Conscious spiritual life, the Church and the Sacraments, the Word of God and prayer, the fullness of the family hearth, on which, to the extent of God-given talents, spouses and they are also parents work, having many children, cultivating the land and running their own household, co-workers and friends in spirit, support and mutual assistance, the cultivation of a large spiritual family, where everyone is not just good neighbors, but truly brothers and sisters - this is the foundation laid not only for the families of community members, but also for those who decide to follow their example. And, Thank God, we are far from alone in this direction - our example has inspired others! The movement spread across Russia.
In 2021, with God's help, on the eve of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Community was registered. Charter as a public non-profit organization (MOOSRETI, or simply “Spasskaya Community”). A settlement project has been implemented, and the land fund is in the process of being formalized (approx. 10 hectares). Our Foundation, in turn, provides financial, informational, organizational and economic support to the emerging community. The construction of the Orthodox settlement is being carried out with the blessing of the ruling bishop of the Chistopol and Nizhnekamsk Diocese, Parmen. The Bishop, having personally visited the construction site in September 2016, rejoiced for the future villagers and wished them God’s help in all their endeavors. Today, the Community owns about one and a half hectares of land, 5 houses, in which 5 families began to live, and these are 10 adults and 17 children, a total of 27 people! Utilities are provided - gas, electricity, water. The construction of outbuildings has been completed. The process of registering land plots in the immediate vicinity of the Community, with a total area of 9 hectares, is underway. The main task at the moment is to begin construction of the House of God - the Temple, then - a children's and youth complex, public and industrial buildings.
Families who want to join the Community are already contacting us. A house for 4 families is being built for candidates for community membership. New houses are also being built. Future development plans include the improvement of existing houses, courtyards, and plots of land. In addition, a large, educational playground will be built for children from the villages of Balymery, Kirpichny, Polyanka and the children of the Community.
To the best of our talents, we try to testify with our lives that our Lord lives and His work lives on! And, with God's Help, Russia will flourish.
FIRST ECHELON. EXODUS OF ORTHODOX COMMUNITIES (from euphoria to...reality). V.M. Kipriyanov
(From a conversation with my wife: “What will the article be called?” “First echelon.”“What the hell? I know the fifth column, but I haven’t heard about it...” And no idea
my little dove, that she has been with her husband and children for twenty years now
on this very echelon she left the capital city forever).
I.
In Russian, the concept of “echelon” is quite broad and is not limited to one train (the wheels of which must be grabbed). In a broader sense it is "flow"; "group"; “line”: “the bombers went to the fortified area in several echelons”; "defense in depth"
Most likely, this is precisely the meaning embedded in the prophecy about three echelons of Orthodox Christians who will depart from our cities at the end of times. Those in the first echelon will all survive, only half of the second echelon will get to the place alive, and the third will not reach the place - everyone will die. It is too presumptuous to interpret the prophecies of the saints, but as one of the options, the following interpretation seems to me.
The first stream of Orthodox Christians went to the countryside in a calm atmosphere, with or without old documents, sometimes without even mentally realizing the irresistible urge that suddenly arose in their hearts to leave the city forever. Often they were Orthodox in name only, but over time the Lord directed them in the right direction, some more gently, and some in great pain. They managed to settle there and somehow take root. Knowledge of rural life (vegetable gardens, livestock, agricultural equipment) gave them a sufficient margin of safety and relative autonomy, and an understanding of the processes taking place in the world and Russia protects them at the first stage from the devil’s deception.
