The Old Believers Of Gouslitsy

Sergey Mikhailov
Natural and Cultural Heritage of Russia Institute
POBox 53, Moscow, 129343, Russia

Alexei Markov
Dept of Culture, Egorievsk District Administration
9 Ryazanskaya St, Egorievsk, Moscow Region, 140300, Russia

After the schism of c17 most of the Russian Old Believers moved to the inaccessible areas or Siberia and the Russian Far East. Later the Russian Old Rite communities migrated as far as to Alaska, South America and Australia. But, surprisingly, one of such areas called Goulsitsa or Goulslitsy has been preserved just 30-65 miles east of Moscow. The unfriendly social and harsh natural environment have formed a special ethnographical type of people here. The people of Goulslitsy or Gouslyaks were forced to mask their faith. Being discriminated against or restricted in many areas (e.g., example in military and civil service), they had to be very competitive in the market. The specific culture, deeply rooted traditions and nearly total literacy of the adult population have always marked the territory. Some of the specific ethnographical elements still can be found in many local villages.

The origin of the name «Gouslitsy»

The name Gouslitsa (Gouslitsy appeared much later) was mentioned in the will of Ivan Kalita in the first half of c14. It was an administrative district (volost’) with its center in the village of Gouslitsa (now Ilyinsky Pogost). The settlement is situated on the bank of the Gouslitsa river and apparently had received its name from it. Gouslitsa is the only river in Russia with a musical name (gously is an old Russian string musical instrument). The local historians can recall a number of legends regarding how the river was used to soak timber to make gously, gously was thrown away to the river etc.

We believe that Gouslitsa is transformed old Finnish goos or kuus (kuuse) which means spruce, pine of a coniferous tree. S. Garkousha supposes that the word Gouslitsa might originate from the old Slavonic gousl, meaning a sorcerer. It could be considered as only a legend but the numbers of sorcerers still practicing in the area.

The locals believe there are whole villages in the territory populated by the people of that kind (Slobodishchy, Lyakhovo etc). Thus “Gouslitsa” might be “the river of sorcerers”. The Gouslitsa river begins in the village of Kholmy near Egorievsk, which all local folk consider as a settlement populated entirely by magicians and sorcerers.

Location & history

Unfortunately, the Gouslitsa volost' (district) of c14 cannot be shown on the map though its latest borders are known. Later, the volost’ was abolished and its name has been preserved by the local old believers within their peculiar culture. It is thought that before the schism of c17 the territory was scarcely populated due to unproductive marshy and sandy soils. The people started to flow into the territory at the end of the c17. They were mostly the noblemen and professional militaries (streltsy) fleeing from Moscow in a hope to save their Old Orthodox Rite and avoid persecutions.

There is another point of view. J. Karyakin believes that the post-schism migration into Goulslitsy was not considerable, and the majority of the locals were forced to settle there in the late c15 by the Grand Duke Ivan III. This ruler of Central Russia oppressed the city of Novgorod that always had been known for its liberal political tradition. Many people of Novgorod (or Novgorod the Great) were exiled to the virgin forests of Gouslitsy. Some Goulslitsy villages still recall their Novgorod ancestry. The villagers of Antcyferovo and Sobolevo, even in the beginning of c20, were called Novgorodsy. That was why this very specific territory has appeared. Sometimes for its peculiar culture it even was called “The Old Rite Palestine”. It was natural for the exiles to oppose Moscow. The schism (raskol) was just one more excuse to show their rebellious spirit.

Modern Gouslitsy’s boundaries cannot be precisely determined. Many authors, not being familiar with the territory, include within it some of the Bogoroditsky (Noginsk) district and even parts of the Vladimir and Ryazan provinces (regions) with old believing populations. However, the neighboring part of Vladimir Region had a name Patriarchina (which means The Land of Patriarch). Patriarchina was predominantly populated by the priestless old believers of the Pomorskaya convention (Pomorsky soglas). The old believers of Gouslitsa were priestly old believers accepting since 1840s the clergy of the Belokrinitskaya hierarchy.

There is a point of view (Smirnov 1998) that constitutes only the old time Goulsitsa volost’ (district) to be true Goulslitsy. This does not take into account the numerous neighboring territories, which also are populated with ethnographically nearly identical, old believing population of the same Belokrynitskaya Church. If we consider Goulsitsy the territory where the self-name Gouslyak (a man from Gouslitsy) is in use, we still encounter some difficulties because many historical Gouslitsy villages (Chelokhovo, Pankratovskaya, Gorchkovo etc.) do not refer to themselves in such a manner. They know who the Goulslyaks are and even oppose them. This was confirmed during the 2000 field research. At the same time the self-name Gouslyak was recorded in the villages of Molokovo and Smolyovo (Karpovo volost’), which are situated to the far West of the historical Goulsitsa.

