Down the Kerzhents: Old Believer sketes. Villages that don't exist. "Fragments" of the Old Believers in one photo chronicle Message of the Old Believers in the Nizhny Novgorod province

During a trip down Kerzhents, I tried to find and capture places related to the history of the Nizhny Novgorod Old Believers, and just today we will talk about one of these places.
This hillock, on which the cemetery and the birch grove are located, is completely inconspicuous at first glance, but it is inconspicuous only to people who are not familiar with the tragic events that took place here in 1719. These events once again show how brutally Peter I treated the Old Believers ... This place is located near the village of Klyuchi, which is next to Pafnutovo - a place where there were once many sketes ...

The cemetery is also Old Believer here (like many in the Semenovsky district)

The villages along the Linde River are one next to one. You walk a kilometer, two - another village. Therefore, it was here, in the ancient village of Pafnutovo, that Pitirim, Bishop of Nizhny Novgorod, chose a place for his “dispute”, on the square near the wooden church of the “Three Hierarchs”, built in 1699 as a support of Orthodoxy among the hiding “schismatics”. He, Pitirim, had, as the folk legend says, here “his own man” - the elder Barsanuphius. He delivered to the forests of Kerzhensky a letter to Pitirimov with one hundred and thirty episcopal "tricky" questions.

Archbishop of Nizhny Novgorod and Alatyr Pitirim (c. 1665-1738)

He handed them to the head of the Kerzhensky schismatics - Deacon Alexander, this stubborn tall bearded man with meek blue eyes. They say that Deacon Alexander was a native of the Kostroma province. From a young age, he was occupied with questions about the truth of faith. One day he met the old woman Elizaveta from the Yaroslavl Monastery, who told him: “True faith is found in hidden places, namely in the forests, and everyone who wants to be saved needs to go there, into the deaf forests.” After such words, sunk into his soul, Alexander left his wife, children, the place of deacon at the church and went first to Yaroslavl. There, at the inn, he met the elder Cyriacus and the monk Jonah and went with them to the forests of Kerzhensky.

He lived in different sketes, moved from one to another, teaching and learning himself. In 1709, in the monastery of Lavrentiy, where he was received as a deacon, he was tonsured a monk “according to schism” and admitted to the priesthood. Since that time, his name has become known throughout Kerzhents.

By 1719, when the answers to the questions of Pitirim were ready, Alexander, with his learning, his strength in faith, became the spiritual leader of the Old Believers of the fugitive wing. Therefore, it was he who went to Pitirim to present answers to his "evil" one hundred and thirty questions.

Like thunder from a clear sky, the Kerzhensky sketes spread the news: Pitirim, the seller of Christ, deacon Alexander, put the deacon Alexander in the monastery prison in Nizhny Novgorod while giving him answers. Anger and horror seized the elders and old women of the cells. They wondered what to expect now from him, from the "beast" of this Pitirim. Many went with appeals to the initial elder Macarius, who lived in a cell in the forests of Kerzhensky for advice. Now it is he, Macarius, who will have to answer to the "heretic" and "tormentor" of Nizhny Novgorod, and he has already made an appointment - a dispute for the Feast of the Intercession Holy Mother of God- October 1, 1719.

Deacon Alexander by this time was brought in chains to Pafnutovo. This is how the writer Yuri Prilutsky (aka Priest Pyotr Shumilin of the Church of the Most Holy Life-Giving Trinity in the village of Epiphany) describes the course of the dispute in his story “For the Cross and Faith”, published in 1917:

« Pitirim came out in full dress with icons and banners. In the middle of the square, in front of the church, a lectern was placed on a platform, next to it was a table with a pile of old books in leather bindings ... From somewhere, a hundred guardsmen of the Petrovsky Preobrazhensky Regiment appeared and, mercilessly pushing the crowd aside, made an alley from the village to the square. At the far end, a party of chained skete fathers appeared under escort of a dozen guardsmen with drawn sabers, behind on a black (black) horse rode the captain of the guard Rzhevsky ... Pale, emaciated, with nostrils torn out with crippled faces, in tattered clothes, in blood, with torn beards, but calm, quietly jingling their chains as they walked, the fathers headed for the platform ... Alexander began his speech. But in the very ardor of the speech that had begun, Rzhevsky's heavy fist fell on the head of Deacon Alexander, and he fell to the ground like a mowed down man. ».

Dispute failed. Elected from the Old Believers of various sketes, fearing what they saw with great fear and under the formidable influence of Pitirim, they signed a “report” drawn up by him that the answers of the “Old Believers” of the sketes were incorrect. The first to set an example and signed Judas (traitor) Barsanuphius. After that, Pitirim showed "mercy" and released the detainees. Thus ended the "dispute".

The report with the signatures of the "schismatics" was presented to the emperor himself - Peter I. However, the "triumph of Pitirim" did not last long. The elders, once free, throughout Kerzhenets "exposed" the lies of the Bishop of Nizhny Novgorod. Deacon Alexander, unable to endure this lie, went to the capital in St. Petersburg to the Tsar Peter Alekseevich himself. In the royal mansions, he was captured and "interrogated with passion." Under severe torture, he did not refuse to testify to Pitirim's lie. The stubborn "fanatic" was sent in chains to the Lower Pitirim Court.

