The genesis of the territory name "Gouslitsy" is still not known.
A. Lizounov believes it originates from the name of Russian string musical
instrument, "gously" popular in this place (1). According to other hypothesis,
here the settlers from Chernigov principality specialized on such instruments
manufacturing. It is possible Finnish or Baltic origin of the word which later
was transformed by the Slavic newcomers in their own way and received its new
musical meaning, for the "musiacal" names are very uncommon for Russian rivers.
Later the name was passed on the village Gouslitsy (nowadays Ilyinsky Pogost,
Moscow region), which ones was a center of ancient Gouslitskaya volost' (district).
The territory under this name for the first time was mentioned in 1339 in the
will of Ivan Kalita, Moscow prince. Lizounov locates Gouslitsy as follows: ". .
Began in 50 km from Moscow between Vladimir and Ryazan highways, included basins
of Nerskaya and Goulitsa rivers, a part of Egorievsk district... to Pokrov
district of Vladimir province... ". In fact Goulslitsy was smaller and located
mainly within Nerskaya and Gouslitsa rivers basins.
Before Slavic colonization of c10AD, the Merya, a Finnish tribe had lived here.
Analysing the local geographical names some linguists believe that the Merya
could live here till the 16th century. By the way, the Nerskya river flowing
through Gouslitsy took its name from Merya for 400 years back it was mentioned
as Merskaya, i.e. "the river of Merya".
Up to middle of the 17th century the population of Goulitsy was sparse and was
located predominantly along the Kasimov highway. The farming did not prosper due
to the boggy and sandy soils. The local hop growers were more or less successful
only.
After the church reform of the patriarch Nickon, which split Russian orthodoxy
and especially after the second revolt of the Streltsy [royal guards] in 1698, a
lot of Russian Old Faith zealots fled into the virgin forests of Gouslitsy. In
the end of c17 they were already 46 villages (2) there.
The Old Believers gave the whole area its unique peculiarity. The former wild
and unproductive land progressed economically and became the largest spiritual
center. Being very good at doing business and free of bad habits the Old
Believers grew rich fast. The religious unity of these new merchants and
industrialists grown under heavy persecution helped them to develop a system of
the social support and upward social mobility for the rest of their community.
The factory owners - old believers run their recruitment on the religious base
which helped to propagate their faith. "The local peasant were being transformed
to managers and bookkeepers, the others were working in their homes. The weaving
machine tools have appeared nearly in each house and former poor farmers and
foresters became well-to-do industrialists. The rich supported and credited them,
giving all chances to became manufacturers and millionaires themselves. But the
rich old believers were helping only those, standing with them under one banner
" (3). The old believing sermon originated "... Not from the chapels of
Rogozhsky and Preobrazhensky [the old believer's parishes in Moscow] cemeteries,
but from the industrial plants, factories and shops. Not the priests were
running the sermons, but the instructors near machine tools. These sermons
affected not mind or heart, but the pocket". This was written by P.
Melnikov-Pechersky, the well known ideological opponent of the Old Believing. He
also asserts that at the end of c18 only one tenth of Gouslitsa population were
the Old Believers and by the end of c19 the entire local population was turned
into religious opposition or schism (4). It seems to be not like that for
Gouslitsy which always was growing due to the Old Believing migration and never
had 90% of the official Orthodox population.
A big number of Moscow wealthy merchants also came from Gouslitsy and
neighboring Vokhna. Many towns East off Moscow (Orekhovo-Zouevo, Likino-Doulevo,
Kourovskoye, Drezna) have been grown due to the cotton-mills founded by the Old
Believers.
There was also a dark side of Gouslitsa enrichment. Melnikov-Pechersky believed
that the Gouslyaks (people of Gouslitsy) were involved into mass money fraud. It
is true that in c17 - c18 many local peasants were being caught on this crime.
