Old Believers

Old Believers
староверы, старообрядцы
Two Old Believers from Nikolaevsk, Alaska, in traditional dress
Type	Russian Orthodoxy
Popovtsy	Russian Orthodox Old-Rite Church Russian Old-Orthodox Church Lipovan Orthodox Old-Rite Church Old-Orthodox Church of Ukraine Edinoverie
Bezpopovtsy	Pomorian Old-Orthodox Church Old-Pomorian (Fedoseean) Old-Orthodox Church
Region	15 to 20 countries
Language	Russian, Church Slavonic
Liturgy	Traditional Russian variation of Byzantine Rite
Founder	Anti-reform dissenters
Origin	early 1700s Tsardom of Russia
Separated from	Russian Orthodox Church
Other name(s)	Old Ritualists, Old Orthodox

Old Believers or Old Ritualists (Russian: староверы, starovery or старообрядцы, staroobryadtsy) is the common term for several religious groups, which maintain the old liturgical and ritual practices of the Russian Orthodox Church, as they were before the reforms of Patriarch Nikon of Moscow between 1652 and 1657. The old rite and its followers were anathematized in 1666-67, and Old Belief gradually emerged from the resulting schism.

The antecedents of the movement regarded the reform as heralding the End of Days, and the Russian church and state as servants of the Antichrist. Fleeing persecution by the government, they settled in remote areas or escaped to the neighbouring countries. Their communities were marked by strict morals and religius devotion, including various taboos meant to separate them from the outer world. They rejected the Westernization measures of Peter the Great, perserving traditional Russian culture, like long beards for men.

Lacking a central organization, the main division within Old Belief is between the relatively conservative popovtsy, or "priestly", who were willing to employ renegade priests from the state church, maintaining the liturgy and sacraments; and the more radical bezpopovtsy, or "priestless", who rejected the validity of "Nikonite" ordination, and had to dispense with priests and all sacraments performed by them, appointing lay leaders instead. Various polemics produced numerous subdivisions, known as "accords". Old Belief covers a spectrum ranging from the established and hierarchic "priestly" Russian Orthodox Old-Rite Church, to the anarchistic "priestless" Wanderers.

From the mid-18th century, under Catherine the Great, Old Believers gained nearly complete tolerance, and large urban centers of emerged, the members of which had a leading role in Russian economy and society. Persecution and discrimination were renewed under Nicholas I from 1825 onwards. Total freedom of religion and equal rights were granted only in 1905, followed by a brief golden age. In the beginning of the 20th century, demographers estimated the number of Old Believers to have been between 10 million and 20 million. The destruction wrought during the Stalin era decimated the communities, leaving few who adhered to old traditions, and a wave of refugees established new centers in the West. The movement enjoys a renewal in the post-Soviet states, and in the dawn of the 21th century, it is estimated that there are 2 to 3 million Old Believers, mostly in Russia, Lithuania, Latvia, Ukraine, Romania and the United States.