IN Russian Empire the merchant class consisted not only of people engaged in buying and selling, but also industrialists and bankers. The prosperity and well-being of the country depended on them.

The largest entrepreneurs were Old Believers. The main wealth of Russia was concentrated in their hands. At the beginning of the 20th century, their names were widely known: the owners of porcelain production, the Kuznetsovs, textile manufacturers, the Morozovs, industrialists and bankers, the Ryabushinskys.

To belong to the merchant class, one had to enroll in one of the three guilds. Merchants who had a capital of 8 thousand rubles were assigned to the third guild. From 20 thousand rubles - to the second guild. Over 50 thousand rubles - to the first guild.

Entire branches of industry and trade were completely dependent on the Old Believers: the production of fabric, the manufacture of dishes, the trade in bread and timber.

Railways, shipping on the Volga, oil fields on the Caspian Sea - all this belonged to the Old Believers. Not a single major fair, not a single industrial exhibition was held without their participation.

Old Believer industrialists never shied away from technical innovations. They used modern machines in their factories. In 1904, the Old Believer Dmitry Pavlovich Ryabushinsky (1882-1962) founded the world's first institute of aircraft construction. And in 1916, the Ryabushinsky family began construction of the plant of the Moscow Automobile Society (AMO).

Old Believer merchants always remembered the words of Christ: “Do not lay up treasures for yourselves on earth, where worms and aphids destroy and where thieves break in and steal. Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither worm nor aphids destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

Even having become rich, the merchants remained faithful children of the Old Orthodox Church. Wealth was not an end in itself for them. They willingly spent money on charity - on almshouses, hospitals, maternity hospitals, orphanages and educational institutions.

For example, the Moscow merchant of the first guild, Kozma Terentyevich Soldatenkov (1818–1901), was not only a zealous parishioner of the churches of the Rogozhsky cemetery, but also a patron of the arts, a disinterested book publisher, and a generous benefactor.

He not only collected paintings by Russian artists and ancient icons, but also built hospitals and almshouses in Moscow. Soldatenkovskaya free hospital for the poor has survived to this day. Now it is called Botkinskaya.

The merchants kept the pious customs of their ancestors in their household. The book by Ivan Sergeevich Shmelev "Summer of the Lord" remarkably tells about the old testamentary life of a Moscow merchant family.

The great-grandmother of the writer, the merchant Ustinya Vasilievna Shmeleva, was an Old Believer, but during the time of the persecution of Nicholas I, she moved to the Synodal Church. However, much of the strict Old Believer life was preserved in the family.

On the pages of the book, Shmelev lovingly resurrects the image of his great-grandmother. Ustinya Vasilievna had not eaten meat for forty years, prayed day and night with a leather ladder on holy book in front of a reddish icon of the crucifixion, very old…

Those merchants who did not renounce the true faith were a reliable stronghold of Orthodoxy. Old Believer churches, monasteries and schools were maintained at their expense. Almost every merchant's house had a chapel, in which a clergyman sometimes secretly lived.

A description of a prayer room in the house of a Moscow merchant of the first guild, Ivan Petrovich Butikov (1800–1874), has been preserved. It was set up in the attic and had all the accessories befitting a temple.

Archbishop Anthony often served liturgy here. And he served not for one merchant family, but for all the Old Believers. The entrance to the house church during the performance of divine services in it was freely open to everyone.

There were three windows on the western wall of the prayer room. The eastern wall was decorated with icons. Stepping back a little from the wall, a camp church was set up - a tent made of pink damask fabric with a cross at the top, with royal doors and a northern diaconal door made of gilded brocade with pink flowers.

Several small icons were hung on hooks on the sides of the royal doors. Banners stood on the right and left sides of the tent. In the middle of the tent stood a throne covered with a pink damask cloth.

However, the merchants, no matter how wealthy they were, did not have the opportunity to openly support the Old Believers. In matters of spiritual life, the rich were just as powerless as their simple brothers in faith, deprived of many freedoms.

The police and officials could at any time raid the merchant's house, break into the prayer room, ruin and desecrate it, seize the clergy and send them to prison.

For example, here is what happened on Sunday, September 5, 1865, in the house of the merchant Tolstikova in Cheremshan.

Liturgy was performed in the house church. The Gospel had already been read, when suddenly there was a terrible crack of breaking shutters and windows. Vinogradov, an official with five policemen, climbed into the prayer room through a broken window.

The official was drunk. With a dirty curse, he stopped mass. The priest begged to be allowed to finish the liturgy, but Vinogradov entered the altar, grabbed a cup of wine for communion, drank and began to eat prosphora.

The priest and the faithful were horrified by such blasphemy and did not know what to do. Meanwhile, Vinogradov sat down on the throne and, continuing to speak foul language, lit a cigarette from church candles.

The official ordered the priest and all those praying to be seized and taken to prison. The priest was not allowed to take off his liturgical vestments, so in robes he was sent to the casemate. Prayer Tolstikova was ravaged by the police.

The only way to avoid blasphemy and disgrace was a bribe - a forced but inevitable evil.

It is known, for example, that it was precisely with a bribe at the end of the 18th century that the Moscow Fedoseyevites saved the Preobrazhenskoe cemetery from ruin. They brought a pie stuffed with 10,000 gold rubles to the chief of the metropolitan police.

However, bribes did not always help. You can't buy everything with money! For no amount of millions, the Old Believers could buy the freedom to worship according to pre-Nikon books, build churches, ring bells, publish newspapers and magazines, and legally open schools.

The Old Believers gained the desired freedom only after the revolution of 1905.

About salvation in the world (from a letter from the monk Arseny to the priest Stefan Labzin)

Most honest priest Stefan Fedorovich!

Your letter - a question for Anna Dmitrievna - I received only now, on July 13th. You asked for an answer by the 11th, but you didn't give the number when you sent it. I now remain in doubt that my answer was not ripe in time and, perhaps, will no longer be needed. However, I will answer just in case.

If Anna Dmitrievna was announced by such a sermon that no one in the world, let's say, a girl this time, cannot be saved, then I am this announcement, no matter who said it, and no matter what book it was written in, I can't take it for granted...

If, on the contrary, they tell me that in the world you cannot escape temptations, I will answer these: you will not escape them even in the desert. If there, perhaps, you will meet them less, but they are more painful. But still, the struggle against temptations, both in the world and in the wilderness, until our very death, must be relentless. And if they lure anyone here or there into some kind of pool, then with hope in the mercy of God there is a reliable boat of repentance to get out of here.

So, in my opinion, salvation for every person in every place cannot be denied. Adam was in paradise and sinned before God. And Lot in Sodom, a sinful city before God, remained righteous. Although it is not useless to look for a quieter place, salvation cannot be denied in every place of the Lord's dominion.

And if Anna Dmitrievna made a vow to go to Tomsk only because she recognized that she could not be saved here, then this vow is reckless. And if she pleases to agree with this and wishes to remain in her former residence again, then read her a prayer of permission for her reckless vow and appoint several bows to the Mother of God for some time. And God will not exact this vow from her.

But if she wishes to find a more comfortable life for her salvation, then let it remain at her discretion. And you do not hamper a lot of her freedom, no matter how useful she may be to you. If you are worthy, then maybe God will time another servant, no worse ...

Patronage of natives of the Moscow Old Believer environment received wide coverage in the research literature, which cannot be said about the Nizhny Novgorod philanthropists. This topic deserves, in our opinion, the closest attention, if only because the memory of merchants' generosity still lives in the people's mind, being passed down from generation to generation.

The “Silver Age” is the beginning of the 20th century in Russia. This is not only a time of rapid growth in industry and trade, but also a whole era in Russian poetry, art, and philosophy. This is a special stage for the Russian Old Believers, which received the possibility of legal existence after the Highest approved regulation of the Committee of Ministers on strengthening the principles of religious tolerance, published on April 17, 1905, “On freedom of conscience” and the Rules “On the order of the organization of communities”, approved by P.A. Stolypin 17 October 1906. It was during this period that the Old Believer commercial and industrial dynasties manifest themselves most clearly. Moscow Old Believer merchants are widely known for their contribution to the economy and culture of Russia. At the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th century, medical clinics, aerodynamic and psychological institutes were built at the expense of the Morozovs, Soldatenkovs, Khludovs, Guchkovs, Konovalovs, Ryabushinskys, geographical expeditions were organized, theaters were created. P.A. Buryshkin, a brilliant connoisseur of merchant Moscow, identifies 26 commercial and industrial families that occupied the first places in the “Moscow unwritten merchant hierarchy” at the beginning of the century, and almost half of these families were Old Believers. Charity was the most important part of their broad and comprehensive social activities. “They said about wealth that God gave it for use and would require an account on it, which was partly expressed in the fact that it was in the merchant environment that both charity and collecting were unusually developed, which they looked at as the fulfillment of some kind of over-appointed debt." Patronage of natives of the Moscow Old Believer environment received wide coverage in the research literature, which cannot be said about the Nizhny Novgorod philanthropists. This topic deserves, in our opinion, the closest attention, if only because the memory of merchants' generosity still lives in the people's mind, being passed down from generation to generation.

Traditions of charitable work go back to the times Ancient Rus' and are inextricably linked with the ethics of medieval Christianity, which was adopted and observed by the Old Believer merchants. Recall that, according to the teachings of the Church, charity is one of the obligatory manifestations of Christian love for one's neighbor, expressed in gratuitous assistance and support to all those in need. Her main goal was to help others build their lives on the level that a true Christian should live. Until now, among the peasants of the Old Believers, the traditions of “correct alms” are preserved and observed: it is best to give alms to children, soldiers and in prison; the greatest almsgiving is that which is given secretly, not for the sake of pride. Suffice it to mention the fact known to us of sending small sums of money in letters; moreover, the money sent is not mentioned in the text of the letter, only an alphabetic number indicates the alms given, attributed in the corner with the sole purpose of being sure that the addressee received assistance (“D rub.” - that is, 4 rubles).

The main centers and organizers of Christian charity in Rus' were, first of all, churches and monasteries, which, on the one hand, carried out extensive charitable activities, and on the other, they themselves were often created and existed on donations from the Orthodox. Describing the life and customs of the Great Russian people, famous historian N.I. Kostomarov noted that "in the old days, every wealthy person built a church, kept a priest for it and prayed in it with his family."

The construction of the temple - the "house of the Lord", especially the stone temple, required considerable funds, which could only be allocated to a very wealthy customer, but it was regarded as his personal greatest contribution to the strengthening of Christianity and therefore provided the contributor with long glory on earth and salvation in "eternal life". The first stone churches in Nizhny Novgorod were built in the 17th century at the expense of merchants from both Nizhny Novgorod and nonresident “guests”. For the construction of churches, gostiny yards, stone chambers, they invited the best craftsmen who created original in style, beautiful in design and practical buildings. In place of the wooden ones, stone churches were erected: Nikolskaya (1656), Trinity (1665); Gavrila Dranishnikov financed the construction of the Church of John the Baptist (1683), Afanasy Olisov - the Kazan Church (1687), the Church of the Assumption on Ilinskaya Gora (1672) and the Sergius Church in Petushki (1702).

The Nizhny Novgorod "guest", the salt merchant Semyon Filippovich Zadorin, is known for doing many stone works in Nizhny Novgorod, it was he who supervised the repair of the Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin, financed the construction of the Transfiguration Cathedral. His name is mentioned in the life of Ivan Neronov. About the charitable activities of Semyon Zadorin and other Nizhny Novgorod merchants, this little-known but important source says: that pious man zealously extended his mercy to the strange and wretched ... So also many other men ... give alms according to his strength ... Even from the same alms ... he created a new stone church of the Resurrection of Christ ... and stone cells created around, and arranged a maiden monastery ... ".

Throughout the XVIII-XIX centuries, the Old Believers zealously preserved the ancient Russian traditions of church building and charity. The situation in the hostile "world" forced them to develop best qualities such as diligence, enterprise, ingenuity. “Where the peasants are more prosperous, there are more splits,” Melnikov-Pechersky argued in 1853. According to the statistics given by him in the Report on the Present State of the Schism in Nizhny Novgorod province”, persons of the merchant class from among the Old Believers in the middle of the 19th century. it was: in Nizhny Novgorod - 84, in ten county towns - 207; which accounted for 18% of all Nizhny Novgorod merchants.

The traditions of merchant charity among Nizhny Novgorod Old Believer merchants were preserved until the revolution. Merchant's charity was supported not only by the Christian moral principle, the desire to fulfill the duty of the possessor in relation to the have-not, but also the desire to leave a memory behind. This idea was most clearly expressed by the well-known Nizhny Novgorod merchant-shipowner and mayor Dmitry Vasilyevich Sirotkin, ordering a mansion to the architects Vesnin brothers: “Build such a house so that after my death it can be a museum.”

At the end of XIX - beginning of XX centuries. the influence of the Old Believer merchants on the Nizhny Novgorod land is growing, and the scale of their cultural and charitable activities is also increasing. Merchants-Old Believers build schools, shelters, hospitals, houses for their workers, help churches and sketes, and invest considerable funds in the development of culture.

The Nizhny Novgorod 1st guild merchant Nikolai Alexandrovich Bugrov, the largest industrialist and financier of Nizhny Novgorod, enjoyed special fame as a benefactor. He retained the capital acquired by his father and grandfather and not only significantly increased it, but also continued to donate to charitable causes begun by Alexander Petrovich. The great merits of N.A. Bugrov to the city were reflected even in a newspaper obituary, where he was called first of all a "great benefactor", and only then a "representative of the bread business" .

Back in the 1880s, the Bugrovs, father Alexander Petrovich and son Nikolai Alexandrovich, built at their own expense a doss house for 840 people, a widow's house for 160 widows with children, and also participated in the construction of a city water supply system. In memory of this, Sofronovskaya Square was a "Fountain of Benefactors" was erected with the inscription: "This fountain was built in memory of honorary citizens of the city of Nizhny Novgorod: F.A., A.A., N.A. Blinovs, A.P. and N.A. Bugrovs and U. S. Kurbatov, who, with their donations, made it possible for the city to build a water supply system in 1880, provided that it was forever used free of charge by the inhabitants of Nizhny Novgorod ".

The prudent N.A. Bugrov was not in the habit of donating cash to charity - both income from real estate and interest from a "perpetual" deposit served as a source of funds for her. Houses and estates belonging to Bugrov in Nizhny Novgorod served not only his personal interests. The income from real estate, which he donated to the city, was directed to help the distressed and needy. So, in 1884, Bugrov donated to the city a manor on Gruzinskaya Street and capital in the amount of 40 thousand rubles for the construction of a public building that would bring an annual income of at least 2,000 rubles. This money was intended "annually, for eternity, as an allowance for the fire victims of the Semenovsky district."

The same principle was used by Bugrov when financing the famous Widow's House, opened in Nizhny Novgorod in 1887. In addition to interest on large capital (65,000 rubles) in the Nikolaevsky Bank, the shelter's budget was replenished from income (2,000 rubles per year) brought by two Bugrov houses on the street. Alekseevskaya and Gruzinsky per., which the merchant presented to the city. On the proposal of the governor N.M. Baranov dated January 30, 1888, the Highest Imperial permission was given to give the Widow's House the name "Nizhny Novgorod city public named after the Blinovs and Bugrovs' Widows' House".

