Life in the taiga. Russian Old Believers from the village of Dersu

In May of this year, I was lucky enough to live for several days in a closed community of Old Believers, which is located a thousand kilometers from Khabarovsk and 300 kilometers from Komsomolsk-on-Amur. The most beautiful places! Nature is harsh, but gracious and generous.

My friend Nikolai and I arrived in a village that had long been known to him, to a friendly family of Old Believers who moved here 23 years ago from scratch. We were received by Uncle Vanya's family.

Uncle Vanya is a hospitable bearded man in a Russian shirt with piercing blue eyes, kind as those of a puppy. He is about 60 years old, his wife Annushka is about 55. At first glance, Annushka has her charm, behind which you intuitively feel strength and wisdom. They have a spacious one with a stove, surrounded by an apiary and vegetable gardens.

The way of life of the Old Believers has remained virtually unchanged for more than 400 years. Uncle Vanya says: “There was an Old Believer cathedral, and they decided: not to drink vodka, not to wear worldly clothes, a woman braids two braids, does not cut her hair, covers it with a scarf, a man does not shave or trim his beard...” And this is only a small part .

The thoroughness and vitality of these people is amazing. Take away their cars or electricity now - they won’t regret it much: after all, there is a stove, there is firewood, there is water from a well, there is a generous forest, a river with tons of fish, food supplies for the year ahead and experienced workers.

I was lucky enough to attend a feast on the occasion of my daughter’s arrival. Oil painting. The table is full, there is everything that is not available in city supermarkets. I’ve only seen this in pictures in history textbooks: bearded men in shirt-shirts with tied belts are sitting, joking, laughing at the top of their voices, often you don’t even understand what they’re joking about (you still have to get used to the Old Believer dialect), but you’re happy with one thing the mood prevailing at the table. And this despite the fact that I don't drink. Old Russian feast in all its glory.

Despite the fact that they live on the land, their earnings exceed those of city dwellers. “The city people there are much more stressed than I am here,” says Uncle Vanya. “I work for my own pleasure.” In the settlement, almost every Old Believer has a Toyota Land Cruiser in their yard, a spacious wooden house, from 150 square meters for each adult family member, vegetable gardens, equipment, livestock, preparations and supplies... They talk in terms of millions - “on the apiary alone I raised 2.5 million rubles,” Uncle Vanya confesses. “We don’t need anything, we’ll buy everything we need. But do we need much here? In the city, everything we earn goes into food, but here it grows on its own.”

“The family of my niece came here from Bolivia, sold their equipment and land, and brought with them 1.5 million dollars. They are farmers. They bought 800 hectares of arable land in the Primorsky Territory. Now they live there. Everyone is happy, everyone lives in abundance,” - Uncle Vanya continues. After this, you think: is our urban civilization really that advanced?

There was and is no centralized management in the community. “In the community, no one can tell me what to do. Our agreement is called “chapel”. We unite, live in villages and gather for services together. But if I don’t like it, then I won’t go and that’s it. I’ll pray at home,” - says Uncle Vanya. The community meets on holidays, which are held according to the charter: 12 main holidays a year.

“We don’t have a church, we have a house of worship. There is an elected elder. He is elected according to his talents. He organizes services, births, baptisms, funerals, funeral services. In addition, not every father can explain to his son why one thing can be done and another - it’s impossible. This person must also have the following knowledge: the ability to convince, the ability to explain,” notes Uncle Vanya.

Faith is the formative basis of the community. The community meets regularly not in a store or a pub, but in prayer. The festive Easter service, for example, lasts from 12 midnight to 9 am. Uncle Vanya, who came from Easter prayer in the morning, says: “My bones are aching, and, of course, it’s difficult to stand all night. But now there is such grace in my soul, so much strength... I can’t express it.” His blue eyes sparkle and burn with life.

I imagined myself after such an event and realized that I would have fallen and slept for another three days. And Uncle Vanya has the following service today: from two to nine in the morning. A regular service is one that lasts from three to nine in the morning. It is held regularly, every week.

“Without a butt,” as Uncle Vanya says. “Everyone participates with us: everyone reads and sings,” adds Annushka.

“What is the difference from the modern church, to put it briefly: there the management of the people is centralized, even at the spiritual level (what the tsar and the patriarch decided would reach the very bottom of the people). But with us, everyone expresses their opinion. And no one will force me. This should convince me, I should need it. Any issues are resolved conciliarly, and not centrally. All other differences are trifles and particulars that distract and deceive the people,” notes Ivan.

Here's how. Whatever I read about the Old Believers, practically nothing is said about this. Modestly keeping silent about the main thing: people make decisions themselves, and not the church - for them. This is their main difference!

Family is the basis of life. And here you understand it 100%. The average family size is eight children. Uncle Vanya has a small family - only five children: Leonid, Victor, Alexander, Irina and Katerina. The oldest is 33, the youngest is 14. And there are simply countless grandchildren swarming around. “For 34 houses in our settlement there are more than 100 children. It’s just that there are still young families, they will have even more children,” says Uncle Vanya.

The children are raised by the whole family, they help with the housework from an early age. Large families here are not burdensome, as in a cramped city apartment, but provide the opportunity for support, help for parents and development for the entire family. Relying on family and clan, these people solve all the issues of life: “We always have a relative in every Old Believer settlement.”

A relative is a very broad concept for an Old Believer: it is at least a group of settlements, including several villages. And more often - much more. After all, to prevent blood from mixing, young Old Believers have to look for a mate in the most remote corners of our world.

There are Old Believers settlements all over the world: in America, Canada, China, Bolivia, Brazil, Argentina, Romania, Australia, New Zealand and even Alaska. For hundreds of years, Old Believers escaped persecution and dispossession. “They tore off the crosses. They forced them to leave everything. And ours abandoned them. Grandfathers had to move from place to place three or four times a year. They would take icons, dishes, children and leave,” Uncle Vanya shares. “And they left for the world. And there they were no one oppressed. They lived like Russians: they wore their clothes, their language, their culture, their work... But the Old Believers are rooted to the earth. I can’t imagine how I could leave everything and leave. I’ll only have to tear it out with blood. Our grandfathers were strong."

