in the "forcing" of the Nizhny Novgorod sketes -

Melnikov Pavel Ivanovich (1818-1883)

He was born into a poor Nizhny Novgorod noble family. He was a great connoisseur of schism, which did not prevent him from actively and toughly taking part in the eradication of the Old Believers. First of all, in 1849, miraculous icons began to be removed from the schismatic sketes. And this is not for nothing! The most revered of these icons - the miraculous image of the Kazan Mother of God - was kept in the Sharpan skete. A strong belief was associated with it among the Kerzhen schismatics - as soon as it was removed, it would mean the end of the Kerzhen sketes.
The actions of the official Melnikov were expressively described by the writer Andrei Pechersky:

Quote:

“Experienced in this kind of business, a St. Petersburg official, entering the Sharpan prayer room, ordered all candles to be extinguished. When his order was fulfilled, the light of the lamp standing in front of the image of the Kazan Mother of God became visible. Taking him in his arms, he turned to the abbess and the few elders who were in the chapel with the words:
- Pray to the holy icon for the last time.
And he took her away.
How thunder struck the inhabitants of Kerzhenets and Chernoremenya when they learned that there was no longer the Solovetsky icon in the Sharpan monastery. I was crying and there was no end to the screams, but that was not all, that was not the end of the matter.
From Sharpan, the Petersburg official immediately went to Komarov. There, in the monastery of the Glafirins, there has long been an icon of Nicholas the Wonderworker, also revered by the Old Believers as miraculous. He took it in the same way as the Solovetsky from Sharpan. Fear and horror became even greater in the monasteries of Kerzhen and Chernoramen, where everyone considered finished for themselves. The Petersburg official fulfilled his promise ...: the Solovetsky icon was transferred to the Kerzhensky Annunciation Monastery (of the same faith), and the icon of Nicholas the Wonderworker - to the Osipovsky Skete, which had recently turned to common faith. After that, having visited all the monasteries and monasteries, the St. Petersburg official returned to his place. "

In 1853, Emperor Nicholas issued a decree where the fate of the schismatic sketes was finally decided. Again, a word to the writer Andrei Pechersky:

Quote:

“Soon the higher authorities from St. Petersburg issued such a decision about the sketes: they were allowed to remain as before for only six months, after that time they all must certainly be completely destroyed; those of the skete mothers who were assigned to the monasteries according to the last revision were allowed to remain in their places, but with a significant decrease in their structures. Those of the monastery mothers who were assigned by revision to different cities and villages were ordered to have a permanent stay there without even a short absence from hermitages and other places.
All this was entrusted to the local police, and the police chief himself several times went around the monasteries for that ... No matter how much the police chief ordered the peasants Ronzhin and Elfimov to break the monastery buildings, none of them touched them, considering it a great sin. Especially the Komarov chapels were inviolable and sacred for them ... No matter how hard the police chief fought, he finally saw that there was nothing to be done about it, and therefore he gathered attesting witnesses, mainly from the Orthodox. They got to work in no time. When the roofs were torn down from the Manetho monastery, which was considered the most important of all the sketes, the voices groaned with a groan ...
So the monasteries of Kerzhen and Chernoramen that had stood for about two hundred years fell. At first, the neighboring peasants, although they did not dare to raise their hands to the chapels and cells, after a while they used the same cheap forest for their buildings: they bought the skete buildings for a pittance. Soon there was no trace of all the sketes. Only those assigned to them according to the revision were left in their places, and each resident was assigned a spacious cell, but there were no more than eighty old women assigned to them in all the sketes, and before all the monastery inhabitants there were almost a thousand. Both Kerzhenets and Chernoremenye were emptied.
After a while, the local governor, together with another St. Petersburg official, was ordered to inspect all the sketes. They found complete desolation everywhere. "

Many, probably, have already guessed that the official Melnikov and the writer Andrei Pechersky are one and the same person. How did it happen that an ardent opponent of the split became its singer in his future books?
In the 40s and early 50s, P.I. Melnikov shared the official point of view on the Old Believers. He was also worried about the creation of a schismatic diocese in Belaya Krynitsa. In his "Report on the current state of schism in the Nizhny Novgorod province" in 1854, Melnikov spoke extremely negatively about the schismatics. Assessed them as a destructive force that does not contribute to the strength of the Russian Empire; he also remembered their participation in the rebellions of Stepan Razin and Kondraty Bulavin, and in the rifle riots, and in the Pugachev uprising (and Pugachev himself and his accomplices were schismatics). In those same years he began his literary career; in a number of stories and novellas he writes about schismatics, and everywhere they are portrayed by him as a bunch of religious fanatics and fanatics.
But in the mid-1950s, with the accession of Alexander II, liberal winds blew. The persecution of schismatics stopped. In addition, not many Russian schismatics recognized the Belokrinitsa diocese, and in 1863 they even finally broke with it and elevated their Archbishop Anthony to the rank of Metropolitan. In his 1864 note on the schism, Melnikov already greatly softens his earlier views on schism. In the schismatics he begins to be impressed by their adherence to everything ancient and primordially Russian. Even later, in 1866, in a letter to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Melnikov already wrote: “The environment of schismatics, despite its religious delusions, has many good sides ... "Forgotten by us from the influx of Western concepts and customs ..."
In those same years, he began work on the main work of his life - the dilogy "In the Woods" and "On the Mountains", which truly became a monument to the Nizhny Novgorod Old Believers. His favorite hero, Patap Maksimych Chepurin, embodied all the best features of an Old Believer entrepreneur who came from the bottom: intelligence and business acumen, unbreakable honesty, the absence of extreme religious fanaticism, and at the same time - a strong adherence to the primordially Russian foundations and customs.
In addition, Melnikov-Pechersky entered the history of the Nizhny Novgorod land forever, as one of the founders of scientific local history. In his legacy, you can find articles about outstanding Nizhny Novgorod citizens - Kulibin and Avvakum, about the Grand Duchy of Nizhny Novgorod, works about the cities of the Nizhny Novgorod Territory and about the activities of the Makaryevskaya Fair.
This is how he remained in the memory of Nizhny Novgorod residents - a cruel administrator who destroyed the walls of skete log cabins and the foundations of the old Kerzhenets, whose name the Nizhny Novgorod Old Believers cursed and frightened children in the Trans-Volga villages with them. And at the same time - a careful keeper of the ancient language and memory, who erected in his novels a sublime and spiritualized monument to Kerzhak Rus.