Goulsitsy itself was not homogenous*. A number of sources unofficially specify the separate territory Zakhod or Zaokhot within it. The people of this territory had been called Goulslyaks. Zaokhod included settlements of the Zaponorye and Selino parishes, i.e., Davydovo, Gora, Lyakhovo, Elizarovo, Kostino, Antcyferovo, Jakovlevskoye, Belivo, Zavolinye, Kourovskaya, Korotkovo, Radovanye, Glebovo, Zaproudinye, Novaya and Barskaya. These 17 villages had no more than 20 households where official orthodoxy followers (called here Nikoniane) lived. The whole Goulsitsa had more than 20 percent of the official orthodox population (Bratskoye Slovo 1888). The same orthodox mission magazine specified about Zakhod: “The schismatic Gouslyaks are smart, cunning but at the same time bold and rough people. They have no morals. Twenty years ago, for sure, it was a true land of robbers.”

The 13 villages of the Nikitskaya-Roudnya parish in the East of Gouslitsy i.e. Malkovo, Titovo, Bogorodskoye, Selivanikha, Stepanovka, Ponarino, Zapolitsy, Mistsevo, Avsyunino, Abramovka etc. are sometimes called Ramenye.

Thus we believe that Gouslitsa is an historical area in the South-East of the Moscow Region with predominantly old believing native (Belokrinitkaya Church) population and similar ethnographical features.

Cultural traditions

The old believers have always observed old traditions. So did the people of Gouslitsa. The villagers of Gouslitsa were casting brass crosses and icons. A. Antonyokov, an expert on the local traditional craft, says some 200 rural households were involved in this activity. The middlemen were traveling through the villages buying brass casting measured by the dozens of kilograms to be sold in Moscow. The official records do not demonstrate it because the old believers of Gouslitsa did not declare or advertise their business. E. Zotova, an expert of the Museum of Old Russia’s History and Culture (named after A. Roublev, hereinafter the Roublev Museum), shares this viewpoint. The museum has rich collections of the local and roughly shaped peasant brass craft that specialists signify as originating in Gouslitsa. The brass icons are rather primitive technically but vary in their forms. Some stone patterns were very old and kept by many generations.

Some Goulsitsa villages were known for their icon painting. The local icon-painters often used their own methods of painting and materials processing. V. Sorokaty, an expert of the Roublev Museum, points out the peculiar line drawings, shadings and intense red and blue colors aged with the special home made drying oil.

Gouslitsy of the c19th century were different from any other Russian countryside (even the old believing one) because its people (including women) were almost totally literate. Each village had its own self-organized schools run by many local scribes (knizhniki) and nuns. The school programs were mostly designed to pass on the religious Old Rite culture. These schools had existed from the schism of c17 (Prougavin 1904). Nearly total literacy resulted in numerous old believing clergymen originating from this area. The Old Rite priests from Gouslitsy were serving in many old believing parishes throughout all Russia.

The biggest and most famous old believing monastery of Gouslitsa had existed in the village of Belivo untill c18 when it disappeared. Besides, there were numerous village nuns and pilgrims. Somewhere in the hidden places the little monastic fraternities called “skits” had existed and were secretly supplied with food by the locals. One of them was located near the village graveyards of Shouvoye. The local old-timers still remember it.

Many villages (Mistsevo, Shouvoye etc) were involved in religious books re-writing. The books’ calligraphic pages (expectably margins) were decorated with the ornaments called “Gouslitskaya”. Working on these books, the masters used own archives of patterns, which were the black-and-white copies of the ornaments of the books of c17 and earlier. Some researches see the similarity between Goulitsa book ornaments and elements of the local painting on pottery, called “Ghzel”. Some consider it to be unique. To the beginning of c20 this craftsmanship began dying (Tcerkovnoye penie 1910).

Life style details

Besides the cultural achievements the Gouslyaks were known for other activities, which gave them a reputation as people with no morals and honor. Goulsitsy, a remote marshy place on the boundaries of three Russian provinces (goubernia, now oblast’), always had been a shelter for criminals of all sorts. It was a good refuge for them, easy to leave for the neighboring territory where the police operations were difficult to coordinate. The Russian officials were listing the old-believers side by side with robbers etc. so all these people got along well with each other in the virgin Gouslitsa forests. The famous robber, Vasily Chourkin who terrified all Moscow province in the second half of c19 came from the Zakhod village of Barskaya.

Gouslitsy was famous not just for their robbers but also for counterfeiters. It was a very common criminal business in Gouslitsa and neigbouring district of Vokhna (town of Pavlovsky Posad). Melnicov-Pechersky believes that the locals even managed to seize the money plates that Napoleon had brought to Russia to print false Russian notes (Melnikov-Pechersky 1898). The Goulsitsa counterfeiters had been operating as long as to 1917. In c19, in Moscow, all false banknotes were called Gouslitskie. The Goulslitsa counterfeiters were chased for years even by military units with little success (Central Historical Archive of Moscow).

