In Pursuit of Home: The History of Old Believers’ Resettlement in Alaska
- Peripheral Histories ISSN 2755-368X
- 23 hours ago
- 11 min read
Updated: 46 minutes ago
Aglaia Gulakova
These remaining Old Believers must be seen – their strength, their conviction, their selfless nightly prayers (no longer feasible for us), their vital courage and determination – in those 200 years of life in Turkey, or in one generation, with no language skills or knowledge of the world, migrating with the entire family, with dozens of children each! – from China to Brazil – from Brazil to the States–and now to Alaska, saving these children from the depraved breath of the century. To see how their national appearance, their folk temperament, have been preserved, and to hear their genuine Russian speech. Nowhere in the entire West, and hardly anywhere in the Soviet Union, one feels so much in Russia as among them.[1]
In 1974, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn wrote to Metropolitan Philaret, the first hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR), raising the issue of Old Believers Schism and depicting the persecutions endured by the community throughout the centuries. The subject has garnered particular attention from scholars across various disciplines, although no one has yet comprehensively addressed both the factual and emotional aspects of the challenges experienced by Old Believers in their perpetual displacement. While a substantial body of research is dedicated to Old Believers’ migration to remote regions of the world, few studies have focused on the community residing in Alaska. Most pertinent publications have been penned by Russian scholars, albeit in limited quantity.[2] Despite its direct relevance to American scholarship, there have been only isolated research attempts confined to those undertaken by photographers[3] and the mass media. The most thorough article remains the one authored by Jim Rearden, a National Geographic journalist, published in September 1972, with subsequent scholars citing it as the sole available factual base.
Old Believers[4] represent a product of the Great Schism (Raskol) of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC), precipitated by Patriarch Nikon’s 17th-century reforms – liturgical changes aimed at aligning with the Greek practice. The perceived apostasy evoked by the modifications inspired opposition from a more conservative faction of the Orthodox, which was not favorably received by the Tsar. Supporting the implementation of the reforms, the monarch viewed the dissent as a potential threat to the centralization of state power, which underlaid intensive governmental repression and violent campaigns against them. Fueled by the preceding events of an “apocalyptic” nature and the desire to escape the “Antichrist,” isolationist communities of Old Believers were prompted by state-initiated persecution to migrate to the secluded regions of Russia. These included the Cossack lands, the Urals, Siberia, Altay, and the Far East, which became the starting points of the ensuing 20th-century movement.
The first Old Believers came to the American continent already in the 19th century. From Suwalki, Poland, their route extended to Erie, Pennsylvania, and Pittsburgh, joined later by co-religionists from the Vilna Governorate.[5] However, the groups discussed in this post arrived in the Western Hemisphere only in the 1950s-60s, first to South America and then to the North (New Jersey, New York, and Oregon), with a subset eventually relocating to Alaska. As they ventured ever onward, these wanderers appeared to be in search of Belovodye, a legendary place where they would find refuge in their never-ending escape from authorities.[6]
Although religiously homogenous, with the majority belonging to the anti-clerical faction (bespopovtsy) of the Chasovennye Concord,[7] the community comprised three distinct groups based on place of residence before coming to America. The ethnic composition, however, remained predominantly Russian due to restrictions imposed on mixed marriages, which were frequently used as a tool for binding the youth to their families and reinforcing religious commitment and communal allegiance. Sin'tsziantsy (Xinjiang) were peasants of Kerzhak and Polish origin who fled to Xinjiang, China, from the Russian Altai region in response to the collectivization policies of the 1930s. Harbintsy (Harbiners) formed the largest group, similarly forced to emigrate due to Soviet repression, atheization, taxation, and collectivization from the southern part of the Far East and Primorye to Manchuria, and settled near Harbin. The two factions experienced hardships related to the establishment of a communist regime in China during the 1950s and embarked on further relocation. Individuals who successfully reached Hong Kong received assistance from various organizations[8] in departing to the US, with South America as their intended final destination. Nevertheless, the community failed to adapt to local environmental conditions and their agricultural efforts were futile.