Now Old Believers travel around the world to visit each other, introduce children, share clean seeds for the garden, news and experiences. Where the Old Believers are, the land that the locals considered infertile begins to bear fruit, the economy develops, and reservoirs are stocked with fish. These people do not complain about life, but take it and do their job day after day, little by little. Those who are far from Russia yearn for their homeland, some return, some do not.

Old Believers are freedom-loving: “They will begin to oppress, tell me how to live, I just gathered the children and got out of here. If necessary, all our relatives help us recover, both Russians and Americans - our relatives from America. They saved more and are sending us more from there.” 20 years is all it takes for us to restore our way of life.” By the way, it is in America that the Old Believers still have a unique dialect of the 30s of the last century. Life beat and beat these people, and what is striking is the love of life and cordiality with which they greet life and us, worldly people.

Hard work from the heart. Old Believers work from five in the morning until late in the evening. At the same time, no one looks tortured or tired. Rather, they look satisfied after another day.

Everything that these people are rich in, they created, raised, and made literally with their own hands. In food stores, for example, sugar is bought. Although they don’t have a great need for it: they have honey.

“The men live here without any education or a prestigious profession, but they earn enough, they drive Kruzaks. And they made money from the river, from berries, from mushrooms... That’s all. He’s just not lazy,” says Uncle Vanya . If something does not work and does not serve development, then it is not for the life of an Old Believer. Everything is vital and simple.

Helping each other is the norm of life for an Old Believer. “When building a house, the men can gather as a whole village to help at the initial stage. And then, in the evening, I organized a table to sit. Or for a lonely woman who doesn’t have a husband, the men will get together and make hay. There’s a fire - we all come running to help “It’s simple here: I don’t come today, they won’t come to me tomorrow,” Uncle Vanya shares.

Parenting. Children are brought up in daily natural work. From the age of three, the daughter begins to help her mother at the stove and wash the floors. And the son helps his father with yard work and construction work. “Son, bring me a hammer,” Uncle Vanya said to his three-year-old son, and he happily ran to fulfill his father’s request. This happens easily and naturally: without coercion or special developmental urban techniques. When they are young, such children learn about life and enjoy it more than any city toy.

In schools, children of Old Believers study among “worldly” children. They don’t go to college, although boys are required to serve in the army.

A wedding is once and for a lifetime. Returning from the army, the son begins to think about his family. This happens at the behest of the heart. “Then Annushka entered the house where we were preparing for the holiday, and I immediately realized that this was mine,” says Uncle Vanya. “And I went to woo her into the family. In May, we met Annushka - in June we already got married. And "I can't imagine life without her. I feel calm and good when I know: my wife is always with me."

Having once chosen a wife or husband, Old Believers bind themselves to them for life. There can be no talk of divorce. “A wife is given according to karma, as they say,” Uncle Vanya laughs. They do not choose each other for a long time, do not compare, do not live in a civil marriage, their hearts with centuries of experience help them determine the “one” for life.

The Old Believer's table is rich every day. In our perception, this is a festive table. According to their perception, this is the norm of life. At this table, it seemed to me that I remembered the taste of bread, milk, cottage cheese, soup, pickles, pies and jam. This taste cannot be compared with what we buy in stores.

Nature gives them everything in abundance, often even close to home. Vodka is not recognized; if people drink it, it is kvass or tincture. “All the dishes are illuminated by the mentor, they are washed with prayer, and each person from the outside is allocated worldly dishes, from which we do not eat,” says Uncle Vanya. Old Believers honor prosperity and purity.

No medicine. No medicine. No diseases. We need to start with the fact that these people are healthy from birth. Vaccinations for children are as evil as vaccinations for adults.

“Genetics,” they say, looking at the portly lad with a soldier’s bearing in the family photo. “What are you treating with?” - I ask Annushka. “I don’t even know,” she says. “We’ll drink herbs. And what you should drink, my gut tells me.” “The same bath, the same rubbing with honey,” adds Uncle Vanya. “My grandfather treated a sore throat with pepper and honey: he makes a boat out of paper and boils honey in this paper over a candle. The paper doesn’t burn, it’s a miracle! Which enhances the effect medicines,” he smiles. “Grandfather lived for 94 years, he was never treated with medicines at all. He knew how to treat himself: he grated a beetroot somewhere, ate something...”

Fashionable - everything is short-lived. Can not argue. These people cannot be called “rednecks”. Everything is neat, beautiful, aesthetically pleasing. They wear dresses or shirts that I like. “My wife sews shirts for me, my daughter sews them. They also sew dresses and sundresses for women themselves. The family budget is not so affected,” says Uncle Vanya. “My grandfather gave me his chrome boots, they were 40 years old, they were in the same condition as a week This was his attitude towards things: he didn’t change them every year, sometimes long, sometimes narrow, sometimes blunt... he sewed them himself and carried them all his life.”

No “language of the Russian village” - swearing. Communication takes place cordially and simply, starting from the first words “you live well!” This is how they naturally greet each other.

Maybe we were lucky, but while walking around the settlement, we did not hear a swear word. On the contrary, everyone will say hello or nod to you when passing by in a car. Young guys, stopping on a motorcycle, will ask: “Whose will you be?”, shake hands and move on. Young girls will bow to the ground. This strikes me as a person who has lived since the age of 12 in a “classical” Russian village. "Where did everything go and why did it go?" - I ask myself a rhetorical question.

Old Believers do not watch TV. At all. He doesn’t have them, it’s prohibited by the way of life, just like computers. At the same time, their level of awareness, awareness and political views is often higher than mine, a person living in Moscow. How do people get information? Word of mouth works better than mobile communications.