Pavel Ivanovich Melnikov (Andrey Pechersky)

And what about the sketes destroyed by the efforts of P.I. Melnikov and the police authorities? Some of them were later revived in their places, as the famous Komarovsky skete. Others arose in new places under the old name - like the Sharpansky skete, which became known as New Sharpan. But the majority remained abandoned and never rose again. Time and the natural course of events more and more undermined the "old foundations" - the old monks and nuns died, and new ones came to their place little or not at all. The most famous Komarovsky skete lasted the longest, its resettlement took place already in 1928 under Soviet rule

Komarovsky skete in 1897

At this time, the Old Believers continued to live in the cities and villages of the Nizhny Novgorod Territory, profess their faith, but in the eyes of the new government they were no longer considered something special and caught up with the bulk of believers. Their persecutors "Nikonians" themselves found themselves in the position of persecuted, Soviet officials were equally suspicious of both.

Nizhny Novgorod Old Believers today

The 90s of the last century are rightly called the time of religious revival in Russia and throughout the post-Soviet space. The Nizhny Novgorod schismatics did not remain aloof from this process. New parishes arose, in some places new Old Believer churches were erected.

Assumption Old Orthodox Church in Gorodets

At the Assumption Old Orthodox Church in the town of Gorodets, there is a Sunday school for the children of Old Believers.

Pupils of the Sunday School at the Assumption Church

Now in the territory of the Nizhny Novgorod region, there are tens of thousands of Old Believers, both priests and bespopovtsy. The main organizational structures of the priests are the Russian Orthodox Old Believer Church and the Russian Old Orthodox Church; bespopovtsev - the Old Orthodox Pomor Church.
In Nizhniy Novgorod since 1995 the newspaper “Starobryadets. Newspaper for Old Believers of All Agreements ”, placing on its pages both historical and local history materials and informational notes dedicated to the life of the main Old Believer consents.
In addition, the Nizhny Novgorod Old Believers continue to gather at their holidays in places dear to their memory in the Nizhny Novgorod land:

by the lake Svetloyar

at the tombstone of Abbess of the Komarovsky skete Manefa

at the old cross, which stands in the place where the Komarovsky skete used to be

and in many other places, where old images of the legendary Trans-Volga region come to life - the images of Kitezh Rus.
Finally, a story closely related to the theme of the Nizhny Novgorod Old Believers. There is such a character in Melnikov-Pechersky's novel and in a TV series based on his book - Flenushka, the illegitimate daughter of Abbess Manefa. Flenushka and the merchant Pyotr Danilovich Samokvasov have known each other for three years, and for all three years, Samokvasov, who is in love, has persuaded her to marry him. Her mother, Abbess Manetha, just as diligently persuades her to take a haircut as a nun. Flenushka agrees to the last meeting with her lover and there she gives herself to him - for the first and only time. Now he no longer asks, but demands that she marry him: you need to cover this with a crown. Flenushka sends him away for three days, promising to pack up and leave with him during this time. And now Pyotr Stepanovich returns:

Quote:

“I went, but I had just entered the monastery enclosure, and he looked - everyone was leaving the cellar. Here is Manefa, next to her is Marya the head, two more whites, the treasurer Taif, behind everyone is a new mother.
"Now they will all sit at Manetha's, and I will go to her, to my fiancee! .." thought Pyotr Stepanich and boldly walked to the back porch of the abbess's flock, which was set up near the Flenushka chambers.
With a quick movement of the door, he opened it wide. Before him is Taif.
- You can't, benefactor, you can't! She whispers, waving her arms in alarm and not letting Samokvasov into the cell. - Who do you want? .. Mother Maneta?
“To Flene Vasilyevna,” he said.
“There is no Flena Vasilievna here,” Taifa replied.
- How? - asked Pyotr Stepanych, who had turned white like snow.
“Mother Filagria is staying here,” Taifa said.
- Filagria, Filagria! - Pyotr Stepanych whispers.
His eyes became confused, and he sat down heavily on the bench that stood along the wall.
Suddenly the side door swung open. The stately, austere mother Philagria, in a black crown and robes, stands motionless. Crepe basting thrown back ...
Pyotr Stepanych rushed to her ...
- Flenushka! He cried out in a desperate voice.
Mother Philagrius drew herself up like an arrow. Sable eyebrows drew together, angry eyes flashed with sparkling fire. As is the mother of Manef.
Slowly she stretched out her hand forward and firmly, imperiously said:
- Get away from me, Satano! ..