N.A. Bugrov’s assistance to the starving in the disastrous years of 1891-1892 looks large and expressive, especially against the background of a general, often formal, approach. He agreed to sell all the purchased bread to the Provincial Food Commission at the procurement price of 1 ruble. 28 kop. per pound, i.e. completely abandoning profits (at that time, the Nizhny Novgorod landowners kept the price of bread at the level of 1 ruble 60 kopecks). At the same time, many grain merchants limited themselves to providing free storage facilities for the products collected by the Food Commission. An unseemly impression on the zemstvo authorities in the Tamozhnikova volost was made by the Saratov merchant Sabachnikov, who undertook to feed the impoverished village of Pomry until the new harvest in the amount of 10,000-20,000 rubles. Arriving with his family to inspect the starving village, he was not touched by the sight of need and disaster and departed, allegedly in search of a more needy village in another county or province. Archival documents are silent about the true motives of this "benefactor". Against this background, the distribution of a large amount of flour to the Bugrov peasants looks very impressive. The memory of his help is still alive - the old-timers of Gorodets, the descendants of those whom he saved from starvation, tell about it with gratitude: I saw him, came, like to control him, so that everything was done the right way, not hidden. .

The merchant N.A. Bugrov was not only famous for his participation in official charitable events, but also actively helped his fellow believers, the Old Believers of the fugitive consent. Using their wealth and weight in society, even before the religious tolerance reforms of 1905-1906. Bugrov organized Old Believer schools, almshouses, financed sketes. And in this they did not dare to argue with him. IN State Archive In the Nizhny Novgorod region, many cases have been preserved confirming the impotence of the diocesan authorities to prevent the "schismatic Bugrov" from carrying out his plan. Bugrov promoted his projects, not stopping at the need to give a bribe for the speedy progress of the case, or to flatter the pride of the "guardian" of the institution being established, or not to tell the whole truth. The diocesan authorities had no choice but to allow Bugrov to open a charitable institution for the needs of the Old Believers "unlike other similar petitions." The "applicant" was too influential and strong. Orthodox missionaries grumbled that, under the guise of an almshouse, the "schismatic Bugrov" arranges real Old Believer sketes or monasteries, in which not only the weak and wretched from the Semenovsky and Balakhna districts live, but also skittles and skitniks from different provinces, and thereby "strengthens the split according to a plan he had planned." Explaining Bugrov's desire to strengthen the positions of the Beglopopovites in the Nizhny Novgorod province, the county deans did not miss the opportunity to mention their merits in converting "schismatics to Orthodoxy." The fictitious essence of their peppy reports about the annual conversion of up to 10 "hardened schismatics" is easily revealed by comparing the Old Believer and church metric books, "paintings that were not at confession" for different years. Formally observing the instructions of the Spiritual Consistory, in fact, Bugrov knew how to ignore them with impunity - he equipped chapels and prayer rooms, opened schools long before the official permission of his superiors.

Bugrov's co-religionists enjoyed special patronage in his homeland - in the village of Popovo, Semenovsky district, and the nearby villages of Filippovskoye and Malinovskaya. He owned many houses here, in Filippovsky his grain-mill plant was located. Under the patronage of his grandfather, Pyotr Yegorovich Bugrov, there was a secret Old Believer monastery at the mill in the village of Popovo. And N.A. Bugrov carried out extensive stone construction in these places - he resumed the Malinovsky skete, closed in 1853, in the 1880-90s. built a chapel and stone dwellings there. In order to avoid obstacles from the side of the diocesan authorities, in all documents the skete monasteries were called almshouses.

In 1893-1894, Bugrov officially established an Old Believer almshouse in the village of Filippovskaya for the care of the weak and wretched, intended for the residence of 40 elderly and crippled women. The charter of the future almshouse was written on the model of the charter of the charitable institution of the merchant E.Ya. Gorin (Saratov) and submitted for consideration to the Minister of Internal Affairs Durnovo. Permission from above was received, but with instructions to remove the word "Old Believer" from the name. "The establishment of an Old Believer women's almshouse as a charitable institution" did not meet with any obstacles from the diocesan authorities. The Charter approved by the minister also did not allow the device both inside and outside the almshouse of the church or chapel. Financing - the maintenance of the detainees, the repair of buildings and other necessary expenses - was to be carried out at the expense of interest from a very impressive contribution of 80 thousand rubles made by Bugrov to the Nizhny Novgorod Nikolaev City Public Bank. It was also agreed that after the death of N.A. Bugrov, the almshouse "becomes under the jurisdiction of the Nizhny Novgorod City Public Administration, to which this almshouse can be transferred even during the life of the founder, if he wishes", its trustee should be chosen once every three years from representatives of the Bugrov dynasty or the Blinovs, who accept the priesthood of the Old Believers. According to the Rules, "those who are treated in the almshouse are allowed to accept voluntary donations of food products, but not otherwise than in the almshouse itself and with the knowledge of its caretaker" .

In 1900, N.A. Bugrov established two more Old Believer almshouses: at the village of Malinova, Semenovsky district, for women and in the village of Gorodets, Balakhna district, for both sexes (about 30 people lived in Gorodetskaya, and 58 in Malinovskaya). In 1904, during the construction of a large stone building to replace a dilapidated wooden almshouse in the village of Malinovskaya, the residents were placed by Bugrov in two of his own houses in this village. The need to expand the almshouse was caused by the dramatic events of the Russo-Japanese War, which left many infirm and elderly without the care of the breadwinner sons.

Already after the reforms and 1905-1906. in the Malinovsky skete Bugrov built a stone church, the project of which was developed by N.M. Veshnyakov in 1908. Residents recall that construction was completed by 1911.

A legend is connected with the construction of this building by local residents, which is still told in Filippovsky. “Before the revolution, Bugrov planned to build a church here. They laid the foundation, started laying walls. And suddenly one bespopovite Vlas came: “Don’t build,” he says, “the church, the devils will dance in it soon.” Nobody believed. Then Vlas stopped at night dismantle the walls of that building. Yes, there were unequal forces, they built it. And after the revolution, they really organized a club in that house. " In 1937, by decision of the Commission on Religious Worship under the Presidium of the Gorky Regional Executive Committee, the church was indeed proposed to be turned into a club. The club was not organized, but the basement of the empty church was used as a warehouse.

The merchant-custodian did not go unnoticed, and those who worked in his almshouses took care of the infirm. For diligent and hard labour Bugrov rewarded those who went on vacation with a small house. One resident of Gorodets said that her grandmother devoted her whole life to the Bugrov almshouse, cared for the sick, cooked and carried food for them, and when she grew old and beyond her strength, she already had the following work: "she herself became weak, her back did not unbend, she walked like that , crouching to the ground, as if looking for something, "- so Bugrov gave her family" a small house, but such a nice one; for good and faithful work. In the village of Sitnikovo, Borsky district, Bugrov built several houses and a wooden school building for his workers, which have survived to this day.

The philanthropist Bugrov also played an important role in the field of education. Standing up for the preservation of the traditions of the Old Believers, Bugrov considered it necessary to create educational institutions proper level for the children of the Old Believers. In 1888, N.A. Bugrov opened an Old Believer school for the villages of Popovo, Belkino, Tyurino, Zuyevo, Sitnikovo, Kuchischi, Shlykovo, Ploskovo, Filippovskoe in his native village of Popovo, Semyonovsky district. He justified the need for such an undertaking by the absence of two-class public schools in the Semenovsky district, which in fact was not documented - there were enough schools. Another motive was dissatisfaction with the level of education of the children of the Old Believers, which was given by women-"craftsmen" who taught reading and writing from the Psalter. It was not customary for the Old Believers to send children to ordinary schools, and Nikolai Alexandrovich himself received a home education from the "craftswoman". On the recommendation of Governor N.M. Baranov, as "a completely trustworthy person, highly trusted and respected", "not an example for other similar applications" and thanks to "special requirements", Bugrov receives official permission to open a school in 1889. But even a year before that, the Bugrov school was functioning, in the sense that in it the "Saratov peasant" Parmen Osipov taught hook singing to adults and children. The diocesan authorities tried to take charge of the school, sending priest Nikolai Fialkovsky for revision, whose remarks about the insufficient "religious understanding" of the students Bugrov only took note of. Later, the school was entrusted with the supervision of the Inspector of Public Schools, and not the spiritual department. The school was supported by interest from the capital donated especially for this purpose by Bugrov. By January 1, 1902. there were 120 students: "all are children of schismatics from the provinces of Nizhny Novgorod, Kostroma, Samara and Saratov." But Bugrov in the same year petitions for the expansion of the school, an increase in the number of students and teachers. He was mildly reproached for the fact that he already exceeded the permitted norms - he promised to teach only children from the Philippov parish, up to 50-75 people, and recruited students from four provinces. But the request was granted this time as well.

At his own expense, Bugrov taught many children the art of singing. So, according to the memoirs of E.A. Krasilnikova, a pupil of the famous Komarovsky Skete, mentor Sergei Efimovich Melnikov perfectly mastered hook singing precisely thanks to the merchant Bugrov, living with him in Nizhny Novgorod. The Bugrovs paid attention to the education of talented children. Special attention. In particular, a scholarship was established in the city of Semenov "for a peasant boy with outstanding abilities" - the first to receive it was a student from. Khakhaly Nikolai Vorobyov in 1912.

Concern for fellow believers was also manifested in Bugrov's support for handicraft scaffolding in the city of Semenov, the traditional center for the manufacture of these fabric Old Believer rosaries. They sewed and skillfully decorated them with beads and gold embroidery of belitsa and old women from numerous skete monasteries. Bugrov bought up large quantities of lestovki and distributed them to the fugitives.

Patronage to fellow believers in all spheres of life is a characteristic common feature for Old Believer entrepreneurs, both large and medium. Nizhny Novgorod Old Believers-pomortsy from the village of Korelskaya, Semenovsky district, near. in 1891, the well-known Moscow manufacturer Savva Morozov helped in the construction of the prayer house - he donated 400 rubles for this building (with the construction of a chapel inside it with a "dome-shaped" ceiling). in memory of the deceased son.

It was not so easy to set up a beglopopovskaya prayer house for the merchant of the 2nd guild, Afanasy Pavlovich Nosov (1828 - 1912). From 1892 to 1895. the Semenov merchants Vitushkins, the philistines Osmushnikovs, Kalugins, Pryanishnikovs, led by the merchant Nosov, sought permission to legitimize and expand the prayer house, which was organized by people from the devastated in the 50s. Olenevsky skete and kept ancient skete icons and shrines. Afanasy Nosov was a confidant of the Old Believers-fugitives and in 1896 nevertheless received permission to open a prayer room in the house of the petty bourgeois Rybina, and a year later - permission to build a new stone building, which was built at his expense. After the religious tolerance reforms, Afanasy Pavlovich built the St. Nicholas Church with a bell tower in the center of Semyonov, which has survived to this day. The name of the merchant Nosov is well known to the inhabitants of the city of Semenov and is inextricably linked with the Nikolsky Beglopopov Church, built after 1905 and better known as the Nosovskaya Church.

Perseverance and perseverance inherited from peasant ancestors helped Afanasy Nosov achieve his goals. Like his father, a merchant of the 3rd guild Pavel Nosov, Afanasy was engaged in spoon-carrying and traded wood chips. According to the recollections of a resident of the city of Semenov B.P. Prorubshchikov, Nosov was well known to his father, Pyotr Kuzmich, who was given as a worker and served, in the words of Prorubshchikov, as a “boy” in one of the warehouses: “Nosov was simple, hardworking, not proud like others. Well, like a peasant of himself. Shirt, bast shoes with "onuchs" [onuchs]. And there was a lot of money. He was rich. But before we didn't have these "cans" [banks], now only these banks are everywhere. And now Nosov will go on foot to Lower, to the "bank" [bank]. Previously, carts went. He will attach himself to some kind of cart and go with the peasants. And no one knows what kind of person goes with them. They think he is a peasant. But the money, father said, he he hid in onyuchi: he spreads "capures" [banknotes] on the leg, wraps them in onyuchi and goes. .

The merchant Afanasy Pavlovich Nosov was buried in the crypt at the St. Nicholas Church. But alas, in the 30s the church was given to a military unit, and "in the tomb they made a gas depot and a coffin with the body of Nosov," according to Prorubshchikov, "they threw it straight into the landfill."

At the beginning of the 20th century, merchant Nizhny claims to be the "most important center of the split." In the report of the Chief Prosecutor of the Holy Synod, K.P. Pobedonostsev for 1900, this fact is especially emphasized, and such an “extraordinary revival” is explained by the holding of Old Believer congresses. In 1907, the “Union of Old Believer Reciters” was formed, in the appeal of which it was said that “in one year, up to 600 communities (parishes) were formed in the Old Believers on the basis of the new law.” In Nizhny Novgorod, the annual “fair talks” of the bookkeepers were held, two congresses of the “Union of the bookkeepers” were held under the chairmanship of the merchant N.A. V. Sirotkin.

Dmitry Vasilyevich Sirotkin came from an Old Believer family. The life of this man vividly illustrates the idea that the backbone of both Moscow and Nizhny Novgorod merchants were from Old Believer families, where both the upbringing was very harsh, and the whole way of life formed a business man, not prone to idleness and vices. Sirotkin's father was a peasant in the village of Ostapovo, Balakhna district, he traded in wood chips and, having quickly become rich, became the owner of a tugboat.

The younger Sirotkin, after graduating from elementary school, worked from a young age on the same tug, first as a cook, a sailor, then as a helmsman. Persistence and intensive self-education helped Dmitry Sirotkin to take his rightful place among entrepreneurs: in 1910, the merchant of the 1st Guild of Commerce, Advisor Sirotkin, became the managing director of the Volga commercial, industrial and shipping company. This man, the son of a peasant, turned on himself Here are a few details recorded in the memoirs of I. A. Shubin, who met him at the beginning of the century: “He was not so much sternness as efficiency ... He loved music very much, he went to concerts. He arranged many concerts himself and did a lot for the public, which could pay. At the Lower Bazaar, he organized literary and musical meetings for the poor ... They read our classics, poems, and the music was mainly Russian composers ... ". In 1913, Sirotkin was elected mayor. Many good deeds should be credited to this man : under him, the transition to universal primary education, the Peasant Land Bank was built.

The Nizhny Novgorod province, always famous for its folk crafts, gave birth to many talented craftsmen. For their proper education, Sirotkin created the HOD school in the city of Semenov - a school of artistic woodworking. The school building, built at the expense of Dmitry Vasilyevich, has survived to this day - this is house number 59 on the street. Volodarsky. According to the recollections of the Semenov residents, Sirotkin allegedly told the organizer of the school, Georgy Petrovich Matveev: "Come and take the money you need. If you don't take it, I'll be offended by you." .

Around 1907, at the expense of Sirotkin, a stone Old Believer church was built in Nizhny Novgorod on Telyachya Street (now Gogol Street), which, alas, was blown up in 1965. Old-timers recall how red brick dust after the explosion of a beautiful building hung in the air for two days . It should also be mentioned that one of the tenement houses of Sirotkin in Kanavino for a long time remained the spiritual center of the Old Believers - until the middle of the 20th century, it housed the prayer room of the Old Believers Spasovites.