Turchane (Turks), the descendants of Nekrasov Cossacks who left the Kuban region in the early 18th century for Dobruja and then to Asian Turkey, comprised the third group. By the 1930s, due to restrictions on marrying individuals from foreign ethnic or religious groups, most of Turchane appeared to be consanguineously related. Together with the introduction of mandatory military service in Turkey, it prompted the community to seek a new home. Following the exodus of 999 members to the USSR in 1962, the remaining 244 individuals, facilitated by the Tolstoy Foundation,[9] left for the US having expanded the scope of marriage partners to include the previously migrated Sin'tsziantsy and Harbintsy.[10] Although several families of Old Believers opted for non-resistance to the American assimilation drive and eventually joined the ROC,[11] others remained out of reach from the outside world and settled in secluded villages or farms fearing the occasional penetration of Americanism. The Foundation was intrinsically involved in all the movements of Sin'tsziantsy and Harbintsy since their exile from communist China and the purchase of land both in Latin America and Oregon to prevent the development of the tendency towards a lifestyle entirely dependent on governmental aid as a response to the “modern American shocks.”[12]
The three groups joined in Oregon, where an extensive Old Believers community currently resides, yet some relocated further to Alaska despite the distance and severe climate. Multiple motivations could be identified, including an increase in land prices. However, the most frequently mentioned reason,[13] often proposed by the resettlers themselves, is the perceived detrimental impact of the American lifestyle, characterized by temptation and distractions, on the values and spiritual integrity of the community. According to the generally accepted perspective, based on the testimonies of Old Believers, the initiative belonged to the community. Nonetheless, more recent research[14] containing references to archival documents from the University of Alaska, Anchorage, suggests that the Tolstoy Foundation and the municipal authorities of the Kenai Peninsula Borough were responsible for the proposal and facilitation of relocation.
The initial settlements were established exclusively by Harbintsy, while representatives of the other two groups arrived as spouses.[15] In 1967, Prokhor Martyushev and Grigory Gostevsky traveled to Alaska, and a sobor (council) was convened upon their return to Oregon. The council initially rejected the idea because of the reluctance to abandon stable jobs and established a routine to start life anew once again. The Tolstoy Foundation continued to patronize[16] the community by dispatching its representatives to auction[17] for a piece of land in Alaska. They outlined the dramatic vicissitudes faced by Old Believers and highlighted the community’s positive moral qualities to compel other bidders to refrain from competing for the land. Hence, a favorable deal was reached, resulting in the acquisition of a square mile on the Kenai Peninsula, in proximity to Homer, for a sum of $14,000.[18] The settlement was named Nikolaevsk after Saint Nicholas,[19] a highly revered figure in both Russian Orthodox and Old Believers’ traditions.
The families that arrived comprised three branches of the Martyushev lineage and the Kalugin family. Prokhor Martyushev documented the hardships of their journey and the initial period in Alaska, offering a vivid account of the myriad challenges they faced in cultivating land and adjusting to a new lifestyle in an unfamiliar environment. Through their ongoing relocation to areas with extreme weather, the community developed skills that facilitated rapid adaptation rather than mere survival. The introduction of electricity by the local cooperative[20] spurred the village’s rapid growth, with the population expanding to 25 families within the first year and an additional 10 families arriving in 1969.[21] At the same time, the Alaskan villages were nearly devoid of non-Old Believers, in contrast to Oregon and other regions where individuals of various ethnicities and religious backgrounds lived either interspersed or on farms scattered around larger cities, facing greater challenges in maintaining community cohesion.
The settlement process officially concluded in 1974 when the residents of Nikolaevsk petitioned for naturalization. Illarion Polushkin, the former mayor of Nikolaevsk, contacted the director of the Kenai Peninsula Community College to request assistance in organizing a course on the material essential for obtaining citizenship. While the existing literature does not address the rationale behind this decision, it was presumably intended to simplify the process of applying for financial aid. The experiences of building a road, founding a school,[22] and lifting the ban on using radiotelephones aboard fishing vessels[23] had demonstrated the drawbacks of lacking citizen status. A naturalization ceremony took place on June 19, in the gymnasium of Chapman School at Anchor Point with Kirill V. Golitsyn and Vera A. Samsonova representing the Tolstoy Foundation and a message from President Gerald Ford being conveyed.[24]
Conclusion
It is tempting to romanticize those living an unsettled life. The imagination transforms an uprooted community into brave sojourners, and references to violent displacement are readily conjured. Alternatively, the Old Believers’ story might be reduced to a futile escape from the inevitable advance of modernization, rendering the struggles self-inflicted and, therefore, in vain.