And at the fairground the gusli is buzzing, at Makarya's they are playing, a cheerful life there, there is no melancholy, no bitterness, and they do not know kruchinushki there!
There, into this pool, Pyotr Stepanich rushed from despair. "

M. Nesterov "Great tonsure"

And here is what, already purely historical material, I have in Lev Anninsky's book Three Heretics:

“I was not surprised when I unearthed the history of prototypes from which the love of Flenushka and Samokvasov was written in the magazine“ Russian Starina ”for 1887. No, the “choked-up revelry” in which the good fellow drowned the “bitter-kruchinushka” was not enough. In life, Samokvasov parted with his mother Philagria differently: he killed her, locked the corpse, to the novices, leaving, he said that the abbess was asleep: she did not order to bother her. An hour later, the novices were still worried, broke down the door and saw the abbess, tied with a scythe to a samovar tap and scalded from head to toe: she died of burns without making a sound. There was no investigation: in order to avoid a scandal, the schismatics gave someone a "sieve of pearls" - and mother Filagria, she is the fire Flenushka, went down to the grave, just as the weed weed out of the garden comes down to the grave - silently and resignedly. "

Melnikov-Pechersky, who thoroughly knew the history of the Nizhny Novgorod schismatic sketes, could well have heard this story, and having remade it, insert it into his novel, removing the most cruel moment - the terrible murder of the schismatic abbess by her former lover, whom she abandoned in order to take a haircut as a nun. And the fact that the case was hushed up is also not surprising. The schismatics were more afraid than death of any contacts with the police, but here is such a brutal murder: it could have gone as far as "dispersing" the skete, and this was unnecessary for them.

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Old Believers in the Nizhny Novgorod Territory. Nesterov Mikhail Vasilievich "The Great tonsure".

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From the very beginning of the split of Russian Orthodoxy, the Nizhny Novgorod region was one of the most important centers of Russian Old Believers. In support of this, we will cite several facts: The outstanding ideologists of the "opposing sides" - Patriarch Nikon, Archpriest Avvakum, Bishop Pavel Kolomensky, Sergiy Nizhegorodets, Alexander the Deacon, were born in the Nizhny Novgorod Territory. The very first Old Believer skete was founded precisely in the Nizhny Novgorod limits on the Kerzhenets river - the Smolyany skete (1656).

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3. In terms of the number of Old Believers, the region occupied and still occupies a leading place in Russia. 4. In the Nizhny Novgorod province in the 18th - 19th centuries, there were spiritual and organizational centers of six of the fifteen largest accords (directions) of the Old Believers.

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Ideologues of the opposing sides PATRIARCH NIKON PROTOPOP AVVAKUM BISHOP PAUL KOLOMENSKY

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The adherents of the old faith were persecuted by the government. They had to either abandon it, or leave their homes. And the Old Believers went to the north, to the Nizhny Novgorod forests, to the Urals and Siberia, settled in Altai and the Far East. In the dense forests in the basins of the Kerzhenets and Vetluga rivers, by the end of the 17th century, there were already about a hundred Old Believer monasteries - male and female. They were called sketes. The most famous were: Olenevsky, Komarovsky, Sharpansky, Smolyany, Matveevsky, Chernushinsky.

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Under Peter I, the persecution of the Old Believers was resumed again. When, at the end of the first decade of the 18th century, the emperor paid special attention to the schismatics in Nizhny Novgorod, he chose Pitirim as the executor of his intentions. Pitirim - Bishop of Nizhny Novgorod (about 1665 - 1738). Pitirim came from a common rank and was at first a schismatic; He accepted Orthodoxy when he was already in adulthood. Pitirim's activity was initially purely missionary; to convert schismatics to Orthodoxy, he used exclusively means of exhortation. The result of such activities of Pitirim was his answers to 240 schismatic questions. However, seeing the failure of his missionary work, Pitirim gradually turned to coercion and persecution. The famous Old Believer deacon Alexander was executed, the sketes were ruined, the stubborn monks were exiled to eternal imprisonment in monasteries, and the laity were punished with a whip and sent to hard labor. As a result, the Old Believers fled to the Urals, Siberia, Starodubye, Vetka and other places.

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Old Believers of the Nizhny Novgorod Territory Old Believers of the Fedoseevsky Consent (the village of Tonkovo)

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Belokrinitsky (Austrian) consent. Okruzhniki: the most significant features of this direction of the Old Believers were: the presence of the clergy and the bishop, the stormy social and church life in the form of the organization of Old Believer unions, brotherhoods, congresses, publishing activities, the intensification of missionary activity among the Nikonians. The difference between neokruzhniki is, first of all, in the denial of any compromises with the state power and, which was a part of it, Nikonianism: insubordination to the government, restriction of communication with Nikonians, adherence to Domostroi

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Bespopovtsy do not have their own episcopal rank, the clergy was very small in number and did not use, due to their origin from the Nikonian Church, special authority. All affairs in agreement were run by representatives of the church community: trustees, instructors, authoritative and literate old people. For this reason, they live in self-governing communities. They do not build churches, all the rituals are performed in a prayer house.

During a trip down Kerzhenets, I tried to find and capture places associated with the history of the Nizhny Novgorod Old Believers, and just today we will talk about one of such places.
This mound, on which the cemetery and the birch grove are located, is at first glance completely inconspicuous, but it is inconspicuous only to people who are not familiar with the tragic events that took place here in 1719. These events once again show how atrociously Peter I treated the Old Believers ... This place is located near the village of Klyuchi, which is next to Pafnutovo - a place where once there were many sketes ...

The cemetery here is also an Old Believer (like many in the Semyonovsky District)

The villages along the Linde River are one near one. Walk a kilometer, two - another village. Therefore, it was here, in the ancient village of Pafnutovo, that Bishop Pitirim of Nizhny Novgorod chose the place for his "dispute", on the square near the wooden church "Three Saints", built in 1699 as a support of Orthodoxy among the hiding "schismatics". He had, Pitirim, as the folk legend says, here “his own man” - the elder Barsanuphius. He delivered a letter to Pitirimov with one hundred and thirty bishop's "tricky" questions to the woods.

