Last week, as part of our study of the merchant class in Moscow, our MGU student praktikantky accompanied us to the Old Believer cemetery, Rogozhkoe. The Old Believers are a sect of the Russian Orthodox Church that splintered off from the main body in 1656 in protest of Patriarch Nikon’s church reforms. Throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, Old Believers were ruthlessly victimized, often banished or simply burned at the stake. United in their shared persecution, the Old Believers formed an insular, tight-knit group, a broad and transient community, determined to thrive within a hostile greater Russia. Exiled to the edges of cities, they thus controlled the roads, and therefore trade. Because Orthodox Christians technically cannot lend money, Old Believers devised a system of collective money keeping, essentially the first banks of Russia, affording them more influence in the community. These community traits bred a shrewd and effective merchant class (much like Jews elsewhere), and by the 19th century, many of the wealthiest Russian merchant and industrialist families were Old Believer. According the Ninth Census of Moscow Merchants 1850-1, Old Believers accounted for 15.7% of all Moscow merchants, and 11.4% of the wealthiest Moscow merchants.
There were three main Old Believer merchant guilds, each (in theory) tied with a separate Old Believer community. Of the three, it was the Rogozhskoe community and guild that produced the most notable of all Old Believer industrialists, notably, the Morozovs, the Kuznitsovs, the Solovievs, and the Ryabuskinskiis. So it was only fitting that, after excursions to the ornate homes, factories, and palaces of the Morozovs and Ryabushinskiis, we ended our study of Old Believer merchants with a visit to their family plots at the Rogozhskoe cemetery, maintained over the years by the Ryabushinskii family.
After a metro and a long bus ride—mostly sitting in Moscow traffic, we arrived at the cemetery. There were several impressive churches, and a couple men dressed in the traditional old believer style—they had longish beards and wore long, old-fashioned coats. Maybe we should have taken a hint from the fact that they were walking away from the cemetery—the gates had closed at 5 pm. It was already 5:30, darn. Thankfully, our praktikantka saved the day by convincing the guard to let us in, in exchange for 100 rubles each. The guard stuck the wad of cash in his pocket, opened up the gates and told us to hurry up.
Our method of entry into the cemetery wasn't the only detail that surprised us. First of all, we were struck by the lay-out of the graves. Whereas many American cemeteries feel spacious and open, each Rogozhskoe plot is surrounded by a fence—it feels more like a maze. The most open-feeling section was the grassy area dedicated to “Heros of the Great Patriotic War,” (WWII) in front of the barbed wire fence at the back.
The graves themselves consisted of a gravestone and usually a large wood or metal cross of the eight-point old-believer style. We also noticed that more recent gravestones often featured a photograph of the deceased carved into the headstone—a trend rather uncommon in American cemeteries. We were surprised to see a wall containing cremations—it is against Old Believer tradition to cremate. However, we could tell by the style and the dates that these were relatively new. Maybe as Moscow grew and grave space became harder to find, non-Old Believers paid their way into Rogozhskoe (like us!).
Finally, the mementos brought to the graves were different. Flower arrangements left on graves were usually artificial, not fresh, as were the oval-shaped funeral wreathes (venki). The Russian Orthodox Church celebrated Easter the weekend before our visit, and because it is forbidden to visit cemeteries during Lent, it is traditional to visit the graves of friends and relatives shortly after Easter. In addition to flowers and candles, people leave food—especially dyed eggs and bread—on graves. One of the praktikantky told us that birds fly off with small pieces of bread, thus carrying these offerings higher and closer to God and heaven.
Works Cited: Beliajeff, Anton S. 1979. The Economic Power of the Old Believers in Mid-Nineteenth Century Moscow. New Zealand Slavonic Journal (1):35-43. Brooke, Caroline. 2006. Moscow: A Cultural History. Oxford University Press: Oxford, 2006.