At that time, in the region of Nizhny Novgorod, on the Kerzhents River, the passions of the Old Believers were seething, condemning the persecutor of the true faith, the faith of the fathers and grandfathers - Pitirim, for his untruth, for torturing the elders for the sake of signatures. Condemned and feared. They were afraid for nothing. The "slander" of the opposition reached the Pitirim's ears. The priest Macarius, the elders Dositheus and Joseph, and seventeen "zealous" defenders of the old faith were captured. All of them were brought under escort in chains chained to a gentle mountain between the village of Pafnutov and the village of Klyuchi. A large and rather deep hole was dug here, along the edges of which there were posts with crossbars and ready-made rope loops. The “stubborn Old Believers” themselves, with the Jesus prayer on their lips, threw nooses on themselves. A strong push on command and... the end.

Since then, this mountain, where the "Inquisition" took place, is popularly called key mountain(near the village of Klyuchi), and the place where the execution took place - “ Gallows". Now a vast pit with swollen flat edges (the earth has settled) is visible in this place. Through the efforts of the Old Believers who honor the bright memory of the martyrs for the faith of Christ, in the fall of 2003, a large worship cross with a sign was placed on the Gallows. On it is the inscription: Father Macarius and 19 martyrs for ancient Orthodoxy ».

The righteous elder Macarius was recognized as a saint by the Old Believer Church, his name was entered in the Synod (a book in which names are entered for commemoration). We left Deacon Alexander at the moment when we took him to the Pitirim court. And the judgment was fast.

On Annunciation Square in Nizhny Novgorod, near the Dmitrievskaya Tower, with a large gathering of people, the code of 7157 from the creation of the world of the second chapter of the first article was read out: bodies."

Alexander listened to the death sentence calmly, without changing his face. Then they removed the chains from the headless body and set it on fire right here on the square. The remains of the deacon were buried in a children's coffin.
This "deed" committed on March 21, 1720 shocked the entire schismatic world. This was followed by "zoning" and the destruction of the sketes of the Kerzhensky region. The forests of the black forests were deserted. Many zealots of the ancient faith flowed to other places, even beyond the borders of Russia, and those who remained here huddled in the very wilderness, leaving away from sketes and villages ...

Original taken from cheger in Down the Kerzhenets: Old Believer sketes

Of course, talking about Kerzhenets, one cannot help but talk about his Old Believer sketes, which were once very numerous here, but now there is practically nothing left of them. You can see more about them in my journal by tag, the state of many of them is already described there, now I would like to tell you about three new sketes that I managed to find. It will be about Chernukhinsky, Gorodinsky and Yakimov sketes.

The first in line for me was the Chernukhinsky Skete. It turned out to be very problematic to get there, since in fact there is no road there, and the one that exists is torn apart by timber trucks. I had to make my way through these remnants and right through the clearings.

In the “confessional” painting of the Kerzhensky volost of the village of Semenov for 1742, it is said that in addition to settlements and hermitages along the rivers in the Chernoramen forests, cell residents are found in different tracts, and, in particular, there are thirteen of them along the Chernukha River.

In 1764, General Maslov, by order of Empress Catherine II, "ravaged" the sketes along the Vyatka River and evicted about thirty thousand Old Believers from them. Many of the "persecuted" appeared in the Kerzhensky forests and founded their sketes and monasteries. Near one of the cells on the river Chernukha, a verst from the modern village of Medvedevo, the Chernukhinsky Skete of Fugitive Consent appeared in this way. Over the years, it grew, expanded and began to occupy both banks of the river. The laity also lived near the skete, mostly along the right bank. Skete buildings abounded with internal passages, side walls, light rooms, closets, cellars and undergrounds with several exits to the outside. This type of building was developed by life itself in order to hide during sudden searches or to hide what should not be visible.

No matter how complex the system of buildings was, however, it could not save the skete from the “Melnikov ruin” of 1853. Here is how the abbess of the Chernukhinsky Skete, mother Evdoksia, tells about this to the St. Petersburg writer Pavel Usov in 1884. " He (Melnikov) did us a lot of harm. I can't remember him without my heart. As I remember now on the eve of Assumption Day (August 14, old style), when he came to our skete, formidable, stern appeared in the chapel where we were all, and said sternly: “Well, take all your books as soon as possible and leave.” And then sealed our chapel».

Documents testify that in 1853-1857 more than two thousand icons were seized from Chernukhinsky, Ulangelsky, Komarovsky, Olenevsky and other sketes. In total, during the “black” October 1853, 358 residential buildings were broken in the sketes, 741 people were deported, including 164 nuns. After the “visit” of Pavel Ivanovich and his team, one monastery was left in the Chernukhinsky Skete, and there were only five nuns in it. The prayer room was also left. The icons were removed from it, leaving only those that belonged personally to the mother of Eudoxia.

