Old Believers in North America

A short feature on the Old Believers in Nikolaevsk, Alaska from a 2009 episode of The Today Show.

 

Audio

Arinushka (artist). Old Faith. Staraia vera. Composed and arranged by Linas Rimsa. West Sussex, England; Clearwater, FL: ARC Music, 2014, compact disc.

Billington, James H.; Hammer, Armand; Pell, Claiborne; Quayle, Marilyn T.; Gorbacheva, Raisa Maksimovna. Opening Reception at the Library of Congress for the Exhibition Living Traditions of Russian Faith, Books and Manuscripts of the Old Believers. Recorded May 31, 1990. Washington, DC: Library of Congress RYB 7484, 1990, audiocassette.

Ensemble vocal des Vieux-Croyants de Moscou. Chant liturgique des Vieux-Croyants de Russie: Liturgical chant of the Old-Believers in Russia. Paris: Buda Musique 822732, 2003, digital recording, 70 min.

Music of the Nekrasov Cossacks. Various artists. Recorded 1982-1983,1986, and 1990. Moscow: Melodiia, 2010, compact disc,67 min.

Mussorgsky, Modest Petrovich. Khovanshchina. RAI Orchestra and Chorus, Roma. Nicolai Ghiaurov, Cesare Siepi, Fiorenza Cossotto, et al. Conducted by Bogo Leskovich. Recorded November 1, 1973. Portland, OR: Allegro OPD-1247, 2000, 3 compact discs.

Naturalization Ceremonies. Recorded June 19, 1975 and April 30, 1979. Alaska: [no publisher identified], 1975-1979, 2 audiocassettes.

Nekrasov Cossacks, The. Old Believers: Songs of the Nekrasov Cossacks. Compiled by Margarita Mazo. Recorded in 1989-1990. Smithsonian/Folkways SF 40462, 1995, digital recording. This entire album is available here on YouTube.

Peskov, Vasilii. Lost in the Taiga: One Russian Family’s Fifty-Year Struggle for Survival and Religious Freedom in the Siberian Wilderness. New York: Doubleday, 1994, DAISY Digital Talking Book.

Pesni semeiskikh Ukyra. V. L. Kliaus and various performers. Moskva: Rossisskii nauchno-issledovatel’skii institut kul’turnogo i prirodnogo naslediia imeni D. S. Lickacheva, 2001, compact disc.

Russian Wedding Songs. Russkie devishnye pesni. Nikolevsk, AK: Nikolaevsk Publishing Company, 1989, audiocassette.

Russkie starovery iz shtata Oregon [Russian Old Believers from Oregon (USA)]. Various performers. Sankt-Peterburg: Bomba-Piter, 2011, 2 compact discs.

Shchedrin, Rodion Konstantinovich. Boiarynia Morozova: The Life and Suffering of Boiarynia Morozova and her Sister Princess Urusova. Russian Choral Opera in Two Parts for Four Soloists, Mixed Choir, Trumpet, Timpani, and Percussion. Translated by Natasha Ward. New York: Hal Leonard, 2008. 167 pp.

Sinie lipiagi. Village of Blue Linden Trees: South Russian Wedding. Recorded by Irina Raspopova and Jovan E. Howe in May and June 1993. Leiden, Netherlands: Pan Records, 1996, compact disc, 73 min.

Smirnov, Valerii Vladimirovich. Partesnoe penie: put’ v prelest’. Sankt-Peterburg: Skifiia, 2011, book with accompanying compact disc.

V odnom prekrasnom meste... : nardodnye pesni, romansy chastushki sela Nizhneirginskoe Krasnoufimskogo raiona Sverdlovskoi oblasti. Compiled by L. V. Popova. Recorded in 2002 and 2014. Ekaterinburg: Tsentr traditsionnoi narodnoi kul’tury Crednego Urala, 2016, musical score with accompanying compact disc.

Wood, Alan. Archpriest Avvakum and the Russian Church. Cardiff: Drake Educational Associates Exeter Tapes, Russian Studies Section, R790, 1979, audiocassette.

 

Film

Allione, Costanzo; Landes-Levi, Louise; Dudka, Nicolai; Tsirendashiev, Bair; D'Arista, Sicilia. Savohina: A Siberian Old Believer. New York: Mystic Fire Video, 1997. VHS, 30 min.

