Tuva Old Believers

Last summer I was lucky to stay for several days with the Bzhitsky family of Old Believers who live in the upper reaches of the Yenisei. You can get to them only along the Yenisei or by helicopter.

I am impressed ... that there are still such sincere, selfless people, untainted by civilization. They live in hermitages, in a deep, impassable taiga, several hundred kilometers to the nearest town.

The houses are built thoroughly, from cedar, along the banks of the Yenisei. Families are large, there are many children, as the Old Believers themselves say - "How much God will give", so 10-12 children are not uncommon.

People of deep faith, observe all fasts, sacredly honor the Law of God. Strangers from the outside world are treated with distrust. Men do not cut their beards; married women walk with their heads covered and in headscarves. They rarely go to the city for diesel fuel, cartridges and salt. Sometimes they carry homework for sale.

They live without TVs, radio, light, and indeed without electricity ... The main occupations are hunting, fishing, picking berries, mushrooms, herbs. They keep cattle and grow vegetables. They categorically reject smoking, alcohol only of their own production, and then in moderation and on major holidays, they do not use foul language. The courtyard is in perfect order.

Several mountain passes are behind, around the dense impenetrable taiga ...

... but judging by the buildings there are owners here too

A few tens of kilometers behind, and here he is - Handsome Yenisei ...

We sit in the boats, and soon single settlements of Old Believers begin to appear on the shore.

Having reached this threshold, we stop ...

And here we are. Oddly enough, they greeted us with joy, listened with genuine interest and asked what was happening in the country now. One of the rules of the Old Believers, "strangers" in your house, do not eat from one dish, so especially for guests - tourists and lovers of water activities, we built a separate bathhouse and a guest house, where we settled. Immediately, the hospitable hosts fed me surprisingly delicious homemade food, as I remember now fresh milk, game cutlets, smoked meat, grayling and the miracle drink "kosorylovka" (a cross between kvass and wine).

They are not allowed to take pictures of themselves, especially girls, they say that it is "sinful". One of the few pictures.

There are no kindergartens, schools, hospitals, so the mother herself acts as a teacher in all subjects.

After sincere evening conversations with the Bzhitsky family, we go to the bathhouse and sleep, because tomorrow is a little light on a fishing trip. On the way to the "cool" place we stop by to visit several more families of Old Believers, and here we will receive a warm welcome from the owners.

Some of the few achievements of mankind used by Old Believers are automobiles (UAZ), motor boats, and weapons.

As already mentioned, Old Believers will never let outsiders into their home. Pavel made a small museum specially for the guests. A nun lived in this house for many years in complete solitude. The owner of the family will gladly tell the guests about the history of the Old Believers, about the guardians of ancient Orthodoxy, who refused to accept the church reform of Patriarch Nikon.

The Old Believers never show their icons to strangers, and even more so they will never be allowed to photograph. They are just copies.

FROM

it looks like an ordinary Russian village ... a hedge ... a greenhouse ... potatoes

This is how these wonderful people live. And they don't care about the information society and nanotechnology, about dirty political games, about elections and the government, about the WTO and genetically modified products.

Here, in the upper reaches of the Yenisei, in the deep, impenetrable taiga, is their home. The harsh Siberian climate and isolation from the outside world only make these people stronger, here they are their own masters and rely only on themselves ...

The upper reaches, the valley of the Old Believers, is the Sizim sumon, there are four settlements in it: the village of Sizim, the arbans of Erzhey, Ust-Alp, Katazy, and a dozen small towns (farms). The number of monasteries is inaccurate. According to the papers, there are 228 households in the sum, more than 800 residents, an estimated about a thousand Russian people, Old Believers of the chapel accord.