Before the devastation, there were 129 icons on the iconostasis of the prayer room and, in addition, 41 in the refectory. Some of them were transferred to the church of the same faith in the village of Medvedev, and 103 icons were sent to Nizhny Novgorod. 19 icons of the Chernukhinsky Skete in 1860 ended up in the Academy of Arts as the most valuable. One of them, the image of Saint Niphantius, has survived to this day and is kept in the collection of the State Russian Museum. Before the seizure, she was in the refectory of the Chernukhinsky Skete. There is an inscription on the icon, it says that the icon was painted in 1814 by the master Vasily Ryabov in the village of Pavlovo (now the regional center of the Nizhny Novgorod province).

The prayer skete itself was built at the end of the 11th century, during the time of Empress Catherine II, and with the permission of the government, which saved it from destruction. The skete after the “ruin” could not fully recover, but it existed.

Settlers of the Chernukhinsky Skete

The nun, like the abbess herself, at the persuasion of the priest of the Medvedev Church and other hierarchs, refused to accept the common faith, remaining faithful to the faith of her father. Therefore, as a result of the denunciation of the father of the Medvedev Church Myasnikov in October 1881, the prayer room was sealed. In his denunciation to the Nizhny Novgorod Spiritual Consistory, he wrote: In the house of a peasant woman in the village of Chernukha, Elena Osipovna Lesheva (after the tonsure, the mother of Evdokseya), an Old Believer prayer room was arranged... ”To seal the prayer profit, the investigator, the sergeant, the dean priest Myasnikov and fifteen witnesses. Having taken away the early printed books, the remaining family icons in the prayer room and in the residential building of Mother Evdokseya, having sealed the prayer room, they left.

Evdokseya's mother grew up in the village of Nizhnee Resurrection, on the Vetluga River (now the regional center of Voskresensk ours). Nizhny Novgorod region), in the merchant family of Osip Leshev. In early childhood, the girl Elena was sent for education and training to the Chernukhinsky Skete, where after a few years she became abbess, taking the monastic rank.

The abbess of the skete, mother Eudoxia, saw a great injustice in the seizure of the icons, therefore, with a demand - a request she turned to the Nizhny Novgorod authorities to return the selected shrines to her, especially those that belonged to the Leshchev family. In response, she heard that a prison awaits her for the unauthorized arrangement of a prayer room. Realizing that you can’t achieve justice here, she goes to work in the capital St. Petersburg. Thanks to his perseverance, he gets an appointment with the Minister of Internal Affairs of Russia - Count Dmitry Tolstoy. We must pay tribute, the count figured out the essence of the matter and gave the order: “ Prayer to print, as it was arranged with permission».

Here is how Pavel Usov (mentioned above) describes his impressions of visiting the Chernukhinsky Skete: “ On the porch of a wooden one-story house, standing in the middle of a fairly spacious yard, we were met by an elderly woman, laying down in her sixties, of medium height, slender, with lively intelligent eyes. She was wearing a sundress made of dark calico, of a special cut, clean, tidy... She had a small black cap on her head, it looked like a black bandage... Finally Elder Eudoxia led us to the door, which was locked with several locks. When it was opened, we found ourselves in a vast room, backside which was lined with icons up to the ceiling... Among the icons, the most remarkable is the icon of the Savior of the old letter, belonging to the mother of Eudoxia, in whose family it is passed down from generation to generation. These generations also passed on the legend of this icon to one another, that it was never given into the hands of the "Nikonians" when they tried to remove it from the place where it was located.».

Judging by these notes by Pavel Usov in 1884, justice has triumphed. The icons of Mother Eudoxia were returned. Back at the end of the 19th century. Matushka Evdoksia complained to the Petersburger Usov that among the current female generation there are few women willing to devote themselves to monastic life and that the sketes have become sparse in population. Gradually, for various reasons, skete life died down not only in Chernukh, but throughout Russia. A particularly strong blow was dealt during the years of Soviet power, although the Chernukhin Old Believers fought for a long time for survival, for the purity of their faith. Seeing the machinations of Satan in the "victories" of civilization, they lived until the end of their days without radio, without electricity. From time immemorial they got up here at sunrise and went to bed at sunset. On long winter evenings, their dwellings were illuminated by a candle and a lampada in front of the images of the Saints. And instead of news and films, there were reading old printed books and singing the psalms of the Psalms.

Chernukhinsky Skete

In 2005, the last two houses stood here in Chernukha. One was sold and taken away. The second burned out. In 2004, the last inhabitant of this village, Zhirnova Tatyana Fedorovna, left the former settlement of Chernukha, moving to live in Medvedevo with her niece. Tatyana Fedorovna, as it were, returned to her homeland, she was born here, in Medvedev, in 1916. In 1937 she married in Chernukha and, consider, she lived there all her life. From her words, two cemeteries remained from the skete. One is old, on the left bank of the river. They buried there from the foundation of the skete to the ruin of Melnikov (until 1853). Now there is a deaf forest, not even crosses have been preserved: “you don’t know - and you won’t find it.”

The second - more "fresh", located on the right bank of the river, along the Zuevskaya road. They are almost opposite each other, across the river, half a kilometer from the village. On the second there are crosses and fences. The last burial was about ten years ago, although the cemetery itself is also old.

