Religious and cultural space of Chasovennye Old Believers in illustrations to their new-printed books

Abstract

Literacy is a basic element of Old Belief culture. Alongside with early printed books being retained and reproduced, script books and manuscripts have always been an integral part of the movement. To a large extent, the tradition was maintained by the Chasovennye (“chapel goers”, a non-priestly faction among Old Believers), who strictly adhered to the rule of never publishing their literature in “external” printing houses. In Yenisei Siberia, where they owned no printing housess, skete scriptoria were used as workshops for manuscripts to be hand-copied, illustrated and bound, thus producing handmade books.  However, the ongoing process of creating the literature they required and the growing social demand for it provided the impetus for the developing soglasie (accord) to reconsider a number of doctrinal attitudes and principles and to start producing their own books, first hand-written and then printed in semi-uncial script (poluustav), in printing houses located in cities. These new-printed books were the phenomenon of the contemporary culture of the Chasovennye Old Believers in Krasnoyarsk region, Tuva and other regions of the country and in the world.

Along with the textual content of the books, of great interest is the tradition of illustrating them, inseparably linking the tradition of in designing Old Believers’ printed books and manuscripts, to the innovative approach manifested in the apparent influence imposed by Russian and foreign (predominantly American) art with which contemporary skete indigenes are well acquainted. The evident traces of such influence are indicative of the general character of the group’s contemporary culture evolving.   

Of particular interest are the ways of portraying characters, objects, and loci of religious and cultural space of this relatively closed group. If considered from a comprehensive perspective, they represent visual self-reflection of their church. Their interaction with the text, on the one hand, allows implementing the doctrine, and on the other hand, manifests the logic of contemporary development of skete art. Thus it becomes possible to trace the development of both the artist’s mindset and that of the addressee of the artist’s works, that is members of the of Chasovennye accord.