Old Believers

Old Believers or Old Ritualists (Russian: староверы, romanized: starovery or старообрядцы, staroobryadtsy) is the common term for numerous religious communities, which maintain the old liturgical and ritual practices of the Russian Orthodox Church, as they were before the reforms of Patriarch Nikon of Moscow between 1653 and 1656. The old rite and its followers were anathematized in 1667, and Old Belief gradually emerged from the resulting schism.

The antecedents of the movement regarded the reform as heralding the End of Days, and the Russian church and state as servants of the Antichrist. Fleeing persecution by the government, they settled in remote areas or escaped to the neighboring countries. Their communities were marked by strict morals and religious devotion, including various taboos meant to separate them from the outer world. They rejected the Westernization measures of Peter the Great, preserving traditional Russian culture, like long beards for men.