So one of the conductors of ancient piety died out - the Chernukhinsky Skete. This was facilitated by: in 1720 - the ruin of Pitirim, in 1853 - the ruin of Melnikov, in 1930 - the Soviet ruin. These years were the years of life tragedies of the inhabitants of the sketes, but these same years were the years of the greatness of their spirit, their steadfastness in their faith.

Remains of a fence

Once there was a pond

In search of a cemetery, I drove a little into the forest and came across a large plot. The forest here, as elsewhere in the Volga region, is cut down in full. And here is such a wilderness that as soon as I got out of the car to take a picture, a huge hare rushed past me literally 20 meters away. I did not manage to find a cemetery, because the wilderness, as I said, is utterly utter!

There used to be houses here...

If you go from Semenov to Krasnye Baki, then between the Zakharovo platform and the Kerzhenets station on the left side of railway you can see the ancient Yakimiha. Few people know about this village, but it has existed for three hundred years. For the first time, there is a mention of her in the list of Old Believer sketes and cells of the Kerzhensky volost for 1718 under Tsar Peter I. It is written about her: "near the mill of Joachim - there are two cell residents." Where Joachim came from, and in our opinion, in the present Yakim, no one knows now, only God knows about that. It is known, however, that on a small river called Ozerochnaya he set up a water mill and ground rye and oat grain, providing the surrounding villages with flour: Dorofeikha, Kirillovo. Kondratievo. Over the years, next to the cell, the dwelling of Yakim (Joachim), other newcomers were built and a skete was formed. All of them professed the "ancient" faith. faith of fathers and grandfathers, which means they were Old Believers. The spiritual center in those places was the village of Kondratevo, which is two versts from Yakimikha. Pop schismatic Yakov Krasilnikov headed the life of the Old Believers. He had his own prayer room, where Old Believers came from all over the area to hold services on Sundays and holidays. In Yakimikha itself, Marfa Martynova was famous for her righteousness of life and book learning, who also had a prayer room in her house.

In 1898, according to legend, the house of the priest Yakov in Kondratiev burned down, and the prayer room also burned down. Why the fire started is not known. Some said that Yakov himself was to blame, he handled the fire carelessly, others said that the “cellar” set it on fire (that is, the children). I decided for safety, while the new house was being built, to take it to Yakimikha to the prayer room of Martha Martynova.

By chance, for the sake of fire, the parishioners began to go to the charitable service, not as before in Kondratievo, but in Yakimikha, in the house of Martha. They go for a month, two months, six months. During this time, parishioners fell in love with yakimikha prayers. Yes, they fell in love so much that the entire former parish of Father Yakov moved to this village, and the parish is not small, 17 villages, if you count with Yakimikha. Bystrena, Belasovka, Dorofeikha, Kondratievo, Kirillovo, etc., about eight hundred parishioners. The prayer room of Mother Martha, as the people began to call her, turned out to be cramped, and in 1902 they cut down the altar, and made a porch in front of the entrance. A dome (a small dome) and a cross brought from Nizhny Novgorod were attached to the top of the prayer room. Martha herself, for the convenience of living, was cut into a separate room. Now the prayer room looked just like a church, even the bells were installed.

It would seem that everything is going well, but life is life. They reported to the authorities in the county town of Semyonov that in the small village of Yakimikha, a “hornet's nest”, “a nest of schismatics”, which does not respect the Orthodox Church, is expanding and growing. On the basis of this denunciation, in 1904 a bailiff came here. He drew up a protocol on the unauthorized construction of a prayer room and on illegal "thieves'" services in it. Marfa was interrogated, but the case did not reach the court, the bailiff's protocol remained without consequences. While the proceedings were going on, the year 1905 came, and in this year the Tsar - Emperor Nicholas II issued a decree on freedom of religion. On the basis of this decree, the Old Believers of the Yakimikhinsky parish were officially registered as an Old Believer religious community in the name of the Assumption of the Most Holy Theotokos. At a general council of believers in the community, the priest from Kondratiev, Yakov Krasilnikov, was still elected rector. However, either due to old age, the priest was already about seventy years old, or he had made a fine before the church hierarchs, but in 1912 he was removed from service. Instead of him, they put a young, forty-four-year-old father, Naum (Burlachkov). He was originally from Maly Zinoviev, and led the priesthood in Kovernino.

With his arrival in Yakimikha, the church service revived. The number of parishioners increased to two thousand. Before the First World War in 1914, trouble suddenly came. In the afternoon, Father Naum performed the rite of baptism of an infant. After finishing the service, the church was closed and they went home. And in the evening the church was gone. The fire destroyed everything. They said it was the sexton's fault. When he kindled the censer and fanned it, a small ember sunk under the floorboard, but due to absent-mindedness he did not notice.

In that fire, ancient icons and ancient liturgical books burned, and after all, their ancestors, fathers, grandfathers and great-grandfathers, the pillars of the faith of ancient times, prayed to those icons. The saddened parishioners with Father Naum at the common parish cathedral decided not to restore this church, but to build another one in a new place, outside the outskirts, a hundred meters from the village. Through the efforts of Father Naum and the elder of the prayer house, Varenkov, log cabins were bought and construction began. Bishop Innokenty came from Nizhny Novgorod to the laying of the temple, who laid the first stone and erected a cross where the throne should stand (He stands in the altar).