Sirotkin left Nizhny Novgorod after the revolution, leaving not only a good memory of himself, but almost all of his wealth. The city keeps unique collections of porcelain, gold embroidery, folk costume, collected by Dmitry Vasilyevich. Sirotkin's dream of a house-museum also came true - his house on the Upper Volga Embankment now actually houses the Nizhny Novgorod Art Museum. But this did not happen after the death of the owner: Dmitry Vasilyevich was destined to live a long time and die in exile outside of Russia.

There were many collectors of books and icons among the rich merchants-Old Believers of Nizhny Novgorod and the province. So, a whole school of artists, scribes, calligraphers is developing in Gorodets, creating handwritten books and icons based on the patterns of “ancient writings” and fulfilling orders from such connoisseurs and book lovers as Pyotr Alekseevich Ovchinnikov and Grigory Matveevich Pryanishnikov.

Pyotr Alekseevich Ovchinnikov (1843-1912) - a Volga grain merchant, lived in the village of Gorodets, Balakhna district, Nizhny Novgorod province. He was a well-known Old Believer figure, a member of the Council of the All-Russian Brotherhood of Beglopopovtsy. According to the memoirs of S.Ya. Elpatievsky, P.A. Ovchinnikov “collected antiquities - icons, but mainly old handwritten and early printed books”, collected everywhere - in Moscow, in the Arkhangelsk and Vologda provinces, traveled to the Volga region and the Urals, was especially interested in Bulgarian manuscripts, which “I got through the Old Believers living in Bulgaria and Romania and in Nizhny at the fair” . The last years of his life, the merchant P.A. Ovchinnikov was also engaged in publishing activities, and, while in Moscow, he often went to the Rumyantsev Museum to compare the manuscript he acquired with those stored in the museum. The activities of P.A. Ovchinnikov were appreciated during his lifetime - he was elected a member of the Nizhny Novgorod Scientific Archival Commission.

Another collector of Russian antiquities, G.M. Pryanishnikov (1845-1915) - "a balakhon merchant of the second guild", a manufactory merchant, a trustee of the Gorodets Old Believer Chapel - was known for his collections of handwritten and old printed books, ancient icons, coins, gold embroidery, small plastic.

Pryanishnikov's collection included 710 old-style icons, many silver crosses and panagias with enamel, 300 printed books, coins, including gold ones. It was from this collection that the icon of the late 14th - early 15th century "The Fiery Ascent of the Prophet Elijah, with Our Lady Nicopeia and Bowed Angels, with Life in 16 Stigmas" came to the Nizhny Novgorod Art Museum. This icon, unique both in terms of time and place of creation, and in terms of composition, is rightfully considered the pearl of the Nizhny Novgorod fund.

In the 1920s within the framework of addressing the issue of saving and protecting monuments of art and antiquity, the collections of merchants attracted the attention of "emissaries" and employees of the Rumyantsev Museum. The Ovchinnikov collection was first sealed by the Cheka, and the Pryanishnikov collection from the Rumyantsev Museum and the All-Russian Collegium for Museums and the Protection of Monuments of Art and Antiquities was given a safe-conduct. The manuscript collections of Ovchinnikov and Pryanishnikov were subsequently transferred to the Rumyantsev Museum (now the Russian State Library). The Ovchinnikov Fund now has 841 monuments, the Pryanishnikov Fund - 209, and ancient manuscripts date back to the 14th and 15th centuries.

The formation of these collections, widely representing the book culture of Ancient Rus', is a certain reflection of the increased cultural level of the Russian merchants - a problem in historical and cultural terms, still little studied in Russian science.

On the orders of Pryanishnikov and Ovchinnikov, the wonderful Gorodets calligrapher and miniaturist Ivan Gavrilovich Blinov worked, whose creative heritage consists of about a hundred handwritten books now included in the largest collections of Russia - the State Historical Museum, the Tretyakov Gallery, the Russian State Library. Seventeen manuscripts of I. G. Blinov are in the local history museum of Gorodets: these are the works that he performed on the order of P. A. Ovchinnikov, who took care that the artist’s creations remained at home.

Extensive information covering the charitable activities of the merchants in Nizhny Novgorod is also contained in such little developed sources as records on old printed books. So, for example, in the collection of the Nizhny Novgorod Regional Universal scientific library there are three books associated with the name and activities of the same Semyon Zadorin: "Services and Lives of Sergius and Nikon" (M .: Pechatny dvor, 1646), and two "Service Menaia" for July and August (M .: Pechatny dvor, 1646). On the margins of the first book, a 17th-century entry is read. that "the guest Semyon Filipov son Zadorin bought this book." The other two have the same records that the books belonged to Semyon Zadorin, and after the death of the merchant, in 1664/5, they were placed by his brother Grigory in one of the Yaroslavl churches for the remembrance of the soul "for his brother, for the monk Sergius, and for all his parent" . We find an identical entry in the Service Menaia for the month of February (M.: Pechatny dvor, 1646), which is kept in the collection of the Institute of Manuscripts and Early Printed Books. These records not only supplement the meager biographical information about the famous merchant-architect, but also allow us to understand what guided him in his life, what his inner needs were, and reveal his spiritual essence.

Merchant names are presented in 26 records on books from the collection of the Nizhny Novgorod Library. The investment of books in churches and monasteries for the remembrance of the soul was a widespread form of charity. So, for example, an inscription on the Service Menaia indicates that the book was donated to the Old Believer Church of the Assumption of the Virgin for worship by the Semenov merchant Nikolai Shadrin in 1865.

The Old Believer families of the village of Eldezh, Voskresensky District, still carefully preserve the books of the mentor of the Pomor community Nikifor Petrovich Bolshakov (“grandfather Nikifor”), which were sent to him by the Old Believer merchant Kashin from Yaroslavl. Commemoratives of the Kashin family are pasted on them and records are made, such as: “This book ... was donated to Nikifor Petrovich Bolshakov in memory and commemoration of the dead parents of the Kashins according to the attached commemoration book.” And although Nikifor Petrovich died in 1931, the Old Believers of the Eldezh community commemorate donors and distribute alms to this day.

Thus, private patronage and charity, entrenched in the minds of the merchants as one of the value and behavioral stereotypes, acquired an unusually wide scope at the beginning of the 20th century. According to the materials of the All-Russian Congress of Charity Figures, held in March 1910, there were 4,762 charitable societies and 6,278 charitable institutions in Russia, while 75% of their budget came from private charity, that is, from voluntary donations.

The charitable activities of the Nizhny Novgorod Old Believer merchants are evidenced not only by the architectural monuments of Nizhny Novgorod and the province (churches and buildings), but also by written sources and oral traditions that exist in the Nizhny Novgorod Territory. In the minds of the people, not only real facts were recorded, but also ideas about the properties of the merchant's character and behavior.

One of the most frequently repeated topics is charity towards the poor and patronage of fellow believers. They quite accurately reflect reality and are confirmed by archival materials of the legend about the arrangement by the merchant Stepan Makarovich Seryakov of a prayer house in the village of Rastyapino, where “day and night unquenchable candles stood”; on the construction of a church in the Malinovsky Skete and a chapel in the New Sharpan Skete at the expense of the merchant Nikolai Aleksandrovich Bugrov. The published materials of local historians also confirm the legend about helping the fire victims, whom Bugrov helped to rebuild, distributed money and flour: “When the Capes burned down, he fed everyone for free for 40 days. Every week he gave out a tray of flour.

Almost a century has passed. The Old Believer cemetery of the village of Rastyapino was destroyed, houses and summer cottages stand in its place, but at the crossroads of streets there is only one grave left, which is looked after by local residents. A tombstone made of black marble has also been preserved with the inscription: "Under this stone was buried the body of the servant of God Stefan Makarovich Seryakov, who died on May 12, 1913, his life was 74 years 9 months and 12 days, the day of the Angel is December 27." The inscription on the other side of the tombstone explains to the ignorant the very fact of the special relationship to this monument:

"A bright memory was left by a parent,

Poor spectator, patron of orphans,

He took the strange and the poor into the house,

He bequeathed this to his children."

Here is what his namesake, Anastasia Alexandrovna Seryakova, who turned 88 this year, told us:

"He was rich, but he helped everyone. He was a factory worker, he traded chintz or something, so he divided everything into chintz: to someone for a jacket, to someone for sundresses. Who worked for him, celebrated all the weddings himself, dressed with a dowry. My grandmother said everything : "And he will give the bride for linen, and give on the bed." Whoever has a construction site - they go to Makarych, he gave. He also had a house in Rastyapino, he supported the old people. The main thing was that he shared it with everyone, gave it to everyone. "

The children of Stepan Makarovich, obviously, sacredly kept the precepts of their father. Unfortunately, we do not yet have information about how their fate turned out after the revolution, but until that time they annually came to the grave of their father on the day of his death, commemorated him and distributed generous alms: “They came on horseback, brought double-decker baskets of rolls, shared money We ran there a little, they gave us 20 kopecks or a roll. It used to be that my grandmother dragged me there by the hand, and there was already a queue. The children came every year for a year. " . And a few years ago, apparently, the descendants of Stepan Makarovich Seryakov visited the grave, commemorated him in accordance with the modern custom: "They came in a black car, commemorated apparently, they brought good vodka" Rasputin "and left it for others to remember. And so many still as they pass by - and pray ".

The tradition of "memorial days" arranged for parents was widespread among the merchants. In the days of memory of his glorious ancestor, Nikolai Bugrov arranged "commemoration tables". Those in need rushed to the generously set tables on Gorodets Square in order to receive, in addition to refreshments, silver dimes.

The most popular image among both the Old Believers and people of other confessional affiliations in the Nizhny Novgorod region was and remains Nikolai Alexandrovich Bugrov / 1837-1911 / - the last representative of the dynasty of merchants-Old Believers Bugrovs. It is noteworthy that in the legends, the character traits and actions of representatives of three generations of the family - grandfather, father, grandson - merge in a single image of “Bugrov”, forming a certain generic concept and forming a collective image, devoid of a personal name, since for the narrator it is not an essential detail. The image of the merchant Bugrov is endowed with the typical features of a savvy hero of a Russian household fairy tale. A vivid evidence of this is the story "How the merchant Bugrov hired workers."

“When hiring, the merchant Bugrov liked to check on newcomers, and depending on their ingenuity and quickness, he paid everyone differently. One day a convoy with bread goes through their village. He sends a worker:

He runs headlong. Learned. He comes running, says to the merchant: the convoy is going there.

And what does he carry? - asks Bugrov.

I didn't know, now I'll catch up, I'll ask.

Again he runs after the convoy, finds out, comes running and reports:

The convoy is carrying rye.

Why are they selling?

I didn't know, I'm running now.

Okay, now you can’t catch up, - says Bugrov.

The next time the convoy rides again. Bugrov sends another worker:

Go and find out where the convoy is going.

He caught up with the convoy, found out, says to Bugrov:

The convoy is going there.

What's lucky? - asks the merchant.

wheat.

Why sells?

So much.

Here, well done, - says Bugrov and assigns him a higher price than the first worker.

He asks:

Why are you paying someone else more and me less?

Bugrov says:

You went for one thing three times, and he learned everything at once.

Bugrov's life is built by people's consciousness from beginning to end, "gaps" in the biography are supplemented by legends. People's memory explains the source of Bugrovsky capital, based on the legends of a robber who got rich dishonestly and repented. The consciousness of an ordinary layman did not find opportunities for the accumulation of wealth in a correct and honest way, guided by a simple statement: "If I live honestly and at the same time have nothing, then since he is rich and increases his wealth, then he steals." Rumors about the origin of family capital circulated among the people even during the life of Bugrov, and go to this day.

Old-timers from the village of Filippovsky said that Bugrov led a gang that robbed carts with goods. After killing his comrades, he appropriated all the booty from which his wealth originated. This legend is based on the real features of the grandfather of Peter Yegorovich, the ancestor of the dynasty, who in reality was not a robber, but was a peasant in the village of Popovo, Semenovsky district, but he had a penchant for risky enterprises and got rich quickly, showing ingenuity and enterprise when correcting a landslide near the Kremlin.

Son, Alexander Petrovich Bugrov multiplied capital, not missing the opportunity to speak. His name was listed among the buyers of stolen salt in a long process - the "salt case of Vederevsky" 1864-65. In the then distributed handwritten satirical "poem" there were lines:

If all thieves are caught,

Bugrov will not escape either...

In order to earn forgiveness and avoid responsibility in this case, A. Bugrov offered to supply city shelters with flour at unprofitable prices for ten years. His calculation that it would be unprofitable for the authorities to lose such a benefactor was correct.

People say: "Not caught - not a thief"; which does not in the least prevent popular imagination from creating more and more rumors around any outstanding figure. And if he is caught ... Psychologically, A.M. Gorky: “My grandfather told me that Bugrov’s father [Alexander Petrovich] “got rich” by fabricating counterfeit money, but my grandfather spoke of all the big merchants of the city as counterfeiters, robbers and murderers. This did not prevent him from treating them with respect and even with From his epic stories, one could draw the following conclusion: if the crime did not succeed, then this is a crime worthy of punishment; if it is cleverly hidden, this is luck worthy of praise. .

The charity of the grandson, who distributed generous alms, reinforced the folklore stereotype about the unrighteousness of acquired wealth and explained good deeds by the need to repent: “Did you pray for sins?”

In the villages of the Nizhny Novgorod region, they willingly talk about Bugrov’s sins, in particular, about his propensity for adultery, and as evidence of his generous gifts to former lovers, they show houses with three windows, which in Gorodets are called “house ha-ha”, and on the Seimas indicate a whole street of similar buildings.

According to the missionaries Orthodox Church, Bugrov's gifts were supposed to serve to "spread the split": "The Bugrovs and the Blinovs, fanatically educated in the spirit of the split in the Malinovsky sketes, give the girls to Gorodets in marriage, rewarding them with a decent dowry from 1000 to 15000 rubles depending on the condition of the groom" . In other words, Bugrov increased the number of co-religionists by all available means.

However, the people's consciousness immediately justifies this sin of Bugrov, explaining this by his unsettled family life. Moreover, the tribal peasant consciousness could not come to terms with the death of his three children and endowed him with an illegitimate son: “But Bugrov did not have wives, there were only concubines. And there were no children. There was only one illegal, Severian, simply Yeverya. Every’s house still stands, there is a communal farm.” The mythologized image of an Old Believer merchant, a native of peasants, turns out to be so close that he is attached to the peasant sufferings of the post-revolutionary years - “Everi’s children and the whole family were shot”.

However, the Nizhny Novgorod archive contains the “Case ... on the investigation of the marital status of the peasant Anokhin, the illegitimate son of N.A. Bugrov”: many were not averse to recovering at least a small fraction from the richest merchant. The case testifies that N.A. Bugrov really had an illegitimate son, Dmitry Andriyanovich Anokhin, whom he did not recognize and tried in every possible way to humiliate, appointing him to the most insignificant posts "in the trade part." Anokhin's grandfather, Alexander Petrovich Bugrov, on the contrary, favored his grandson and, apparently, promised him a share of his capital.