From the Usinsk tract (the beautiful Abakan-Kyzyl road) you go to the southeast, and a little more than a hundred versts from the capital of Tuva - though intermittently, dotted, but the asphalt to Ust-Buren. He sat by with traces of a disappeared civilization: against the background of wooden huts inhabited by people - white-stone cowsheds with tall windows, now broken, indispensable Lenin, here he is in a hat with earflaps (the temperature range is one hundred degrees from the absolute maximum to the minimum, minus 60), honor boards with the main countryman - Sergei Shoigu. Further, the roads are conditional. In spring and autumn they are not. In the summer you can be lucky if the gold miners grader passes again, which happens; on the way - ferry crossings. The winter road is wedged from December to March. There were no roads to remote settlements and sketes. Now there are only boats - and these are rapids, rifts, rolls, clamps, cheeks. In winter - by snowmobiles. They also get to their taiga: each family in the taiga has an inherited plot of tens of square kilometers, where the head of the family hunts in winter. Plots - far from villages, near which the animals are not beaten, the forest is not cut down. And next to the winter quarters, trees are not felled - they will retreat into the depths of the thicket. You won't notice the hut from the river, although they stand on the bank. The trails are barely visible. The same is for sketes. They go to the elders and old women, but they do not trample the paths.

They say: the higher along the Yenisei, the stronger the faith. Do not check, but what you see with your own eyes is that the higher along the Yenisei, the worse the roads are until they disappear altogether. But to deduce the inverse dependence of the strength of faith on the availability of the world is wrong. From the world to the desert - a secluded area - here they deliberately leave, first faith, then the skete. Desert living here is an ideal, “spiritual paradise”.

How many years is still an invisible country with alternative Russians?

Iron stream

The 410-kilometer Kuragino-Kyzyl railway arm (and further to the Elegest coal mines) for the export of minerals from Tuva has been talked about for many years. The depleting Kuzbass is called to replace the Ulug-Khem basin. And those who are interested in the road are no less than those who do not accept it and who are afraid (but who, when, was interested in the opinion of the natives). The Russian government approved the project in 2007. And the road had to open more than once. In 2012, according to the Strategy for the Development of Railway Transport in Russia until 2030. According to a later government plan - in 2016.

In June 2011, Ruslan Baysarov became the owner of the Elegestinsky coking coal deposit, and Moscow indicated its readiness to get down to business. By that time, Putin had not yet caught the famous 20 kilo pike in Tuva, but he was already dragging grayling and lenoks here with the prince of Monaco, after which he shared: “I have never seen such a gorgeous, powerful nature anywhere. I don’t want to say any pompous words, but this is a very strong impression. I have been to many places and seen many things, but I have never seen anything like this before. Nevertheless, in December 2011, Putin drives the first golden crutch into the first tie.

Since then, the horse has not fallen down, in addition to that crutch, only one kilometer of tracks was built near Kyzyl. Last year, at the Eastern Forum, it was announced: construction will resume in 2018, the government approved the next plan, and at a meeting with Dvorkovich they signed a concession agreement with investors. This year, in May, Shoigu announced that the military was ready to take on the construction.

While long vehicles and heavy trucks are coming from Tuva along the Usinsky tract, they take out its bowels to the microdistrict (in polypropylene bags up to 3 tons with slings). This iron flow, like the Yenisei, is made up of two tributaries: Elegestin high-quality coal and ore from Toji, where in 2015 the Chinese Longxing launched a mining and processing plant. This is on the Bolshoi Yenisei (Biy-Khem), where Old Believers are dispersed and disappear. The Chinese were given the Kyzyl-Tashtyg deposit of polymetallic ores ( see "New" No. 134 of 2012) - 200 km northeast of Kyzyl, Academician Obruchev ridge. There is now an industrial zone: near Ak-Khem, a tributary of the Bolshoi Yenisei, hundreds of hectares of cedar forest have been cut down practically on the shore, and a quarry has been dug in the bald patch. This is an open pit mine. There is also a processing plant with a capacity of 1 million tons of ore per year. Zinc, lead, copper concentrates. Also in the ore are cadmium, selenium, barium, gold, silver.

Vakum: “They rake everything: earth, tree roots, grass, trees. What they dug up is taken to their place for processing. They dug out, now they are carrying ore. Everything is there in this breed, the main thing is the necessary metal for phones and computers. At one time, the Chinese did not allow the tax office to visit them. So the helicopter with the security forces landed on the roof of them ”. (About a helicopter with riot police it looks like the truth. Until June 20, fishing is prohibited in the Yenisei basin from time immemorial, but some Moscow redneck in the Upper reaches caught lenoks with red-booked taimen. They took out flasks and barrels. , we - Moscow! From you, grimy, to pay off? And so we feed you. OMON and TV cameras were waiting in Kyzyl, shod to the fullest, the case was opened, the fish was immediately burned.)