Difficulties will increase gradually and it will be possible to gradually adapt to them, combining faith in God’s providence and the skills of autonomous life in the countryside. Their main problems will begin when they refuse all upcoming chipped documents and, accordingly, will not be able to “buy and sell” and, importantly, pay taxes. And also when a hungry avalanche of marauders goes through the countryside, sweeping away everything in its path. Therefore, those who settled far from large populated areas will have a better chance of surviving. However, a person who is strengthened in faith and ready to die for Christ is no longer afraid of anything and even death, according to the Apostle Paul, is gain. But this is theoretical. Bye…
The second echelon will move out of the cities when the need to obtain plastic biometric documents arises, because without them a person immediately falls out of society, is deprived of real estate, all rights and becomes a persecuted and despised homeless person. Powerful pressure from power structures, both state and church, will be organized on them. And it turns out that it is too late to start from scratch in the village. Those who manage to create some foundations in the village by this time in the form of a house and a vegetable garden will have a chance to survive without accepting the dictates of the authorities. However, without a well-prepared rural base and without rural life skills, it will be extremely difficult for them to ensure their existence. The rest, having been pushed around, will return back to be forced to accept the conditions of the powerful cannibals and soul lovers.
The third echelon will most likely be the most massive - after the outbreak of war and famine, people will literally rush from megacities to the countryside, but no one is waiting for them there... In addition, we must keep in mind that all communication routes will be blocked and gas stations will be left without fuel, money, like human life, will depreciate, and the supply of food to stores will cease.
II.
For the past few years, there has been more and more talk among the Orthodox people that it is time to gather in communities and leave the cities for the villages. For the majority of people, this is still just a matter of talk and remains (where can you get away from work and housing?), but someone has already begun purposeful actions: collecting information, calling, traveling, even purchasing housing in rural areas, so that “when- “somehow” to move there. There are also those who temporarily and partially interrupt the connection with the familiar world, try themselves in a new incarnation, landing on the coveted “house in the village.”
The most numerous and easiest to rise are Russian men beaten by life and without a fixed place of residence. Harsh life circumstances that broke them at one time pushed them onto the path of wandering. A disturbed psyche and accumulated bad habits do not give them the opportunity to seriously gain a foothold in one place, and the wind of wanderings, which constantly blows through their restless heads, quickly picks off these fallen leaves and carries them through life until it finally places them under some fence . There are exceptions, but quite rarely. Conversations about God are usually stopped by the green serpent, who holds his charges tightly, sometimes letting them go on a very long leash.
The second category of immigrants to the village is the creative intelligentsia, most often godless with an unimaginable vinaigrette in their heads. These people take root more often, since they usually travel with families and are not particularly burdened with green problems. However, established stereotypes, worldview and high self-esteem prevent them from knowing God, unless the Lord Himself meets them halfway, allowing some small and some great sorrows, as needed. Then they get a great opportunity to become a real army of Christ. Some become, some don't...
The third category is the believing people, families and individuals, moving closer to active monasteries and rural churches. And, finally, groups led by a priest who, having some inconsistencies with his hierarchy, leaves on his own and takes people with him to nowhere. If at the same time he is banned or defrocked and, accordingly, does not serve the Liturgy, then such a group will not last long in the village - they do not have a spiritual bond and Lukashka here gets complete carte blanche.
If the priest leaves the place of his previous ministry, applying the 15th Rule of the Double Council, that is, in “nepomin” and his group consciously follows him, then the most interesting thing begins. This is what we'll talk about.
“For those who separate themselves from communion with the primate, for the sake of some heresy, condemned by the holy Councils or Fathers, when he preaches the heresy publicly and teaches it openly in the Church, even if they protect themselves from communion with the said bishop, before the Council’s consideration, not only are not subject to the due rules of penance, but also worthy of the honor due to the Orthodox. For they condemned not bishops, but false bishops and false teachers, and did not stop the unity of the Church by schism, but tried to preserve the Church from schisms and divisions.”
III.
The best shepherds of the Russian Orthodox Church, feeling the impending apostasy in the Church and the accompanying preparation of the forces of the Antichrist in state structures (i.e., a symphony of authorities), sacredly fulfill the vows given to Christ - to bring the weighty pastoral word to people. But this word does not fit into the policy of “our” symphonizing authorities, and these authorities, who are in the same spirit, are pursuing a coordinated repressive policy against them. First, the church authorities invite them to shut up, threatening them with a host of sanctions at their disposal, and then they heartily whip the disobedient priests with these sanctions. If it takes a long time for them to get there, government agencies get involved. What can you do, a symphony...