Rumors about the nuances of the personal life of the merchant Bugrov took root not only in the people's memory, but were also recorded by the most prominent writers and publicists of that time. V.A.Gilyarovsky indicates both Nizhny Novgorod and Moscow sources of such information. Such a human weakness of the legendary merchant makes his image closer and more understandable to the Russian heart.

The confessional affiliation of the Nizhny Novgorod merchants was reflected in a special way in their attitude to wealth and to their neighbors, leaving an imprint on the specifics of charity. The Christian doctrine of love for one's neighbor and helping those in need among the Old Believers was entrenched and preserved most firmly for a number of reasons. The need to survive in an ideologically alien, even hostile, environment forced the Old Believers to think in terms of the interests of the entire community. Hence - such close concern for the well-being of their co-religionists. It manifested itself both in mutual assistance and in protecting the common interests of the Old Believers at the level of the entire state. Sufficiently isolated in the XVIII-XIX centuries. and the community of Old Believers, persecuted by the authorities, most consistently and meticulously adhered to the norms of Christian ethics developed in antiquity, the norms of personal and social life. Every step and deed in the Old Believer milieu is now sought to be verified according to Scripture and Tradition, referring to the words of Chrysostom, Abba Dorotheus, and the articles of the Pilot's Book. Excerpts from "anciently printed" books are still a weighty argument in deciding questions about a second marriage, about military service, about receiving a pension, about treating foreigners, and even about publicity as a nationwide reality. recent years("The secret of the tsar should be kept" - the Old Believers quote about the reasoning in the press about the personal affairs of the President). do not indulge in fornication, devote yourself to raising children and caring for them. Compliance with strict norms, on the one hand, and the need to resist pressure from the authorities and the official church, on the other, have shaped over the centuries the special character of the Old Believer - sober, literate, enterprising, responsible to relatives and God. This allowed the merchants-Old Believers at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. enter the economic elite of Russia and realize their material and spiritual needs for the benefit of themselves and society.

Nizhny Novgorod merchants-Old Believers, who showed themselves in generous alms for the good of the city, for the needs of fellow believers and the poor, remind of themselves with architectural monuments, collections of books and icons, and, what is especially remarkable, live in folk traditions and legends passed down from generation to generation. Our ideas about the motives, methods and results of merchant charity are still approximate and fragmentary, since until very recently this phenomenon has hardly been studied; it remains to be seen how significant is the contribution to Russian economic life and culture of the Old Believer merchants, industrial and financial capital, and patronage.

NOTES

Buryshkin P.A. Moscow is merchant. M., 1991. P. 113.

See, for example: Bokhanov A. Collectors and patrons in Russia. M., 1989; Pozdeeva I. Russian Old Believers and Moscow at the beginning of the 20th century // World of Old Believers. Issue. 2. M., 1995.

Institute of Manuscript and Early Printed Books (hereinafter referred to as IRiSK). Archive of A.N.Putina. No. 77-146.

Kostomarov N.I. Home life and customs of the Great Russian people. M., 1993. P.42.

Filatov N.F. Nizhny Novgorod. Architecture of the XIV-beginning of the XX century. N.N., 1994; Filatov N.F. Cities and towns of the Nizhny Novgorod Volga region in the 17th century: History. Architecture. Gorky, 1989.

Materials on the history of the split during the first period of its existence. Ed. N.I. Subbotina. M., 1847. T.1. S.198-201, 256-258.

Melnikov P.I. Report on the current state of the split in the Nizhny Novgorod province // Collection of NSUAC. N.Novgorod, 1911. T.IX. pp.56-57.

Sharun N.I. Through the halls of the art museum. Gorky, 1985. P.4.

Adrianov Yu., Shamshurin V. Old Nizhny. N.N., 1994. S. 178.

Smirnova L.M. Nizhny Novgorod before and after. N. Novgorod, 1996. S. 1299.

The State Archive of the Nizhny Novgorod Region (hereinafter - GANO), f.2, op.6, 1887, file 1101.

Smirnov D. Pictures of the life of Nizhny Novgorod XIX, Gorky, 1948. S. 166.

GANO, f.2, op.6, 1891, file 1424.

GANO, f.570, op.559, 1888, d.21.

GANO f. 570, op. 559, 1894, d. 23.

GANO, f.2, op.6, 1893, file 1802; f. 570, op.559, 1894, d.23.

GANO, f.2, op.6, 1904, d. 2644.

Agafonova I.S. and others Malinovsky old believer skete and the problem of its preservation as a historical and cultural complex. // Monuments of history and architecture of European Russia, N.N., 1995. pp. 208-216.

GANO, f.3074, op. 1, d.262.

IRisk. Expedition materials. 1995

Smirnova L.M. Nizhny Novgorod before and after. N.N., 1996. P.238.

GANO, f.2, op.6, 1883, file 999.

GANO, f.570, op.559, 1888, d. 21.

IRisk. Expedition materials. 1996

Milotvorsky I.A. The history of the settlement of the Semenov district and the city of Semenov (1855-1937), manuscript (kept in the historical and art museum of the city of Semenov, Nizhny Novgorod region). P.152.

GANO. f.2, op.6, 1891, file 1447.

GANO, f.2, op.6, 1892, file 1646.

IRisk. Expedition materials. 1996

GANO, f.1, op.1, d.170, l.19a. It should be clarified that these were not newly emerged, but old communities legalized by local authorities.

Cit. by: Adrianov Yu.A., Shamshurin V.A. Old Nizhny: Historical and literary essays. N.Novgorod, 1994. S.193-194.

IRisk. Expedition materials. 1996

Elpatevsky S.Ya. Memories for 50 years. L., 1929. S.217-218.

Goryachev A.Ya., Goryachev V.A. The Old Believers of Gorodets - Keepers of Russian Book Culture // The World of the Old Believers. Issue 1. M.; SPb., 1992. S. 63.

Balakin P.P. About the Nizhny Novgorod school of icon painting // Notes of local historians. N. Novgorod, 1991. P. 198.

Galai Yu. Keep history traces. Gorky, 1989. S. 28-30.

Manuscript collections of the V.I. Lenin State Library of the USSR. Pointer. T.1. Issue 2. S.33, 183.

Books of Cyrillic printing of the 16th-17th centuries in the funds of the Nizhny Novgorod Regional Library. N. Novgorod, 1992. No. 181, No. 171, No. 175.

IRISK collection. No. 49.

Books of Cyrillic printing of the 16th-17th centuries in the funds of the Nizhny Novgorod Regional Library. No. 95.

IRisk. Expedition materials. 1992

Buryshkin P.A. Moscow is merchant. M., 1991. P.25.

GANO, f.570, op.559, 1889, d.12a; IRisk. Expedition materials. 1995

Prilutsky Yu.V. In the Outback (Travel Impressions) // Full. coll. op. T.1. Semenov, 1917. P. 118; IRisk. Expedition materials. 1993, 1994

IRisk. Expedition materials. 1993

IRisk. Expedition materials. 1996

IRisk. Expedition materials. 1996

Adrianov Yu., Shamshurin V. Old Nizhny, N.N., 1994. S. 178

IRisk. Expedition materials. 1995

Smirnov D. Pictures of Nizhny Novgorod life of the XIX century. Gorky, 1948, p. 132.

Smirnov D. Pictures of Nizhny Novgorod life of the XIX century. Gorky, 1948. P.126.

Cit. by: Andrianov Yu., Shamshurin V. Old Nizhny, N.N., 1994. S. 177.

GANO, f.570, op.559, 1894, d.23.

IRisk. Expedition materials. 1993, 1995

GANO, f.2, op.6, 1878, d. 929.

Gilyarovsky V.A. "Nizhny Novgorod stunner" // Collected works. in 4 vols. T.3, M., 1967. S.221-223.

IRisk. Expedition materials. 1993, 1996

Institute of Manuscript and Early Printed Books

The study was supported by the Russian Humanitarian Foundation

(Traditional culture. M., 2001. No. 3)

http://irisk.vvnb.ru/Blago. htm

Russian Civilization

M. SOKOLOV: Good evening. On the air of "Echo of Moscow" and the TV channel "RTVi" "The price of victory. The price of revolution. Mikhail Sokolov is at the microphone. Today in our studio Alexander Pyzhikov, professor of the Russian State University for the Humanities, doctor historical sciences. We are talking today about the Old Believers, or schismatics, in the era before the great war and during it. The initiators were the NRZB sponsors of the revolution, some have suggested. Actually, I'll start with a general, such approach. Alexander Vladimirovich, official statistics gave the figure of 2 million schismatics in Russia. But in fact, what part of the population of the Russian Empire at the beginning of the 20th century was in different senses, currents, agreements of the old faith?

A. PYZHIKOV: Good evening. Of course, the question of the statistics of the Old Believers is the most painful topical issue in the study of this entire phenomenon of Russian history. It's not just important. As important as it is, it is also confusing. Since, of course, there are no reliable statistics on how many Old Believers in different stories were in our country. To answer it, one must, of course, recall the decree of Peter I - this was the time of the first revision in 1716. That is, this is the first revision that described how many people are on the territory of the Russian Empire, then the question was first raised of who would consider themselves to be Old Believers, schismatics, as they said then. The result was such that of those who participated in this census, speaking modern language, then 2% of the population called themselves Old Believers - 191 thousand people, a little more. This accounted for 2% of that population of the Russian Empire. Since then, from 1716 until the end of the 19th century, namely, until the 1897 census, the census of the Russian Empire, which was carried out by decree of Nicholas II, this figure - 2% of the population - has not changed much. And 1897 gave the same results. In the column "Religious affiliation", again, the same 2% of the population classified themselves as schismatics. Only the population of the empire increased and therefore it was no longer 191 thousand people, as in 1716, but already about 2 million people. But nevertheless, this is still the same 2% of the population of the empire. These are quantitative data. They tried to question them. They tried to question them and find out what the real state of affairs in this matter is the imperial power itself, namely Nicholas I. Emperor Nicholas I initiated and carried out large-scale geographical, as they were then called, statistical in spirit, research on the commonality of the Old Believers. He checked the great interest in this religious denomination that existed on the territory of the country, and he was constantly told that, of course, there was no talk of any 2% here, it was simply inappropriate to talk about it. Then Nicholas I had a reasonable question: how much exactly? Selectively 3, as they were then called, expeditions (commissions, expeditions, to use the terminology of those years) were organized selectively in the province of the central region - namely, in Kostroma, Nizhny Novgorod and Yaroslavl. These expeditions were organized by the forces of the central apparatus of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. It was the Ministry of Internal Affairs in those years that was the main ministry and was in charge of the affairs of the split. Why by the forces of the central apparatus? Since the data provided by the local provincial authorities were known. They did not inspire confidence in the authorities. Therefore, in order to clarify the real true state of affairs, it was decided to send officials of the central apparatus, who had nothing to do with the local authorities, to give them the broadest powers in this matter so that they could somehow clarify this issue.

M. SOKOLOV: Well, how?

A. PYZHIKOV: By the way, we were lucky. Historians are lucky. Because we have a very complete picture of these commissions. Especially about the Yaroslavl commission, which was headed by Count Stenbock-Fermor, this was ... The 27-year-old official of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the central apparatus Ivan Sergeevich Aksakov, the future Russian writer, publicist known to everyone, worked in this commission. So, Aksakov wrote letters from there - from the Yaroslavl province - to his relatives home, where he shared his impressions, which he gathered a lot there. By the way, these expeditions were not short-lived. They lasted 2-3 years.

M. SOKOLOV: Alexander Vladimirovich, do not languish. How much was actually calculated for the provinces?

A. PYZHIKOV: These officials and the Ministry of Defense came to the conclusion that the figures that appear in the provincial reports should be multiplied by 11 times. But they made a comment: "Apparently, this does not reflect the true state of affairs."

M. SOKOLOV: That is, apparently, the ratio remained approximately the same, that is, at least 25-30% actually belonged not to the Nikonian faith, but to the Old Belief ...

A. PYZHIKOV: In 1897, when the census was carried out and the same 2% of schismatics - 2 million - were indicated, then in the Russian press of those years, a mass of articles immediately appeared that began to comment on this. The articles were titled: “2 million or 20?” That is, again, this is a tenfold, elevenfold increase. That is, even an increase that was recorded in good faith in the epoch of Nicholas (Nicholas I) - it has been preserved. Apparently, if we are to put an end to this issue, it must be said here in this way: if 2% is real of the population of the empire, and there were over 70% of the Orthodox in the Russian Empire, then, it seems to me, given all the events that then happened to this empire - the fact that it ceased to exist - allows us to talk about a figure of 35% of the population from the Orthodox who lived on the territory of our country.

M. SOKOLOV: Let me remind you that Alexander Pyzhikov, Doctor of Historical Sciences, is on the air of Ekho Moskvy. We are talking about schismatics, Old Believers… Phone for SMS, so you can send your question - +7-985-970-45-45. Alexander Vladimirovich, didn’t the empire perceive the Old Believers as foreign agents? After all, as I understand it, the highest hierarchy, for example, the priests, was outside Russia, but, in my opinion, in Austria-Hungary. So it was?

A. PYZHIKOV: Yes. The white cornice is, of course, a well-known historical plot ...

M. SOKOLOV: That is, they tried to control them all the time, so to speak, as such a suspicious community.

A. PYZHIKOV: Yes, especially the same Nicholas I, whom we just mentioned. In general, he was preoccupied with all sorts of revolutionary ideas, currents that developed at that time and gained popularity in the West. Therefore, he was worried about everything that posed a threat to his throne, so to speak. And the old believers as well.

M. SOKOLOV: Good. If we talk about, in fact, already that part of the Old Believers who rose up, got rich, and so on ... If you look at your book, you get the feeling that something happened there, something interesting, I would say, with morality at the end of the 19th century. After all, many Old Believers actually got rich on community money, on public money. And then it turned out that they privatized this common, so to speak, such, confessional property, they became merchants, manufacturers. However, they seem to have retained their influence over fellow believers, right? An interesting phenomenon, isn't it? On the one hand, they seem to have slightly robbed them, and on the other hand, they could influence them. How to explain it?

A. PYZHIKOV: Yes, indeed. This interest of Nicholas I in the Old Believers ended with the fact that the Old Believers fell under the harsh repressive pressure that he arranged. That is, he decided that since the matter here is dark and muddy with this old belief, then it is necessary to destroy it all. Nicholas I first of all tried to destroy the economic model, the economic model of the Old Believers. And rightly so, as you said, the economic model of the Old Believers was based not on private property, but on communal property. Our language, on public property. That is, such collective beginnings in the economy. Why was it? Where did it come from? Why is it so preserved? It's very simple. Because the old faith was that losing religious denomination, which was always subjected to persecution and pressure. In order to survive in an environment alien to them, in the confessional plan, first of all, then, of course, some kind of collective efforts were required. Therefore, all their development and the alignment of their lives took place not around the establishment of the institution of private property, but around collective communal principles. That is, "all together must support life and preserve our faith." Hence such conservation and chanting of such collective principles. All of this was indeed ancient. On the part of the authorities, this was not at first revealed so clearly and clearly. This understanding came only in the middle of the 19th century. Again, it is Nicholas I and his officials who established this first. What happened? It turned out that Nicholas I decided to simply stop this practice and transfer everything to the normal, so to speak, rails of Roman law ...

