Wandering Old Believers Find a Home in Alaska
Matt Volz / AP
Nina Fefelov, an Old Believer who owns the Samovar cafe
in Nikolaevsk, Alaska, fears the community's way of life is under
threat, and St. Nicholas Church was built after Old Believers
settled
in Nikolaevsk in the 1960s by Matt Volz / AP
NIKOLAEVSK, Alaska - Kondraty Fefelov traveled more than 32,000
kilometers to lay claim to a patch of earth here at the end of North
America's roadway and keep the world at arm's length.
He and several hundred religious dissidents known as the Russian
Orthodox Old Believers had spent decades moving, picking up stakes
each time they felt their 17th-century way of life threatened.
"We run from the communists, from Stalin," said Fefelov, 67. "We
keep
moving, moving, moving. Nobody helped us. [We had] no money. We just
worked and found a good place."
Thirty-six years after settling Nikolaevsk, the Old Believers no
longer fear persecution. But other factors -- cultural integration,
internal divisions and an ailing fishing industry -- are changing
the
way they've lived for centuries.
The Old Believers split from the church in the 17th century when
Patriarch Nikon ordered a number of reforms to Russian Orthodoxy.
Many of the changes were minor -- the number of fingers used in the
sign of the cross, the spelling of Jesus' name, the number of
times "hallelujah" is said in prayer -- but the Old Believers
considered any change to the rites heretical and refused to go along.
The Russian Orthodox Church excommunicated them and the tsars
persecuted them. Many left Russia or moved to the Siberian taiga
where they could pass the old rites down to their children in peace.
But the Revolution forced many of the remaining Old Believers out
for
good, as the Soviets tried to squash their religion and the
collective farms threatened their livelihood.
Fefelov and about 300 Old Believers left Siberia in 1945 to become
big-game hunters in Manchuria, China. That country, too, became
communist, and after some time they sought a new home.
Several South American countries took in the Old Believers. Fefelov
moved to Brazil, where he said the government did not interfere with
their religion, but many of the families found it difficult to make
a
living.
They came to the United States, establishing themselves mainly in
Oregon's Willamette Valley in the early 1960s. After about six years
there, some came to feel that American culture was having too much
influence on their children, so they looked north to Alaska.
Fefelov and other pioneer families came to Nikolaevsk on Alaska's
Kenai Peninsula in the late 1960s. They built the village themselves
and worked in the lucrative commercial fishing industry.
The initial settlers tried to limit their interaction with outsiders
so they could better keep the old rites, even using separate dishes
for outsiders who dined with them. They erected a sign that stood at
the end of the dirt road: "Village of Nikolaevsk. Private Property.
Road Closed."
Today, the sign is gone, the road is paved and the village is more
welcoming to outsiders. There is a bed and breakfast and a cafe that
serves hot borshch and sells matroyshka nesting dolls to tourists.
Plans are being made to build a fire station and an assisted-living
home.
"It's just a regular town. It's not like it used to be," said Greg
Yakunin, a fisherman and lifelong Nikolaevsk resident. "Things are
modernized, Americanized.
"To me, I'm just an ordinary, American guy."
This new openness was sped by a religious schism in the village
about
20 years ago. Fefelov and some of the villagers decided to reinstate
the priesthood into their religion, a major change by the Old
Believers, whose priests had died out centuries ago. With Russian
Orthodox bishops practicing within the reformed church, there was
nobody to ordain new clergy according to the old rites.
But Fefelov's group found an Old Believer bishop in Romania in the
early 1980s and brought back the priesthood, a move that created a
rift within the community.
Having clergy to provide spiritual guidance has helped in their
integration to an extent, said Richard Morris, a research professor
in the University of Oregon's Russian and East European Studies
Center.
Others rejected the return of priests. Many of these priestless Old
Believers, called bezpopovtsy, moved away from Nikolaevsk to
establish new communities deeper in the Kenai Peninsula. One such
village, Kachemak Selo, can be reached only through a harrowing
series of switchbacks down a cliff and a hike across the beach of
Kachemak Bay.
"It got to the point where it was pretty emotional, where even
fights
would break out," said Alex Basargin, a 29-year-old bezpopovtsy who
teaches at Nikolaevsk's school. "So many of the bezpopovtsy decided
it was best to just move away."
It's hard to pinpoint the number of Old Believers in the United
States, Morris said. Through research and visits to the different
communities, he estimates there are 6,000 to 7,000 living in Oregon,
about 1,500 in Alaska, 500 in Canada and about 50 families in
Minnesota.
There also are communities and individuals in Pennsylvania, New
Jersey and New York. The populations are fluid, as families have
gone
back and forth among Alaska, Oregon, South America, Russia and
Australia. Young people often visit other Old Believer communities
to
find spouses.
Nina Fefelov, owner of Nikolaevsk's Samovar Cafe and a part-time
teacher, is from Khabarovsk and came to the United States to marry
Kondraty Fefelov's son Dennis.
Nina Fefelov teaches Russian to a new generation of Old Believers in
Nikolaevsk who have known nothing but the United States. She says
she
is afraid the village will lose the Russian language and culture as
the children take on the ways of their adopted home.
"The students just don't want to learn Russian," she said.
Kira Tipikin, a worker in Nikolaevsk's post office, has two
children,
a daughter in high school and a 10-year-old son. She said they
refuse
to speak to her in Russian and have no interest in church because
they do not understand the Old Slavonic read at the services.
"If it gets lost, oh well, what can you do?" Tipikin said. "But
we're
going to try to hold on to it as best as we can."
Uncertainty in the fishing industry, with its feast-or-famine price
fluctuations, has caused a growing number of Old Believers to seek
other jobs, such as construction, and move to new communities
outside
Alaska cities.
That uncertainty has also led parents to keep their children in
school longer. More students are finishing school instead of leaving
early to begin working, as their parents did.
"Parents' ideas and perceptions of education have been changing
because of what's happening to the fishing industry and whatnot,"
Basargin said. "To get a job, a decent job, you need a high school
diploma, and they're realizing that. So they're letting their
students go at least through high school."
Even the more isolated bezpopovtsy are feeling the pull of economic
forces drawing them closer to the world. Several bezpopovtsy are
moving near cities for jobs. The Kachemak Selo school graduated its
first class this year, and allowed teachers to have computers on
their desks, although students are forbidden to use them, said
principal Randy Creamer.
"I think the economy is driving them into education," Creamer
said. "They've got to be more marketable."
Morris said the Old Believers are adapting their culture to their
surroundings in order to survive, but that does not necessarily mean
they will fade into the American population.
"A lot of them keep a sense of differentiating between integration
and acculturation," Morris said. "Economically and politically, they
are integrated.
"Socially, however, they have very long fasts. They have the whole
idea of ritual cleanliness. Although polite and highly hospitable,
they still have the sense that they are socially separated."
Twenty First Century Desert Fathers
A Message From Our Metropolitan
Quotes From The Most Rev. Father +Thaddeus Continuously updated
Lines of Apostolic Succession of His Eminence
Suggested Reading:
Is Christianity At The Cross Roads?
As The World Goes, So Goes The Church
Anomalies in Ecclesiology of Contemporary Orthodox Churches
MAN:
To Err, the Church and Holy Spirit