Historical Studies of the Opponents of Church Reform in the 17th – the 1st Quarter of the 18th Century

Abstract

The article analyzes the problem of the formation of a historical scheme created by the Old Believers, to include the socio-religious movement in global Christian history. It shows that the monks of the Solovetsky Monastery reproduced the stratagem proposed by the scholars of Ancient Russia for incorporating of Russian history into the world history, accompanying it with the perception of events from an eschatological perspective. At the same time, they put an accent on the events that, in their opinion, led to the crisis of the Russian society. The next generations of opponents of the ecclesiastical reforms tried to improve this scheme, adapted it due to the changing conditions. By the end of the 17th century, internal church opposition began to turn into a broad religious and social movement, which divided into two groups – accepting priests and not accepting (“bespopovcy”), and each of them – into independent communities. The process of improving the historical scheme proposed by the Solovetsky monks manifested itself especially clearly in the works written in the center of the Pomor association of the Vyg community. Based on the results of the analysis of the Vyg historical narrative the article concludes that the Old Believers considered Russia failed as a stronghold of the true faith due to the actions of the reformers. They assumed the defeat of the monks from Solovetsky monastery, who advocated the preservation of the traditions of the Russian Church, as sign of the coming of the kingdom of the Antichrist. In this situation, the proclamation of Vyg as the successor of the Solovetsky Monastery meant that the Vyg Old Believers community inherited the function of preserving the true faith. The eschatological perception of reality, typical for the Old Believers, determined their view, that only the existence of the community was a guarantee of the continuation of the history of mankind. Such interpretation of history gave the members of Vyg community confidence in their own significance and a sense of responsibility for the fate to the world.