By Assumption Day (August 28), the church was erected, and by the Nativity of the Virgin (September 21), the bell saved from the old prayer bell was raised to the belfry. They say that during the fire, when the prayer room was on fire, one of the parishioners, risking his life in order to save the shrine, removing it from the bell tower on fire, was badly burned, but he remained alive and saved the bell. God did not give offense, it's a sacred thing. The service was conducted in a new consecrated temple to the sound of a fire-scorched bell. Icons and church books were found by the brothers in faith in the surrounding villages, which they donated for the common good to the newly built church. Benefactors from Semyonov and Nizhny Novgorod did not leave me in trouble.

The years have come Soviet power. Due to the agitation of godless atheists, repressions and threats from the authorities, the number of parishioners has sharply decreased. By 1930, only two to three hundred remained. In 1939 the temple was completely closed. Priest Naum, at the age of seventy, was arrested. Icons, as the old-timers said, were sent from the temple to heat the school. Since then, the Old Believers "went underground", began to pray at home secretly so that the authorities would not find out.

Now is the 21st century. Religious freedom again. But time has gone. There was practically no one to pray in Yakimikha.

If you decide to visit this small but beautiful village, the homeland of Yakimov and Marfinin, then when you approach it, on the left side you will see a cemetery, it is new, it has only about a hundred beds. On it is a brick foundation overgrown with weeds. These are the remains of the former temple, built after the fire. Bow to them. In the village itself, as a reminder of the turbulent life, there are centuries-old lindens that have grown on the resting place near Marfina prayer house, which burned down in the old days. It seems that these lindens tell us, who live now, about life - the life of fathers and grandfathers, who often sacrifice their lives for our better lot, for our salvation.

Cemetery

People living right next to these places, no one knows about the glorious history of their village and were very surprised when I told them all this.

Well, the last skit where I went - Gorodinsky

On the high Kerzhensky coast between the villages of Merinovo and Vzvoz, in times far from us, the Cheremis tribe lived. So in the past years, modern Mari were called. The places are nice here. There is a lot of game in the forests. Partridges and black grouse, like chickens, walked around the huts. The river is full of fish, even a bucket scoop. Around herds of deer, elks and other living creatures of all kinds. The Mari lived, rejoicing in the sun, glorifying nature and their gods. Over time, the settlement increased so much that the surrounding tribes began to call this settlement a city. So they said: “the city where Mary lives” - the Mari, therefore, or simply the city of Mary.

Probably, a town with such a beautiful name would still exist if it were not for the sudden attack of enemies - wild Tatars. Like animals, without measure hungry, they attacked and overnight destroyed everything that had been created for years, and maybe centuries. Buildings in a tornado of fire went to heaven. Some people were taken in full, others were cut down with curved swords. Many fell in an unequal battle. A sad picture was revealed to those who returned from hunting from the surrounding forests, and to those who came from other settlements.

First of all, they collected the remains of their fellow tribesmen - their relatives and laid them on the temple for the burial ceremony near the sacred grove. Having poisoned the souls of the dead along with the smoke of the funeral pyre for "heavenly residence", they began to think about a new place for the survivors. The city of Mary is deserted. Only the ashes and the grave mound above the ashes of their ancestors reminded of the past. According to the rules of that time, they could not stay here, since the law of their ancestors forbade building on the site of a conflagration for three years. They chose a new place higher but Kerzhentsu at a steep bend, where the village of Merinovo now stands. The name of the settlement was left the same - Mary, only they gave an explanation that it was new. So Mary turned out - new or Merinovo. Such is a beautiful, but dramatic legend - a legend about the emergence and decline of the city of Mary in the 12th - 13th centuries.

Another legend, as it were, continues the story and takes us to the 15th-16th centuries. She claims, after the ruin of Macarius - the Yellow-haired Monastery, that at the mouth of Kerzhets, in 1439, the surviving monks, together with the righteous Macarius, went "saving their bellies" to the top of Kerzhensky. Where, tired, they stopped to rest after a difficult journey, they erected a cell for living. After resting and gaining strength, Macarius and his brethren continued on their way, and in the cell they left one of their companions, Orthodox monks, for the sake of eradicating paganism in these places and establishing Christianity. Here, in a furnished cell, in the place where the town of Mary was two centuries ago, Gabriel was left. Soon a skete was formed at his monastery. A wooden church was erected. From here, the Orthodox faith, the Christian faith, began to spread. locals, remembering that there was a city here, albeit cheremiskhshy, they called this place Gorodinka, and therefore the founded skete began to be called Gorodinsky. Righteous monk Gabriel, seeing the increase in the number of his followers, left the skete and moved up the Kerzhents, founding there another monastery - a settlement that now bears his name - Gavrilovka.

By the end of the 17th century, as legend says, the entire district was Orthodox. Paganism, as a religion, was eradicated in past centuries. Those who did not agree to accept the faith of Christ were forced out into the forests of Vetlugirskn and to Vyatka. In the regions of Merino they honored the precepts of Elder Gabriel, they were baptized with two fingers, religious processions they performed according to the Sun, divine services were held according to old-printed books, and therefore, when Nikon’s novelties broke out, they did not accept them. They rejected changes in rituals and prayers with all their hearts. They remained faithful to the precepts of their ancestors, the righteous I Avril and Macarius - the holy elder.