Archbishop of Nizhny Novgorod and Alatyr Pitirim (c. 1665-1738)

He handed them over to the head of the Kerzhen schismatics - Deacon Alexander, this stubborn tall bearded man with gentle blue eyes. They say that deacon Alexander was from the Kostroma province. From a young age he was interested in questions about the truth of faith. Once he met Eldress Elizabeth from the Yaroslavl Monastery, who told him: "True faith is found in secret places, namely in the forests, and everyone who wants to be saved needs to go there, into the deaf forests." After such words that sunk into his soul, Alexander left his wife, children, the place of a deacon at the church and went first to Yaroslavl. There, at the inn, he met the elder Kyriakos and the monk Jonah and went with them to the forests of Kerzhensky.

He lived in different monasteries, passed from one to another, teaching and learning himself. In 1709, in the Skete of Lawrence, where he was received as a deacon, they tonsured him a monk "for schism" and admitted him to the priesthood. Since that time, his name became known throughout Kerzhenets.

By 1719, when the answers to Pitirim's questions were ready, Alexander, with his scholarship, strength in faith, became the spiritual leader of the Beglopop Old Believers. Therefore, it was he who went to Pitirim to present answers to his "harmful" one hundred and thirty questions.

Like a bolt from the blue, the news spread around the sketes of Kerzhen: Pitirim, the Christ-seller of Deacon Alexander, planted deacon Alexander in the monastery prison in Nizhny when giving him answers. Anger and horror seized the elders and elders of the cells. They wondered what to expect now from him, from the "beast" of this Pitirim. Many went with addresses to the initial elder Macarius, who lived in a cell, in the forests of Kerzhen, for advice. Now it is he, Macarius, who will have to answer to the "heretic" and "tormentor" of Nizhny Novgorod, and he has already made an appointment - a dispute on the feast of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos - October 1, 1719.

Deacon Alexander by this time had been brought in chains to Pafnutovo. This is how the writer Yuri Prilutsky (he is also the priest Peter Shumilin of the Church of the Most Holy Life-Giving Trinity in the village of Epiphany), published in 1917, describes the course of the dispute in his story "For the Cross and Faith":

« Pitirim came out in full vestments with icons and banners. In the middle of the square, in front of the church, a lectern was set up on a platform, next to a table with a pile of old leather-bound books ... From somewhere a hundred guardsmen of the Petrovsky Preobrazhensky regiment appeared and, mercilessly pushing the crowd, made a lane from the village to the square. At the far end, a party of sketeous fathers chained in chains appeared under the escort of a dozen guards with naked sabers, behind on a black (black) horse rode the captain of the guard Rzhevsky ... Pale, emaciated, with torn nostrils with crippled faces, in tattered clothes, covered in blood, with their beards torn out, but calm, quietly clinking their chains as they walked, the fathers were heading to the platform ... Alexander began his speech. But in the very fervor of the speech begun, Rzhevsky's heavy fist fell on the head of Deacon Alexander and he fell to the ground as if knocked down. ».

The dispute did not work out. Elected from the Old Believers of various monasteries, fearing what they saw with great fear and under the formidable influence of Pitirim, they signed a "report" drawn up by themselves that the answers of the "Old Believers" of the Skete were incorrect. Judas (traitor) Barsanuphius was the first to set an example and sign. After that, Pitirim showed "mercy" and released the detainees. So the "dispute" ended.

The report with the signatures of the "schismatics" was presented to the emperor himself - Peter I. However, the "triumph of Pitirimov" did not last long. The elders, once free, all over Kerzhenets "exposed" the lies of the bishop of Nizhny Novgorod. Deacon Alexander, unable to tolerate this untruth, went to the capital in Petersburg to see Tsar Peter Alekseevich himself. In the royal mansions he was arrested and "interrogated with partiality." Under cruel torture, he did not refuse to testify to Pitirimov's lies. The stubborn "fanatic" in chains was sent to the Nizhny court for Pitirimov.

At this time in the edge of Nizhny Novgorod on the Kerzhenets river passions seethed by the Old Believers condemning the persecutor of the true faith, the faith of fathers and grandfathers - Pitirim, for his untruth, for torturing the elders for signatures. They were condemned and feared. They were not afraid in vain. We got to the ears of Pitirim's "slander" of the opponents. The priestly women Macarius, the elders Dosifei and Joseph, and seventeen "zealous" defenders of the old faith were captured. All of them were led under escort in chains, chained on a gentle mountain that lies between the village of Pafnutov and the village of Klyuchi. A large and rather deep hole was dug here, along the edges of which there were pillars with crossbeams and ready-made rope loops. The "stubborn Old Believers" themselves, with Jesus' prayer on their lips, threw loops over themselves. A strong push on command and ... the end.

Since then, this mountain, where the "Inquisition" took place, is called by the people Key mountain(near the village of Klyuchi), and the place where the execution took place - “ Gallows". Now in this place you can see a vast pit with flooded sloping edges (the earth has settled). Through the efforts of the Old Believers who honor the bright memory of the martyrs for the faith of Christ in the fall of 2003, a large worship cross with a tablet was erected on the Gallows. There is an inscription on it: “ Father Macarius and 19 Martyrs for Ancient Orthodoxy ».