M. SOKOLOV: That is, to transfer the property to private owners.

A. PYZHIKOV: Yes, everything is as it should be. That is, the heirs must inherit, there, the right to inheritance cannot be questioned by anything and everything else. Although there, inside this confessional Old Believer society, there was a different logic and other, so to speak, laws, if they can be called laws. The managers were not the owners. They were the managers of these enterprises. They were not the real owners. And they could not tell someone if the children ceased, as it were, to be related to faith or did not show those business qualities, like their parents. But now, in the middle of the 19th century, this model is completely broken under pressure from the authorities. And it is being normalized from the point of view of civilized civil law. The right of heritage has been completely restored. And I must say that these managers, who looked like owners in the first half of the 19th century for the authorities, they quickly realized where this power press gives them advantages. What are the benefits? The benefits are simple. Dependence not on the Gentiles, but on the imperial law, of course, seemed more promising. They quickly accepted these rules of the game, which the authorities imposed. And, in fact, from the middle ... To be more precise, after the abolition of serfdom, already in the post-reform period, they fully integrated into the civil and legal field of the empire and became the same capitalists as St. Petersburg or southern or some others.

M. SOKOLOV: As I understand it, in Russia, somewhere by the end of the 19th century, such a rather powerful Moscow group of merchants, manufacturers and immigrants from the Old Believers appeared, who found mutual understanding with the authorities, at least under Alexandra III. On what basis did this mutual understanding arise at that moment?

A. PYZHIKOV: Of course, it appeared. You're right. This must be singled out and said that this is such an integral and important feature of the history of the 19th century. Since the middle of the 19th century, the entire second half of this century has been characterized by the fact that a powerful economic player enters the economic arena - this is the Moscow merchant group. Why Moscow? This is not in the sense that it acted exclusively within the framework of Moscow. Moscow is somewhat of a common name. They lived in Moscow. But their factories, manufactories and enterprises were located throughout central Russia. It's a huge enclave. Center of Russia, Volga region. This Moscow group grew up absolutely on market conditions, absolutely without the help of the government, they did not ask for help, and they did not think that why should anyone help ... They had their own interests - foreign, noble circles. So, this group, which grew up on confessional peasant market foundations, they all came from peasants, semi-literate. The first ones especially. This group began to claim their right to their rightful place in the Russian Empire, motivated by the fact that “We are, in fact, native Russian people. We are locals, we are not foreigners, we are not semi-Germans, as is the bureaucracy and so on. And we have the right, so to speak, to a controlling stake in the Russian economy. We are Russian people, we have this right.”

M. SOKOLOV: And, in general, it somehow happily coincided with the change in the official ideology…

A. PYZHIKOV: Of course. Alexander II, as it were, kept tolerant towards them, but at a distance. Lots of facts about it. That is, he did not seek to meet them, but at the same time, of course, he stopped the practice that Nicholas I used. That is, these are already diametrically opposed things. But he did not cooperate. Such a quiet neutrality was friendly. With Alexander III the situation changes. And it changes very noticeably. We all remember that Alexander III was such a nationally oriented sovereign, if I may say so ... Alexander II, by the way, spoke French most of the time. With Alexander III, the situation, of course, is absolutely radically changing. It is nationally emphasized. He relies on national forces, since the ideological course of Alexander III was provided by the so-called Russian party, as it is called in history. This is a Russian party, which included the Slavophiles, Aksakov, whom we mentioned, Samarin, Chizhov - this is such a businessman of the Slavophil spill, a group headed by Katkov, who, of course, also showed himself in the national field, Prince Meshchersky is a childhood friend Alexander III, who, so to speak, the branch of the Russian Party in St. Petersburg, as it was called, arranged ...

M. SOKOLOV: The newspaper "Citizen"...

A. PYZHIKOV: Yes, the Grazhdanin newspaper. And it was these people who gathered a different audience ... Moreover, the writer Dostoevsky was there. He participated in these meetings. Melnikov-Pechersky, who wrote about the Old Believer epic in the forests on the mountains. That is, everything was saturated with such a national spirit.

M. SOKOLOV: Dostoevsky advised them: “Call the gray zipuns”, that is, “Appeal to the peasantry, to the people” ... They, the merchants, were called, people from the people ...

A. PYZHIKOV: Here, yes, it turned out ... This group, called the Russian Party, found itself an object worthy of applying its ideological views. Moreover, these merchants willingly went to this meeting, because they understood that not everyone at the top of that time was ready to cooperate with them. They understood everything perfectly. They were happy to play the natives of the people, who need to be taken care of, whose business needs to be helped in every possible way.

M. SOKOLOV: Helped,

A. PYZHIKOV: Of course, they helped. Alexander III took a step towards them. In general, I even say in my book using such a wording that the Old Believer merchants of Moscow represented a kind of economic branch of the Russian Party. They fed the economic ideas of Katkov and Aksakov. What are economic ideas? This is protectionism. Rigid protectionism. Of course they helped. Alexander III went for it. His Minister of Finance Vyshnegradsky, who was promoted to a key post by the economic efforts of Katkov, Aksakov, Meshchersky instead of Bunge, whom they considered liberal and unworthy of responding to national ideas. Vyshnegradsky established the most powerful, it is known, protectionist customs tariff... The largest in Europe. And under the protection of his tariff...

M. SOKOLOV: In other words, closed the market and made their business opportunities more profitable?

A. PYZHIKOV: Yes, so that they get stronger, so that the domestic economy gets stronger, so that representatives of this domestic economy can reach a new level. And they went out. This is absolutely accurate. By the end of the 19th century, the Moscow merchant group had grown stronger than ever.

M. SOKOLOV: Alexander Vladimirovich, here comes Nicholas II, and what? Is the situation really changing? The empire begins to pursue a policy of partially open doors, the introduction of foreign capital. This, in fact, leads to a conflict between the Moscow Old Believer merchant class and the gradual government, right? That is, they are trying to change something... This was really the most fundamental question for them - there, on the customs tariff, on some kind of export duties, and so on?

A. PYZHIKOV: Yes. There are 2 key points in the history of the Old Believer merchant class. We have already mentioned one thing - this is the middle of the 19th century, when they, in fact, entered the civil field of the empire. And the second key point, which was reflected in the fate of the entire Russian Empire, was the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, associated with a change in the course of tsarism. What exactly was the change? Of course, the protectionist tariff was high, it remained high. Finance Minister Witte, who by that time had become finance minister, naturally did not encroach on him. But he put forward the following idea, which he personified in person. The idea was to attract foreign capital in amounts never seen before. The logic was simple: “Russian merchants are good, no one talks. But it can take a very long time to wait until they reach the right conditions when they grow up. We are hopelessly behind the West. Therefore, you need to immediately make a breakthrough. First of all, we need to open the gates for foreign capital here. Let them come here, equip production facilities, enterprises, make some industrial assets. This will allow you to make a leap forward. And the merchants? Good, but let's wait." That is, thereby they indicated a second role. And they claimed to be the most important violin in the economy. And they were told that from now on there can be no talk of any first roles. It was very insulting for them, because Witte started absolutely as a man of the circles of Aksakov and Katkov. He was published in their editions, in their newspapers. His own uncle, Fadeev, was the leader of the Russian Party, who wrote its manifestos and published them in circulation ... They considered him theirs, and now this man (why Witte had such a reputation as a chameleon) was so reoriented that St. Petersburg bankers, headed by Rodshtein, director of the International Petersburg Bank. This, of course, was just a slap in the face for the merchants that the person they considered theirs treated them in such a way.

M. SOKOLOV: That is, it happened that, as Alexey NRZB writes to us, that the conservatives turned into reformers and inclined, it turns out, to such an active political position at some point, from which they evaded...

A. PYZHIKOV: Quite right, the essence of the matter is noticed in this question. I'll say a little more. Of course, when under Alexander III there was a renaissance of the Moscow merchants, even a renaissance of the Old Believers ... Preobrazhenskoe, Rogozhskoe cemeteries felt better than ever ... These are their spiritual centers. They were no longer financial arteries, as before ... Everything seemed to go according to their scenario. And their policy, the policy of loyalty - to crawl on their knees around the throne - fully justifies itself. Dividends economic go in hand. The Russian Party properly draws up these dividends and, so to speak, materializes them into a concrete policy. Everything is fine. But then, when there was a Witte turn, which we are talking about, a turn towards foreign capital, in volumes of which there has never been in Russia ... I emphasize. Neither under Peter I, nor under Catherine II, this can even be said. This is no comparison. When there was this new financial emphasis, they realized that kneeling at the throne would not solve the issue. And the loyal spells they used to devote all their time to don't work anymore. Some other mechanisms are needed to get out of this situation, to somehow minimize their such an infringed position in which they so unexpectedly found themselves.

M. SOKOLOV: So what? How did this bloc come about - on the one hand, the merchants, on the other hand, some kind of zemstvo liberal-democratic movement. How did they find each other?

A. PYZHIKOV: In fact, until the end of the 19th century, the liberal movement was a rather pitiful sight. Even all those police sources who tracked all this, analyzed - they did not hide their irony towards this movement. They said that there are 10-15 people capable of taking some decisive steps, the rest are just not serious, there are no fears. So it remained. Until the beginning of the 20th century, no one had succeeded in trying to interest the merchants in some kind of liberal-constitutional projects. This

Absolutely doomed were attempts. Now the situation has changed. The merchants quickly and actively began to look for new mechanisms. What are the new mechanisms? Mechanisms to limit the autocracy and the ruling bureaucracy, so that there are no such things as Witte did with them, so primitively speaking. These mechanisms were immediately found. They have already been tested in Europe for a long time, they bloomed there. This is what constitutional government is. That is, all legal rights should be expressed not by the supreme will, but by the constitution, first of all. And the ruling bureaucracy should not have a monopoly on governance. That is, parliamentary forms should limit it in the implementation of policy. The merchants saw this mechanism and began to invest in it.

M. SOKOLOV: And which of the groups of the same Old Believers - priests, bezpopovtsy, some kind of sense - turned out to be the most active in supporting these movements?

A. PYZHIKOV: It is very important point, which is often overlooked. Namely, when we say "Old Believers", "schismatics", "Old Believer merchants" - this is not entirely correct. Because to be ideologically accurate, you must always keep in mind which Old Believers are priests or non-priests. Of course, all we are talking about is this Moscow merchant group - the backbone of it was the priests, this is the Belokrinitskaya hierarchy, which we mentioned. The main backbone of millionaires who grew up from a peasant environment - they were representatives of the Belokrinitsky hierarchy, that is, the Rogozhsky cemetery. Bezpopovtsev there were few. There are very few of them in the front row of leading millionaires.

M. SOKOLOV: Well, we will continue our conversation with the Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor of the Russian State University of the Humanities Alexander Pyzhikov about the Old Believers, merchants before and during the Great War after the release of the news.

NEWS

M. SOKOLOV: On the air of Ekho Moskvy and RTVi TV channel The Price of Victory. The price of revolution. Today our guest is Alexander Pyzhikov, Doctor of Historical Sciences, author of the book "The Edges of the Russian Schism". We continue our conversation about the role of Old Believer merchants in the changes that took place in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century. Well, right now I have a question. Alexei asks: “Which of the groups of Old Believers was the most active in the revolutionary movement?” And Alexey Kuchegashev wrote: “What connected Savva Morozov and the Bolsheviks?” Truly the most interesting figure. Apparently, perhaps the brightest. Merchants appeared who sponsored not only the liberals, the Zemstvo movement, but also the Social Democrats. Why?

A. PYZHIKOV: Firstly, the merchants had a special position in the opposition movement. Since we were talking about how they ended up in this opposition movement. They invested in the approval of the formation of a mechanism for limiting the ruling bureaucracy headed by the emperor, then their interest was immediately riveted to all those who shared these ideas. These ideas always smoldered among the intelligentsia, Zemstvo, some third element ...

M. SOKOLOV: I think the bureaucracy too.

A. PYZHIKOV: Yes. This is a special article. There, of course, yes. This is also an unknown page. But if now we are talking about the merchants, yes ... That is, such different groups have always existed. Small groups. This is at the circle level. It never went beyond the circle level until the early 20th century. It has always remained there. Therefore, when I looked at all these police reports on this topic in the archive, no one expressed any concern. It is absolutely true. But everything changed at the beginning of the 20th century. And according to these police reports, already by 1903, it is felt that they are filled with anxiety. They feel that something has changed. What has changed? There was a fashion for liberalism, for the constitution. This fashion arose in Russian society, primarily among the intelligentsia. Where? How did it happen? Here the answer is very simple. The Moscow merchants have done one very significant thing since the end of the 19th century, which everyone knows about, but no one understands and now they have forgotten the purpose of this cultural…

M. SOKOLOV: Everyone was in the Tretyakov Gallery.

A. PYZHIKOV: Yes, a cultural and educational project, if I may say so, initiated and paid for, most importantly, by the Moscow merchants. Prominent representatives of the Moscow merchant clan actually created this entire cultural and educational infrastructure, in modern terms. What I'm talking about? The Tretyakov Gallery, which was going to... Let's not forget how it was going to. She was going in defiance of the imperial hermitage. The Hermitage was filled with paintings by Western European artists. Here the emphasis was on our own, on the Russians. And, in fact, this is the backbone of the Tretyakov Gallery. Then the theater is the Moscow Art Theater, the Moscow Art Theater is nothing but the invention and implementation of a merchant's idea. This is a very significant phenomenon. It goes beyond the limits in cultural life ... It survived the limits of 1905, and 1917, and 1991. That is, how good a fruitful idea it really was. At the head of the Moscow Art Theater was, as you know, Konstantin Sergeevich Stanislavsky. Not everyone knows that this is the Old Believer merchant family of the Alekseevs. He is one of the relatives of Alekseev, who was even the mayor of Moscow in the capital ... The Moscow Art Theater replicated, carried liberal democratic ideas. He made them trendy. Gorky's plays are known to everyone ... For example, "At the Bottom" is known to everyone - this is nothing more than the execution of the order of the Moscow Art Theater, which asked Gorky to write something so democratic, soul-grabbing, and Gorky gave out this play "At the Bottom". There were all these premieres, which ended with huge sold-out, demonstrations later with honoring Gorky and the Moscow Art Theater, that they made such a cultural product. Mamontov's operas, Mamontov's private operas, where the discovery of Russian culture shone - this is Fyodor Chaliapin. This is all the discovery of Mamontov. And what operas did this private opera put on! What performances! "Khovanshchina" is an absolutely Old Believer epic, which is unpleasant for the Romanovs. "Boris Godunov" - again, an unpleasant page for the Romanovs' house. Intricate, such ideas are taken out and replicated to the public. That is, this infrastructure has created such a liberal-democratic atmosphere. And many educated people from the intelligentsia immediately began to show interest in it. There was a fashion, as I said, for liberalism. But this was not limited to the Moscow merchants.

