20th-century eschatological essays of the Old Believers

The paper examines 20th-century eschatological essays of the Old Believers, classifies them as the genre of spiritual essays in traditional booklore and determines the origin of this genre. The sources of the research are six essays written in the 20th century by Old Believers of different concords - three were written by chasovennye, two by belokrinitskie, and one by a Pomorian Old Believer. The introduction of the paper is devoted to determining the features of the genre of Old Believer eschatological essays. To do so, the paper uses the analyses of A. A. Panchenko and S.E. Ninkitina on the problems of folk eschatology. The author has verified their conclusions by applying them to the Old Believer essays in question. Although several essays derive from the folk oral tradition (they were recorded in written somewhat later), they must be examined as written artefacts featuring professional commentary on the Holy Scripture. Unlike folklore texts on similar subjects, the Antichrist is clearly personified in the image of Soviet authority. Brief descriptions of each essay are provided. The authors of the essays were S.Ya. Laptev, A.G. Murachev, V.G. Tokmenin, I.G. Usov, N.I. Venediktov. The paper focuses on essays which have not been subjected to intensive study by other researchers. The focus of the article is on the essay "On the decay and terror which have surrounded the Russian land and who is guilty of this", which was written by an anonymous author. It was written in 1905 by a Pomorian Old Believer who lived in the Volga region. It is interesting because this piece was one of the first examples of the genre of the Old Believer political pamphlet: this genre was based on images of the Apocalypse. The events of 1905 changed the Old Believers' attitude to socio-political activity: they turned from mostly passive opposition to active participation in political discussions. The Old Believers combined modern forms of struggle for their interests with traditional ones. Their attitude to modern reality was expressed in medieval forms: this was at the basis of the aforementioned essays. Thus, a series of Old Believer political essays born in the revolutionary events of the 20th century can be traced. Their religious character could not hide their anti-state attitudes. The 1905 essay was one of the first in this series: its criticism of the ruling regime was also one of the softest. Nonetheless, it gave direction to the development of the Old Believer thought.

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