Information about the wedding of Uncle Vanya's daughter reached neighboring villages faster than he could get there by car. News about the life of the country and the world quickly comes from the city, because some Old Believers cooperate with the townspeople.

Old Believers do not allow themselves to be filmed. Several attempts and persuasion to photograph at least something ended with kind phrases: “There’s no point in this...” One of the Old Believer principles is “simplicity in everything”: home, nature, family, spiritual principles. This way of life is so natural, but so forgotten by us.

When creating in the Moscow region, we often remember this simple way of life and deep experience. If you too are passionate about the pursuit of natural living, health, and spiritual principles, we would love to have you in our community.

ALEXANDER BABKIN

In 1982, Kadareya disappeared from the map of the Taishet region. Five years ago, two twin brothers and their families arrived in an abandoned village.

Adherents of the Old Believers, descendants of Old Believers Christians, founded a community in Kadarey, preserving their original dialect, faith and rituals, the fundamental features of traditional Russian culture. To see the Old Believer community, Regional journalists went to the north of the region, 300 kilometers into the Taishet taiga.

Road to Kadarea

The taiga in the borderland of the Krasnoyarsk Territory and the Taishet region has more than once become a haven for Old Believers Christians over the past hundred years. They settled in the villages of Kondratyevo and Ivanov Mys. Historians recall that the settlements of Old Believers in the remote taiga could not be found even in the most turbulent years of Soviet power, but were found only in the seventies, when massive satellite photography began. In the middle of the last century, Old Believers communities still remained pieces of pre-Petrine Rus'.

A new community in the village of Kadareya was founded by the brothers Evsey and Vinariy Alekseev. The way there lies along the route Shitkino - Novobiryusinsk - Tamtachet - Polinchet.

The Eastern Sayan and its northern spurs - the valleys of the Biryusa and Chuna rivers - were the traditional habitat of Siberian aborigines. The ancient Tungus roamed here. Among these peoples lived Keto-speaking tribes of hunters and fishermen - Kots, Arins, Asans. This is evidenced by numerous geographical names ending in “shet” and “chet”.

We are driving through the places where the first Russian settlements were founded in the 17th century. The village of Nizhnyaya Zaimka remains here from those times. In the settlements along the highway there are old huts, larch houses, painted frames. There seems to be life in these villages. But how close the taiga has moved to them!

We pass the village of Shitkino, where in the 30s of the last century lived Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, a partisan, the first woman awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union during the Great Patriotic War.

The place is taiga, but there are no animals nearby, says guide and driver Mikhail Stasenko.

- A frightened animal is sitting in a fir tree. Here we even hunt with hang gliders.

Snow-covered pine trees on both sides of the road. Steep descents and ascents.

Thanks to the road workers - despite the distance from the regional center, all the slopes are covered with sand. Rare equipment will come your way, mostly timber trucks. On the road to Buzykanovo there is a homemade poster - “Quiet! They're waiting at home!"

Even passers-by in the villages are not visible. In Dzhogino we meet a horse with a cart of hay. A boy and a dog are sitting on a cart. On the dilapidated club there is an inscription: “Everyone has gone to the front.”

Further beyond Dzhogino there is a clearing where power engineers are building power lines. After Cherchet our path lies on Gorevaya. The settlement lives up to its name - the houses are destroyed, as if after a bombing. In Tamtachet there is a colony of the Krasnoyarsk GUFSIN. Men in black robes are cutting down the forest as if they were mowing grass. There is an unambiguous warning on the highway: “Convicts are working on the road.”

The road to Polincheta is a rut in the forest; it can only be driven in winter, and then only with good equipment. In 1938, a forest management expedition from Krasnoyarsk worked on the Polinchetka River. Together with the timber industry enterprise, the village of Polinchet grew up, where people from Kondratyevo and Kadarei worked. A few years later, the plots were developed, the volume of development in the timber industry enterprise was reduced, and the population dispersed in all directions. In the 1960s, a chemical forestry enterprise began operating here, and the surrounding residents flocked back. The workers were collecting resin, a raw material for rosin production. Then this job disappeared too.

From Polincheta to Cadarea – 7 km. You can only get there on the winter road, in the summer - by boat. The deputy head of the Polinchetsky municipal district, Sergei Kaverzin, himself a native of those places, recalls that Kadareya with its thirty households became extinct in 1982. Employees of the Krasnoyarsk GUFSIN burned down abandoned houses and put them under a bulldozer. In this place, arable land and potato fields appeared where the convicts worked.

Taiga eco-village

The head of the village, Evsey Alekseev, met us on the street. I waited specially, having seen from afar a transport that was rare in these parts.

A distinctive feature of the local residents is that men wear beards, women wear headscarves. In the village, everyone calls each other exclusively by their first and patronymic names.

The first thing we saw was a children's swing on the river bank and a tall birdhouse on a pole. Yevsey Leonidovich’s house was built in an ancient way - divided into two halves by a wide corridor. In the “female” half there is a kitchen and household utensils, in the hall there is a prayer room with a large iconostasis. It’s cold in this half of the house; the stove-stove is constantly burning.

The house is ideally clean, comfortable, and has an abundance of flowers. Household utensils and furnishings are very modest.

While his wife Nadezhda is preparing dinner, the owner tells the story of the family. Interwoven into his conversation are ancient words long forgotten in cities - from time immemorial, natokalisya (pricked up - author's note).

The Alekseev brothers came to Kadareya from the village of Sergeevo, Yenisei district, Krasnoyarsk Territory. They returned home, they say. The ancestors of the Alekseevs are schismatic Old Believers. Grandfather Fedosei Ivanovich even went to prison for his faith. Parents Elena Semenovna and Leonid Fedoseevich lived in Tuva in the middle of the last century. In the highlands, the old people fell ill. I had to move to Kadarea.

