Home – Home – Jornals – Humanitarian sciences in Siberia 2015 number

The article deals with the history of Old-Belief - one of the most significant but little studied problems in Russian history. Researchers studying the Old Believers pay special attention to the so-called «golden age» of their history. It began after the Supreme Decree of 1905 granting religious freedoms for Old Believers and ended after the 1918 Decree of the Council of Peoples Commissars separating the church from the state. Within a short period of time Old Believers built their own temples, published periodicals, developed the system of church forums, strengthened inter-church relations. Besides, a number of autonomous communities and establishments that met essential problems of Old Believers were established. First of all, the Old Believers developed their own educational system. The Moscow Old Believers community of the Rogozhsky cemetery especially succeeded in all these initiatives. The Rogozhsky community’s activities in the sphere of education was the result of its alternative view on learning and its role in a religious society. Besides, the creation of the Old Believers specialized schools was carried out without support of the state, only at the expenses of internal material and human resources of the Community. These factors heighten the interest and relevance of the proposed article. The objective of the paper is to reconstruct and analyze the Old Believers’ educational system of the Rogozhsky cemetery, the process of specialized schools establishment and functioning; to identify principles of activity, historical and statistical results as well as historical and organizational problems that emerged in 1905-1907. This article describes the process and challenges of creating the Old Believers’ elementary schools and the Town school at the Rogozhsky cemetery. The author involved and systematized all available sources of research both published and unpublished. Namely, three archival fonds, all Old Believers’ periodicals published in 1905-1918, modern monographs and studies on the topic were analyzed. The topic has been covered at length, based on the available sources and materials.