A. PYZHIKOV: You were right in your question, the radio listener is asking the right question. How are these revolutionary elements? That's right, because the merchants perfectly understood that there were not enough different respectable zemstvos of noble origin, wise professors - this was not enough to push through a model to limit autocracy and ruling democracy. Yes, it's good, it's necessary, but it's not enough. It is much more convincing if all these ideas sound against the background of explosions, bombs and shots from guns. Here they needed the audience that is able to provide this background. And the merchants occupied, as I said, a unique movement in the opposition movement. It communicated both with professors and zemstvos, who were princes and counts, some of them ... And it felt just as comfortable with those layers that could carry out these terrorist acts and something like that ...

M. SOKOLOV: And Savva Mamontov? Was he an exotic character in this case?

A. PYZHIKOV: A normal merchant character. Why is everyone talking about him?

M. SOKOLOV: Because such a tragic fate - suicide ...

A. PYZHIKOV: In May 1905... There are different versions. Someone says that he was killed, someone that he shot himself. This can be figured out...

M. SOKOLOV: The money went to the Bolsheviks in part.

A. PYZHIKOV: Of course, he talked. Gorky testifies to this. But why do they say? .. Savva Timofeevich Mamontov ...

M. SOKOLOV: Savva Morozov.

A. PYZHIKOV: Morozov, excuse me. Savva Timofeevich Morozov is such a bright character, you correctly noticed. But the matter is not limited to them. This is not some personal initiative of his. This is the initiative that the whole clan showed, this is a community of merchants. This is the merchant elite. There are many other names out there. The same one that was mentioned, Mamontov, the Ryabushinsky brothers, who also did much more on this path than the same Savva Morozov. And then there are a lot of surnames. And not only from Moscow.

M. SOKOLOV: They write to us: “The Chetverikovs, Rukavishnikovs, Dunaevs, Zhivago, Shchukins, Vostryakovs, Khludovs” - all this is one group, right?

A. PYZHIKOV: The Khludovs, the Shchukins, the Chetverikovs are all one group, this is the so-called Moscow group.

M. SOKOLOV: Alexander Vladimirovich, good. The revolution passed, so to speak, achieved the State Duma, achieved some limitation of autocracy, although the Duma did not control about 40% of the budget of state-owned companies and state banks, and did not have direct influence on the government either. That is, it turned out like this: they fought, fought, sponsored, sponsored, but there was no result. What happened before the First World War, again, with this group? What was its political activity, this Moscow merchant group, I would say?

A. PYZHIKOV: Of course, the Duma was established. In general, in my opinion, Nicholas II would have established this Duma anyway, only, of course, according to his own scenario, with his own logic, in his own sequence, which he planned to follow. But he didn't succeed. These turbulent events, especially in the autumn of 1905, are the so-called Moscow exacerbation. December uprising is highest point this aggravation. The December uprising armed in Moscow brought down this scenario.

M. SOKOLOV: Yes, when merchants bought weapons for their workers.

A. PYZHIKOV: Yes. It's absolutely, sort of... I'm absolutely not a trailblazer here. Many authors have pointed out that the entire strike wave in Moscow began with factories and factories that belonged to merchants. The mechanism is very simple. They paid a salary, but said that it was possible not to work that day. As you can imagine, there were many applicants. Everyone was happy to participate. This was encouraged. This initiated this whole strike wave. This mechanism has long been open. Many scholars have written about this. In this case, I just summarized most of what is written. Of course, not all. So, the establishment of this Duma took place. Yes, the Duma is legislative. More has not yet been claimed. It was necessary to see how this new state mechanism would work. That is, it was necessary to test how it would function in action. Here, from the merchant clan undertook to conduct this approbation, if I may say so, the famous Moscow figure Alexander Ivanovich Guchkov. His position in the Moscow merchant class is special. He did not belong to the main backbone of this Moscow merchant class, namely, to the Belokrinitskaya hierarchy. He came out of the Feodosievsky bezpopovsky consent. But by the end of the 19th century, he was a co-religionist. It was such a camouflage net, such an image. He was a fellow believer, although, of course, he treated Orthodoxy no better than his ancestors. It's clear. But this Alexander Ivanovich Guchkov is an active politician. He advanced in 1905. He undertook to become a kind of leader who expresses the interests of the Moscow merchants in relation to the authorities, to the government, to St. Petersburg. He established a very warm and trusting relationship with Prime Minister Stolypin. This known fact. He convinced all these Moscow circles that he would be able to make this model, which was pushed through in 1905, work, work as he would like, and he would be responsible for it. He heads the largest faction in the State Duma, the Octobrist faction, he has full trusting relations with Stolypin, so he can,

In our language, resolve all commercial issues.

M. SOKOLOV: But it didn't work out.

A. PYZHIKOV: His first experience was positive in 1908. Still, Guchkov and the Duma were able to persuade Stolypin to stop initiatives to create a trust from metallurgical activities in the south, where foreign capital was at the heart of it. It was a very big victory in 1908. Historians of economics know it, I think they remember it. Then, of course, slippage began. Feeling this, Guchkov decided to take an extreme step. He decided to head the third State Duma in order to gain access to the king. He then received the right of a permanent report from the emperor. He decided to use this right to influence him. And so in 1910, from the head of the largest faction, he became the chairman of the State Duma. But communication with the king did not work out. Specifically, Guchkov planned ... He was convinced that he persuaded the tsar to appoint one character as minister of the sea. Nicholas II agreed, saw him off with a smile and appointed another - Grigorovich in 1911, after which it became clear to everyone what Guchkov's influence was, that it was close to zero, if at all one could talk about any here. After that, the merchants came to an understanding, the realization that this model would lead nowhere.

M. SOKOLOV: Alexander Vladimirovich, it turns out that somewhere in 1914 we see a real political aggravation by the summer of 1914 exactly like the same scenario in the summer before 1905 - practically the same slogans, strikes begin at various enterprises, Moscow in particular. What is this? So they're up to their old ways again, right? Only by finding allies, as I understand it, also in the bureaucracy. A. PYZHIKOV: Here is the most interesting episode in our history of the tsarist empire, which for some reason falls out of the field of view of researchers. We were just talking about Guchkov, that he was trying to play some kind of role as an intermediary, such as between the government and Moscow business circles. All this ended in complete political bankruptcy of him at that time. Then another character was found who took on this role with great success and reason. This is not about some kind of merchant, but about one of the royal favorites, favorites of the royal couple - the emperor and empress. I'm talking about Alexander Vasilyevich Krivoshein. This is a very interesting figure. Russian history. What's interestnig? He moved up the royal bureaucratic ladder, very confidently moving quickly. That is, it was a very turbulent career. She was provided by one royal entourage - this is Goremykin. Such was the Prime Minister, Minister of the Interior. He provided patronage to Krivoshein. Krivoshein moved very quickly and ended up in Stolypin's government almost as his right hand. But one detail is overlooked. Krivoshein was not just a tsarist bureaucrat. At the end of the 19th century, he married the granddaughter of Timofey Isaevich Morozov, the pillar himself, the father of Savva Morozov, Elena Karpova, to be exact in her last name. And he became related to such a merchant clan, which was at the center of this entire Moscow bourgeoisie and Moscow merchants. He became his own. And here we are, for the first time in Russian history, which was not the case for the entire 19th century, and there is no need to talk about an earlier time, we are witnessing such a strange combination of circumstances that the tsar's favorite and his own man in the Moscow merchants. It was this special position in these power and economic structures that allowed him to become a centerpiece in the promotion of the parliamentary project, that is, the transformation of the Duma from a legislative into a full-fledged parliament in the Western sense of the word. That is, the Duma, which not only issues laws, but also influences appointments in the government that governs. Krivoshein wanted to do it. The Moscow merchants, naturally connected with him by family ties, entered into a stronger alliance with him than with Guchkov. He at that time had already moved to the second or third roles, he was not visible. It was Krivoshein who undertook to push it from above. This is 1915. In 1914, before the war, it all started, it started successfully, Krivoshein took very successful steps to eliminate his opponents from the government. Of course, there was a corresponding strike fund in St. Petersburg. It all started again. Of course, other people were already in charge here - this is the Social Democratic faction of the Duma "Trudoviki", where Kerensky is already appearing. They were already led by representatives of the merchant class,

In particular, Konovalov is a major capitalist, the closest associate of Ryabushinsky, an associate of a whole group ... He is also a very prominent and respected merchant of Moscow. He was in touch, he was also a member of the State Duma, he was responsible for this direction. That is, the whole situation was agitated again. In 1915, there were already military conditions, but nevertheless, due to the fact that there were failures at the front, it was decided to revive this topic again. Krivoshein started it...

M. SOKOLOV: That is, a progressive bloc was created from the right to the actual social democrats in the Duma under the slogan of such a responsible government of people's trust. In fact, it turns out that you think that it was the Moscow merchant group that stood behind him.

A. PYZHIKOV: In economic terms, if all this worked out and was implemented, then in the economic sense, the Moscow merchants would be the main beneficiary of this whole thing. This is beyond any doubt.

M. SOKOLOV: And why didn’t Nicholas II make such a decision, on the contrary, somehow turned his back, finally dismissed Krivoshein, went to a confrontation. What was the point? The project was quite profitable during the war. They promised stabilization, full mutual understanding with the virtually stable majority of the Duma. Why did he make such a suicidal decision?

A. PYZHIKOV: Here, after all, the key words are probably “During the war”. This whole epic, the whole story with the progressive bloc developed during the war. Nicholas II refused to make such political moves under military conditions. He believed that it was necessary to bring this war to a victorious end first, and then return to this topic on the laurels of the winner, but not earlier. It was for this sequence of actions that he spoke very harshly. And Krivoshein could not convince him. Krivoshein said that this should be done, it would have a better effect on our military affairs and we would win faster. But Nicholas II believed that it was still better to lead the army. He became supreme commander just in August 1915. “It is now more timely than getting carried away with political combinations. Political combinations,” he thought, “will wait for the end of the war. We will return to them later." In the meantime, he laid down his authority, which, by the way, Krivoshein did not advise him - to put on the altar his authority and his figure, his royal person, that it’s better to let him lead the troops supreme commander Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich Even in case of failure, everything can be attributed to him, as it were. But Nicholas II decided that he would take it all upon himself, this is his duty. And he laid himself completely on the military direction, which is natural during the war years. And he decided to leave all political combinations, political actions for later. But since Krivoshein and his allies from the government insisted, he was forced to part with them, so to speak.

M. SOKOLOV: Good. Well, nevertheless, with the participation of the merchants of this already familiar to us, military-industrial committees were created, with working groups under them. The police, in particular, I see, considered them a network of conspirators, destabilizers and so on. And in their main activity they were not effective enough… What is your opinion? What were those structures anyway? Were these structures helping the army or were they structures that were preparing some kind of political actions?

A. PYZHIKOV: During the war years, it was in Moscow that she was the initiator ... Bourgeois circles, zemstvo circles initiated the creation public organizations to help the front. That is, the idea is that the bureaucracy is not coping with its duties, cannot ensure victory, so the public must get involved. Here, in the person of the Zemstvo city union and a new such organization ... This invention of the First World War is the military-industrial committees, where the bourgeoisie gathers strength and helps the front to forge victory. But we note that all the military-industrial committees acted on public funds. All this from the budget went to these military-industrial committees. They operated with these amounts, but they didn’t particularly want to report, of course. Here, in addition to helping the front, so-called working groups arose under the military-industrial committees ... Again, this is a trademark, such, a sign of the Moscow merchants,

When the popular strata were again pulled up to solve some problems that they needed to push through at the top. Such a fund was created. These working groups, so to speak, demonstrated the voice of the people in support of the initiatives that the merchant bourgeoisie is implementing. By the way, there are a lot of working groups... For example, under the Central Military Industrial Complex - this is under the Central Military Industrial Committee - they have done very big things. With the help of the working group, the sequestration of the Putilov plant, which belonged to the banking group of the Russian-Asian bank, was carried out. The Moscow merchants have always opposed the banks of St. Petersburg and tried to infringe on them as much as possible. The working groups made their contribution here even during the First World War. And of course, just before February 1917, all those memoirs that have been published and studied in exile now, they allow us to assert that the working groups were really a combat headquarters, I’m not afraid of this word, by loosening tsarist regime right at the last stage. It was they who coordinated all the actions together with the Duma in order to show tsarism that it was doomed.

M. SOKOLOV: Tell me, the Guchkov conspiracy, the military-merchant conspiracy, which many of your colleagues write about, allegedly against Nikolai and Alexandra Fedorovna, is still a myth or an unrealized opportunity due to such a spontaneous start of a soldier’s revolt in February 1917.

A. PYZHIKOV: Of course, this is not a myth. The whole sequence of actions performed by the Moscow merchants convinces that they went to this consciously. For this, there were different allies - Guchkov, Krivoshein ... By the way, when the tsar dismissed Krivoshein in September 1915, they quickly forget about him, all the Moscow merchants. He becomes nothing to them. They are already fully determined to undermine the tsarist regime frankly. And here the theme of Rasputin reaches its climax. She was so smoldering, and now she is becoming a powerful tool with which the royal couple is discredited. Soldiers' riot, yes, happened. This is in February 1917. There really was a riot. Of course, they created all the atmosphere in which it could happen, but they hardly expected those consequences.

M. SOKOLOV: And the last thing, perhaps, I still want to look into what you have not yet written in 1917. Why did these people, who were so actively rushing to power, not be able to keep it?

A. PYZHIKOV: Well, yes. Firstly, February Revolution 1917 ended in bankruptcy. It was replaced by the October one and beyond ... Well, because after all, the liberal project that the Moscow merchants promoted - it suffered a complete collapse, it failed. That is, the restructuring of state life on liberal rails, constitutional, liberal, as they wanted and believed that this would help Russia was not fully justified. The popular masses turned out to be absolutely deaf to this liberal project, absolutely deaf. They didn't accept him. They did not understand the charms that were obvious to the Moscow merchants, the political charms. The masses had completely different priorities, a different idea of ​​​​how to live ...

M. SOKOLOV: That is, all the same community and all the same idea of ​​the old schismatic?

A. PYZHIKOV: Yes. These deep layers… They lived by their communal collective psychology. It was she who burst out. The liberal project has become irrelevant here.

M. SOKOLOV: Thank you. Today, the guest of the Echo of Moscow studio and the RTVi TV program was Alexander Pyzhikov, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor of the Russian State University for the Humanities. This program was hosted today by Mikhail Sokolov. All the best.

A. PYZHIKOV: Good luck.

M. SOKOLOV: Goodbye.

On Thursday, June 19, the cycle of lectures Homo religiosus, organized by the Yegor Gaidar Foundation, the Russian Economic School and the Dynasty Foundation, ended. As part of the lecture "Economics and Orthodoxy" Danila Raskov, Candidate of Economic Sciences, Associate Professor of the Department of Economic Theory and the Department of Problems of Interdisciplinary Synthesis in the Field of Social and humanities Petersburg state university, spoke about how economic relations were formed among the Old Believers and why they turned out to be so effective as entrepreneurs. The full text of the lecture can be read on the website of the Yegor Gaidar Foundation, and we abbreviated that part of it that is directly devoted to the analysis of the economic activity of the Old Believers in Russia.