• Savoniha tells about her life and how she was persecuted for her religious beliefs.

Allione, Costanzo; Norbu, Namkhai; Suren, Kandro. Where the Eagles Fly: Portraits of Women of Power. New York: Mystic Fire Video: 1995. 5 VHS cassettes, 180 min.

• Film depicts the respective beliefs and rituals of women of various faiths, including a Russian Old Believer.

Fomina, Varvara. Ethics of Documentary Filmmaking in Theory and Practice. Columbia, MO: University of Missouri, 2014. 27 pp.

• As part of a study aimed to look at how documentary filmmakers formulate their professional code of ethics, V. Fomina produced a six minute documentary film about the Old Believers in the Willamette Valley, Oregon. That film is included as a supplement to the e-book; both the text and the film are available here to view.

Hixon, Margaret. Old Believers. Virginia: Folkstreams, 1981. DVD, 29 min.

• Shows how the Russian Old Believers of Oregon's Willamette Valley have preserved their way of life. Observes how, as two families prepare for a wedding and its community celebration, religious ritual intertwines with a rich folk tradition.
• Available online through Folkstreams.

Litvinov, Petr; Varaksina, Valentina; Elders from the Durakovka River [Startzi s reki Durakovka]. Krasnoyarsk: Krasnoyarsk State TV & Radio Company, 2002. VHS, 15 min.

• A documentary about members of the Old Believers—a Russian Orthodox sect that left the church in 1666, in the face of state-issued church reforms -- who found a hiding place in Krasnoyarsk region of Russia, the perfect place to protect their traditions from outside influences.

Maltsev, Misha and Howard, Keith. Siberia at the Center of the World. Music, Dance, and Ritual in Buryatia. Filmed in June 2001 and July 2006. London: SOAS, University of London: AHRC Research Centre for Cross-Cultural Music and Dance Performance, 2008. DVD, 61 min.

• Focuses on the music, dance and ritual of Buryatia, within the Russian Federation, to the east of Lake Baikal, the home of the Buryats.

Mussorgsky, Modest Petrovich. Khovanshchina. A production of Unitel in co-production with Classica in cooperation with Bayerische Staatsoper; staged, directed, and designed by Dmitri Tcherniakov. Recorded July 10 and 14, 2007. Berlin: Medici Arts, 2009. Bluray disc, 174 min.

Old Believers, The. Montreal, Quebec: National Film Board of Canada, 1989. VHS, 56 min.

• An introduction to the Reutov family, part of an isolated northern Orthodox Alberta community called the Old Believers. Adhering to the original Russian Orthodox Christian dogma and rituals, the Old Believers see themselves as the last Christians left on the face of the earth. Here in North America they are threatened not by persecution, but by economic bounty and the western notion of personal freedom.

Paskievich, John. The Old Believers. Featuring Amanda McConnell, Charles Konowal, Harvey Spak, and David Scheffel. Montreal, Quebec: National Film Board of Canada, 1988. DVD, 57 min.

• Follows four seasons in the life of a northern Alberta community which adheres to the original Orthodox Christian dogma of ancient Russia.

Starovery Litvy. Featuring Leonid Glushaev, Eleonora Glushaeva, and Grigorii Potashenko. Vilnius: Lietuvos Televizija, 2003. DVD, 166 min.

• Contains series of programs entitled "Khristianskoe slovo," dedicated to an Old Believers Community in Lithuania.

Trencsényi, Klára and Naumescu, Vlad. Drumul păsărilor. Bucharest, Libra Film, 2009. DVD, 56 min

• Birds’ Way is a creative documentary that guides us to a remote Old Believers' village in the Danube Delta, Romania - following the route of migrant birds. The protagonist of the film is the Old Believer community itself. Once fugitives, excommunicated by the Russian Orthodox Church in 1666, Old Believers found refuge in the wild Delta where they could preserve old rituals, Russian customs and their sacred language. Today no one is left to read the sacred texts, nor priests to lead religious life. Their last “reader," Artiom, tells us the destiny of Old Believers as laid out in the Book. — Container