Longxing is a subsidiary of China's largest mining holding Zijin Mining Group with a sad background and a reputation as the largest polluter and poisoner inside the PRC; scandals follow it abroad, from Peru to Kyrgyzstan.

In the Upper reaches of China, bugs-buyers were present before World War II, now it dictates prices for a stream of musk deer, bear paws and bile, lynx skins. Wakum: “Well, we don’t pass by, we catch it all, but we don’t use something ourselves. The same bear bile - it sounds more romantic, of course, than wild boar, but it's the same. And we are raising these wild boars, running around the village, eating the same roots and grass as bears. "

For more than a hundred years, the Old Believers' management system in the Upper reaches did not violate natural cycles and symbiosis, the number of animals is stable, no one takes a look higher. The later accession to the USSR, the dismembered relief that hindered the roads, allowed the entire isolated Tuva to remain the most ecologically clean last region of the former Soviet Union, not polluted by industry. Why, there are only a few such territories on the planet that have preserved their landscapes intact. And now she is waiting, not believing in her end, for the appearance of the road and civilization.

For indigenous communities and ecosystems everywhere and always, from Mongolia to Latin America, from Africa to Transbaikalia, globalization, investment and Chinese resource companies mean the same thing. Not only Chinese, of course. Ours are no better, gold miners plast Tuva, derbanit, poison rivers as if they are taking revenge for what, and, for example, Tuva learned in detail about cyanides thanks to a joint venture between Swedes and Canadians; the point is not in the Chinese or Canadians, and not even in Russia, allowing this to behave. However, they say, there is something in globalization, retarded children from a bear's corner will finally watch Scooby Doo: “Many are trying to remake everything in this world, they think that this is progress! But there is something that is already beautiful and there is no need to change it. "

What will happen in a particular Upper reaches is roughly clear. The Maasai with spears walk across Africa. They also live in harmony with nature. Handsome people, stately, clean, covered with red sheets and slippers cut from tires - thanks to progress. And all of their protected rhinos were shot because of the value of the horn in Chinese medicine. Both the local subspecies of the black rhinoceros and the white rhino that lived nearby are declared extinct. But they did not die out - they were exterminated, even the fact that the rangers guarding the last animals fired at strangers without warning did not help. And those subspecies that are alive wander more and more often without a horn - they cut it off, putting the animal to sleep, and poachers and conservationists - in order to save rhinos.

Bears without paws and musk deer without their jet are unlikely to be able to.

The Verkhovskys are real Indians. They won't go for the fun of the Chinese with a spear on a bear. But it is hardly possible to fight for the origins of the Yenisei. They'll shoot again and leave. There will be a globalized devastated space without them.

Wakum reports: “The Chinese have already made the roads to Todju. Do you think Russia will build a railway to the Trans-Siberian Railway? No. Shoigu said: there are three hundred ancient burials on her way. Until we check everything, there will be no road. They check two mounds a year. And Shoigu is already over 60 (years old). "

But Shoigu has nothing to do with it. What does China have to do with it. From the Tourism Development Strategy approved by the Tuvan government on December 28, 2017: “In June 2016, the leaders of Mongolia, Russia and China approved a program for the creation of an economic corridor: the Western Railway Corridor (Kuragino-Kyzyl-Khandygaity-Borsho-Kobdo-Takeshken-Hami-Changzi district) Hui Autonomous Okrug-Urumqi); Northern railway corridor (Kuragino-Kyzyl-Tsagan-Tologoi-Artsury-Ovot-Erdenet-Salkhit-Zamyn-Ude-Erlian-Ulanchab-Zhangjiakou-Beijing-Tianjin) ”.

The documents of the trilateral meeting in Tashkent on June 23, 2016 are not so unambiguous, they say "to study and, with economic feasibility, start the implementation of these projects", however, the Tuvan government knows better, its head Kara-ool recently announced that the Asian Development Bank is ready to invest in the Northern Corridor about $ 3 billion. Tuva and Mongolia propose to consider it a priority. In the meantime, all new deposits are being sold in Tuva.

Minei says that Avatar saw. Life cinema. About them.