- And they got better at once. They played lapta on the river, ran around, and the old people’s beards were fluttering,” recalls Evsei Leonidovich.

They lived together in Kadarei and solved all problems peacefully. The brothers left the village immediately after serving in the army. They lived in the Krasnoyarsk taiga for 29 years, hunting, fishing, and raising livestock.

- There were a lot of fish in the river. Over the summer we pulled 700–800 kilograms, or even a ton. Gasoline and flour were exchanged for fish,” the owner recalls.

But the harsh climate did not allow life - a long winter gave way to a rainy summer with an abundance of midges.

– In autumn there is no frost, the Yenisei takes a long time to rise. In the spring, blocks of ice are dragged ashore by the river. For two days you don’t know how to get to water to water the cattle. And the winds! I came across the water on a horse, the horse was looking for the way back, everything was blown.

Siberia is big, there are many abandoned villages. And they traveled a thousand kilometers to return to Kadarea. Everything was transported on our own KamAZ - belongings, livestock, hay balers.

The brothers did not find their family estates - everything was burned, only the old cemetery remained. So we drove into an open field, set up temporary huts, and began to build good houses. The local administration has allocated land - live!

Evsey Leonidovich is 58 years old. He has three daughters and five boyfriends. Two children remained in the Krasnoyarsk Territory, six live with their father. The eldest Evgeniy has four children of his own, two were born in Kadarey. Evgeniy is finishing his own house.

The other sons are still unmarried, there is no time, the father says.

-Who should I marry? There is taiga all around for hundreds of miles,” we agree.

– They don’t sit still, they visit Kansk and Boguchany. They will woo someone, bring them here, and build houses. The estates have already been allocated,” says the owner. – So far, one street has been built in Kadarey. “Maybe we’ll call it Beregovaya,” Alekseev Sr. dreams.

Evsey Leonidovich shows the outbuildings and the still unfinished sawmill. In the yard there are old equipment purchased after the move.

The village has preserved a special way of life, significantly different from the city. The settlers are hardworking and enterprising people - they sow grain, grow vegetables, and keep livestock and poultry. Until recently, milk and sour cream were transported 40 km to Chunoyar, Krasnoyarsk Territory. Then the road disappeared and the timber trucks stopped running. Now the men hunt, collect wild plants, mushrooms and berries, and prepare firewood for the Polinchet school. This is how they live. When sick, the Cadarians use herbs. As long as they live, no one has ever gone to the hospital.

Preserve the faith of the fathers

“You are welcome to the table,” the owner says in the old-fashioned way.

Food on the table is a hymn to a healthy lifestyle. Everything is environmentally friendly - cottage cheese, fish. The hostess serves homemade dumplings, the owner pours home-made mash.

Relying in life on their own skills, the people here are skilled - men do carpentry and carpentry, build Russian stoves, make barrels. Women cook bread, sew and knit. And they even baptize newborns on the seventh day of life.

- Enjoy your meal! – we hear at the threshold. Guests arrived - Pyotr Andreevich and Lyubov Yudovna Akulov. They lived in the village of Aidara, Yenisei region, and arrived in Kadareya a little later than the Alekseevs. Peter and Yevsey are brothers-in-law. The Akulovs have six children, four came with them. Now four families live in Kadarey - 27 people.

At the table, the Akulovs talk about their lives. They have the same worries - cleaning up after the livestock, milking the cows, and separating the milk. Sheep need to be sheared on time; Lyubov Yudovna rolls felt boots from their wool.

“It’s quiet here, only a fox is walking around, crushing chickens.” But the bears don’t come close to the village - they’re already scared,” the guests say.

- Don’t your women complain that they were taken to the wilderness?

“So they knew where they were going.” Don't think we're not in a winter hut. I’ll be in Chunoyar and Taishet,” the men say.

The village lives in harmony. All issues are resolved in a community manner. All holidays, especially church holidays, are celebrated together. They keep fasts. They sing old great-grandmother's songs with pleasure. As the ancestors bequeathed, they do not smoke and do not curse. Children are protected from civilization with its temptations and immorality. There is no television in the family of Evsey Alekseev for fundamental reasons. “We know what they say there,” says the owner disapprovingly.

The Kadarians take care of ancient church books, pray to old icons of their fathers, and read the life of Archpriest Avvakum. Led by a charter director, blessed to serve as a priest in the parish, they honor and preserve the faith of their ancestors. Old Believers cross themselves with two fingers and eat from separate dishes, in which strangers are not supposed to drink or eat.

“I won’t say about anyone: since he has a different faith, he is worse than me.” Maybe he will be even better than me. If a person lives according to his faith, let him believe in good health with a pure heart,” says Evsey Leonidovich.

There is no church in the village yet, but one will definitely be built. There is no school either. But they’ve already found a place for it. Children of different ages are taught at home by the Akulovs’ youngest daughter, Nastya. She dreams of becoming a teacher. Several times a year, Nastya takes her students to the Polinchet school, where they take tests.

Official status

Of course, today the life of the Old Believers has changed, modern life leaves its mark on it. Cadarians use cellular communications. Each house has a small diesel generator, and another larger diesel generator is used for construction needs. Servicing one energy source costs 18 thousand rubles per month.

Today, displaced people need a stable power supply. In order to install the power line, Kadareya needs to be restored to the official status of a settlement. Mayor of Taishetsky district Vitaly Kirichenko says:

– To return the village to official status, we are ready to appeal to the government of the Irkutsk region and the Legislative Assembly. The district administration is interested in the formation of new settlements, but this procedure is complicated. It is necessary to develop a large list of documents - a master plan for the development of the municipality, a plan for the development of energy, and the road network.

“You tell the authorities about us there.” We will not be a burden to the state,” says Evsey Leonidovich with dignity. “We’ll start a farm, we’ll expand the economy.” We can carry out logging. The village council and the region will only benefit from us.

