Uralsk still has a community of Old Believers of the Russian Orthodox Church. The parish officially has 50 parishioners, yet fewer people attend church services. Believers repair their church that was built in 1888 at their own cost, observe traditions of the Russian Orthodox Church, which existed until the 17th century and thank authorities of Kazakhstan for not oppressing them.
“Execution for faith”
The parish of Old Believers of Uralsk has a three-century history. According to father Konstantin (Garanin), the only priest of Old Believers in Kazakhstan, their persecution began in the 17th century. Back then, patriarch Nikon together with Tsar Aleksei Mikhailovich Romanov decided to destroy all customs that had developed in Russia since the 10th century.
“Without any explanation or discussions, they made a decision at their discretion to destroy everything and make the customs of the Russian Orthodox Church consistent with the ones of the Church of Greece. The tsar was a great Philhellene and decided to perform this experiment on the church. They said it directly, “Our Russian saints were illiterate, undereducated, so we should not rely on their experience. We will do it from scratch,” father Konstantin said.
After this decision of tsar Aleksey Romanov, the Bible, the New Testament and all worship books were again translated in Russia. All prayers changed, services were reduced, changed, and offices of sacraments were reduced, respectively.
“Of course, faithful people and those who were not indifferent to the church made a stand against it. Since then, strict measures were taken towards Old Believers. They were executed for faith, their property was seized, they were sent into exile,” father Konstantin said.
“The church was closed and sealed”
Old Believers in Uralsk have their own church named after the intercession of the Holy Virgin. It is a building built in 1888, which was built by Old Believers, and they had no opportunity to pray inside for almost one century.
“There is a legend that after the Ikan battle (military collision between the Uralsk Cossack regiment of captain Serov and Kokand army of Alimkul, 1864 – Author’s note) near Turkestan, the Yaik Cossacks asked that land plot from the authorities, but apparently did not say what it was for. Later on, the church was built in that place,” father Konstantin retells the legend.
At the end of the 19th century, according to father Konstantin, it was a little easier when the church was built – persecution by authorities was not very severe. However, there was a law that prohibited Old Believers to build temple buildings, i.e. buildings resembling the church.
Therefore, a square box with the double-pitch roof was built and people began to pray there. But soon authorities learned that church services were performed there and closed and sealed the church. It was in 1889.
Hospital and disco instead of the church
According to father Konstantin, the church was closed for 13 years. In 1905, tsar Nicholas II issued a decree, which allowed all religions to pray publicly and build churches. Old Believers in Uralsk collected signatures and sent the paper to the emperor asking him to let them open the church. The tsar gave his consent.
In 1907, Old Believers of Uralsk consecrated the church and began to hold services in it. In 1934, in the time of the Soviet government, a priest of the Uralsk-based church of Old Believers was arrested, and the church was closed. Then the building was given to the ministry of defence. During the war, a hospital was located in the building, and after the war and until 1985 there was the military communications unit “Sokol” (translated from Russian as Falcon). Later on, the church was given to enterprise “Vodstroi”. When the building was run by the enterprise, it had a club inside with movies and dancing. According to the parishioners of the church, there were even discos organised in the church during the perestroika.
“The building was returned to the believers only in 1993. It was completely devastated: the walls cracked and collapsed in some places, there was no electrical wiring and heating,” father Konstantin said.
“I am the first priest since the 30s of the 20th century”
Father Konstantin said that he came to the church at the age of 20: “I saw the church of Old Believers in Orenburg, and entered it just for fun and remain there. Meanwhile, I did not understand anything in it, and I did not have any religious experience. In my family, only my grandmother was the worshipper. She asked me to buy candles from time to time.”
Konstantin Garanin first was the parishioner in the church of Old Believers in Orenburg, then he was promoted to the position of a deacon, and two years later he and his family were sent to Uralsk, where he became the priest of the church of old believers. In the given historical circumstances he became the first permanent priest in the Uralsk-based church beginning from the 30s of the 20th century.
“The last priest was arrested in 1934. In 80 years, only temporary priests came here, who came from other towns for a short period: one week, one month to give communion, to hear confession. But there were no permanent priests,” father Konstantin said.
The church lives on tithes
Old Believers have good relations with local authorities – they invite them to roundtable discussions and meetings to akimat.
“Our community is officially registered. We are grateful to authorities for not oppressing us and leaving us alone. However, they do not provide any assistance to us. But we are still thankful to them for it,” the priest said.
According to him, the chair of their community has turned to akimat many times, and even to the presidential office, asking them to help them recover the church. But every time Old Believers received formal replies about the lack of money. However, the department in charge of protection of historical monuments sends them orders to keep the church in due condition.
“The image of the church we have now is the result of 20-30 years. It has taken us 30 years to have what we could have in 3 years,” the priest said.
Old Believers, using their own resources, did a repair inside the building, yet a lot of recovery efforts are still needed: the roof and the foundation need to be repaired. The parish lives on tithes, i.e. every attendant of the church pays 10 per cent of their income, either salary or pension, once a month. The contribution is voluntary and there is no specific amount. This money is spent to repair the church.
Living underground
On June 4, 2023, the journalist of CABAR.asia counted 15 Old Believers in the church during the service in honour of the Orthodox Trinity day.
The priest said that despite many generations of Cossacks of Yaik, who followed the canons of the Orthodox church of Old Believers, there is no succession among the Old Believers of Uralsk, and few parishioners attend services in the church of Old Believers.
The reason is that there has been no church in Uralsk for a long time. The New Believers have never had their Transfiguration Church closed – they have always had an opportunity to come and pray there, thus keeping the string of faith and contact.
“A grandmother would take her grandchild to the church, the child would have childhood impressions, and once he/she becomes adult, he/she would go that place. And we have gathered together either in one house, or another. We lived underground, so to speak. In the 1960s, a priest came from Novosibirsk. There were 60-70 Old Believers in Uralsk back then who could hardly fit into the yard of a private house. Now there are fewer people,” the priest said.
Like Muslims
According to father Konstantin, Old Believers of Uralsk have never had conflicts with representatives of other religions, and Muslims have even noticed similar things.
“Muslims respect us. They watch us and say, “Your rug and beads are like ours.” This is our ancient tradition. Our rugs are called “small prayer rugs”, we put them on the floor when we make prostrations. They are used to keep our hands clean. Our beads are similar to those of Muslims, we tell beads and say prayers,” father Konstantin said.
The priest said that Old Believers have the service of the Great Canon, when parishioners perform over 1,000 prostrations.
Father Konstantin said he was not going to leave Uralsk: “The priest has a purpose to try to save everyone who comes to the church. I don’t know if God has brought all in this town to our church,” the priest said.
All photos by: Talgat Umarov