I don’t know how much detail is needed and whether it is necessary to explain who the Old Believers are. Initially, the split, as you know, arose as a result of the reform of 1654-1666: there was a long process, since ritual differences gave rise to a rather serious struggle, which resulted in one of the greatest tragedies in the history of our country. It is no coincidence that Solzhenitsyn is credited with the words that "if it weren't for the 17th century, there would be no 1917." What we see here: well, let's say, two-fingered. Indeed, due to the advance of the Russian Empire towards Little Russia, Ukraine, it became necessary to bring the ritual part to a single canon. There was an idea to call the Greeks and stabilize the rite. In history, it must be said, they were baptized with three fingers, and with two. TO XVII century on the very territory of Constantinople, they were baptized with three fingers, but later historians revealed that there is a Studian charter and a Jerusalem charter, they are just different, and there is a different sign of the cross. But because of this seemingly small difference, it all started: how to draw - “Jesus” or “Jesus”, to pray on seven or five prosphora, on the sun or against the sun.

The Old Believers set themselves the task of preserving unchanged not only the ritual side - this was connected with the entire liturgical rite. Then, of course, what is interesting, the original conservatism brought to life serious innovations. For example, the radical innovation of the Bespopovites: to renounce five of the seven sacraments altogether, since the rejection of the priesthood led to this. In this sense, they are just compared, and partly rightly, with Protestants: there will be an instrumental similarity here. The second element of the picture of the world that can be identified among the Old Believers is the idea of ​​"Moscow is the third Rome" and, in general, eschatologism. It is generally inherent in Christian thought, and not only in Christian thought, both Babylonian and Egyptian. But when this becomes actual, it is difficult to understand why, at some point in time, eschatological feelings lead to self-immolation, and at some point, to hard work. This is one of the ambivalent elements that manifest themselves differently in different periods of time, and it is inherent in the entire Christian culture.

Well, the last thing I would note in the picture of the world is the desire to develop a practice that would be more in line with the true, correct life. Because where is the Antichrist, he can be very close: maybe in the handset, maybe in the device; or maybe it depends on how I pick up the phone whether he is there or not. Some today are convinced that you shouldn't keep your phone at home. Then such hooks appeared: you come to the house, to the sacred space, and hang mobile phone at the entrance. The TV is also taboo for the older generation, but if it is in the closet, it is already easier, sometimes it opens - to show cartoons, for example. In fact, these practices of salvation have interesting aspects in economic life too.

If we talk about economic ethics and practice, what do we see? Both missionaries and those who traveled around the country, for example Aksakov, who was sent to Moldavia and Bessarabia, were surprised, left notes that the Old Believer villages were more prosperous: it was cleaner there, more horses, cows, and so on. And so it is almost everywhere. Thrift yes, idleness no. No one should be idle - community interaction, help, trust. The institutions of trust could also be transformed into the area of ​​capital. When a community finds itself in a situation of persecution, these issues are quickly updated, any means of fighting for survival become important and significant.

By the way, what happened in the Old Believers: the spiritual elite itself initially blessed both trade and entrepreneurship. Moreover, the experience of the Vygovskaya Pomeranian desert (this is early 18th centuries, that is, one of the very first experiments) showed that the kinoviarchs, that is, the leaders of such a secular monastery (secular, because there were no priests there, there were no monks by definition, therefore it is correct to call it a hostel or kinovia), they themselves led the trade and participated in it, took loans together. It's pretty much even described. Trading rules appeared: how to trade, how to keep records. According to some observations, even Soviet years the Old Believers were more trusted with accounting. This issue requires a separate study, but is partially confirmed.

At the same time, we have a certain paradox: the paradox of conservatism and innovative potential. He, of course, is not the only one - here you can recall, say, Orthodox Jews, recently a lot of research has appeared on this subject, in America - the Amish, for example. The examples are local, but they are interesting.

How many Old Believers-industrialists were in Moscow?

How successful were the Old Believers in Moscow, in particular in textiles, what determined success, what was the dynamics? Actually, what has been done in historical and economic terms. There are two sets of data: one is industrial, the other is confessional, that is, associated with belonging to the Old Believers. Their union gives an answer to the question of how successful the Old Believers were. Of course, a lot of doubts arise here: if the head of the enterprise is an Old Believer, can we consider that this is an Old Believer business? Ambiguous. The question is even if he acts like an Old Believer, but has already converted to a common faith or official Orthodoxy, does business cease to be an Old Believer or not? You have to answer somehow. I answer yes to the first question, and no to the second. If the head of the factory is an Old Believer, then yes, I believe that this is an Old Believer enterprise, although there are some reservations.

By the end of the 19th century, the situation becomes more complicated, joint-stock companies appear - more impersonal forms of business management, which did not exist in the middle of the 19th century, or were extremely uncommon. But in textiles it still dominates private business. Even if done Joint-Stock Company, it is still known who the shareholder is: usually it is five families, five dynasties or someone external, foreigners or from official Orthodoxy - at the end of the 19th century, this all changes.

In the 1850s, the question arose: how many schismatics do we really have? We began to look at what data they supply: every year - the same thing, with a slight downward trend. But if you look - who supplies? Bishops. But the bishops report: the struggle is going well, there are fewer and fewer of them. They sent a commission to the places, but there are no criteria here either. It got to the point of absurdity. For example, there was such a Sinitsyn: he came to the Yaroslavl province and wherever he found copper icons in the houses, he believed that they were Old Believers. It turned out that there are 18 times more Old Believers than according to the data of the bishops, which is also wrong, because if a person has a copper icon, then it can simply be folk Orthodoxy, he is not necessarily an Old Believer. Then a criterion was introduced: is there a rosary and how is it baptized. But a person can also be baptized with two fingers, and in church several times with three fingers, while one of the priests is watching. That is, the criteria were very difficult.

In the 19th century, we really see a lot of biographies, when a person lived, and then once - and suddenly he suddenly became rich. Ryabushinsky - it's only for the sake of marriage that he converts to the old faith, the founder of the dynasty, then he rises. We see: a lot of neophytes. The founder of the Preobrazhensky cemetery, Ilya Alekseevich Kovylin, is also a neophyte, and there are a lot of such biographies. People from Guslitsa are known - such an ancient place where people never practiced agriculture, but where there were a lot of crafts, Gzhel also enters there. It was rumored that they were also good at forging banknotes, if necessary, passports.

Trumps of the Old Believers

What is the comparative context for this problem? On the one hand, ethics, on the other, the effect of the persecuted group. What interests economists in such topics? Economists are interested in the homogeneity of the group and the various characteristics of this homogeneity, and it is clear that this has certain advantages for trade. The possibility of private settlement of conflicts: if the legal system is not developed, and the community itself, for example, can discount bills or conduct some other operations, or generally guarantee property rights, that is, exercise parallel control. The same goes for the origin of the mafia in Italy, one of the theories is: the aristocracy is gone - the lords are gone, and who are the masters of the land? And then people appear and say: we know how to act.

With a strong legal and judicial system, this comparative advantage becomes irrelevant - institutions of trust, reciprocity, big debates on reputation mechanisms - how are they even measured and how do they affect trade and industry? And, of course, all this can be packaged into formulas such as human capital and social capital. For example, education or literacy: it is obvious that the Old Believers were generally more literate than the average peasantry, which is part of official Orthodoxy. Why? We had to conduct the service ourselves, copy the books ourselves. Literacy in this sense was expensive, not everyone could afford it. It took time, effort, and money to learn. Suppose the cow had to be given to the one who taught. Social capital is the relationships that are already formed in communities: an instrument of reputation, trust, and so on. All this can be packaged in different ways, as I said.

How do we know the numbers?

Now very briefly about the data - and move on to the results. In principle, revisions give a lot in terms of understanding belonging to the Old Believers in Moscow. The ninth and tenth revisions took into account religion. According to the results of the ninth audit, 624 families were registered as parishioners of either the non-priest community or the priest's community. Most of the priestly community, somewhere around 85% for this period. The difference between priests and bespopovtsy ranges from 70% to 90%. This is due, among other things, to the fact that the Bespopovtsy advertised their affiliation less, remained in the shadows, because they were officially recognized as more harmful, and feared reprisals.

Very interesting information is given by the synodics. We already know this for sure: since they pray in the church of the Rogozh community, it means that they are definitely Old Believers. There were observations of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, a very interesting document of 1838, in fact, about all significant merchants with a description of their activities. As for industry, they managed to take seven points - this is not so many, but not so few - and get hold of all the data on doing business. For processing, information was used only for six years, the cut-off level was from 10 thousand rubles, because the same accounting was not carried out for all years. Of course, we still need to figure it out, but in general we can say that there is still no more reliable information. For textile factories, there is data on turnover, the number of workers, and what they did. For 1871 - detailed information about the technical condition, but this has yet to be provided additionally.

This is what industrial information looks like: who and where is located, how many mills, workers, turnover, what it produces - by year.

This map shows how important Moscow industry was: we see that with a huge excess, twice, in 1870 Moscow industry is in the lead. Then factories appear in the Vladimir region, in the Ryazan region, of course, in St. Petersburg, but this is somewhat later. By 1832, as a result of this processing, we see that 18% of the textile industry belongs to the Old Believers. The next question is: is it a lot or a little? In principle, given that this is thoroughly confirmed, a lot. In this case, we are talking about 60, if we take the city and counties, and 76 enterprises. They are, of course, different in size. There is no exact data on the number of Old Believers, but estimates fluctuate, starting at 4%. The most optimistic figure is 16% for one of the years. From this you can judge what is happening.

This is general data, it is pro-cyclical, and we can see that the upper blue border is total number firms, then a dotted pink stroke - this is exactly the proportion of Old Believer firms. There is some stability, and then a recession. Stability is about 20-25%, then, at the end of the 19th century, there is a decrease. Accordingly, the number of firms remains roughly the same.

If we take the data for the textile industry as a whole, we see (the share is the red line, the green dotted line is the labor force) that at some periods there is a comparative advantage in the labor force, that is, they are able to attract significantly more workers. And the share of firms in the total turnover is also subject to such a single cycle. In this case, it is more than 20%, and after 1870 there is a decline.

More specifically, in the wool industry. In the first column here is simply the share of enterprises, then the share in turnover, the share in the labor force. In this table, it is interesting that the share of the employed labor force almost always exceeds the share of firms, that is, there are relatively more workers working there, while the output is relatively higher than the labor force indicator, labor productivity is higher. And this delta is the difference in the median value for the totality of Old Believers and non-Old Believers, Old Believers minus non-Old Believers. In this sense, their average labor productivity per worker is higher. It is clear that this is the “average temperature in the hospital”, because there are some very large enterprises, and there are small ones, but this will still tell us a lot, especially since we are taking not the average here, but the median, and this gives closer to reality.

We no longer have this in the cotton industry, and here it is clear that these are mainly small firms with low productivity, and the share will be much higher than the share in terms of turnover. Well, not significantly - depending on the years, sometimes significantly, sometimes the same. But here we no longer see the general dynamics. Moreover, by the end of the 19th century, the cotton industry partially left Moscow and the Moscow district, so we see such data. In any case, the Old Believers no longer have any weight here: the Morozovs are already working in the Tver province or in other districts, for example, in Borovsky.

In principle, what we found is that the Old Believers were overrepresented, they had an increased propensity for entrepreneurship, they hired on average more labor in the wool industry, and enterprises have high productivity. In general, until 1870 we observe a very stable participation in economic life, then a relative decline.

Waves of repression and cycles of economic activity

How to interpret the fall and how important are empirical data to us in this aspect? It is very interesting to trace the cyclical waves of repression. Some historians write that it has great importance, because at first there were harsh repressions, almost suffocation, and then weakening. And then moments of weakening, liberalization, respectively, form a special community, institutions appear, and this very moment of persecution leads to the fact that natural selection leaves these close-knit people, the strongest. I am joking about this: for a long time there was no persecution of the Old Believers, so now they are not so noticeable economically. But this is a joke, of course. In principle, already under Nicholas I, they set the task of solving the problem with the Old Believers, but they could not. At the same time, for example, they still awarded medals - there were persecutions and awards at the same time, because who will solve the problems? I came across a document: it is known that the sovereign will go there and there, and then they missed it, the road is broken, because military exercises or something like that took place along it. Who will restore? We turned to the Old Believer merchants. They have restored everything and say: we have only one thing - give us a state diploma that we are so good. Well, they did. Or in Petrozavodsk: the sovereign will arrive - but the embankment is not in order. Who will fix it? And a medal for that too. That is, the history of the appearance of the medal is clear here. There were different interpretations, I probably won't dwell on it.

A more interesting question is how to explain the decline. At first, we see the underdevelopment of market institutions, and then the role of the Old Believers is significant. In general, when personal relationships dominate, Christian ethics are in demand; when legal institutions grow, its role in any case decreases, it becomes marginalized. For example, honesty: it is clear that honesty is important in trading. By the way, while researching the Old Believer entrepreneurship, I saw that not everything is simple there. Sometimes siblings give each other money by receipt. It would seem: why on receipt - these are brothers. And so that the devil does not get stuck! That is, they gave a receipt - and you can live in peace.

The role of Moscow

In the second half of the 19th century, we see the development of joint-stock forms of ownership, that is, impersonal relations, the banking sector; growing number of foreigners. If you look at the St. Petersburg merchant guild, then 40 percent there will be Protestants and Jews, in some periods even more. This is a different picture in terms of the fact that the very nature of business is changing. The role of the state has changed: if in the first half of the 19th century it was not particularly active, then later it is more and more clearly indicated. Therefore, of course, the Old Believers in this sense consciously or unconsciously distance themselves. On the one hand, the state itself is not exactly eager to help them financially, on the other hand, they themselves are retreating. Other areas are developing: railway construction, metallurgy, mining. Well, in general, the role of St. Petersburg is important - as Ryabushinsky wrote, slow Russian peasants who measuredly make decisions, crossing themselves, die in the atmosphere of St. Petersburg. Here already other personalities come to replace.

Pros and cons of the Old Believer model

The last aspect that I will dwell on is that economic ethics itself has an ambivalent character. It would seem that hard work is good. But to a certain extent. Everything depends on the historical moment, on the ability to adjust and adapt. If at some stage this can contribute to high productivity, then at another stage it preserves labor-intensive production. We work hard and work and work instead of replacing it with machine labor.
Thrift – On the one hand, frugality has promoted self-financing. On the other hand, when it became possible to take bank loans at a low interest rate, thrift could slow down processes, because a habit was formed to live on one's own. When there was no capital market, it was very important.

Trust, but trust in whom - in the elect, in the same Old Believers. It is clear that there may be an interest-free loan, and the availability of labor, but the flip side is weak integration into the impersonal market process and even some kind of distrust in it. That also hinders development.
Finally, community. On the one hand, it ensures close economic ties, but they are self-contained, segregated. There is a well-known sociological work - "The Power of Weak Ties": the strength of weak ties among the Old Believers is no longer observed, because strong ties dominate. In this sense, one can show the ambivalence of economic ethics, which at different stages can either promote or hinder development.

Last week, the cycle of lectures Homo religiosus, organized by the Yegor Gaidar Foundation, the Russian Economic School and the Dynasty Foundation, ended. As part of the lecture “Economics and Orthodoxy”, Danila Raskov, Candidate of Economic Sciences, Associate Professor of the Department of Economic Theory and the Department of Problems of Interdisciplinary Synthesis in the Field of Social and Human Sciences of St. Petersburg State University, spoke about how economic relations were formed among the Old Believers and why they turned out to be as efficient as entrepreneurs. The full text of the lecture can be read on the website of the Yegor Gaidar Foundation, and we abbreviated the part of it that is directly devoted to the analysis of the economic activity of the Old Believers in Russia.

