Old Believers in Tuva at the beginning of the 20th century and under People’s Republic of Tuva

Abstract

The article aims to analyze the specifics of culture and everyday life of the Old Believers’ (staroobryadtsy) community in Tuva at the beginning of the 20^th century, as well as under the People’s Republic of Tuva (1921-1944). Our study was based on research in the general history and culture of Old Belief in Russian and Siberia, as well as on the documents from the research archive of Tuva Institute for Humanities and Applied Socioeconomic Studies.

Old Believers who settled in Tuva (Uryankhaisky Krai) in late 19^th – early 20^th century accounted for about a third of all Russian settlers. For the first two decades, their situation in the region was relatively favorable. For them, Tuva was a faraway region that suited well their isolationist lifestyle. It was the Promised Land, the Belovodye which ‘Antichrist’s henchmen’ (Russian government officials) could not reach. In the natural abundance of Tuva they saw a country where every hard-working Christian could become master of his own household. Although settling in the new land with its often adverse conditions for farming could prove difficult, Old Believers managed to adapt to the new climate and build good relations with the local powers which rarely intervened into their lives. Alongside with farming and cattle breeding, Old Believers were involved in hunting, fishing, crafts and trade.

Their situation, however, worsened when the People’s Republic of Tuva (PRT) in the 1930s accelerated the Socialist reforms and implemented an anti-religious policy. Those Old Believers who refused to change their lifestyle due to religious considerations (i.e., evaded military conscription, etc.), as well as clergy and monks, were given prison sentences that they had to serve outside Tuva. Old Believers protested against censuses, introduction of mandatory passports, universal education (at schools where atheism was an official policy), etc. Many families tried to find ’salvation’ by fleeing deep into the heart of the taiga or into the mountains where many died, some by their own hand in collective suicide. Nevertheless, Old Belief in Tuva survived and still exists at the moment.