The Soviet Authority and old-believers: the development of relations in 1920-1930s (on materials of Tomsk county)

The process of relations between soviet authority and old-believers peasants of Tomsk county in 1920-1930s were reconstructed based on party and state documents and oral memories. Author try to explain all reasons for the conversion of regional administration from partnership to confrontation. He paid attention to perception old-believers by local party employees. Old-believers appeared after the Schism in XVII century and were very conservative group of Russian peasantry. So they didn't approve soviet reforms in different spheres of peasants traditional mode of life, in particular collectivization and atheism. They sought to live in a deep taiga in isolation from «profane» peasantry and had specific system of education, prayers and holy books. They were considered as a sacred among the peasants because of their traditions. But in Siberia part of them lived together with «profane» peasants and were involved in the class struggle inspired by bolsheviks. But soviet administration viewed them as a threat for the new order because old-believers influence was wide and their ideas very popular from peasants. This contradiction led to the open conflict and oppression against old-believers. In this policy communists were forced to find secret settlements of old-believers in the taiga, using information from local peasants and destroyed these hermitages.They considered hermitages the centers of counter-revolution, «white bands» and religious propaganda based on the teaching about the Apocalypses and Bolsheviks as a services of Antichrist. Moreover personalities of the communistic party members were very unusual too. A lot of them were young people who believed in ideals of Revolution and viewed old-believers as a alien phenomenon for usual peasants when old-believers were an integral part of traditional society and custodians of his religious customs for several centuries. They hadn't wide experience of social, cultural and economic relationships with old-believers than older people. Most of them educated in cities or arrived from city's committees generally. In this article we tried to describe their attitude toward old-believers in according to party documents, reports, characteristics and photos what made local communists. Author focused on the issue of old-believers as a counter elite group in the regional political relations system. Some of them became heads of regional committees and councils because of their wide influence and authority. Author tried to explain some social and psychological aspects of these processes in order to understand more in social history of the Soviet Union.

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