Dr. Peter Orte Speaks on Russian Old Believers

Dr. Peter Orte, a lecturer of Russian here at the University of Hawaiʻi, talked at Russian Club about his experiences with the Old Believers, a group of Orthodox practitioners that split from the Russian Orthodox church during a series of reforms in the 17th century. These reforms concerned the ritual practices of the Russian church and brought them closer to those of the Greek Orthodox church. After these reforms many of the Old Believers left Russia in search of a new land to cultivate; some went as far as North Africa and the Americas. The group Dr Orte spoke about was a closed community of Orthodox practitioners, numbering in estimates of 2,000 (approximately one fifth of the whole Old Believer population in North America), near Woodburn, Oregon just 30 miles south of Portland. He met this group when attending a conference not too far away.

With the influence of the West becoming increasingly prevalent in Russia at the time, Tsar Aleksei Mikhailovich endorsed a reformation of the Russian Orthodox church started by Patriarch Nikon in the 1640’s and this continued for many years. A large number of practitioners of that refused to adhere to the new church practices were often treated harshly and many of the Old Believers, seeing their country enveloped in chaos, interpreted this transition in the church as the end of times. In 1682, many of the Old Believers that were arrested in previous years began to be executed. While many fled to the nearby Grand Duchy of Lithuania at the time, many others had to find elaborate escape routes to avoid capture.This harsh treatment persisted until Catherine the Great passed an act that granted Old Believers the right to openly practise their faith in 1762.

The community Dr. Orte spoke about, previously referred to as the “Russian Amish” by news articles covering the group, has existed in Oregon since the 1960’s when they migrated. In 2006 the community banded together to form the Russian Old Believer Enactment Services or ROBES to both preserve their culture and spread cultural awareness of the group. 

As someone who grew up in a community with a large Amish population, I readily made the connection between the two groups. It was extremely interesting to hear about such a uniquely devout group of people. One student even drew a parallel to the settlers who came to America in search of religious freedom, relating this historical phenomenon to ourselves to help to contextualize it. Thank you so much to Dr. Orte for the interesting topic and to the people who came for the interesting discussion!

A martyr of the Old Believer movement, Feodosia Prokopiyevna Morozova, is arrested by the Nikonians in 1671. (Boyaryna Morozova by Vasily Surikov, 1887, Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia)