Content area
Full text
Russia has always been and still stays multiconfessional country. Its people have belonged and still belong to different religions and faiths - Christianity (in the form of old Orthodoxy - Old Believers, Orthodoxy and Catholicism), Islam, Buddhism, Judaism and many others. Religious life of the country has never been easy and monosemantic.
During the last few years some historic events have occurred in the culture of Baikal region, alongwith some changes in the values of different cultures and religions, which vary according to the ethnic divisions. Whereas Cossacks are oriented towards the cathedral Orthodoxy and towards the cultural historic achievements of their social class, Buryats are oriented towards cultural values of the Orient, Mongolian speaking world and Buddhism; and Old Believers of Baikal region look towards the cultural achievements of Russia. Such a situation has existed for centuries, mainly seeped in national spirituality and also due to the pressure of large scale experiment of creating a new social culture.
The attitude of Russian groups which came to the Baikal region and became the most numerous population, towards cultural and historic confessions is very important. The history of their formation in the Baikal region is quite complicated and has a lot of peculiarities. Old Believers of the Baikal are considered to be a specific branch of the Russian people. Due to their refusal to accept new rules and different innovations in Russian Orthodox Church during the 18th century, the ancestors of Old Believers were forced to flee to the remote parts of the country and abroad in order to escape from pursuit.
While living in Zabaikalye, Old Believers got the name Semeyskie. This specific ethnonym (ethnic term) is connected with the fact that Old Believers settled in big families. For Old Believers of Gorny Altai the ethnonym was kamenshiki, polyaki, kerzhaki. For Old Believers of Romania and Moldavia it was lipovane; for Old Believers of South Ural kulguri; for the Old Believers of USA harbinci; and for Old Believers of Turkey nekrasovci and so on. In the official documents of Russian empire, Old Believers were given the name raskolnik? (splitters), and it was considered as an offensive term.
The Culture of Old Believers (Semeyskie) during the period of adaptation had mostly traditional character, and its...