After 1812 this criminal business grew up fast. The Gouslyaks - old believers
seized in Moscow the French printing machines which Napoleon brought for
printing false Russian roubles. The business was lucrative because Russian
currency was not protected properly against counterfeit till 1818 (5). False
money was being printed in Gouslitsy even later. A. Gilyarovsky wrote that in
the end of c19 all forged banknotes in Moscow were associated with Gouslitsy: "Gouslitskie"
was a common name in Moscow for all forgery. A number of good engravers came
from there. "Can I borrow your coupon machine? I am gonna to the market"
addressed the locals each other". Gilyarovsky also branded Gouslitsy as a safe
refuge for the all sort of criminals for it was located in the border of three
provinces: Moscow, Ryazan and Vladimir. While the police were catching gangs in
one province they successfully migrated to the other. In the Central Historical
Archive of Moscow there are documents about sending the whole military
expeditions to Gouslitsy to catch the counterfeiters (7). The Gouslyaks also
were the experienced robbers and sophisticated professional beggars pretending
they had lost their homes in a fire. The last "business" guaranteed a stable
income.
The people of Gouslitsy were of bad, rough and unaccomodating character. The
Orthodox clergy of Moscow, Vladimir and even Nizhny Novgorod characterized the
Gouslyaks as people with no honor, nor conscience.
Due to the Old Believers practically all people in Gouslitsy were literate. A
wealth of the local peasants was in harmony with their high cultural level.
Almost all of more than fifty Gouslitsy settlements had schools run by the Old
Believers and having very old traditions (8). The children were taught singing,
traditional Russian musical notation where the notes were marked the special "hooks",
Slavic alphabet, Church literature and other subjects to support the old
believing way of life. The teachers of these home-stile schools were the Old
Believers themselves. The main spiritual and cultural center of Gouslitsy was in
Belivo. It is believed to be founded in 17c in the very beginning of the
religious split. The Leonty Monastery with its rich ancient library and a
spiritual school was located here from the end of the 17th century to 1840.
Eight neighboring Belivo villages had 2-3 schools each. The people from other
provinces send children to study here. Belivo also send their teachers to other
areas.
With its almost 100% literacy Gouslitsy was a source of the Old Believing clergy
for all Russia including both capitals (9). Apart from Leonty monastery they
were the other old believing monasery in Gouslity vanished in the 19th century.
Each village had 1 or 2 home style churches which mostly were closed to 1930-s.
The predominantly old believing population of Gouslitsy was not afraid of civil
and official church authorities. The old believers openly rang their church
bells and demonstrate alone their villages on church holidays. The domestic
official orthodox clergy could not rely on their poor parishes and have been
bribed by the wealthy old-believers and in every possible way tried to cover
what was really going on. In 1857 a State Minister M. Mouraviev send a
commission to Gouslitsy to find the true situation with local old believing
spiritual opposition. The report just horrified him. He recommended the emperor
Alexander II to take severe actions "to root out an evil" and to stop the
increasing "split" distribution.
Bibliography
1. Лизунов В. Старообрядческая Палестина. Орехово-Зуево, 1992, с. 5;
2. Там же, с. 6;
3. Мельников-Печерский П.И. Полное собрание сочинений. Т.13, СПб, 1898, с. 328;
4. Там же, сс. 83, 330;
5. Там же, сс. 330-331;
6. Гиляровский В.А. Собрание сочинений в 4-х томах, т. 3, М., 1999, сс. 105-108.
7. ЦИАМ
8. Пругавин А.С., Старообрядчество во втрой половине XIX века. М., 1904, сс. 113-114;
9. "Старообрядцы", Нижний Новгород, 1909, № 5-6, сс. 377-379;
10. сказание о начале и настоящем положении Спасо-преображенского Гуслицкого монастыря. М., 1863, с. 14;
11. Холмогоровы В. и Г. Исторические материалы о церквах и сёлах XVI - XVIII столетий. Вып. 6, (Вохонская десятина), М., 1888, сс. 63-65;
12. "Сказание...", с. 6;
13. ЦИАМ, ф. 203, оп. 217, д. 81, лл. 1,2..