I don’t know how much detail is needed and whether it is necessary to explain who the Old Believers are. Initially, the split, as you know, arose as a result of the reform of 1654-1666, there was a long process, since ritual differences gave rise to a rather serious struggle, which resulted in one of the greatest tragedies in the history of our country. It is no coincidence that Solzhenitsyn is credited with saying that if it were not for the 17th century, there would be no 1917. What we see here: well, let's say, two-fingered. Indeed, due to the advance of the Russian Empire towards Little Russia, Ukraine, it became necessary to bring the ritual part to a single canon. There was an idea to call the Greeks and stabilize the rite. In history, it must be said, they were baptized with three fingers, and with two. By the 17th century, on the very territory of Constantinople, they were baptized with three fingers, but then historians revealed that there is a Studian charter and a Jerusalem charter, they are just different, and there is a different sign of the cross. But because of this seemingly small difference, it all started: how to draw - “Jesus” or “Jesus”, pray on seven or five prosphora, the procession in the sun or against.

The Old Believers set themselves the task of preserving unchanged not only the ritual side - this was connected with the entire liturgical rite. Then, of course, what is interesting, the original conservatism brought to life serious innovations. For example, the radical innovation of the Bespopovites: to renounce five of the seven sacraments altogether, since the rejection of the priesthood led to this. In this sense, they are just compared, and partly rightly, with Protestants: there will be an instrumental similarity here. The second element of the picture of the world that can be identified among the Old Believers is the idea of ​​"Moscow is the third Rome" and, in general, eschatologism. It is generally inherent in Christian thought and not only in Christian thought, both Babylonian and Egyptian. But when this becomes actual, it is difficult to understand why, at some point in time, eschatological feelings lead to self-immolation, and at some point, to hard work. This is one of the ambivalent elements that manifest themselves differently in different periods of time, and it is inherent in the entire Christian culture.

Well, the last thing I would note in the picture of the world is the desire to develop a practice that would be more in line with the true, correct life. Because where is the Antichrist - he can be very close: maybe in the handset, maybe in the device; or maybe it depends on how I pick up the phone whether he is there or not. Some today are convinced that you shouldn't keep your phone at home. Then such hooks appeared: you come to the house, to the sacred space, and hang up your mobile phone at the entrance. The TV is also taboo for the older generation, but if it is in the closet, it is already easier, sometimes it opens - to show cartoons, for example. In fact, these practices of salvation have interesting aspects in economic life too.

If we talk about economic ethics and practice, what do we see? Both the missionaries and those who traveled around the country, for example Aksakov, who was sent to Moldavia and Bessarabia, were surprised, left notes that the Old Believer villages were more prosperous, it was cleaner there, there were more horses, cows, and so on. And so it is almost everywhere. Thrift - yes, idleness - no, no one should be idle, community interaction, help, trust. The institutions of trust could also be transformed into the area of ​​capital. When a community finds itself in a situation of persecution, these issues are quickly updated, any means of fighting for survival become important and significant. By the way, what happened in the Old Believers: the spiritual elite itself initially blessed both trade and entrepreneurship. Moreover, the experience of the Vygovskaya Pomeranian Hermitage (this is still the beginning of the 18th century, that is, one of the very first experiments) showed that the kinoviarchs, that is, the leaders of such a secular monastery (secular - because there were no priests, there were no monks by definition, therefore correctly called - hostel or kinovia), they themselves led the trade and participated in it, took loans together. It's pretty much even described. Trading rules appeared: how to trade, how to keep records. According to some observations, even in the Soviet years, the Old Believers were more trusted with accounting. This issue requires a separate study, but is partially confirmed.

At the same time, we have a certain paradox: the paradox of conservatism and innovative potential. He, of course, is not the only one - here you can recall, say, Orthodox Jews, recently a lot of research has appeared on this subject, in America - the Amish, for example. The examples are local, but they are interesting.

How many Old Believers-industrialists were in Moscow?

How successful were the Old Believers in Moscow, in particular in textiles, what determined success, what was the dynamics? Actually, what has been done in historical and economic terms. There are two sets of data: one is industrial, the other is confessional, that is, associated with belonging to the Old Believers. Their union gives an answer to the question of how successful the Old Believers were. Of course, a lot of doubts arise here: if the head of the enterprise is an Old Believer, can we consider that this is an Old Believer business? Ambiguous. The question is even if he acts like an Old Believer, but has already converted to a common faith or official Orthodoxy, does business cease to be an Old Believer or not? You have to answer somehow. I answer yes to the first question, and no to the second. If the head of the factory is an Old Believer, then yes, I believe that this is an Old Believer enterprise, although there are certain reservations. By the end of the 19th century, the situation became more complicated, joint-stock companies appeared - more impersonal forms of business management, which did not exist in the middle of the 19th century, or were extremely uncommon. But textiles are still dominated by private business. Even if a joint-stock company is being created, it is still known who the shareholder is: usually it is five families, five dynasties or someone outside, foreigners or from official Orthodoxy - at the end of the 19th century, this all changes.

In the 1850s, the question arose: how many schismatics do we really have? We began to look at what data they provide: every year - the same thing with a slight downward trend. But if you look - who supplies? Bishops. But the bishops report: the struggle is going well - there are fewer and fewer of them. They sent a commission to the places - but there are no criteria here either. It got to the point of absurdity. For example, there was such a Sinitsyn: he came to the Yaroslavl province and wherever he found copper icons in the houses, he believed that they were Old Believers. It turned out that there are 18 times more Old Believers than according to the data of the bishops, which is also wrong, because if a person has a copper icon, then it can simply be folk Orthodoxy, he is not necessarily an Old Believer. Then a criterion was introduced: is there a rosary and how is it baptized. But a person can also be baptized with two fingers, and in church several times with three fingers, while one of the priests is watching. That is, the criteria were very difficult.

In the 19th century, we really see a lot of biographies, when a person lived, and then once - and suddenly he suddenly became rich. Ryabushinsky - it is only for the sake of marriage that he converts to the old faith, the founder of the dynasty, then he rises. We see: a lot of neophytes. The founder of the Preobrazhensky cemetery, Ilya Alekseevich Kovylin, is also a neophyte, and there are a lot of such biographies. People from Guslitsa are known - such an ancient place where people have never been engaged in agriculture, but where there were a lot of crafts - Gzhel is also included there. It was rumored that they were also good at forging banknotes, if necessary, passports.

Trumps of the Old Believers

What is the comparative context for this problem? On the one hand, ethics, on the other, the effect of the persecuted group. What interests economists in such topics? Economists are interested in the homogeneity of the group and the various characteristics of this homogeneity - it is clear that this has certain advantages for trade. The possibility of private settlement of conflicts: if the legal system is not developed, and the community itself, for example, can discount bills or conduct some other transactions or generally guarantee property rights, that is, exercise parallel control. The same goes for the origin of the mafia in Italy, one of the theories is: the aristocracy is gone - the lords are gone, and who are the masters of the land? And then people appear and say: we know how to act. With a strong legal and judicial system, this comparative advantage becomes irrelevant - institutions of trust, reciprocity, big debates on reputation mechanisms - how are they even measured and how do they affect trade and industry? And, of course, all this can be packaged into formulas such as human capital and social capital. For example, education or literacy: it is obvious that the Old Believers were generally more literate than the average peasantry, which is part of official Orthodoxy. Why? We had to conduct the service ourselves, copy the books ourselves. Literacy in this sense was expensive, not everyone could afford it. It took time, effort, and money to learn. Suppose the cow had to be given to the one who taught. Social capital is the relationships that are already formed in communities: an instrument of reputation, trust, and so on. All this can be packaged in different ways, as I said.

How do we know the numbers?

Now very briefly about the data - and move on to the results. In principle, revisions give a lot in terms of understanding belonging to the Old Believers in Moscow. The ninth and tenth revisions took into account religion. According to the results of the ninth audit, 624 families were registered as parishioners of either the non-priest community or the priest's community. Most of the priestly community, somewhere around 85% for this period. The difference between priests and bespopovtsy ranges from 70% to 90%. This is due, among other things, to the fact that the Bespopovtsy advertised their affiliation less, remained in the shadows, because they were officially recognized as more harmful, and feared reprisals.

Very interesting information is given by the synodics. We already know this for sure: since they pray in the church of the Rogozh community, it means that they are definitely Old Believers. There were observations of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, a very interesting document of 1838, in fact, about all significant merchants with a description of their activities. As for industry, they managed to take seven points - it's not so many, but not so few - and get hold of all the data on doing business. For processing, information was used only for six years, the cut-off level was from 10 thousand rubles, because the same accounting was not carried out for all years. Of course, we still need to figure it out, but in general we can say that there is still no more reliable information. Textile factories have data on turnover, number of workers, occupation

This is how industrial information looks like: who, where is located, how many mills, workers, turnover, what produces - by year.

This map shows how important Moscow industry was: we see that with a huge excess, twice, in 1870 Moscow industry is in the lead. Then factories appear in the Vladimir region, in the Ryazan region, of course, in St. Petersburg, but this is somewhat later. By 1832, as a result of this processing, we see that 18% of the textile industry belongs to the Old Believers. The next question is: is it a lot or a little? In principle, given that this is thoroughly confirmed, a lot. In this case, we are talking about 60, if we take the city and counties, and 76 enterprises. They are, of course, different in size. There is no exact data on the number of Old Believers, but estimates fluctuate, starting at 4%. The most optimistic figure is 16% for one of the years. From this you can judge what is happening.

These are general data, they are pro-cyclical, and we see that the upper blue border is the total number of firms, then the dotted pink dash is just the proportion of Old Believer firms. There is some stability, and then a recession. Stability is about 20-25%, then, at the end of the 19th century, there is a decrease. Accordingly, the number of firms remains roughly the same.

If we take the overall data for the textile industry, we see (share is the red line, green dotted line is the labor force) that at some periods there is a comparative advantage in the labor force, that is, they are able to attract significantly more workers. And the share of firms in the total turnover is also subject to such a single cycle. In this case, it is more than 20%, and after 1870 there is a decline.

More specifically, in the wool industry. In the first column here is simply the share of enterprises, then the share in turnover, the share in the labor force. In this table, it is interesting that the share of the employed labor force almost always exceeds the share of firms, that is, there are relatively more workers working there, while the output is relatively higher than the labor force indicator, labor productivity is higher. And this delta is the difference in the median value for the totality of Old Believers and non-Old Believers, Old Believers minus non-Old Believers. In this sense, their average labor productivity per worker is higher. It is clear that this is the “average temperature in the hospital”, because there are some very large enterprises, and there are small ones, but this will still tell us a lot, especially since we are taking not the average here, but the median, and this gives closer to reality. We no longer have this in the cotton industry, and here it is clear that these are mainly small firms with low productivity, and the share will be much higher than the share in terms of turnover. Well, not significantly - depending on the years, sometimes significantly, sometimes it coincides. But here we no longer see the general dynamics. Moreover, by the end of the 19th century, the cotton industry partially left Moscow and the Moscow district, so we see such data. In any case, the Old Believers no longer have any weight here: the Morozovs are already working in the Tver province or in other districts, for example, in Borovsky.

In principle, what we found is that the Old Believers were overrepresented, they had an increased propensity for entrepreneurship, they hired on average more labor in the wool industry, and the enterprises showed high productivity. In general, until 1870 we observe a very stable participation in economic life, then a relative decline.

Waves of repression and cycles of economic activity

How to interpret the fall and how important are empirical data to us in this aspect? It is very interesting to trace the cyclical waves of repression. Some historians write that this is of great importance, because at first there were harsh repressions, almost suffocation, and then weakening. And then moments of weakening, liberalization, respectively, form a special community, institutions appear, and this very moment of persecution leads to the fact that natural selection leaves these close-knit people, the strongest. I am joking about this: for a long time there was no persecution of the Old Believers, so now they are not so noticeable economically. But this is a joke, of course. In principle, already under Nicholas I, they set the task of solving the problem with the Old Believers, but they could not. At the same time, for example, they still awarded medals - there were persecutions and awards at the same time, because who will solve the problems? I came across a document: it is known that the sovereign will go there and there, and then they missed it, the road is broken, because military exercises or something like that took place along it. Who will restore? We turned to the Old Believer merchants. They have restored everything and say: we have only one thing - give us a state diploma that we are so good. Well, they did. Or in Petrozavodsk: the sovereign will arrive - but the embankment is not in order. Who will fix it? And a medal for that too. That is, the history of the appearance of the medal is clear here. There were different interpretations, I probably won't dwell on it.

A more interesting question is how to explain the decline. At first, we see the underdevelopment of market institutions, and then the role of the Old Believers is significant. In general, when personal relationships dominate, Christian ethics are in demand; when legal institutions grow, its role in any case decreases, it becomes marginalized.

For example, honesty: it is clear that honesty is important in trading. By the way, while researching the Old Believer entrepreneurship, I saw that not everything is simple there. Sometimes siblings give each other money by receipt. It would seem: why on receipt - these are brothers. And so that the devil does not get in the way! That is, they gave a receipt - and you can live in peace.

The role of Moscow In the second half of the 19th century, we see the development of joint-stock forms of ownership, that is, impersonal relations, the banking sector; growing number of foreigners. If you look at the St. Petersburg merchant guild, then 40 percent there will be Protestants and Jews, in some periods even more. This is a different picture in terms of the fact that the very nature of business is changing. The role of the state has changed: if in the first half of the 19th century it was not particularly active, then later it is more and more clearly indicated. Therefore, of course, the Old Believers in this sense consciously or unconsciously distance themselves. On the one hand, the state itself is not exactly eager to help them financially, on the other hand, they themselves are retreating. Other areas are developing: railway construction, metallurgy, mining. Well, in general, the role of St. Petersburg is important - as Ryabushinsky wrote, slow-moving Russian men who make decisions measuredly, crossing themselves, die in the atmosphere of St. Petersburg. Here already other personalities come to replace.

Pros and cons of the Old Believer model

The last aspect that I will dwell on is that economic ethics itself has an ambivalent character. It would seem that hard work is good. But to a certain extent. Everything depends on the historical moment, on the ability to adjust and adapt. If at some stage this can contribute to high productivity, then at another stage it preserves labor-intensive production. We work hard and work and work instead of replacing it with machine labor.

Thrift – On the one hand, frugality has promoted self-financing. On the other hand, when it became possible to take bank loans at a low interest rate, thrift could slow down processes, because a habit was formed to live on one's own. When there was no capital market, it was very important.

Trust, but trust in whom - in the elect, in the same Old Believers. It is clear that there may be an interest-free loan, and the availability of labor, but the flip side is a weak integration into the impersonal market process and some even distrust of it. That also hinders development.

Finally, community. On the one hand, it ensures close economic ties, but they are self-contained, segregated. There is a well-known sociological work - "The Power of Weak Ties": the strength of weak ties among the Old Believers is no longer observed, because strong ties dominate. In this sense, one can show the ambivalence of economic ethics, which at different stages can either promote or hinder development.