Perpendicular

Autarky of the Upper reaches - best practices in self-isolation, import substitution and mobilization economy. And the Verkhovskies do not expect anything from the authorities: neither protection, nor medicine, nor benefits are the dream of United Russia and the government, it would seem. Clone such. They work, multiply, take an interest in politics in moderation. They don’t watch TV, it’s bad, but America’s not very good: “They say it is against Russia” (Vakum). It is unreliable, of course, it is "said."

Business customs are a gray economy: everything is in words, personal relationships and sureties, in terms, without being legalized. The community is given to the growth of the most skillful, their names do not shine. In terms of methods - the same closed offshore kleptocracy that is at the heart of the rest of Russia. The results are opposite.

No, by the way, the Middle Ages. They could successfully resist this Soviet progress - what if Gagarin, the hydrogen bomb, the Bratsk hydroelectric power station and the Uralvagonzavod? Since the 90s, many (I subtract desert dwellers) have used a lot of things that make everyday life easier; and they have bank cards, and motor-drills ...

The chapels settled in blotches throughout the Yenisei and many tributaries. Soviet still radio stations "Angara" help keep in touch - signals are caught along the channel and river terraces, "shelves" and "counters", as they call the reclaimed, plowed up pieces of land taken from the taiga and rocks. The villages of the taiga are audible up to Igarka. Several years ago, at the request of Larisa Shoigu, the minister's sister, the Krasnoyarsk regional center of the Ministry of Emergency Situations handed over to the Verkhovye an army command and staff complex - a radio station on an all-terrain vehicle chassis and six portable devices. This is a permanent connection for 300 km. And then a cell tower and a card payphone were installed in Sizim. And television has come, whoever wants it.

The Masai, who stick to their roots and traditions, sacrifice their dearest goat to make it rain. And then they stare at their cell phones - they watch the changes in the weather forecast. And the Old Believers - not here, in Vekhovye there is no sturgeon, much lower - self-traps take off, already guided by GPS.

Well, if not on the technical side, the archaic is not special either. If Russia does everything in order to be hacked and sold, like the carcass of an animal that has already been killed. If he tries so hard to merge, sink. If Christian churches have been brought to talk about the near end of Christianity. What, tell me, is more relevant than the Upper River, what is more meaningful than its people?

They still do not have idols, they do not pray for the king as before, and they do not recognize him as God's anointed one. All are equal before God. Hence the fundamental impossibility of the existence of "little people", "screws", "anchovies" here, which do not solve anything. In their communities, democracy and values \u200b\u200bof humanism.

This means that they are still perpendicular to the state. Not to deal with him is a condition for preserving oneself.

But they are constantly being overtaken. Meanwhile, China and the road are external threats, and they sometimes only reflect internal contradictions.

Convergence

Tuvans gave their names to many villages and settlements founded by Russian merchants or Old Believers, for example, the regional center, to which the Verkhovye belongs, from Znamenka became Saryg-Sep, but the house for the Old Believer is not the main thing, he will be removed at the moment and will move, the rivers are more important, and they call them as in the old days or by the names and surnames of those who live on them. We pass the "Permyakovs' river" - 30 km from the mouth of their village Katazy. With the Permyakovs (they are also from the Perm regions, like the Vakum clan, only came later), Vakum and Miney have a lot of common memories. Countdown of events - from Illarion Lvovich, the head of the community: "Grandfather Illarion was still alive." 9 of his sons are here, and only one in the tree is not a surname, his daughters are married. Now - granddaughters. And the sons have 70 children. Army. Outpost. Just not far from Por-Bazhyn.

But even grandfather Illarion arranged it so that Catazy turned from a hut into a brand, into a hostel for foreigners and rich compatriots. At different times P. Borodin, Yu. Luzhkov, N. Mikhalkov, S. Shoigu flew here. And many other families have camp sites that give a good income.

The pioneers named one of the dangerous rapids on Ka-Khem Moscow. Their grandchildren and great-grandchildren found how to make money in Moscow. Wallets fly to the roar of the maral. And in Erzhei itself there is now a regional festival "The Art of Singing and Traditional Crafts of the Old Believers of Siberia." And in Sizim - an interregional festival of Russian culture.

