The Stranniki (Russian for Runaways or Wanderers) are the strong Pomorsky Old Believers who rejected prayers for Tsar Peter and all government papers (identification, passports, money, etc). They would not wear clothing contrary to Old Orthodox Russia, nor eat with those of contrary Faith and Practice. Keeping themselves separate from the antichrist society they went far into the Siberian wilderness. This blog is about these people and my effort to conform my life to theirs.

Friday, October 16, 2009

Official Papers are the Mark of the Beast

In the book Provincial Landscapes, Edited by Donald J. Raleigh, we can find these words on pages 172-3, 175-6, 179-80, 186.

The case study of Old Believers who, unlike Sectarians, formed a majority in many areas of the Urals region and Russia in general...

Stranniki, who emerged in the eighteenth century, refused to register with local authorities because they believed that the marks of the Antichrist were on official papers, such as passports and banknotes. Since they could not survive in Russia without “stamped papers,” however, Stranniki divided their communities into “elders,” who did not have passports and possessions, and the benefactors (strannopriimtsy), second-class members, who had to provide for the elders...

[The author offers misleading statements that Stranniki could not survive without papers, or that benefactors had to provide for elders. We all are able to take care of ourselves, but it is encouraging to help each other, as all Stranniki did.]

Staroobriadtsy reproduced their identity by means of traditional education, which focused on the reading of sacred books, the learning of church services, public disputes, oral and written historical tradition, and pilgrimage...

Father Pavel, was well know for welcoming everyone who visited him in his isolated forest cell - even robbers who had once broken into his house late at night. According to a local informant, “He offered them tea and supper and they felt ashamed to do their evil work.”

...Two interpretations of the Antichrist persisted from the seventeenth century: first, the representation of the Antichrist as “physical,” that is, incarnate as a man; and, second, as “spiritual,” that is, present in society as a spirit rather than a person. The Old Believers in the Urals accepted both these views and used them flexibly for different ends. The Old Believers in the industrial areas of the Central Urals had more moderate vies on the Antichrist.

...a local [communist] party member emphasized the predominance of well-off [Stranniki] members among the sect. It was said that 54.2 percent of sect members were kulaks and well off (zazhitochnye) and only 12.5 percent were poor peasants... He discovered that the kulaks used a system of secret tunnels, which had been dug by Stranniki to hide from tsarist authorities and to conceal grain from requisition squads... Staroobriadtsy in the Urals were particularly prone to be identified with antimodern forces, because in addition to the simplified Marxist view of religion as reactionary, Old Belief was perceived as the most antiquated, irrational, and even a primitive form of modern religion... Old Believer monophonic singing had neither rhythm nor beauty... Old Believers, who preferred spiritual healing to scientific medicine, were criticized for not believing in science and not trusting official medicine...

The secret police raided Old Believer forest skity, arresting religious itineraries in conformity with the new passport legislation of 1932-33. Between 1932 and 1936, NKVD forces destroyed dozens of forest hermitages in the area of Tiumen, Nizhnii Tagil, Verkhneivinsk, and Shalia. Skity inhabitants born between 1866 and 1901, plus some elders, were given sentences for parasitism, agitation against Soviet power, and counterrevolutionary activities.

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