In fact, juvenile justice is designed specifically for such “dissidents” and others like them. People do not accept microchipped documents, which means they oppose government policy (!!!) And since they are voluntarily ready for all sorts of hardships, then, in fact, there is no leverage left over them, except for one, but the most effective one - their children. In the criminal world, this is a “normal” phenomenon recognized by all authorities. But what about a legitimate democratic state? It turns out to be very simple and completely legal. And in anticipation of the fact that there will be more and more of these “crazy people,” our champions of democracy quickly put together the so-called laws they needed for such a case and are intensively unwinding the powerful cudgel of juvenile justice.
So, a group of Orthodox Christians, who do not accept new trends in the Church and the state, leaves the city for the countryside. Today, these are the people most sensitive to the signs of impending apostasy; they usually do not have passports and this, as a rule, is reflected in their attitude towards others.
If this is not contempt, then at least hidden arrogance, but at the same time, the maintenance of such groups occurs through funding from outside, through people who have all the necessary documents for this. The group of refuseniks, for reasons of principle, do not have computers or cell phones, but actively use them through those who sympathize and support them.
Some of the Orthodox settle in residential villages, staying distinctly apart from the local residents, and they deservedly call them a sect. Others, after spending some time among the local population, go even further - off-road to recently abandoned forest villages. After one of these groups left, local residents were surprised to find an intricate inscription on the plywood: “Exodus from Sodom and Gomorrah. (date of)"
And since our peasants are still literate people, they understood perfectly well that the righteous had come out of their, to put it mildly, unconventionally oriented village, and now on the blue and pink remaining heads, we must wait for the wrath of God in the form of abundant precipitation of fiery brimstone. At the same time, the righteous agreed in advance with the perverts that they would deliver food to them off-road. The heart of the Russian peasant is kind; they take pity on the poor righteous and do not hold a grudge against them.
And now, finally, the rosy city dreams of an Orthodox community and a “house in the village” are coming true. The village was abandoned by people relatively recently, so the huts are still more or less intact. Two of them were bought without registration from the former owners, and the other two were allowed to live in temporarily, not wanting to sell them. The question of purchasing and delivering products, a lot of household items, etc. immediately arises. Purchasing farm animals and poultry, as well as feed for them, etc. The list is long, and therefore a lot of money, plus delivery. The people are mostly urban (hardly anyone will travel from village to village), so they do not even have basic peasant skills and understanding of what needs to be done first, what second, and what is better to abandon altogether as a whim.
Let's say we bought a horse and a cow from the gypsies. The horse turned out to be still young and unbroken, she doesn’t know how to work yet, and it’s too early for her. And to go with it, among other things, you need a harness of the right size, a cart, a sleigh and a plow. Moreover, you need to graze somehow so that it doesn’t run away, and you also have to mow 3 tons of hay for the winter. With what? As it turned out, no one knows how to mow. We bought a lawn trimmer... which amused the locals. It turned out that the cow needs the same amount of hay for the winter, and the future calf needs half as much. And they were sold a brown cow uncovered, but the barn cow doesn’t give milk, they need a bull, and there isn’t one even in the nearby area - the state farm has long been killed. The gardens have not been cultivated for many years and are tightly overgrown with wheatgrass. While we were settling in and making beds for onions and lettuce, half of the summer had passed, and no potatoes had been planted—there was nowhere to go. Very quickly the one they bought from the locals for seeds was eaten.
Four residential huts for a large group is not much. Closely. And since the main contingent of pensioners is the intelligentsia, who have long been accustomed to living alone in their comfortable city apartments, such a crowded hostel, when “everyone has their own suitcase,” gets out very quickly. It’s one thing when people are bombing around you, you just have to survive. But when you’re not overwhelmed and there are a lot of well-appointed alternatives...
This is where the sweetheart has freedom, and if your spiritual experience is small, this is where you have problems. Apocalyptic sentiments unite people and at the same time lower them. War, repression and famine are coming soon, so you need to prepare yourself for them in advance, so they prepare: they sleep in outerwear, without undressing, the bathhouse is an unnecessary luxury - on Mount Athos the monks don’t wash at all and nothing, they live.