When electricity appears in the village, people will come here to live, the Kadarians are sure. They have dozens of relatives alone, many are ready to come. And the rest have not been ordered.

- Well, the places are good. If they are hard-working and conscientious people, why not accept us, we will accept you,” says Evsey Leonidovich.

He believes that the village will be reborn

In the 1650s–1660s, Patriarch Nikon and Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich carried out a church reform, the purpose of which was to unify the liturgical rites of the Russian Church with the Church of Constantinople. Old Believers are religious hermits who reject the official teachings of the Russian Orthodox Church. After the Great Moscow Council of 1667, persecution of Old Believer centers began. In 1735, 40,000 Old Believers were resettled in Eastern Siberia and Transbaikalia. Many, opposing the reform, went to the Siberian taiga themselves.

The village of Burny on the Taseyeva River in the Krasnoyarsk Territory is one of the many in Siberia where Old Believers live. And although it is not on the administrative map of the region, life goes on there and many children are born. Residents of Burnoy are also planning to create tourist routes here. The villagers told a TASS correspondent who visited them about all this.
The main transport is "motorboats"
The path to Burnoye lies from the village of Kirsantyevo along the Taseeva River, a tributary of the Angara. 20 kilometers. Motor boats are the main transport in summer; in winter you can get here by “Hivus”, a hovercraft. During our journey, the amphibian became halfway there: overloaded. In addition, there was snow the day before, and the engine did not work.
“Khivus” left, taking women and old people to the village. We followed him, falling waist-deep into snowdrifts with water flowing underneath. By the time the already empty amphibian returned, we managed to fully experience the road to the village of Burny, which is considered far from the most inaccessible of the Old Believer communities.
- Sometimes it snows so much that there is no road. "Burans" get stuck, and a woman in labor is in the sled. The snowmobile freezes into the ice, and the woman’s water is already breaking,” says Burny resident Fyodor Nebobyatov.
True, not every woman in labor from Burny goes to Motygino (district center - TASS note), many, according to the behests of their ancestors, stay at home to give birth. They say that the village has its own midwives. In general, the Old Believers from the villages of Taseyeva, Biryusa, and other Angara rivers have a complex relationship with medicine. If there is an urgent need, they call an air ambulance and give vaccinations against tick-borne encephalitis. However, Motygin doctors note that mostly adult men are vaccinated, the rest - “as God willing.”
Bespopovtsy
The Old Believers living in the Angara region are considered non-priests - a movement in the Old Believers in which there are no clergy. It arose during the church schism in Rus' in the 17th century. Then there were no bishops among the Old Believers, and according to canonical rules only they can appoint priests and deacons. So the priestless people believe that the true priesthood perished during the years of the Nikonian reform. Since then, the service has been performed by competent community members. In some villages, special houses - chapels - are allocated for this purpose, which is why this movement of the non-priests is called "Chapel Concord". There are a majority of these in the Krasnoyarsk Territory.
In 1971, the Russian Orthodox Church at the Local Council abandoned the ancient persecution of Old Believers. Today, people crossing themselves with two fingers can be found everywhere.
School from the past
The Old Believers have a wary attitude towards strangers; they try not to invite them into their residential building, but they will feed them. They will sell tourists milk, meat or potatoes with honey, and tell you where it is better to cast a fishing rod. The school serves as a place for receiving guests. There are special dishes here for visitors.
The school is a large log house. Above the porch there is a sign: “RSFSR, Ministry of Education, Burnovskaya Secondary School.”
“This sign is at least 70 years old,” assures Perfiry, the unofficial head of the village. The official leader is considered to be “Uncle Kolya” Kozyr, who was elected in 2015 as the head of neighboring Kirsantiev.
Inside the hut there is a spacious classroom with desks, chalk and a blackboard. There are flowers on the teacher's desk. The large stove on which children's shoes are dried adds coziness.
The head of the school is Olga Valerievna. She is the director, the head teacher, and a primary school teacher here. More than 70 people live in Burny, many of them are young. They give birth in the village, despite the difficulties, often and willingly. The teacher herself has six children. The largest families are those living further away, on the Biryusa River, with both 10 and 13 children.
- Problem with further education of children. “We want to resolve the issue of bringing specialized teachers to Burny,” says the head of the Motyginsky district, Alexey Khramtsov, a history teacher by training who once headed the main education department of Krasnoyarsk.
They want to take teachers to Burny for shifts. For example, bring a chemist for a couple of weeks - a month, then a physicist, an algebra teacher, then other specialists. And so on in a circle. We have already found a house where business travelers can live quite comfortably, supplied with food from local residents.
A village that doesn't exist

