After in the middle of the 17th century Patriarch Nikon carried out an inherently correct, but untimely and poorly thought-out church reform, one of the most dramatic events in the history of Russian Orthodoxy took place - a split between those who accepted all the innovations he established, and those who became their ardent opponent, remaining faithful to the old traditions and rituals. Today, the Old Believer churches in St. Petersburg (photos are given in the article), Moscow and many other cities of Russia are a monument of those ancient years.
Temple at: Tverskaya st., 8 A
A brief overview of the Old Believer churches operating today in St. Petersburg, let's start with the temple built on Tverskaya Street in 1907 and dedicated to one of the most revered icons in the Orthodox world, called the "Sign of the Most Holy Theotokos".
People call this church “Znamenskaya”. The author of her project was the St. Petersburg architect D. A. Kryzhanovsky, who completed it according toto the order of the Pomor Old Believers-bespriests (Old Believers, which is the same thing), united in agreement, or in other words, a community whose members rejected the priesthood.
In the early 30s, when a wave of repressions against religious figures and the most active parishioners swept the country, the church was closed and handed over to a number of economic organizations. Its doors were reopened to believers only thanks to the restructuring, during which a comprehensive restoration of the entire building was carried out.
Temple of Old Believer Fishermen
Another, no less famous monument of the religious schism is the Old Believer Church in Rybatsky (St. Petersburg). Archival materials contain information that Emperor Paul I ordered to settle fishermen near the outskirts of the city, who supplied the inhabitants with their catch. A place was allotted for their settlement, and a cemetery was arranged, on the territory of which a wooden Znamensky Old Believer Church was built in 1799, since most of the settlers adhered to the old faith.
However, in 1830, by order of Nicholas I, who feared the outbreak of epidemics, the cemetery was moved away from the banks of the Neva, and there, in a new place, they built first a chapel, and then a church that has survived to this day and is located at the address: Karavaevskaya st., 16. The creator of its project was the architect L. L. Shaufelberger. It was consecrated in the same way as the temple on Tverskaya Street, in honor of the Mother of God icon "The Sign" highly revered by the Old Believers.
Temple of the Ligovskaya Community of Old Believers
When talking about the Old Believer churches in St. Petersburg, one cannot ignore the one located at 5 Transportny per. years of perestroika, and earlier a number of state institutions were located in its premises.
The history of the creation of the temple refers to the pre-revolutionary period. It is known that at the beginning of the 20th century, among the Petersburgers living in the area of Ligovsky Prospekt, there were many Old Believers, of whom a religious community eventually formed. In order to build their own church, its members in 1915 purchased a plot of land located on Chubarov (now Transportny) Lane, and previously owned by the widow of the actual court adviser M. A. Kovaleva.
Designed by the architect P. P. Pavlov, who was then very famous in St. Petersburg, the Old Believer Church was consecrated just a few weeks after the Bolshevik armed coup. In the mid-20s, it was closed as one of the hotbeds of "religious intoxication", and the building itself was used for completely mundane purposes. For many years it housed a skin and venereal dispensary. The church owes its current revival to a change in state policy towards the Church, due to the perestroika processes that swept the country in the early 1990s.
Church of the Old Believers of Belokrinitsy Accord
Let's also dwell on the history of the very famous Intercession Old Believer Church in St. Petersburg. Its address is 20 Aleksandrovskaya Farm Avenue. It was built in 1896 according to the project of the architect V. A. Kolyanovsky and belonged to members of the so-called Belokrinitsky consent, which is one of the directions of the Russian Old Believers. The church was consecrated in honor of the heavenly patron of the city - the holy prince Alexander Nevsky. The site of its construction was the territory of the graveyard, called Preobrazhensky and later renamed the cemetery of the "Victims of the 9th of January".
The Way of the Cross and the subsequent rebirth
In 1937, the rector of the church, Archpriest Father Alexy (Chuzhbovsky), was arrested and soon shot on false charges of anti-government activities. Following that, the authorities abolished the community and closed the temple, after which it remained in oblivion for many years and gradually collapsed. Its restoration began somewhat earlier than the revival of other shrines trampled by the Bolsheviks, and it is connected with the signing by the Soviet side of the documents of the Helsinki Conference of 1975 concerning the granting of certain freedoms to believers.
In 1982, work began on the restoration of the Old Believer Church located on the Alexander Farm Avenue. In St. Petersburg, her community today is one of the most numerous and influential religious organizations that united in its ranks adherents of the ancients -prenikon forms of worship. There is a Sunday school at the temple, where not only children, but also people of various ages are trained.
Afterword
The addresses of the Old Believer churches in St. Petersburg given by us are far from a complete list of places where adherents of the “ancient piety” perform joint services - this is how those who refused to accept the reform of Patriarch Nikon call their faith from ancient times. Not all of their communities have their own temples, and therefore they are forced to use living quarters for prayer meetings. However, thanks to the ongoing process of rapprochement between the Russian Orthodox Church and part of the believers who broke away from it, one can hope that in the coming years the picture will change for the better.