And the bear hasn’t washed his whole life, but he’s still the strongest of all. Washing - so, insofar as... and since you didn’t bring lice with you right away, there’s nowhere for them to come from here. Live and be happy. But these mosquitoes... well, it's just a nightmare!!! Every day a peasant is so busy with the farm that he has no time to take a break, but there are a lot of people here, there isn’t much farming yet, there is not enough urban understanding of what to do with oneself in the countryside - hence the idleness, supported by the availability of purchased products. When the financial flow from outside is interrupted, these devotees will understand that they are absolutely not ready for independent life in an abandoned village without electricity or shops, much less for survival.
The presence of school-aged children in the group, especially high school ones, only aggravates the situation. Good intentions to educate children on our own do not stand up to criticism. For any normal child (excluding “nerds”), studying is a bone in the throat. And here - freedom!!! You don’t have to go to school, no one gives bad marks, there will still be code exams... this is life! However, external exams after self-study, especially for high school students, are a serious problem, especially since the skill of daily diligent study degrades very quickly. So, convinced idlers and ignoramuses are growing up.
If a group lives quietly, trying to keep a low profile and not conflict with the authorities, then for some time it can exist more or less calmly, but not for long. If it immediately declares itself a fighter against the state and church system of globalization, then the system is simply obliged to quickly close this issue so that others will also be discouraged. She feels that protest sentiments among the people, especially among believers, are already quite high, so the first precedents of disobedience must be extinguished immediately. Well, there are enough suppression methods, although in relation to this contingent, they have not yet been sufficiently developed.
The department for combating extremism and juvenile justice were invented for this purpose. They will crush some right away, others will have to tinker with for a longer time, but butting heads with the state system, especially for pioneers, is quite tedious and, most likely, futile. We have before our eyes a huge mass of convincing examples of how the authorities, even for the sake of decency, without trying to hide behind the law, treat our compatriots such as Kvachkov, Khabarov, Dushenov like gangsters. This relates to the fact that on the forums there is an opinion that these communities fled the fight for their homeland.
Not at all. It is they who are at the forefront of the spiritual battle for Russia. It is to them that up to thirty (!) representatives of the authorities come at the same time (Department for Combating Extremism, Criminal Investigation, Juvenile Justice, Deputy Heads of all kinds of administrations, firefighters, SES, etc., etc.) and all this is accompanied by police officers with machine guns (!) And this whole public demands to show them the children, about whose fate they are all terribly concerned. I'm not even talking about the gossip and fables that these government officials spread among the local population, inciting them in their own way.
In general, in a war it’s like in a war. But every cloud has a silver lining - unity and prayer in such a group grow stronger quite quickly. Lukashka loses here. In addition, all these civil servants are ordinary Russian people, and although they are in the performance of their official duties, from the dialogues that arise, they gradually develop an understanding that everything is not exactly as their superiors portray to them. Conscience, if it is not sold or impregnated, makes you think about many issues of the surrounding reality and come to the right conclusions. And these correct conclusions will one day, when the time comes, serve their purpose. Therefore, we should not consider these employees our enemies and should not be embittered at them, because it is the Lord Himself who sends us such an audience to preach the word of God. And it gives us the opportunity to acquire confessional crowns. Under what other conditions will you be able to carry the word of God to such a wide range of representatives of the management team? I don't see any other options.
Only a calm conversation and an explanation of the current situation will put everything in its place, and then the Lord will manage. If modern God-fighters and destroyers of Russia were at least a little smarter, they would not drive such a wave against the departing Orthodox communities, but, on the contrary, would try not to remember them. They themselves would create such “Potemkin villages” for them without electricity, schools, shops, hospitals - well, no costs or headaches for you. It’s good when the best warriors of Christ leave society along with their offspring and thus drop out of the fight. They themselves will take a break when money circulation switches to non-cash transactions.