In fact, there are two villages of Burnykh - they stand on opposite banks of the Taseyeva. Legally, neither one nor the other exists; they are absent on administrative maps and in the register of settlements. Khramtsov says that the procedure for recognizing Burny settlements has “already been launched,” and they are awaiting a decision from the regional authorities.
There is also confusion in the residents' documents. The passport indicates the place of residence - “Burny village”. In other official papers - one of the streets of Kirsantiev.
Meanwhile, the history of Burny can be traced at least from the forties to the fifties of the last century, when a rafting office appeared here - round timber was floated along the Taseyeva, then along the Angara and Yenisei - up to four million cubic meters per year. Then life was in full swing here, there were shops, music was noisy in the club.
Old Believers appeared on the river from different sides. Some came from the Urals, others returned from the Far East, from Manchuria, fleeing persecution. Some worked on moth rafting, when rafts knitted from tree trunks were lowered across the water in huge islands, others - like Perfilius - worked in aerial forestry, and still others served as foresters. Everything collapsed in the nineties - now in each of the Stormy there are just over ten courtyards. Only Old Believers live here now.
About 20–30 years ago, another scourge struck the area - the Siberian silkworm - one of the main evils of the taiga, after which only rubble of dead, unsuitable trees remains, igniting with gunpowder from the slightest spark. In those days, the inhabitants of Burny locked themselves in their huts, plugged the smallest cracks in the walls and doors with moss and tow, covered windows and chimneys, and sprayed chemicals from airplanes that killed forest pests. The story is similar to the truth, and beyond the outskirts there are trunks of dead trees, blackened by time and burning.
Testaments of grandfathers
Old Believers are not at all retrogrades, as they are thought to be. In Burny, every house has a motor boat and a snowmobile; on the streets of Kirsantyev and large villages you can meet bearded men driving good SUVs. Electricity in the village is provided by a diesel generator, every day from morning until ten o’clock in the evening. There are also mobile phones, although there is no connection in the village. Cheap Sotik cars are needed when traveling to the mainland. They are not brought home; they are left in the garage.
Traditions are also respected. As in the old days, all adult men grow beards, women wear headscarves and obligatory long skirts, do not cut their hair and do not use cosmetics. They bake their own bread in a Russian oven.
“We don’t have televisions or radios,” says Antonina, Perfiliya’s relative. - We spend time doing needlework, knitting. We can set traps, my eldest daughter is a trap specialist. Dancing is a sin. We sing folk songs to Kadyshev.
Smoking is prohibited, instead of tea there are herbal infusions, instead of factory-made alcohol there is berry “kvass” of our own production with the taste of high-quality dry wine. Multi-day fasts are carefully observed.
Almost everyone here is relatives. Therefore, men look for wives in other Old Believer villages, sometimes hundreds of kilometers from Taseyeva. Fyodor Nebobyatov, for example, brought his future wife from the village of Bezymyanka, one of the most famous Old Believer settlements in the Krasnoyarsk Territory. The teacher Olga Valerievna is from Khakassia. Some travel to Tuva in search of brides.
Not everyone uses the services of the registry office; there are no divorces here; they try to register children officially. Birth certificate and passport are the main documents. But the Old Believers do not like the INN, as well as various papers and cards with numbers and barcodes - they believe that they are a sin.
- That's a mystery! There is no tax identification number, the village does not officially exist, but the tax office always finds it, asks one of the local residents.
- We subscribe to newspapers, read, tell each other about what is happening in the world. We also ask for news when we travel, for example to Kirsantyevo,” says Antonina.
There are few people who want to leave the community, although local residents talk about orphan brothers who managed to get a higher education and are now successful businessmen in Krasnoyarsk and Kansk. The family of “Latin Americans”, the Simoshins, who came to Kirsantyevo from Uruguay, where a large Old Believer community lives, is considered local pride.
Green tourism
What the Old Believers cannot be denied is the presence of an entrepreneurial spirit. Many famous merchant families and industrialists of pre-revolutionary Russia were Old Believers. The same Savva Morozov, one of the richest people of his time.
Today, residents of the Angara villages are developing agriculture. Despite the harsh northern climate, even watermelons are grown in gardens. Honey production, game hunting and fishing are developed. They continue to cut down and float timber for wood processing companies. We are ready to supply food for the canteens of budgetary organizations and companies - there is no agriculture in the Angara regions, we have to bring agricultural products from Krasnoyarsk.
The Old Believers reacted favorably to Khramtsov’s idea to organize “green” tourism in these places - beautiful places, environmentally friendly products, all that remains is to lure travelers. Perhaps the first tourist route will be organized in 2017.

In the 17th century, a movement of “God lovers” appeared in Rus', who fought for the purity of morals and for the supreme power of the church in society. Among them was the future Patriarch Nikon And Avvakum, the main thinker of the Old Believers. Both of them were from Nizhny Novgorod. By the middle of the 17th century, a split occurred among religious spiritual leaders. Nikon, approaching the king Alexey Mikhailovich and becoming Patriarch of Rus', he carried out a reform of the Orthodox Church. Some of the Orthodox, inspired by Archpriest Avvakum, did not accept the reform and adhered to the old faith and rituals, for which they were persecuted. Hiding from persecution, the Old Believers went into the deep forests of the Trans-Volga region, where they set up their monasteries - secluded monastic-type settlements.

Grigorovo is the native village of Archpriest Avvakum. Photo:

In the footsteps of the Old Believers

Programmer Anton Afanasyev Born in Sukhumi, he moved to the Nizhny Novgorod region, as he put it, “in his conscious childhood.” But it so happened that, having read “In the Woods” and “On the Mountains” in my youth Melnikov-Pechersky, became seriously interested in the history and ethnography of the Old Believer areas. Anton travels around the region, looking for places of former settlements, studying history and life and talks about it in his illustrated blog. His two hobbies, photography and travel, came in handy for his extensive research. This is almost ethnography, only amateur. And popular - his blog already has eight thousand subscribers.

Anton Afanasyev is a blogger and ethnographer. Photo: AiF / Elfiya Garipova

“Not much is known about the life of the Nizhny Novgorod Old Believer hermitages,” says Afanasyev, “so I decided to study these places and see what is happening now in the lands of the Old Believers.”

Afanasiev first heard the word “monastery” when he began treasure hunting. Many diggers liked to wander with metal detectors in the area of Old Believer settlements, so Anton immediately got the impression that these were rich places.

“It’s quite difficult to find the remains of monasteries,” says Afanasiev. — Local residents often don’t even know that they live next to former monasteries: after all, sometimes all that remains is a dilapidated cemetery. Local shepherds often helped in the search: they turned out to be one of the few who knew where the settlements of the Old Believers were located.”

In places where entire settlements once existed, there are now wastelands with occasional crumbling buildings. Photo: From the personal archive of Anton Afanasyev

Over the course of several seasons, the blogger traveled to almost all the monasteries and found the descendants of local Old Believers. Some continue to adhere to the faith of their ancestors, while others have long forgotten about the principles of the Old Believers.