The righteous elder Macarius is recognized as a saint by the Old Believers' church, his name is entered in the synodikon (a book in which names for commemoration are entered). We left Deacon Alexander at the moment when we took him to the Pitirim court. And the court was swift.

On the Annunciation Square in Nizhny Novgorod, near the Dmitrievskaya Tower, with a large crowd of people, the Code of 7157 was read from the creation of the world of the second chapter of the first article: body ".

Alexander listened to the death sentence calmly, but his face changed. Then they removed the chains from the decapitated body and burnt it here on the square. The deacon's remains were buried in a children's coffin.
This "act" committed on March 21, 1720 shocked the entire schismatic world. This was followed by "visions" and the destruction of the sketes of the Kerzhen region. The black-and-mended forests were deserted. Many zealots of the ancient faith flowed to other places, even beyond the borders of Russia, and those who stayed here, huddled in the wilderness of the forest, moving away from hermitages and villages ...

The Nizhny Novgorod land was destined to play a very prominent role in the historical drama known as the split in the Russian Church. Suffice it to mention at least the striking fact that the most prominent ideologues of the "opposing sides", such as Patriarch Nikon, Archpriest Avvakum, Bishop Pavel Kolomensky, Sergiy Nizhegorodets, Alexander the Deacon, were all born "within the borders of Nizhny Novgorod."

The Nizhny Novgorod land was destined to play a very prominent role in the historical drama known as the split in the Russian Church. Suffice it to mention at least the striking fact that the most prominent ideologues of the "opposing sides", such as Patriarch Nikon, Archpriest Avvakum, Bishop Pavel Kolomensky, Sergiy Nizhegorodets, Alexander the Deacon, were all born "within the borders of Nizhny Novgorod." The Old Believers' movement affected the Nizhny Novgorod region, barely having just had time to emerge, and the descendants of those who once opposed the "antichrist force" still live both in the Nizhny Novgorod and in the Nizhny Novgorod hinterland.

Archaeographic and ethnographic expeditions in the Nizhny Novgorod region studied elements of the book, ritual and everyday culture of the Old Believers, at the same time, immovable objects associated with the history of Old Believers - sketes, graveyards, holy places - were out of sight of special studies.

By the early 1990s. Among more than 1200 monuments of history and culture of the Nizhny Novgorod region, only one architectural monument of the early XX century associated with the Old Believers was under state protection - the Nikolskaya Church in the city of Semenov, and in 1990 the village of Grigorovo of the Bolshemurashkinsky District - the birthplace of Archpriest Avvakum - was included in the list of historical settlements of the Russian Federation.

To a certain extent, this state of affairs was predetermined by the ideology laid down in the legislation on the protection of historical and cultural monuments. In an atheistic state, monuments associated with the history of the spiritual and religious life of the people could only come under the protection of the state artificially "cleansed" of their original meaning and spiritual content. Places of traditional pilgrimage, religious shrines, graves of saints and devotees of piety were not only not protected by law - on the contrary, they were often deliberately desecrated.

Only in the 1990s, Nizhny Novgorod specialists in the protection of monuments made an attempt to expand the scope of the typology of monuments, supplementing them with a new (or rather, original) content. Not only monuments of cult architecture, but also places of religious worship began to be offered for state protection.

In 1994, at the initiative and order of the Committee for the Protection of the Historical and Cultural Heritage of the Nizhny Novgorod Region, the Institute of Manuscript and Old Printed Books of the Russian Volga Region began work on the study of holy places for the Old Believers. It was then, perhaps, for the first time that specialists realized the urgent need to save from oblivion and protect from the onset of the ubiquitous "economic activity" that which constitutes a unique, irreplaceable part of Russian culture. The result of the work begun was the certification of Old Believer sketes, cemeteries and revered graves in the Semyonovsky district.

The main reason for attracting a particular object to research was the living tradition of pilgrimage that continues to this day. To the places of the former sketes of Olenevsky, Komarovsky, Sharpansky, to the graves of Sofontius, Lotius, Manetha and other ascetics of the old faith, recognized as saints, Old Believers still come to worship and to perform services both from the surrounding villages and from various regions of Russia, up to to Siberia.

At the moment, only the first stage of the research program has been carried out, which is designed for several years. The result of the first stage was the compilation of passports and the acceptance for state protection of 14 places associated with the history of the Old Believers. All of them are located not far from each other, between the Olenevsky and Komarovsky sketes, mainly in the northwest direction from the city of Semenov in the vicinity of the village of Larionovo of the Malozinovievskaya rural administration. It was here, in the remote Kerzhen forests, that representatives of noble families fled, who did not accept Nikon's reforms and founded the first skete settlements. Here at the end of the 17th century. cathedrals of the Kerzhen Fathers were held, at which the teachings of Archpriest Avvakum were discussed, especially the issues of accepting fugitive priests and self-immolation.

The history of each Old Believer skete is legendary and dramatic. Two famous sketes, Olenevsky and Komarovsky, survived periods of almost complete desolation under the bishop of Nizhny Novgorod Pitirim, and then under P.I. Melnikov, were finally abolished only after the revolution.