And so, with their own hands, they provided us with ideal conditions for disseminating truthful information among the Russian people and lower management. Prepare literature and videos suitable for their understanding in advance and distribute them whenever possible. Explain that the moloch of the new world order will affect everyone, including them, along with their children. Yes, any Russian person has a lot of unpleasant questions for the leadership of the state, even the middle and lower management. So use this, explain unobtrusively, you know the answers. The Lord can turn any bad situation to our advantage if we ask Him to do so.
IV.
The stormy and joyful preparations that have recently taken place all over the world for the meeting of the “end of the world” have not only a profitable commercial background for its organizers (even from the end of the world the “exiled people” are able to make a profitable profit), but also far-reaching political goals. Especially here in Russia. Let's try to figure it out.
If all the media in the country are unanimously and excitedly threateningly savoring the “end of the world” scheduled for a certain date, then they have received the appropriate order for this. We know who can give such an order. The question is - for what? Who fell for this cheap bait? Yes, anyone, except for one segment of the population - Orthodox Christians. Only they know what Revelation God gave to the Apostle John the Theologian about the end of the world, and they treat this issue very calmly, since they see that all the necessary conditions have not yet matured. Again, only they know about the ongoing preparations by the Antichrist’s servants for this very end of the world, on the eve of which all humanity must receive chipped documents and the mark of the Antichrist “on the right hand or forehead.” And if they know, it means they will not accept these documents and thus will oppose the world and state system.
Some of them will leave megacities and settle in rural areas, where there are more opportunities to live without chips. It is here that the cheating authorities, having distorted their cards, will point to these immigrants and declare them crazy, who, having created totalitarian misanthropic sects, are hiding from the end of the world. Well, just like the Penza sectarians. And the end of the world, as practice has shown, will never happen, because it is nonsense. You saw all this on TV.
And now the security forces, deceived by their customers, being confident that they are right, will begin to persecute these “crazy sectarians” and believe that they are doing a just thing. 'The time is coming when everyone who kills you will think that he is serving God by doing so' (John 16:2) Well, confidence in their rightness will give them strength and calm their conscience in the fight against their compatriots.
V.
Nevertheless, the flow of Orthodox people from cities to the countryside will increase in order to make it easier to gain a foothold there. We must try not to repeat the mistakes of our predecessors. You should not loudly slam the door and declare yourself as irreconcilable fighters against the apostasy system.
“Stay away from her, do not participate in the deeds of darkness and you will have enough.” In principle, a large ship needs a long voyage, and if the Lord gave a person the talent “To burn the hearts of people with a verb,” then he is simply obliged for his salvation not to bury this talent in the ground. The bright path of a fighter is the lot of a chosen few.
Once talking with one Lavra archimandrite, close to me in spirit and views on the surrounding reality, I invited him to go to our village and head the empty church that we had restored. “Who will I leave my children with? No, I will die with them."
For the bulk of the population, another path is salutary - personal standing in the Truth, prayer and, as much as possible, without pressure, enlightening those around you with your weak word and personal example. Those who have the opportunity to break away from the city should better leave it, but at the same time they must look at things realistically - it will not be possible to live in a village with just a vegetable garden without regular financial injections from outside, or without a well-organized economy, i.e. without commercial production.
However, even with such an economy it is problematic - they will crush you with taxes. Especially when switching to plastic documents and non-cash payments. Thus, the fewer tax objects you have, the more peacefully you sleep.
One of the settlement schemes in rural areas may be as follows.
You need to find a small rural monastery whose priesthood is in the right positions and settle next to it. This is optimal. However, around one of these monasteries that I knew, several Orthodox... Jewish families settled. And over time, despite the blessing of the confessor, they permeated the community with the Jewish spirit. Even though they are crossed, the blood still takes its toll.
You can also settle within reach of the parish church, whose rector understands everything correctly. Nowadays there are more and more priests who, for their uncompromising position, are sent out of office, banned, and even defrocked by their clergy. But, “the judgment of man is different and the judgment of God is different.” No one can defrock a priest who stands in the Truth, even if you are the Pope of Rome, not to mention the bishops who have fallen into the heresy of ecumenism, the prophecy of which by St. Seraphim of Sarov is terrible.