Besides counterfeiting the people of Goulslitsa were professional beggars. This business survived untill 1950s. The “mendicants” even managed to organize bread trafficking from starving Moscow during WWII.

The nineteenth century famous Moscow journalist, V. Gilarovsky, wrote about crooks from Gouslitsy making victorki, the false documents stating “lost of all possessions in a fire”. Besides this the swindlers of Goulslitsy were using malashki, or the false passports. A criminal from Gouslitsy took five-six malashkas and looked for a wealthy employer in a big city. Having being employed he did his job very properly. The employer (normally a well-off merchant) promoted their new sober, witty, and literate manager. One day he entrusted him quite a sum of money asking for a passport instead. The Goulslyak left malashka, took the money and was never back. Soon the criminal had a new employment to repeat the trick. When all false passports had been used, the crook returned home to rest and prepare some new malashkas (Gilyarovsky 1999).

The villages of Goulslita, in spite of their unfavorable location (marshy and unfertile land, absence of big rivers and trading routes), always were wealthy. It is still surprising to see the villages one and one half kilometers long. The huts were well maintained and the locals looked tidy (Prougavin, 1904). The poor soils did not prevent the villagers from making money. Goulslitsy and the neighboring territories were the origin of many Russian merchant families such as the Morozovs, Rakhmanos, Soldatenkovs. The Kouznetsovs, the kings of Russian porcelain, were also Goulslyaks. The wealthy old believers did not break with their average co-religionists. The old believing congregations (soglasiya) were being transformed into powerful religious-business corporations. The local merchants were contracting many smaller weaving shops and backed them up with special loans. The home-based weaving tools (karas’) were in almost all old believing houses. Ex-peasants and forestry workers were turning into the prosperous industrialists and millionaires (Melnikov-Pechersky 1898). Until 1917, a well-equipped textile factory was a very common attribute of any old believing village.

Gouslitsy today

Currently, the main part of old-time Goulitsa is in the Orekhovo-Zouevo district of the Moscow region. Some villages (Gridino, Shouoye, Pankratovskaya, Chelokhovo, Gorshkovo) belong to the Egorievsk district. The last three settlements always have been a center for the regional old believing pilgrimage due to the holy well and the chapel of St. Nikita situated near Chelokhovo (Staroobryadcheskaya Mysl 1915, NN7,11). Even in the Soviet times there were two old believing praying houses in Chelokhovo and the religious processions proceeded to the holy well until 1948. The Soviet officials many times tried to destroy this old believing center. Finally they closed these two praying houses and organized one into a club. Naturally, it had no visitors. The authorities sold it as a residential house. In 2003, the chapel of St. Nikita was rebuilt, and the locals still pray there.

Until the beginning of the 1960-s the most of Goulitsy belonged to the Kourovskoye district (does not exist now). Of late, the area was merged with the neighboring Orekhovo-Zouevsky district. The town of Korovskoye (20,000) is still the biggest settlement and only town of Gouslitsy. It has extended beyond the village of Kourovskaya due to the textile factory of the Balashovs brothers, the local old believers. Now about the half of town’s population is of the old believing descent. The neighboring settlement of Davydovo (14,000) is similar. The rural areas of Gouslitsy have about 80% of the old believing population.

Generally the situation with the old believing heritage of Gouslitsy is not good. The Soviet years have damaged it a lot. After the closing of praying houses in Gouslitsy villages and oppression the clergy, the active parishioners still were gathering together in their homes to serve and pray. But most of this generation died in the 1970s-1980s, and this tradition has been broken. The present old generation was born and brought up under Soviet regime. Very few of them have home religious education. The rest know about old believing by hearsay. Thus after the bygone old generation of the 1980s, the old believing tradition goes on mostly mechanically. Nowadays the people, old and middle-aged know they are old believers, they were baptized, they have to cross themselves with two fingers, but very little besides. The young know very little about their faith. All old believing craftsmanship such as icon painting, brass casting, book calligraphy are lost. Some exception is the Slepovs, an old believing family from the village of Gora. As their ancestors did, they make the incense and old believing rosary called lestovki. Earlier, this family cast brass. The locals say the last icon painters and brass casters still lived in Gora area in the1980s.

Hop growing had existed in Goulslitsy until the beginning of 1960s when it was declared “unprofitable”. Recently there were some attempts to revive it. There were unsuccessful due to the laborious process. This is unfortunate because it could have revived the declining agriculture.