Yet, both interpretations remain somewhat incomplete. The first viewpoint proves legitimate until it encounters the group’s voluntary choice to migrate despite the severe challenges of drastically adapting their ways to the unfamiliar Alaskan landscape. By contrast, the second reasoning fails to grasp the rationale behind the decision. Nevertheless, the arrival in Alaska reveals a culmination of the interminable journey driven by the community survival imperative in the face of religious persecution and “the depraved breath of the century,” as it was formulated by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. Whether glorified or ridiculed by external accounts, these people held on to what they believed. They held on to their culture, identity, and heritage. And never did they lose their home but always carried it within themselves. Until the very Last Frontier.
Aglaia Gulakova is a Master’s student at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice. Her academic interests encompass the historical, cultural, and political aspects of religion in the United States, specifically in the Russian Orthodox Church. She earned her BA in International Relations at Saint-Petersburg State University with a thesis entitled “Religious Factor in the Electoral Process of the USA. Based on the Presidential Campaigns of 2016 and 2020.” Her current research focuses on the Alaskan region from both historical and contemporary perspectives. Particular attention has been paid to the relationship between the religious entity and the indigenous population.
[1] Author’s translation. “Aktual’nye voprosy razvitiia religioznogo obrazovaniia v Rossiiskoi Federatsii. Vystuplenie v Sovete Federatsii,” Russian Orthodox Old-Rite Church. The official website of the Moscow Metropolia., July 13, 2019, https://rpsc.ru/kornily/report/sovet-mezhnacionalnym-otnosheniam-2019/.
[2] A prominent example of such research was conducted within the framework of the “Eastern Slavic population of the Russian Far East: the development of traditions and transmission of cultural heritage to the countries of the Asia-Pacific region and Latin America (second half of the 19th—21st centuries)” project funded by the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences in 2010 conducted by Y.V. Argudyaeva and A.A. Khisamutdinov.
Yulia V. Argudiaeva, “Russkie staroobriadtsy v SShA,” Ojkumena. Regionovedcheskie issledovaniia. 4 (15) (2010): 16.
[3] Andrea Santolaya, “In a Remote Alaskan Town, a Centuries-Old Russian Faith Thrives,” Smithsonian Magazine, September 2, 2016, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/russian-easter-pascha-photography-old-believers-sect-russian-orthodox-church-smithsonian-journeys-travel-quarterly-180959440/; Mikhail Evstaf’ev, “Old-Rite Russia. XXI (Rus’ Starozavetnaia. XXI),” Liberty.SU М-Журнал. Documentary photography network., November 30, 2014, https://journal.liberty.su/multimedia/oldbelivers/.
[4] The terms Staroobryadtsy (Old Ritualists) and Starovertsy (Old Believers) are equally used in the academic literature. While the former is more frequently encountered in Russian public discourse, referring to adherents of the rituals, existent before Nikon’s reforms of the 17th century, the latter term Old Believers is more prevalent in English-language scholarly works. Vladimír Bahna, “Cultural Group Selection and the Russian Old Believers. Adaptive and Maladaptive Outcomes of the Group-Cohesive Effects of Religion,” Slovenský Národopis / Slovak Ethnology 70, no. 2 (June 30, 2022): 249, https://doi.org/10.31577/SN.2022.2.21.
[5] Amir A. Khisamutdinov, V Poiskakh Zemli Obetovannoi: Russkie Staroobriadtsy Iz Rossii Cherez Aziiu v Ameriku, ed. Tat’iana V. Prudkogliad (Vladivostok: Izdatelʹstvo Dalʹnevostochnogo universiteta, 2015), 42, https://evols.library.manoa.hawaii.edu.
[6] For more information about Belovodye, consult Maureen Perrie, “In Search of an Apostolic Succession: Russian Old Believers and the Legend of Belovod’e,” The Slavonic and East European Review 98, no. 2 (2020): 268, https://doi.org/10.5699/slaveasteurorev2.98.2.0266.
[7] Old Believers do not constitute a unified religious group but rather comprise two major branches. The Great Schism produced a challenge concerning the ordination of priests, leading to the new split based on the approaches chosen to address this issue. Those who resorted to the recruitment of Russian Orthodox clergy were named popovtsy (priested), while those who maintained that apostolic succession had become impossible were termed bespopovtsy (priestless) authorizing the most educated and respected members of the community to exercise the role of spiritual leaders. At the same time, the primary denominations are further subdivided into multiple soglasia (concords) perceiving each other as heretical and thus lacking unity. Bespopovtsy of Chasovennye concord were characterized by their rejection of certain dogmatic elements associated with the priestless branch. Alternatively referred to as “forced bespopovtsy”, adhering to the idea of the “hidden priesthood” existence, they allowed for the possibility of having a priest.