Applying to them the 15th Rule of the Double Council (which, according to the holy fathers, is “worthy of honor”), the priest not only can, but is also obliged to serve and care for the faithful flock. These are the groups that should follow the most official path possible. The simultaneous appearance of a group of strangers in one village will immediately alert and frighten the local residents, and contact may not take place. Therefore, it is easier for one or two strangers to find a house, preferably with documents (which is very rare in the rural outback - no one is foolish to pay such a lot of money to all sorts of offices for their own house, and it’s a hassle).
According to modern laws, without registering a house, you cannot register in it, and you cannot register either. But, if you manage to get at least temporary registration, then you are already a local resident by law, and the authorities lose a good reason to catch you once again.
Try not to show off your religious views, as Jehovah’s Witnesses and other sectarians do, but keep them to yourself at first. You left the city in order to live in an ecologically clean area to maintain your health. People understand this more clearly. Be sociable and do not avoid local residents, even drunks - they are most often harmless.
Then explain to the locals that your friends would also like to live in nature. They will only be glad if their dying village is replenished with new permanent residents. Don’t act like hesychasts and tough ascetics - you’ll immediately turn the common people of the village against you, and they’ll call you sectarians behind your back.
Don't alienate people by building palaces if you have money, and try to be less different from the general background. Do not allow yourself to descend into sloppiness and idleness - you will be despised and your word, even if very correct, will not be heard.
At the beginning of the 20th century, one of the English expeditions sent a group of 4 people to Antarctica for the winter: two officers and two sailors. Having safely overwintered, they waited for the ship, but, covered in ice, it did not appear, and the group had to remain for the second winter without food and necessary supplies. A dramatic struggle for survival began. And one of the officers writes in his diary: “Out of respect for our sailors, we went out into the cold every time when they were tidying up our ice cave.” Just think: in the terrible conditions of the polar night, expecting death as a desired release from torment, they, nevertheless, did not sink to a bestial state. This is what saved them in the end.
VI.
Some extremely correct groups believe that our children have no future: already in school they have to sign a bunch of tricky papers with built-in consent to the processing and transfer of personal data to “third parties,” etc. After graduating from school and going out into independent life, they will be forced to accept all microchipped documents, without which it will be impossible to study at a university or work in production. That is, they will definitely destroy their souls. Everything seems to be so, but...
In Rus' there is a nice proverb - “You are going to die, but this rye!” The Monk Seraphim of Sarov and many of our other saints predicted a short (10-15 years), but powerful rise of Russia in recent times under the scepter and power of the last Russian Tsar. So the question arises: at whose expense will Russia rise if we artificially exclude our children from the educational process, to the delight of our enemies? Is it that forest savages will raise the intellectual potential of our Motherland? Or will children of Caucasian and Jewish nationality make Russia great? Yes, the Ministry of Education will be happy if it finally manages to close all our “unpromising” schools and universities!
Is it really not clear that “our” leadership has been given the highly paid task of destroying the best educational system in the world? And what, are we going to help them with this? Sorry, but our task is exactly the opposite! Pray for your children, teach them to pray, they must absorb with their mother’s milk that the Motherland will rise only on their shoulders, and the Lord will then rule Himself.
In rural areas, not all schools have been destroyed yet and children simply have to go to school. The soul must work, otherwise it degrades. Only believing and literate people can create a Great Russia, and not the forest’s intimidated and ignorant “orthodoxies.” And you, at least at first, will not have any special problems with the authorities and juveniles. Children of rural schools today differ greatly and for the better from their urban peers, so don’t worry - your children won’t pick up crap there. Again, how and on what you educate. Many excellent rural schools are on the verge of closing due to lack of students, and with your enrollment you will simply save them. Only very rich and closed private schools can afford individual education for each student. And our rural schools provide just such training, because there are two or three children in each class.
VII.