At first Anton thought that photographing the Old Believers would be difficult: “At first glance, they are quite secretive people and do not allow strangers to approach them. But no. They are ready to communicate."

Cultural monuments are gradually falling into disrepair, even though they are under protection. Photo: From the personal archive of Anton Afanasyev

Surviving monastery

Afanasyev managed not only to photograph the people themselves, but also to film the service in the only surviving and operating Nizhny Novgorod monastery - Malinovsky. It was built at the end of the 19th century with money the richest merchant-industrialist Nikolai Bugrov(the same one who owned the rooming house in Nizhny Novgorod, known as the prototype of the rooming house from Gorky’s play “At the Lower Depths”). During the Soviet period, utility rooms were built in the monastery church. Now almost all the frescoes have been completely restored, since since July 1994 the Malinovsky Skete complex has been placed under state protection as a historical and cultural monument of regional significance.

Church choir of the Malinovsky monastery. Photo: From the personal archive of Anton Afanasyev

In the city, Anton rarely goes to church, but at the Malinovsky monastery he wanted to watch the service. Knowing that Old Believers, as a rule, do not allow anyone other than fellow believers to go further than the vestibule, the photographer stood there and watched the service begin.

There is a worship service in progress. Photo: From the personal archive of Anton Afanasyev

“One woman from a church shop saw me,” says Anton. - She turned out to be his wife Father Alexander who performed the service. She invited me to come in, write a note about my health, and even take pictures of the interiors and the service itself, which I didn’t expect at all! Obviously, my interest in what was happening played a role. After the service they even invited me to lunch.”

Lunch after the service. Photo: From the personal archive of Anton Afanasyev

Dump at the cemetery

The situation with the restored Malinovsky monastery is rather exceptional: in place of most of the Old Believer monasteries, only crosses stand. They are the only reminders that once there was not only a cemetery, but also a rich settlement.

There are many crosses of Old Believers, but there are almost no Old Believers themselves left. Photo: From the personal archive of Anton Afanasyev

“Local residents have practically no memory of the Old Believers,” says Afanasyev. “As I was told in one of the villages, already at the end of the 70s of the last century there were no people who could properly tell a visitor about the monasteries and show them.”

In the village of Sharpan, Afanasyev was looking for a grave Old Believer Father Nikandriy, which I discovered in a local cemetery. But at the site of the elder’s half-dugout, Anton was unpleasantly surprised by an improvised landfill, which finally buried the old logs of the monastery, dug into the ground. And this despite the fact that this place is officially under state protection (document on acceptance for state protection No. 219 - author’s note).

There are practically no Old Believers left in Sharpan. For example, the former teacher Nina Alexandrovna all of her ancestors were Old Believers, but she no longer considers herself one of them. Although he still keeps Old Believer icons at home.

“They will kill for an icon”

“This grandmother told me that lonely old women are deceived by buyers,” says Afanasiev. — People come from the city and voluntarily and compulsorily exchange ancient icons for new ones. I ask why you agree. He answers, we are afraid, they say: they will come at night, rob or kill for these icons. It is clear that they are making rude money from these grandmotherly icons. Not only icons are taken away, but also preserved church utensils. The old women also looked at me with suspicion at first: was I a junk dealer?”

A descendant of the Old Believers, Nina Alexandrovna, is afraid of icon buyers. Photo: From the personal archive of Anton Afanasyev

Old Believers' churches are mostly destroyed by time and the barbaric attitude of those around them. For example, in the former Old Believer community of Budilikha, the church is already in disrepair: the boards are being pulled away onto fences, and the dome has long been lying on the ground.

Destroyed church in Budilikha. Photo: From the personal archive of Anton Afanasyev

The situation is the same in the ancient village of Martynov: the church has been destroyed and is in terrible condition. A little time will pass, and all that will remain from it is a pile of old boards and logs. If they don't get stolen too.

“They say that there is nothing to restore these churches and there is no one for anyone,” Afanasiev shakes his head, “they say that there are fewer and fewer Old Believers here every year - they are all young, either in Orthodoxy, or not believers at all.”

The church onion is lying on the ground. Photo: From the personal archive of Anton Afanasyev

Church - on bricks

Anton Afanasyev not only studies historical places with great attention, but is also keenly interested in people living in abandoned, remote corners of the region. Here he finds subjects for his photographs.

Anton talks about meeting a bearded man fireman Sergei and his partner, shows photographs. Stokers heat the local school, which is located in a former noble estate Berdnikova. To heat the school and teacher's house, they must haul and burn 12 wheelbarrows of coal every day. Sergei told Afanasyev that in the courtyard of this former estate there used to be two marble steles - of Berdnikov himself and his wife.

Sergey the fireman is a resident of the northern regions of the Nizhny Novgorod region. Photo: From the personal archive of Anton Afanasyev

“So, according to Sergei, in the early 90s, both steles were “taken away” somewhere,” says Afanasyev. - And then a rumor spread that the son of this same Berdnikov, a serious businessman from France, intends to visit his native place! And he’s even thinking about a joint venture in his father’s homeland: he wanted to restore a local factory. Sergei said that they were scared, the whole village was looking for these steles: it was awkward in front of a foreign guest. And they found it! They were lying in someone’s backyard.”

In the north of the region, people live poorly - people do not care about preserving cultural heritage. Photo: From the personal archive of Anton Afanasyev

The steles were returned to their original place. Only there was nothing left to restore: the walls of the factory had long been dismantled, as well as the local church.

Anton tells how in the region, far from more or less large cities, signs of desolation are visible everywhere: devastation is all around, there is almost no work. Everything that was possible was taken away into bricks.

Young people leave, old people stay. Photo: From the personal archive of Anton Afanasyev

Returning to the conversation about monasteries, Afanasyev sighs: “Of course, I am not an ethnographer, although I am now receiving a second – historical – education. I simply photograph what I see and try to describe what remains. I understand: time does a lot to destroy Old Believer settlements. But if they had been properly cared for, many things would probably have been preserved for posterity. And maybe it’s not too late?”