Both the provincial authorities and the Bishop of Nizhny Novgorod were concerned, and therefore in 1720, in order to eradicate the “hornet nests” of the “schismatics”, it was decided to transfer the old dilapidated church from the Gorodinsky skete, which was closed, to a new place, to a spring, up Kerzhents. That spring with the purest spring water has long been revered by the locals as a saint and, as they said, healed many from diseases. Near the spring, in a free place, several peasant huts "poor living" huddled.

Now, with the construction of a new, rebuilt church, this settlement has become a village called Pokrovsky, since the church was consecrated on the day of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos.
Since that time, the Old Believers became less and less every year, as in the old days of the pagans. History repeats itself. Now on the site of the Gorodinsky skete is the Merinovskoye cemetery. It was able to put to rest and reconcile the pagans - the Mari and the Old Believers, and both of them with the new Orthodox. Here everyone is equal before each other, and in their deeds and before God.

Found here "shelter", according to legend, the pagans of the XII - XIV centuries, the Old Orthodox Old Believers of the XV - XVIII centuries, find "shelter" contemporaries of our XXI century. In that shelter, all are one and the faith is south. Everyone has their own sins.

House holes are still visible

From the high hill where the skete once stood, Kerzhenets is still visible - before, I think, there were no trees here and there was an excellent view of the river, and a path winded along the slope to it, along which they carried water ...

Next time I will definitely tell you about the oldest of all Zavolzhsky sketes - Olenevsky.

The text of the book "Sketes of the Kerzhensky Territory" by A. Mayorov was used

In the 17th century, a movement of “God-lovers” appeared in Russia, who fought for the purity of morals and for the supreme power of the church in society. Among them was the future Patriarch Nikon and chief thinker of the Old Believers Avvakum. Both of them were from the Nizhny Novgorod region. By the middle of the 17th century, a split occurred among the religious spiritual leaders. Nikon, approaching the king Alexey Mikhailovich and becoming the patriarch of Russia, carried out a reform Orthodox Church. Part of the Orthodox, inspired by Archpriest Avvakum, did not accept the reform and adhered to the old faith and rituals, for which they were persecuted. Hiding from persecution, the Old Believers went to the trans-Volga dense forests, where they set up their sketes - secluded settlements of the monastic type.

Grigorovo is the native village of Archpriest Avvakum. A photo:

In the footsteps of the Old Believers

Programmer Anton Afanasiev was born in Sukhumi, moved to the Nizhny Novgorod region, in his words, "in a conscious childhood." But it so happened that, having read in his youth "In the Woods" and "On the Mountains" Melnikov-Pechersky, became seriously interested in the history and ethnography of the Old Believer regions. Anton travels around the region, looking for places of former settlements, studying history and life, and talks about it in his illustrated blog. Two of his hobbies - photography and travel - came in handy for a lot of research. It's almost ethnography, only amateur. And popular - his blog already has eight thousand subscribers.

Anton Afanasiev is an ethnographer blogger. Photo: AiF / Elfiya Garipova

“Not much is known about the life of the Nizhny Novgorod Old Believer sketes,” says Afanasiev, “so I decided to study these places and see what is happening on the lands of the Old Believers.”

For the first time, Afanasyev heard the word "skit" when he began to engage in treasure hunting. Many diggers liked to wander around with metal detectors in the area of ​​the Old Believer settlements, so Anton immediately got the impression that these were rich places.

“Finding the remains of sketes is quite difficult,” says Afanasiev. - Local residents often do not even know that they live next to the former sketes: after all, sometimes only a dilapidated cemetery remains from them. Often local shepherds helped in the search: they turned out to be one of the few who knew where the settlements of the Old Believers were located.

In places where entire settlements used to exist, now there are wastelands with rare crumbling buildings. Photo: From the personal archive of Anton Afanasyev

For several seasons, the blogger traveled to almost all the sketes and found the descendants of local Old Believers. Someone continues to adhere to the faith of their ancestors, someone has long forgotten about the principles of the Old Believers.

Anton at first thought that it would be difficult to photograph the Old Believers: “At first glance, they are rather secretive people and do not let strangers near them. But no. They are ready to communicate."

Cultural monuments are gradually falling into disrepair, even when they are under protection. Photo: From the personal archive of Anton Afanasyev

Surviving skit

Afanasiev managed not only to photograph the people themselves, but also to film the service in the only surviving and functioning Nizhny Novgorod skete - Malinovsky. It was built at the end of the 19th century with money the richest merchant-industrialist Nikolai Bugrov(the same one who owned the doss house in Nizhny Novgorod, known as the prototype of the doss house from Gorky's play "At the Bottom"). In the Soviet period, auxiliary utility rooms were arranged in the church of the skete. Now almost all the frescoes have been completely restored, since since July 1994 the complex of the Malinovsky Skete has been taken under state protection as a monument of history and culture of regional significance.