Bahna, “Cultural Group Selection and the Russian Old Believers. Adaptive and Maladaptive Outcomes of the Group-Cohesive Effects of Religion,” 252.
[8] The Intergovernmental Committee for European Migration, the International Committee of the Red Cross, the American Society for the Relief of Russian Exiles, and the World Council of Churches are mostly referred to.
“Staroobriadcheskaia immigratsiia posle 1917 goda,” Russian Orthodox Old-Rite Church. The official website of the Moscow Metropolia., January 4, 2019, https://rpsc.ru/publications/abroad/emmigracia-staroverov/. Federation of Charitable Organizations in the US (Federatsiia blagotvoritel’nykh organizatsii SShA), Society for Assistance to Russian People in Europe, Asia, and Africa (Obshchestvo pomoshchi russkim liudiam v Evrope, Azii I Afrike), Association of Relatives and Friends from the Far East (Ob’’edinenie rodstvennikov I druzei s Dal’nego Vostoka), and Russian-American Society for Assistance to Displaced Persons (D.P.) (Russko-Amerikanskoe obshchestvo pomoshchi peremeshchennym litsam (Di-Pi)) are also mentioned by Russian scholars; however, no pertinent sources or translations of the names have been found.
[9] The Tolstoy Foundation was established by A.L. Tolstoy, the daughter of Leo Tolstoy, with the primary objective of sponsoring refugees from the Soviet Union.
“Tolstoy Foundation - Valley Cottage, New York - History - Alexandra Tolstoy,” accessed October 3, 2024, https://tolstoyfoundation.org/tolstoy.html.
[10] Yulia V. Argudiaeva, “Semʹia i semeinyi byt russkikh staroobriadtsev v Amerike,” Vestnik DVO RAN, no. 1 (161) (2012): 116.
[11] Argudiaeva, “Russkie staroobriadtsy v SShA,” 18.
[12] Khisamutdinov, V Poiskakh Zemli Obetovannoi: Russkie Staroobriadtsy Iz Rossii Cherez Aziiu v Ameriku, 43.
[13] Rearden, Jim. “A Bit of Old Russia Takes Root in Alaska.” National Geographic, September 1972, 414.
[14] Kirill M. Tovbin, Artemy V. Semichaevsky, and Valentin V. Sokolov, “Staroobriadtsy Nikolaevska: adaptatsiia ili assimiliatsiia v svetskikh usloviiakh SShA?,” Znanie. Ponimanie. Umenie, no. 4 (December 27, 2016): 131, https://doi.org/10.17805/zpu.2016.4.11.
[15] Argudiaeva, “Semʹia i semeinyi byt russkikh staroobriadtsev v Amerike,” 116.
[16] The organization's subsequent involvement in community affairs occurred in 1971 when it supported the petition of the Nikolaevsk settlers, requesting that state authorities construct an all-weather road to replace the existing one, which was only usable during dry periods. Consequently, funding was allocated by both the state of Alaska and the federal government. Khisamutdinov, V Poiskakh Zemli Obetovannoi: Russkie Staroobriadtsy Iz Rossii Cherez Aziiu v Ameriku, 45.
[17] Amir A. Khisamutdinov, “Russkaia Shkola Na Aliaske,” Otechestvennaia i Zarubezhnaia Pedagogika 2 (29) (2016): 117, https://doi.org./10.61577/SN.2022.2.21.
[18] Argudiaeva, “Semʹia i semeinyi byt russkikh staroobriadtsev v Amerike,” 119.
[19] Khisamutdinov, “Russkaia Shkola Na Aliaske,” 118.
[20] Jim Rearden, “A Bit of Old Russia Takes Root in Alaska,” National Geographic, September 1972, 404.
[21] Khisamutdinov, V Poiskakh Zemli Obetovannoi: Russkie Staroobriadtsy Iz Rossii Cherez Aziiu v Ameriku, 44.
[22] Khisamutdinov, “Russkaia Shkola Na Aliaske,” 119.
[23] Kirill M. Tovbin, Artemy V. Semichaevsky, and Valentin V. Sokolov, “Ocherk ekspeditsii k russkim staroveram Aliaski,” Zhurnal sotsiologii i sotsialʹnoi antropologii 4 (87) (2016): 288.
[24] Shannyn Moore, “This Was a Welcome to Remember for New Citizens in Alaska,” Anchorage Daily News, February 5, 2017, https://www.adn.com/opinions/2017/02/04/this-was-a-welcome-to-remember-for-new-citizens-in-alaska/.