My friend Nikolai and I arrived in a village that had long been known to him, to a friendly family of Old Believers who moved here 23 years ago from scratch. We were received by Uncle Vanya's family.

Uncle Vanya is a cordial bearded man in a Russian shirt with piercing blue eyes, kind as those of a puppy. He is about 60 years old, his wife Annushka is about 55. At first glance, Annushka has her charm, behind which you intuitively feel strength and wisdom. They have a spacious wooden house with a stove, surrounded by an apiary and vegetable gardens.

Despite the fact that they live on the land, their earnings exceed those of city dwellers. “The city people there are much more stressed than I am here,” says Uncle Vanya. “I work for my own pleasure.” In the settlement, almost every Old Believer has a Toyota Land Cruiser in their yard, a spacious wooden house, from 150 square meters for each adult family member, land, vegetable gardens, equipment, livestock, supplies and supplies... They talk in terms of millions - “on one I raised 2.5 million rubles for the apiary alone,” Uncle Vanya confesses. “We don’t need anything, we’ll buy everything we need. But do we need much here? In the city, everything we earn goes into food, but here it grows on its own.”

“The family of a niece came here from Bolivia, sold equipment and land there, and brought with them 1.5 million dollars. They are farmers. They bought 800 hectares of arable land in the Primorsky Territory. Now they live there. Everyone is happy, everyone lives in abundance,” - Uncle Vanya continues. After this, you think: is our urban civilization really that advanced?

Faith is the formative basis of community. The community meets regularly not in a store or a pub, but in prayer. The festive Easter service, for example, lasts from 12 midnight to 9 am. Uncle Vanya, who came from Easter prayer in the morning, says: “My bones are aching, and, of course, it’s difficult to stand all night. But now there is such grace in my soul, so much strength... I can’t express it.” His blue eyes sparkle and burn with life.

“Without a butt,” as Uncle Vanya says. “Everyone participates with us: everyone reads and sings,” adds Annushka.

A relative is a very broad concept for an Old Believer: it is at least a group of settlements, including several villages. And more often – much more. After all, to prevent blood from mixing, young Old Believers have to look for a mate in the most remote corners of our world.

There are Old Believers settlements all over the world: in America, Canada, China, Bolivia, Brazil, Argentina, Romania, Australia, New Zealand and even Alaska. For hundreds of years, Old Believers escaped persecution and dispossession. “They tore off the crosses. They forced them to leave everything. And ours did. The grandfathers had to move from place to place three or four times a year. They would take icons, dishes, children and leave,” Uncle Vanya shares. “And they left for the world. And there they were no one oppressed. They lived like Russians: they wore their clothes, their language, their culture, their work... But the Old Believers grow to the earth with roots. I can’t imagine how I could leave everything and leave. I’ll only have to tear it out with blood. Our grandfathers were strong."

Hard work from the heart. Old Believers work from five in the morning until late in the evening. At the same time, no one looks tortured or tired. Rather, they look satisfied after another day.

“Men live here without any education or a prestigious profession, but they earn enough, they drive Kruzaks. And he made money on the river, on berries, on mushrooms... That’s all. He’s just not lazy,” says Uncle Vanya . If something does not work and does not serve development, then it is not for the life of an Old Believer. Everything is vital and simple.

Helping each other is the norm of life for an Old Believer. “When building a house, the men can gather as a whole village to help at the initial stage. And then, in the evening, I organized a table to sit. Or for a lonely woman who doesn’t have a husband, the men will get together and make hay. There’s a fire - we all come running to help It’s all simple here: I don’t come today, they won’t come to me tomorrow,” Uncle Vanya shares.

In schools, children of Old Believers study among “worldly” children. They don’t go to college, although boys are required to serve in the army.

A wedding is once and for a lifetime. Returning from the army, the son begins to think about his family. This happens at the behest of the heart. “Then Annushka entered the house where we were preparing for the holiday, and I immediately realized that this was mine,” says Uncle Vanya. “And I went to woo her into the family. In May, we met Annushka - we already got married in June. And "I can't imagine life without her. I feel calm and good when I know: my wife is always with me."

Nature gives them everything in abundance, often even close to home. Vodka is not recognized; if people drink it, it is kvass or tincture. “All the dishes are illuminated by the mentor, we wash them with prayer, and each person from the outside is given worldly dishes, from which we do not eat,” says Uncle Vanya. Old Believers honor prosperity and purity.

No medicine. No medicine. No diseases. We need to start with the fact that these people are healthy from birth. Vaccinations for children are as evil as vaccinations for adults.

“Genetics,” they say, looking at the portly lad with a soldier’s bearing in the family photo. “What are you treating with?” – I ask Annushka. “I don’t even know,” she says. “We’ll drink herbs. And what you should drink, your gut tells you.” “The same bath, the same rubbing with honey,” adds Uncle Vanya. “My grandfather treated a sore throat with pepper and honey: he makes a boat out of paper and boils honey in this paper over a candle. The paper doesn’t burn, it’s a miracle! Which enhances the effect medicines,” he smiles. “Grandfather lived for 94 years, he was never treated with medicine at all. He knew how to treat himself: he grated a beetroot somewhere, ate something...”

No “language of the Russian village” – swearing. Communication takes place cordially and simply, starting from the first words “you live well!” This is how they naturally greet each other.

Old Believers do not allow themselves to be filmed. Several attempts and persuasions to photograph at least something ended with kind phrases: “There’s no point in this...” One of the Old Believer principles is “simplicity in everything”: home, nature, family, spiritual principles. This way of life is so natural, but so forgotten by us.

When creating an eco-village in the Moscow region, we often remember this simple way of life and deep experience. If you too are passionate about the pursuit of natural living, health, and spiritual principles, we would love to have you in our community.