The history of Old Belief is very interesting. At the end of the XVII century (1666), in Rus, people were expecting the end of the world. They were expecting a deviation from Christian Faith and the forthcoming of Antichrist. And when all Rus was full of these expectation, Patriarch Nikon appeared all of a sudden (who was a fine man in general, he was a member of the “bogolubs” (“those, who love God”), he wanted to strengthen the salvational Orthodox Belief, to win over the Catholics in Lithuania and Ukraine).  

But when Nikon started to implement the making of  his universal Orthodox Empire under the auspices of Moscow Tsar and Moscow Patriarch, he launched a modernization. A kind of Eurovision contest to show how socking great we are. And it’s the same: gays came (it’s invariable ) again. Arceni the Greek was a pope legate, and they changed their belief a dozen times, those rascals: they brought sodomy, tobacco trade, started to seduce the political class. It was they who began to re-write books, spoiled all of them.  

And Nikon (having flown into a rage from what he has done, but too late it was, the Greeks have already crossed him out) quarreled with Tsar and was dethroned. And those who were opposing  Nikon were the Old Believers. They were true Russian orthodox folks, successors of the Byzantine belief (orthodox church) and they were loyal to the canons, to the letter and intent of the kingdom of Moscow. To the Russian belief that had been taken from ancients sources, from the first Christians, and that remained safe in Rus even when the Byzantine Empire collapsed.

Power (especially after the 1666 council) got into the hands of not even Nikon, but of all those Greek rascals who had come here. They organized the bloody council of 1666 and 1667, that cursed the old Russian church. It all ended with the abolition of patriarchate, the coming of Peter I, all those western reforms, that finally perverted Russian Orthodox. The Old Believers are those, who are standing on the ancient ground.  

What is interesting, when, in the end of the XIX century, the pressure of the state weakened, Nikon’s followers (Kaptrin, Golybinsky) admitted the Old Believers’ ritual, historic, dogmatic rightness. And in fact, now they can’t be condemned. In 1905 they took advantage on Nikolai II’s edict of toleration and became fully exonerated. The first declaration was in 1928 by Metropolitan Sergi, and in 1971 Old Belief was fully exonerated. In fact, that 1666 council has been our church, and he was terminated. In was crossed, such things happen. 

The importance of Old Belief can not be overestimated. It is enormous. And although the Old Believers are a minority in our society, that is a real, authentic minority. It’s a real Russian valuable jewelry, that is not our elite. Our elite was a band of foreigners, Germans. The Tatars were nice people, and the eastern princes. We practically didn’t have a Russian elite. Who were the Slavophiles? Jusl look: Aksakov, Khomyakov, Kireevsky, Tatar surnames, classical Tatar surnames. A Tatar elite. The elite consisted either of former Tatars, christened Tatars, Russian Tatars, or of Germans. Or Englishmen, the French. We didn’t have a Russian elite at all. The Old Believers are the true, fundamental bearers of authentic Russian spirit.  

So, if we want authenticity, true depth in our elite, we should seek for it in this environment, not in the environment of the degenerated noble family. It’s a frightful sight: some weirdoes arrive, saying “We are descendants of the Galitzines”. You are at sea, you think that they have either degenerated or have been like this all the time. Probably there was a gene of degeneration, or else we wouldn’t have had the revolution, people wouldn’t have rebelled, and they did rebel. What we need is the Russian spirit and real Russian people, of whom there are not many. The majority of the Old Believers ARE such people. 

It’s a golden seed of our people, our ethnos, our culture, our religiousness. That is why Old Belief attracts the minds of people. The church does realize the importance. Of course, members of the synod (with whom I have talked much) support the official ground that Old Belief is as salvational as the Church and its rites may be practiced. Some even vert. A strong, active part of our nation. You will find many young people in the Old Believers’ parishes. People who went to the official church during the Soviet era now accept Old Belief.  

Those who went to Komsomol during the Soviet era, now go to the official church. The most steady, the strongest people who care about their national identity, who remember their roots. I think that Old Belief is Russia’s future, I think that Old Belief is timely, topical as never before. It is a most profound trend in orthodoxy, it carries Ancient Rus, its spirit, its strength, its style, its moral principles.