Olenevsky skete, according to legend, was founded in the 15th century. monks of the Zheltovodsky monastery destroyed by Ulu-Makhmet, who accompanied Macarius on his march from Zheltye Vody to Unzha. It was here that a deer appeared to the hungry travelers through the prayers of the monk (hence the name of the skete). The Olenevsky skete was a Beglopop monastery. After 1737 (Pitirimov's persecution) only the remnants of the Olenevsky skete survived, but from 1762, after the decree of Catherine II on allowing the Old Believers to return to Russia, the skete's population quickly increased, the skete became one of the largest and most famous on Kerzhenets. At the beginning of the XIX century. the skete consisted of 14 women's monasteries, 5 chapels and 9 prayer houses1. By the decree of the Nizhny Novgorod provincial government of June 1, 1834, a plan was drawn up for the Olenevsky skete with the designation of monasteries and cells. At that time, 432 male and female souls lived in the skete. The plan shows 6 old cemeteries and one that was active at that time2. Since 1838, the Olenevsky skete, like many others, is called a village in official documents, but it continues to be an Old Believer monastery. In 1853-54, according to the "Report" of P.I. Melnikov, there were 8 prayer houses, 18 monasteries and 17 "orphanages "3, whose residents did not belong to the community and fed from their farm, and during the Nizhny Novgorod fair they collected donations from Old Believer merchants to a skete in Nizhny Novgorod.

Fulfilling the order of Emperor Nicholas I of March 1, 1853 on the destruction of sketes in the Semyonovsky district and the order of the Minister of Internal Affairs to move residents to one skete, the Nizhny Novgorod authorities appointed to relocate the Olenevsky hermitages ("up to 100 persons") into one Ulangersky skete4.

Part of the Olenevskaya hermitages moved to the city of Semyonov and formed monasteries in city houses. Thus, mother Margarita, abbess of the Anfisina monastery (founded in the Olenevsky skete by Anfisa Kolycheva, a relative of St. Philip Metropolitan), who had connections with Moscow Old Believers, temporarily set up her monastery in the house of Lavrentiy Bulganin. Although in the official reports on the state of schism in the Semyonovsky Uyezd for 1857, the Olenevsky Skete is indicated as "former", nevertheless the priests of the city of Semyonov noted in their reports that many of the hermitages of the abolished skete lived "at the place of their former registration."

The main shrine of the Olenevsky skete consisted of four old cemeteries with graves of martyrs, which were a place of worship for pilgrims and pilgrims at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. According to the recollections of local residents, even after the revolution, the Olenev Old Believer community was attended by: mother Sofia and mother Kosiyania from Gorodets, the "Sasov old women" Aksinya and Tatiyan and many others.

The former Olenevsky skete became the basis of the village of Bolshoye Olenevo, which deserves special attention as the only settlement that still exists in the Semenovsky district, which arose on the site of the former skete monasteries.

The construction of the village basically repeats the layout of the streets and the location of the monasteries of the hermitage, which were built according to the "flock" type and consisted of several log cabins under one roof, with a covered courtyard, closets, cages, and chambers. On the sides of the long corridor were clean cells. The corridor led into a spacious, luxuriously decorated prayer room, in which the service was performed daily. Some of the old village houses have retained the layout typical of hermitage monasteries to this day (for example, a house on the site of the former estate "Eupraxei Eldress") 6.

Local residents point to the remains of three old cemeteries on the territory of the village, the landmarks for them are a carved stone headstone of the 18th century, a mountain ash planted on the grave of the abbess of the Paltsevo monastery, and a dilapidated golbets without a roof. Another cemetery with the graves of nuns and novices of the skete is located half a kilometer northwest of the village.

In the village of B. Olenevo there are now about 20 residential houses belonging to local residents. The Old Believers of this village have not had their prayer house for a long time and on major holidays they hold services at the graves left in the old cemeteries. These shrines remain a place of pilgrimage for the Old Believers of Semenovsky and other districts of the Nizhny Novgorod region.

Komarovsky skete is one of the oldest and largest on Kerzhenets, the scene of the famous novel by P.I. Melnikov (Pechersky) "In the woods". It was founded in the late 17th - early 18th centuries. 36 km north-west of Semenov, near the villages of Elfimovo and Vasilyevo.

The skete was devastated at Pitirim, but, like Olenevsky, it quickly recovered after the decree of 1762. In the 18th century. in the skete, the Boyarkin Abode was founded, which was originally inhabited by women of noble families. Until the 50s. XIX century. in the chapel of the monastery, the Alexander ribbon with the order cross, which belonged to Lopukhin, the uncle of the founder of the monastery, Princess Bolkhovskaya, was preserved as a shrine.

At the beginning of the XIX century. The Komarovsky skete numbered 35 male and female monasteries, in 1826 - 26, in 1853 - 12 monasteries, 3 chapels and 2 prayer houses. At the same time, up to 500 hermitages and the same number of novices lived in the skete7. In the 19th century, after Napoleon's attack on Moscow, the skete was replenished with immigrants from Moscow - members of the Rogozh community with their families.

The skete used to have 8-10 old cemeteries, of which two are still revered. The first - on the site of the monastery of Jonah the Snub-nosed, an Old Believer writer, a teacher, a "cathedral elder", recognized as a reverend. A miraculous spruce grew here, the bark of which was gnawed in the hope of getting rid of a toothache; at the end of the 19th century, judging by the photograph of M.P. Dmitriev, if it has already been knocked down 8. The second is at the grave of the abbess Manetha (she died in 1816), who was also recognized as a saint and who gives miraculous healings to all who come. The grave of mother Manetha was arranged in the form of a stone tomb under a wooden canopy. Three bells hung on the belfry nearby9.

Taken in the middle of the 19th century. By the Nizhny Novgorod authorities, an attempt to destroy the hermitage by resettling the Komarovsky hermitages to Ulanger was unsuccessful, as well as in relation to the Olenevsky skete. Although the reports of the Semyonov priests for 1856 indicated the Komarovsky skete as "former", some of its inhabitants did not leave the former settlement and continued to wear monastic robes10, and the inhabitants of the Manethin monastery found refuge in Semyonov. In 1860, the "schismatic cemeteries" 11 were restored.