Well, the last question is relations in the community. I think it is optimal, as long as conditions allow, not for the whole crowd to move into one chicken coop, but for each family to have its own home, its own household and its own life. There is no voluntary-compulsory obligation, only general prayer. Nobody owes you anything, neither local residents, nor the community (and you owe them all. If you manage to set yourself up this way, those around you will eventually come to this themselves). You will gratefully accept their voluntary help, and you will also be ready to always and selflessly provide your help to those in need. In addition, community work is much more efficient and productive.
Life in a close community brings many temptations - it always seems to us that we give more than they give to us and that we work harder and better than our neighbors, etc. and so on. There's plenty of space for Lukashka - he'll quarrel at the moment. Regular confession and communion are very important here, because there will be many spiritual attacks on this basis. A regular “debriefing” can be useful, when to everyone who has expressed a desire, the whole group lovingly identifies all his pros and cons over the past period. Well, asking each other for forgiveness every night is simply a must. This will prevent negative emotions from accumulating, which over time suddenly detonate and quantity turns into quality. This disease is easier to prevent than to treat. Once, one confessor of a small convent told me: “If they had not confessed every day and every other day, no one would have stayed here.”
Single men and women can live as a community in separate buildings, and it is better to eat together here. Having somewhat settled down in the village, you should carefully and carefully inquire about remote, abandoned villages. Unlike residential areas, there are no decent roads, no electricity, wells are in disrepair and gardens have long been overgrown. The houses here are also more dilapidated and need to be repaired and equipped in advance. Stock up on food and everything necessary for hour “H”, and when such a need arises (and it most likely will appear), quickly and, if possible, secretly, relocate there.
Everyone should have a good, roomy backpack, a good warm sleeping bag-blanket (not a cocoon!) and a camping mat. (they will also come in handy if you are ever led through a stage). Light modern tents and a large canvas tent with a stove would also be useful. Learn to obtain pasture by hunting, fishing, collecting and storing wild plants. This is a separate, very large topic that cannot be mastered theoretically; it requires practice. Initial practice can be obtained at the Velikoretsky religious procession.
There may be some other community near you with a different understanding of the ongoing processes, different from yours. Some accepted passports, others did not; some people remember Kirill, some don’t; Some people break the egg from the blunt end, while others always break the egg from the sharp end...
Do not consider yourself to be clearly right, but they are not - only the Lord knows this. A person is given the right to make mistakes, as long as the heart is not deceitful. Don't despise or push anyone away. Remember our holy ascetic missionaries, who patiently and with love brought even hardened pagans to Christ. Remember Equal-to-the-Apostles Nicholas of Japan, our contemporary, how he, starting from scratch, even converted the Japanese(!) to Christianity. Thanks to him, the Moscow Patriarchate also has a Japanese diocese.
But we and our compatriots, who are already Christians genetically, cannot find a common language. Don’t judge anyone - everyone has their own measure of achievement and their own understanding of standing in faith. For those who are wrong and sinners (in your correct opinion), feel sorry and pray that the Lord will enlighten them, and maybe you too. Remember the main thing - we are compatriots and comrades-in-arms, and we have one Motherland, and it is in mortal danger, which means that all differences of opinion are empty in this situation. With God blessing!
V.M. Kipriyanov
Morals and life of the Siberian Old Believers
The church reform of Patriarch Nikon in the 17th century split Orthodox society into supporters and opponents of changes in rituals and state intervention in the activities of the Church. The latter, being adherents of old church traditions, actively resisted innovations. The endless expanses of Siberia became a haven for schismatics, where, on the orders of Empress Catherine II, the Old Believers were driven to resettle.
Their descendants still live in small villages in the remote Siberian taiga. They consider their faith to be the only correct one, and since the time of the Nikonian schism they have carefully protected it from outside influence, not recognizing the official Orthodox Church. The very first way to preserve it unchanged is isolation from wider society and civilization. And although many Old Believer communities find a compromise between Orthodox and secular life, the Siberian branch has retained its status as the most closed and secluded.
Strangers are not welcome here, although some communities, albeit reluctantly, accept occasional tourists and media representatives. A uniform way of life for everyone helps to preserve the canons of spiritual culture prescribed in religious books. Everywhere, Old Believers have systems of amulets that protect health in everyday life and ensure salvation on the Day of Judgment. An Orthodox Christian is obliged to observe all fasts and holidays and follow the daily cycle of prayer.
