Believer groups were allowed to create compounds in Moscow and St. Petersburg.
Ostensibly established as charitable foundations, they included almshouses, orph-
anages, cemeteries, homes for the elderly and infirm, men’s and women’s dormi-
tories, and, most of all, parish churches and prayer halls where attendance at
services, often daily, was expected. Around these compounds formed de facto
parishes of followers living in various conjugal and celibate living groups, some-
times in groups of women. By the 1790s about 1,000 Old Believers were associated
with the Theodosian compound at Preobrazhenskoe near Moscow. Many disen-
franchised Russians found these communities welcoming, including serfs and in
particular women.
Women had played a leading role in the Old Belief from the beginning, when
elite patrons like Feodosiia Morozova offered wealth and protection for male
preachers before falling foul of state scrutiny and being themselves imprisoned
and martyred. As communities developed over time, women distinguished them-
selves as leaders and were usually the majority population in a given community.
The attraction for women is easy to understand, as Old Belief communities allowed
them to escape the rigors of serfdom, childbirth, childrearing, and patriarchal
control. In priestly communities they were allowed to assist in services; in priestless
ones they could even perform baptisms and penance. Nevertheless, the Old Belief
remained true to Muscovite patriarchy, excluding women from the highest leader-
ship roles.
Old Believer communities, even the priestly ones, communally governed them-
selves by elected lay officers. Some, chosen for practical skills, oversaw provisioning,
physical plant,financial issues, and the like. Priestless communities selected prayer
leaders (nastavniki), chosen for their piety, erudition in scripture, and pastoral
talents; many had served apprenticeships in their communities to earn public
esteem. They led prayer services, acted as spiritual fathers to members of the
community, and issued penitential punishments for infractions. Household com-
munities were also centered around prayer; home chapels were often the largest
rooms in priestless Old Believer households.
Many centers of the Old Belief, including the Vyg settlement and the Moscow
priestly and priestless compounds, were shut down in the 1850s under Nicholas I,
and the faith lived on in tiny, isolated frontier communities. In post-reform (1861)
Russia the Old Belief re-emerged; offshoots emigrated to Turkey, Europe, Canada,
and the United States; some communities managed to survive Soviet repression in
Siberian enclaves.
UNIATE CHURCH
The Uniate Church developed in the Commonwealth of Poland-Lithuania in
response to the Union of Brest (1596). This was the second major attempt by
the Catholic Church to integrate Russian Orthodoxy; a union of 1438–9at
Florence-Ferrara between the Vatican and the hierarchs of Russian Orthodoxy
was motivated by the Pope’s desire to enlist support against the Turks. It never
420 The Russian Empire 1450– 1801