The last abbess of Komarovsky cells, mother Manefa (Matryona Filatyevna), died in 1934 and is buried in the Komarovsky cemetery.

The traditions of teaching children to read and write, piety, church singing were preserved in the Komarovsky skete for centuries12, up to the 30s. XX century, when the skete was settled. The staff of the Institute managed to record the memoirs of one of the last pupils of the Komarovsky cells, E.A. Krasilnikova (Uren), who was sent to study in a skete at the age of sixteen. It was around 1927. Before her eyes, the hermitage was dispersed, this time finally. "Mothers Kosiyania and Melania continued to teach children to read and write", having moved to the village of Fedotovo.

No less famous was the Skete of Smolyany, founded during the reign of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich (presumably in 1656) by noblemen of noble families, monks of the Smolensk Bizyukov Monastery, Sergei Saltykov (Empress Anna Ioannovna was from the same family of Saltykovs on the maternal side), Spiridon and Ephraim Potemkin. In the 2nd half of the 17th century. this skete was the center of the priest's consent on Kerzhenets. Representatives of noble families who did not recognize Nikon's reforms retired here.

In 1660, the skete was headed by a former monk of the same Smolensk Bizyukov monastery, Dionysius Shuisky, who enjoyed special respect by the Old Believers, since he had a supply of peace and holy gifts consecrated under Patriarch Joseph, and could perform the Liturgy and the sacrament of communion. Dionysius' successor in 1690 was priest Theodosius. He was known for his exceptional eloquence, erudition, knowledge of the Scriptures, which attracted new followers to the Old Believers and aroused the anger of the authorities. In 1694, even before Bishop Pitirim, Theodosius was captured and burned. Then the skete was destroyed13.

In the middle of the XIX - beginning of the XX centuries. on the site of the Smolyansky skete, the Old Believers venerated the following memorial sites: 12 gravestones (Dionysius Shuisky, Sergiy Nizhegorodets, Trifiliy, Dosifei are buried here); wells, fossilized, according to legend, by Sergei Saltykov, Efimy Shuisky, Dionisy Shuisky; a wooden chapel with images at the skete cemetery14. Nowadays, in the old cemetery, in the forest, a few meters from the clearing, 22 graves with dilapidated wooden crosses and golbets are preserved. The two pits filled with water are possibly the remains of wells.

At the cemetery of another skete - Sharpansky, which existed for 170 years, five golbtsov and one dilapidated cross now rise among the old birches. There is no chapel, on the walls of which the names of the buried were written: "the monk-schema-monk Paul, Anufriy, Savvaty and Abraham". At the women's cemetery there was once a tomb with the inscription "Inoko-schematnitsa Praskovya" and 12 graves around. Praskovya was revered for Sofya Alekseevna, who fled to the skete with 12 archers15. And although the burial mounds are barely noticeable, local residents and parishioners of the Semyonov ancient Orthodox community come to bow to the "tsarina's grave".

The chapel at the grave of Zephantius, the founder of the Dukhovsky skete near the village of Deyanovo, a consistent follower of Avvakum, one of the saints most revered by the Old Believers, was also destroyed16. By 1917, only a wooden cross with an icon remained on the grave of Zephantius17. The well with holy water located not far from the grave was preserved by the Old Believers and was revered as a fossil by Zephantius himself18.

The "holy well and the graves of the burned" near the village of Osinki were almost completely destroyed by the recently cut-through clearing. Here, at the direction of the old-timers, at the time of the ruin of Bp. Pitirim's cells lowered the holy gifts into the well, and the skete was burned down along with the five martyrs. On the site of the cells, their graves have been preserved, and the healing water of the spring does not freeze in winter. At various times, attempts were made to destroy the shrine - “tar, fuel oil was poured into the water,” but the next day the source turned out to be crystal clear again, because next to the graves of burnt martyrs19.

Much has been destroyed. But the tradition has survived, having intended for itself the path of repentance, to venerate the holy relics, "resting under the burial," following the path described by Dorofei Nikiforovich Utkin, the rector of the Old Believers of the Spasov consent of the village of Sysaikha, Semyonovsky tsezd:

"Once he pushed himself to repentance and predestined the path of repentance. It was on May 14, 1911. On Saturday morning I went to worship the holy places (which are famous in the Old Believers), and guidebooks came with me - the villages of Korelki Tatiana Aleksandrovna and the villages of Volchikha maiden Nastasia Fyodorovna. And when I reached the Komarov cells, that one was in the chapel of the abbess Matryona Filatyevna (since 1914 Mother Manefa).

And go further, and paved their way to the villages of Elfimovo, Vasilyevo and the village of the Rozhdestvensky Monastery, and reached a place called old Sharpan. There is no dwelling there, only two cemetery fences. In the first enclosure we worship Paraskovia to the mother nun of the schema. And in another enclosure we worship the monastic fathers and schema-monks Paul, Anufriy, Savatia, Barlaam, Lawrence.

And from now on, go and reach Malago Sharpan, and that one bowed to the mother nun of the schema Fevronia, and that one in her tomb spent the night reading the psalter. And that happens a chyudo: through the prayer of the worshipers, water comes from the heart of mother Fevronia, which is taken to heal mental and physical diseases. But we have not received this gift; after our arrival, the earth was dry, but after our departure it was created damp, so that, after putting it into a handkerchief and squeezing it, water flowed out ...

And go bow to the place of Smolina ... And after bowing, they saw the little pond, and they told us about this little pond that when there was persecution from Pitirim, the icons of these inhabitants and the holy secrets were omitted; from this pond to the west of the sun 40 fathoms - the key and that icons are omitted; another 100 fathoms lake to the west, the bells are lowered. And now there is no housing, just a shed with icons. And from now on you will go to the house.

