Published: 2025-12-281

An Unknown Poem about the Malaya Chausova Old Believers’ Church Assembly of 1898

Abstract

In the second half of the 19th century, a discussion arose among the Pomorians of the Southern Urals and Trans-Urals about the attitude towards marriages without a priestly blessing. One of the catalysts for this controversy was the Ozerki Assembly of 1875 (Ozerki village, Chelyabinsk district, Orenburg province). As a result, a split occurred in the Ural Pomorian community, leading to the convening of numerous local councils and giving rise to extensive polemical literature. One of the pro-Ozerki Assemblies is the Malaya Chausova Assembly of 1898 (Malaya Chausova village, Kurgan County, Tobolsk Province). Until recently, this council was known in historiography only by mention in a later source. Yet, in 2018, a handwritten book, copied by the Vilnius calligrapher I. Gushchenko, was discovered in Riga (Latvia). The manuscript contains the previously unknown “Poem on the proceedings of the Malaya Chausova Assembly, held in 7406 / 1898”. The article analyses the information provided about the Malaya Chausova Assembly and discusses the context of the poem’s origin. The text of the poem is published at the end the article.

Keywords:

Old Believers, Pomorians, polemics, Old Believers’ literature, Trans-Urals, Russia, Malaya Causova Church Assembly, Grigory Tokarev

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Morozowa, N. (2025). An Unknown Poem about the Malaya Chausova Old Believers’ Church Assembly of 1898. Theological Yearbook, 67(2), 179–206. https://doi.org/10.36124/rt.2025.09

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