The two Russians are getting closer. For some of the Verkhovskys, this is an adaptation to modernity, they were allowed to eat potatoes in 1912, and pasta in 1972, others see this as a rejection of foundations and a path to destruction. “I also ate separately, and came to us to drink. And on the way back, I didn’t land on the rapids, ”one of the tourists said about his guide.

Fortress

Now it's not at all about whether a road is needed. Roads, of course, are good. I'm talking about something else, and the chapels are aware: if the world gets a chance to disfigure or destroy some space, so be it. Beautiful, solid, the best - to die: they will get to the ship's pines and cut them down. But there is an option: you can grow old. When they go to bump, large cedars do not hit them with a punch. What's the use, not shake. The upper part is a fortress, such a cedar.

It endured a lot. The outflow of Russians from Tuva began back in the 70s of the last century, and before my eyes, in 1992, it was already a massive exodus. Extract from the anamnesis: first, the Slavs flooded the shrines of the Tuvans, erecting the Sayano-Shushenskaya hydroelectric power station, began to build factories on their sacred mountains, and the Tuvans could only ride on horses and throw knives at KamAZ trucks. Then they undertook to beat the glass to the Slavs, set fire to houses, horsemen in a column of three clanked along the streets of Kyzyl under yellow banners, demanding independence from Russia. The Russians went to bed, putting loaded guns in bed, then stretched across the passes to the north. The upper reaches also thinned, but now - no strife.

Globalization and progress cannot be dealt with. But nothing is predetermined. It didn't work to pump oil at Syme. Rosatom has been discouraged from mining uranium in the Krasnochikoysky region of Transbaikalia. The gas pipeline never went to China through Altai - and they wanted to build it before the Power of Siberia, the contract was ready for signing. Everywhere the Old Believers rose together with the autochthons - the Kets, Buryats, Telengits and other Altai peoples, respectively. With shamans, lamas - maybe not with them, but shoulder to shoulder. And they won. And "Mekran" was blown away, cutting down forests on the middle Yenisei, where chapels live. But Angara, where there were no Old Believer communities, was mutilated and buried.

Why is that? “Public opinion” may have something to do with it, but its role is not decisive. Unprofitability of megaprojects, corruption as their cause and effect, lack of money, crisis phenomena? Yes, but all this does not explain why the leviathan suddenly opens his jaws. They did not dare to raze the Old Believers' cemetery in the center of the Olympic Sochi. There was enough money.

Whether the Verkhovskys will be fenced off from cattle stronger, will they throw nails, will the mountains grow, but in the existing plan to make room for Chinese business and force the Old Believers somewhere in Latin America, adjustments are possible. In the end, there is no such law that obliges us to surrender all around and leave. The Yenisei should start in the Upper, not in Bolivia.

After going through remote villages on the banks of the Small Yenisei: Erzhey, Verkhniy Shivey, Uzhep, Choduraalyg, Ok-Chary, I met five large families of Old Believers. Always persecuted, the owners of the taiga do not immediately make contact with strangers, especially with a photographer. Two weeks of living next to them, helping them in their daily hard work - hay harvesting, fishing, picking berries and mushrooms, preparing firewood and brushwood, collecting moss and helping in building a house - helped step by step to overcome the veil of mistrust. And strong and independent, good-natured and hardworking people were discovered, whose happiness lies in the love of God, their children and nature.

The liturgical reform undertaken by Patriarch Nikon and Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich in the 17th century led to a large-scale schism in the Russian Church. The cruel persecution of the tsarist and religious authorities, who wanted to lead the people to like-mindedness and obedience, forced millions of Russian people to leave their homes. The Old Believers who preserved their faith fled to the White Sea, to the Olonets Territory and the Nizhny Novgorod forests. Time passed, the hands of power reached the Old Believers in new places, and the seekers of independence went even further, into the remote taiga of Siberia. In the 19th century, Russian people came to the hard-to-reach area of \u200b\u200bthe Small Yenisei, the Kaa-Khem kozhuun of Tuva. New settlements were established on farmable land in the river valley, higher and higher upstream. Here, in the upper reaches of the Small Yenisei, the life and traditions of the Russian Old Believers have been preserved in their original form.