And by this journey, having made it easier for myself, my heart calmed down "20.

Much has been destroyed, but it is all the more important to preserve what is left. Research carried out by the Institute of Manuscript and Early Printed Books (expeditionary materials, archival research), photographing objects and topography of the area formed the basis of the Decree of the Legislative Assembly of the Nizhny Novgorod Region dated 10.17.95 "On the declaration of memorial sites associated with the history of the Old Believers, places of pilgrimage and worship of the Old Believers shrines located in the Semyonovsky district, places of interest in the Nizhny Novgorod region and historical monuments of regional significance. " By this decree, the village of Bolshoye Olenevo (formerly the Olenevsky skete) was declared a historical settlement of the Nizhny Novgorod region, the sketes of Komarovsky, Smolyany, Empty (Old) Sharpan, New Sharpan and the "Holy well with burnt graves" near the village of Osinki - interesting places. On the territories of these places, a special regime has been introduced for the maintenance and use of land, which provides for the preservation of the historical landscape and viewpoints of the best perception of historical objects, the prohibition of the demolition, movement, changes of historical monuments, the laying of highways and various communications, land allocation for construction, as well as a number of other measures aimed at ensuring the safety of revered sites. The graves of the ascetics of the old faith - Zephantius, Triphilia, Joseph, Nicodamus, Daniel “and with him two thousand sisters and brothers burned”, the monastic monks Agathia, Praskoveya, Thekla, are declared as historical monuments.

Thus, places sacred for the Old Believers took their rightful place in the historical and cultural landscape of the Nizhny Novgorod Territory. The first step was taken on the path of state protection of the spiritual and moral shrines of the Russian Old Believers.

1 Melnikov P.I. Report on the current state of schism in the Nizhny Novgorod province // Collection of NSUAC. T.9. N. Novgorod, 1911. S. 113, 131.2 State Archives of the Nizhny Novgorod Region (hereinafter referred to as GANO). F. 829. op. 676. D. 753 (plan of the Olenevsky skete). 3 Melnikov P.I. Report ... p. 130. 4 GANO. F. 570. Op. 558.D. 107 (1855). L. 1.5 GANO. F. 570. Op. 558.D. 79 (1857). L. 3; D. 92 (1856). L. 2. 6 GANO. F. 829. Op. 676. D. 753 (estates 41 and 42). 7 Melnikov P.I. Report ... S. 132-133. 8 GANO. Collection of photographs by M.P. Dmitrieva. No. 1578. 9 Prilutsky Yu. In the boondocks. Semyonov, 1917. P. 129. According to the description of Yu. Prilutsky, the inscriptions were read on the tomb: "My spiritual sisters and fellows, do not forget to me when you pray, but when you see my tomb remember my love and pray to Christ so that my spirit will work with the righteous"; "This monument was erected by the zeal of a devoted spirit to the late Moscow first guild of the merchant Philip Yakovlevich Kasatkin. 1818 (?) June 3 days. Moscow." 10 GANO. F. 570. Op. 558.D. 154 (1854). 11 GANO. F. 570. Op. 558. D. 124 (1860). 12 John, hieroschemamonk. The spirit of wisdom of some schismatic sentiments. 1841, pp. 71-83; GANO. F. 570. Op. 558. D. 204 (1850). 13 Arkhangels S.A. Among the schismatics and sectarians of the Volga region. SPb., 1899.S. 27-28; I-sky N. Historical sketches from the life of schismatics in the Nizhny Novgorod limits // Nizhny Novgorod Eparchial Vedomosti. 1866. No. 10. S. 400-401; L. E. A few words about the schismatics of the Nizhny Novgorod diocese // Orthodox interlocutor. Kazan, 1866. December. P. 264; Melnikov P.I. Historical sketches of priesthood. M., 1864.S. 27.14 Melnikov P.I. Report ... p. 187; Prilutsky Yu. In the boondocks. P. 115.15 Melnikov P.I. Report ... p. 107; Prilutsky Yu. In the boondocks. S. 120-121. 16 Smirnov P.S. Disputes and divisions in the Russian schism in the first half of the 18th century. SPb., 1909. S. 35; I-sky N. Historical sketches ... // Nizhny Novgorod Diocesan Gazette. 1866. No. 11. P. 444; GANO. Call. photos of M.P. Dmitrieva. No. 1568, No. 1590. 17 Prilutsky Yu. In the boondocks. P. 109.18 Bezobrazov V.P. Semyonovsky district of the Nizhny Novgorod province and the schismatic world. From travel memories // Russian thought. 1883. No. 11. S. 147; GANO. Call. photos of M.P. Dmitrieva. No. 1569. 19 Testimonies of local residents (Lvova A.N., village of Razvilie; Ovchinnikova E.S., village of Pesochnoe, etc.). Institute of Manuscript and Early Printed Books, 1994, expeditionary materials. 20 Utkin D.N. My life, my adventure and my legend, and my memories // Materials. Manuscript. Beginning XX century Stored in the library of the Nizhny Novgorod State University, inv. No. 933818.

N.N. Bakhareva, M.M. Belyakova

Study and state protection of places,

associated with the history of Old Believers in the Nizhny Novgorod region

(The world of the Old Believers. Issue 4.

Living Traditions: Results and Prospects of Comprehensive Research.

Materials of the international scientific conference.

M .: "Russian political encyclopedia" (ROSSPEN), 1988. S. 132-139)

Russian Civilization