They marry “their own”. They look for wives in other Old Believer villages, sometimes hundreds of kilometers from the community. Some people leave home for several months in search of a bride. A woman is ordered to wear a long skirt and a scarf on her head. You cannot cut your hair or use cosmetics. You need to have as many children as God sends. Many give birth according to the behests of their ancestors at home. The baby's personal name is chosen from the calendar. Old Believers live according to the old style, that is, according to the Julian calendar. Their time is also different - an hour ago. The calculation is carried out “from the creation of the world.”
There is no TV, radio, or telephone in the houses, but the ancient tradition of reading aloud with the family has been preserved. Old Believers treat books very carefully. Relics in leather covers have been passed down from generation to generation since the 17th century.
In the life of the Old Believers there is a lot of physical labor and restrictions on food as a means of subjugating the flesh. Special requirements apply to meat foods. Even on days when the consumption of meat products is allowed, only meat from animals with a cloven hoof is used. They stay away from creatures with paws - even dogs, although they are bred for the purpose of hunting, are not tied near the porch.
They eat only what they have grown or collected themselves, sometimes using the services of food trucks. The services of the registry office are rarely used; they have a minimum of documents - a birth certificate and a passport. All papers and cards are considered a sin - issues of registering newborns and registering property are dealt with exclusively by the elders.
Cases of complete isolation of families from civilization are also common. The most famous of them is the Lykov family of Old Believers of the chapel persuasion, who have lived in the forest area of the Abakan ridge of Western Sayan since the 1930s. Father and mother and their four children, hiding from persecution of their faith, settled in the rugged taiga, renouncing any contact with civilization. They considered a solitary life to be salutary for the soul and body and rejected any everyday and cultural innovations since the time of Peter the Great. The last representative of the Lykov family, Agafya, has still been living on the farm all alone for almost thirty years.
"Kitezh" - the world of childhood
In a small village in the Kaluga region there is the only therapeutic community in Russia, a community of foster parents for children with difficult childhoods. In total, there are 70 settlers in Kitezh: 20 adults and 50 children. The community has a system of collective education, psychological work is carried out with orphans and children who have experienced personal tragedy (death of relatives, leaving a disadvantaged environment, changing several foster families).
Privacy is part of the strategy for working with students. “The main idea of Kitezh is this: children find themselves in an environment that acts like a pickle: you put a cucumber in it, it doesn’t have to do anything - it will pickle,” explains the head of the village, adoptive father and physics teacher Alexander Varaksin. — A month passes, and the child from the orphanage stops swearing, because no one swears. Quit smoking. We, adults, don’t even have to grab your hand every time and say: this is impossible! The environment tells you. If you broke the glass, go admit it. Will they scold? No - they will simply ask you to restore it. With Dad".
Most children from orphanages enter the community through summer camps. Many do not want to leave, being drawn into the environment. Over the more than 20 years of Kitezh’s existence, clear rules have developed in the settlement. When a younger child gets here, he receives the title “doll”. He chooses his own mentor among older children or adults. Together they set goals and learn to achieve them. “Pups” needs to overcome three steps: the first is to learn independence, the second is to study well, adapting to the workload, the third is to follow the laws of “Kitezh” (do not swear, do not break property, do not smoke, etc.). The grown-up “doll” becomes a student, now he has more complex tasks: to learn honesty and sincerity, service and courage, to experience beauty and harmony - this is the value system in “Kitezh”.
They work with children at school (with state status, by the way) and at home. Students master all school disciplines; English is taught by volunteers from the UK. There are no televisions here, computers are only in the computer science room. Role-playing games are organized for children - theatrical performances that last for several days. In the summer, general games are held, in which from 50 to 100 people are involved. Offenses – children’s and adults’ – are dealt with by the public in a “trial”.
The settlement's canteen provides three meals a day for all residents, so foster mothers, many of whom also have several children of their own, are freed from the hassle of cooking. The main thing here is the children.