Now, the old believing temples and praying houses of Goulslitsy (Belokrititskoye denomination) exist in Slobodishchy, Oustyanovo, Davydovo, Goubino, Belivo, Belivo, Abramovka, Egorievsk, Shouvoye and Alyoshino. Some parishioners go to Orekhovo-Zouevo, Pavlovsky Posad and Andronovo (Pavlovsky Posad district). Since 1994 there has been an Edinoverchesky (under Moscow Patriarchate but following the Old Rite) temple in Kourovskoye with a praying house in Mistsevo. There is a Novozybkovskaya denomination old believing church in Novokharitonovo, near Gouslitsy. Some Goulslitsa villagers go there. Not all of the listed above churches and praying houses have priests and regular parishes. Some of them (in Davydovo, Mistsevo, Abramovka, Belivo, Alyoshino, Shouvoye) are just branches of the larger neighboring churches.

The Edinoverchesky parish in Kourovskoye was formed of the ex-Belokrinitskaya denomination old believers called Neokrouzhniki*. In the late 1970-s the Neokrouzhniky found themselves with no clergy. There are still the true Neokrouzhniki in the village of Khoteichi. They choose to pray at the house of their leader, some old lady called Anfisa.

Besides the above there are some other Old Rite people in Gouslitsy. They are a few of the last Louzhkane and Makeevtsy, which have no communities. There are also the priestless Pomortsy oriented to their parishes in Orekhovo-Zouevo and Moscow.

The close metropolis of Moscow (50-100 km away) affects Goulslitsa’s special identity. Its young population migrates to Moscow while the abandoned houses are bought as summer bungalows or dachas. This trend may lead to the full transformation of the former traditional old believing villages into typical modern settlements not inheriting local cultural and architectural traditions.

The old-day Gouslitsy cannot be saved. However, some elements of its heritage still can be preserved. In order to do this some local communities have organized their own museums. One of then is situated in the village of Stepanovka, at the premises of the village primary school. The museum is founded by Ustinya Andreyanova. The museum’s exposition demonstrates the past of the village. One of its rooms imitates the interior of a nineteenth century old believing hut. The 1923 school building also may be considered as one of the exhibits. There is a park around the school planted in 1985 to commemorate 40 years of Victory in WWII. Each three in the park has a plate with the name of a killed soldier. The traditional Soviet-style war monument stands side by side with the big wooden old believing octagonal cross. Thus the Old Rite services for the dead are held at the same place as the annual civil meetings. This memorial complex has no analogues in Russia.

One more museum exists in the village of Ilyinsky Pogost, the historical center of Goulsitsa. Its director, Jury Karyakin, is also a principal of the local secondary school. The pupils of the school often conduct the field ethnographical research, take photos of the old wooden huts and try to discover more about their history. The museum interiors are designed in Goulitsa art traditions. The exposition covers a period from Ivan Kalita to the Soviet time accenting on old believing history.

It is often said nowadays that Gouslitsy needs its own museum concentrating all exhibits in one premise with an open-air wooden architecture exposition. These plans arise because the main museum of the Orekhovo district does not pay proper attention to historical Goulslitsy with its history and concentrates on the northern part of the area. Meanwhile the neighboring Egorievsk, not having being a part of the historical Gouslitsy more and more positions itself as Gouslitsy based upon the fact that some Goulsitsa villages are now the part of the Egorievsk district and Egorievsk itself is situated very close to the border of the historical Gouslitsy volost’. The new building of the Egorievsk museum is decorated with the Gouslitsy ornaments. There are some attempts to handcraft similar souvenirs here. Currently, the people of Egorievsk often consider themselves as Gouslyaks (when they didn’t before). Generally, this new positioning of the town with a strong old believing community is a positive factor for the region’s cultural development.

During Soviet decades the cultural originality of Gouslitsa was heavily damaged. The atheistic authorities were breaking people of their indigenous culture because it was related to their religion. Collectivization destroyed the traditional rural economy and illuminated the peasants as a social class. The Soviet officials never used the word “Gouslitsy” in their documents even on cultural issues. The closeness to Moscow did not promote cultural conservation and even was disastrous due to the large number of criminals and profiteers foraging for icons, old books and religious brass castings.

The other reason for this cultural disintegration was the fact that the Russian Orthodox Old Believing Church (The convention of Belaya Krititsa) didn’t react properly in the time of the late 1980s when many old local scribes, active parishioners and ustavshchiks (a kind of old believing psalm-reader, counselor and religious supervisor) were passing away. The old believing life of the Gouslitsa villages was based upon these people and there was nobody to replace them. We refer to the opinion of one of the local priests of the official Russian Orthodox Church who said: “if the Old Believing Metropolitan Alimpy in the beginning of 1990s had appointed here five active priests any other confession would have nothing to do”.

* LITERATURE:
Neokrouzhniky – a part of the Belocrinitskaya convention old-believers which has not accepted “The Circular Letter” (Okrouzhnoye Poslanie) issued in 1860-s.