Church choir of the Malinovsky Skete. Photo: From the personal archive of Anton Afanasyev

In the city, Anton rarely goes to church, and in the Malinovsky skete, a desire appeared to watch the service. Knowing that the Old Believers, as a rule, do not allow anyone other than fellow believers to go further than the porch, the photographer stood there and watched the service begin.

Worship is going on. Photo: From the personal archive of Anton Afanasyev

“One woman from the church shop saw me,” says Anton. - She turned out to be a wife Father Alexandra who performed the service. She offered me to enter, write a note about health and even take pictures of the interiors and the service itself, which I didn’t count on at all! Obviously, my interest in what was happening played a role. They even invited me to dinner after the service.”

Lunch after service. Photo: From the personal archive of Anton Afanasyev

Dump in the cemetery

The situation with the restored Malinovsky skete is rather exceptional: in the place of most of the Old Believer sketes, only crosses rise. Only they remind that once there was not only a cemetery, but also a rich settlement.

There are many crosses of the Old Believers, and there are almost no Old Believers themselves. Photo: From the personal archive of Anton Afanasyev

“The locals hardly remember the Old Believers,” says Afanasiev. “As I was told in one of the villages, already in the late 70s of the last century there were no people who could really tell the visitor about the sketes and show them.”

In the village of Sharpan Afanasiev was looking for a grave Old Believer Father Nikandry found in a local cemetery. But in the place of the elder’s semi-dugout, Anton was unpleasantly struck by an impromptu dump, which finally buried the old logs of the monastery, dug into the ground. And this is despite the fact that this place is officially under state protection (document on acceptance for state protection No. 219 - author's note).

There are practically no Old Believers left in Sharpan. For example, the former teacher Nina Aleksandrovna had all her ancestors Old Believers, but she no longer considers herself one of them. Although he still keeps Old Believer icons at home.

"Kill for an icon"

“This grandmother told me that buyers deceive lonely old women,” says Afanasyev. - People come from the city and voluntarily-compulsorily exchange old icons for remakes. I ask why you agree. He answers, we are afraid, they say: they will come at night, rob or kill for these icons. It is clear that these grandmother's icons are grossly cashing in. They take away not only icons, but also preserved church utensils. At first, the old women also looked at me with suspicion: is it not a junk dealer?

Nina Alexandrovna, a descendant of the Old Believers, is afraid of the buyers of icons. Photo: From the personal archive of Anton Afanasyev

The churches of the Old Believers are mostly destroyed by time and the barbaric attitude of those around them. For example, in the former Old Believer community The Budilikha church is already in disrepair: boards are being pulled apart for fences, and the dome has been lying on the ground for a long time.

Ruined church in Budilikha. Photo: From the personal archive of Anton Afanasyev

The situation is the same in the ancient village of Martynov: the church is destroyed and is in a terrible state. A little time will pass, and only a pile of old boards and logs will remain from it. If they don't get ripped off.

“They say that there is nothing and no one to restore these churches,” Afanasiev shakes his head, “they say that there are fewer and fewer Old Believers here every year – they are all young or in Orthodoxy, or not believers at all.”

The church onion is lying on the ground. Photo: From the personal archive of Anton Afanasyev

Church - on bricks

Anton Afanasiev not only studies historical places with great attention, but also takes a keen interest in people living in abandoned, remote corners of the region. Here he finds subjects for his photographs.

Anton talks about meeting a bearded man stoker Sergei and his partner, shows photos. Stokers heat the local school, which is located in the former noble estate Berdnikov. To heat the school and the teacher's house, they must drag and burn 12 wheelbarrows of coal every day. Sergei told Afanasyev that in the courtyard of this former estate there used to be two marble steles - Berdnikov himself and his wife.

Kochegar Sergey is a resident of the northern regions of the Nizhny Novgorod region. Photo: From the personal archive of Anton Afanasyev

“So, according to Sergei, in the early 90s, both steles were “taken away” somewhere,” says Afanasiev. - And then there was a rumor that the son of this very Berdnikov, a serious businessman from France, intends to visit his native places! And he even thinks about a joint venture in his father's homeland: he wanted to restore the local factory. Sergei said, they say, they were frightened, the whole village was looking for these steles: it’s uncomfortable in front of a foreign guest. And they did find it! Lying in someone's backyard."

In the north of the region, people live in poverty - people do not care about preserving the cultural heritage. Photo: From the personal archive of Anton Afanasyev

The steles were returned to their original place. Only there was nothing to restore: the walls of the factory had long been dismantled, the local church too.

Anton tells how in the region, far from more or less large cities, signs of desolation are visible everywhere: devastation is all around, there is almost no work. Everything that can be pulled into bricks.

Young people leave, old people stay. Photo: From the personal archive of Anton Afanasyev

Returning to the conversation about the sketes, Afanasiev sighs: “Of course, I am not an ethnographer, although I am now getting a second - historical - education. I just photograph what I see and try to describe what still remains. I understand: time does a lot for the destruction of Old Believer settlements. But if they had been properly cared for, surely much could have been preserved for posterity. And maybe it's not too late yet?

Our land gave Russia in the XVII century. the main leaders of the schism - Patriarch Nikon and Archpriest Avvakum.

The future head of the church, Nikita Minin, was born into a peasant family in the village of Veldemanovo, Knyagininsky district, Nizhny Novgorod district, in 1605. Left without a mother, at the age of twelve he went to the Makaryevsky monastery, but then he married and took the priesthood. However, the death of his children prompted him to divorce and seek a strict monastic life in the North. His religious zeal, and energy, and inflexibility were manifested there. He was forced to leave one skete, and in another hermitage he was elected hegumen a few years later.

Portrait of Nikon in "Titular" 1672

Nikon's rapid ascent began after his trip to Moscow and acquaintance with Alexei Mikhailovich in 1646. He made an impression on the young king, became his spiritual mentor and friend. The place of hegumen of one of the Moscow monasteries, then the metropolitan see in Novgorod and, finally, the election of the patriarch in 1652. - these are the steps of Nikon's dizzying career.

In Moscow at that time, for several years now, a circle of “zealots of ancient piety” had been noticeable, who, like Nikon, advocated strict adherence to the commandments of Orthodoxy and the goodness of church rituals. A notable "zealot of piety" was another Nizhny Novgorod resident, Avvakum Petrov. He was born into the family of a priest in the village of Grigorov in the Nizhny Novgorod district in 1620, married at the age of twenty and also became a priest. Avvakum did not go into his pocket for a word and cut the truth right in the eyes, making enemies both among high-ranking people and among ordinary people. But sincerity, conviction and firm adherence to principles found supporters and intercessors for him. He received the rank of archpriest (protopope) in Yuryevets-Povolzhsky, from there he left for Moscow, where he led the opposition to the reform begun by Nikon in 1653.

The change in rather minor details of church rites (baptism with three fingers, not two, three “Hallelujah!” at the end of the prayer instead of a double one) caused a real split in Russian society. The resistance to reform can be explained by an unusual commitment to antiquity for our days. It is not difficult to notice among the "schismatics" and indignation at the harsh rule of Nikon, who became a real church autocrat. Having approved the new liturgical rules at a church council, he punished anyone who disagreed with exile and deprivation of dignity. Church discipline replaced piety for him.

Patriarch's handwritten signature: "Humble Nikon, by the grace of God, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia"

However, the main reason for the split should be sought in mass dissatisfaction with the hardships of worldly life. The growth of taxes and duties, illnesses and other disasters answered the preaching of the Old Believers: they say that Orthodoxy is persecuted, the servants of the Antichrist are in power, and the end of the world is already coming. In the dense forests, the schismatics were looking for a life not only pious and harsh, but also free.

The persecution of ecclesiastical and secular authorities was distinguished by unparalleled cruelty. Avvakum spent the rest of the years in exile and prisons: a journey on foot through all of Siberia, imprisonment in chains or in an earthen pit succeeded each other. Meanwhile Nikon in 1658. lost royal intimacy, and, offended, left the patriarchal service in the monastery. Aleksei Mikhailovich even brought Avvakum back from exile and sought his favor. But at the same time, the tsar and the church continued the reform begun by Nikon, and Avvakum continued the denunciation of the "Nikonian heresy." New cards followed.

In 1681 died, returning from exile, Nikon, and April 14, 1682. was burned alive with two comrades Avvakum - because he continued to oppose the church and blasphemed the already deceased king.

The life of Archpriest Avvakum, written by him in conclusion, remains a monument to the elder - one of the best works of literature of the 17th century. And the dense forests of the Nizhny Novgorod region for many years became a refuge for thousands and thousands of Old Believers.

Nizhny Novgorod Region and Nizhny Novgorod historically, they are the second center of the Russian Old Believers after Moscow. Currently, about 50 Old Believer buildings and places revered by Old Believers are known in the region.

The Nizhny Novgorod land played an important role in the historical drama - the schism of the Russian church. Notable schismatics such as Archpriest Avvakum, Bishop Pavel Kolomna, Sergiy Nizhegorodets, Alexander Deacon, - all of them were born within the Nizhny Novgorod land. Also born in Nizhny Novgorod Patriarch Nikon, who became one of the founders of the schism of the church.

The Nizhny Novgorod region still continues to be one of the centers of the Russian Old Believers.

The real value of the architecture of the early twentieth century is St. Nicholas Church, which is located in the city of Semenov, as well as the village of Grigorovo in the Bolshemurashkinsky district is on the list of historical places: archpriest Avvakum was born and raised in this force.

Research of Old Believer places and monuments

Many scientists studied the details of the life and culture of the Old Believers in the Nizhny Novgorod lands, but the researchers could not get into the attention of the immovable places that were directly related to the Old Believer movement (sketes, churchyards, spiritual places).

So, in the early 90s, in the Nizhny Novgorod region, there were more than 1200 historical monuments, but only one of them was under state protection, since only those monuments of the cultural and spiritual life of the people that were deprived of their fundamental essence and spirituality fell under state protection. filling. And the places of mass pilgrimage, the graves of saints, pious ascetics, as well as religious shrines were not taken into account at all.

Since the 90s, Nizhny Novgorod scientists have been keeping records of the monuments of the Nizhny Novgorod Old Believers and Old Believer cultural and spiritual places: hermitages, cemeteries, revered graves, which are located in Semenovsky, Borsky and other areas.