The place is far from the capital. By plane to Abakan, about ten hours by car through Kyzyl to Saryg-Sep, we change to a UAZ loaf and another couple of hours by forest roads to a point on the banks of the Small Yenisei. On the other side of the Erzhey camp site, we are crossing by boat. The owner of the base, Nikolay Siorpas, brought us in his UAZ. He will be lucky further, into the depths of the taiga, but you have to wait a day or two at the base until the road at the pass, washed out by long rains, dries up.

Erzhey, next to which the base is located, is a large village, with up to one and a half thousand inhabitants, with electricity and a boarding school, where Old Believers bring their children from the villages higher up Kaa-Khem, as the Small Yenisei is called in Tuvan. Not all villagers are in the old faith. Some of the people are close to the faith, but they are not included in the community, there is not enough severity. There are some in the new Orthodox faith, there are even completely unbelievers.

It turned out to be not far away, less than a kilometer from the base, to go see the village and buy food. Siorpas, seeing off, joked: "You can tell the Old Believers, men with beards, there are a dozen or so kids around the yard, small, women in headscarves and skirts up to their feet, in a year or two with a tummy."

Here is the first acquaintance, Maria with a stroller, a young woman. Have greeted. They asked where to buy bread, cottage cheese. At first, she was wary of strangers, but she did not refuse help, even surprised by her responsiveness. She took me all over the village, showing who had tastier milk, where salted milk mushrooms were good, and so on until they found everything they wanted.

Here, in villages far from civilization, the harsh taiga nature has imposed its conditions on the way of managing. Summers are short and winters are known for frost. Arable land is reclaimed from the forest, in the valleys along the banks of the river. They grow bread, plant gardens. Due to frost, perennial crops do not take root. But annuals grow, even small watermelons. Taiga feeds. Only the hoofed animal is beaten, they eat wild meat. They pick cedar nuts, mushrooms, berries for jam. The river gives fish, a lot of grayling. Taimen is often released - it is not enough in recent years.

Old Believers do not get drunk, they don’t drink “bazyonka” at all. And on holidays, they taste a glass or two of weak homemade wine on taiga berries, blueberries or drupes.

After resting at the base of Siorpas for a couple of days, we waited for dry weather and moved to the first capture of the Old Believers - Upper Shivey, forty kilometers through a difficult pass from Erzhei.

All the way to Shivey, under the strained hum of the engine, Nikolay Siorpas urged us to be overly respectful and behave more than modestly, not pushing people with our huge photo cannons. He is not an Old Believer himself, but good relations have developed with the inhabitants of the taiga, for which he reasonably feared. It seems to me that for two days at the base we not only waited for the weather, but he looked closely at us and wondered if we could drive further..

The hard-working people of Upper Shivey were met long before the village, on a mown meadow. They volunteered to help, to throw the mown hay into tall haystacks - embryos.

We rolled up our sleeves, tried our best, and still lagged behind. The science was not easy to lift large armfuls with long three-pronged wooden pitchforks. We got to know each other while working together, struck up conversations.

Sasins, Peter and Ekaterina arrived at the capture of Upper Shivei, then completely empty, about fifteen years ago. The farm was raised from scratch, lived and wintered at first in a shed. Year after year, they built, strengthened, raised three daughters. Other relatives came to settle, now there are several families here. The daughters have grown up, moved to the city, and for the summer now restless grandchildren - two girls and two boys - come to Peter and Catherine.

The kids woke up our tent city with a cheerful noise, brought fresh milk and sour cream. The second day throwing hay on the embryos is more difficult - from habit, all the muscles of the townspeople ache. But the faces of the owners, smiles, laughter and approval are already warmer. “Tomorrow Transformation, come! Try homemade wine, ”the villagers call.

The house is simple, without frills, but clean and soundly. The spacious entrance dividing the house in half, whitewashed walls in the rooms, large stoves in the middle, iron spring beds - reminded me of a Carpathian village, which has also largely preserved its way of life. "One by one!" - says Pyotr Grigorievich, and we try a delicious drink. For a year, blueberry juice is infused, without sugar and yeast, it turns out with a barely noticeable alcohol content. It is easy to drink and does not intoxicate, but raises the mood and talkativeness. Joke after joke, story after story, song after song - we sat down well. "Would you like to see my horses?" - Peter calls.

A stable on the outskirts, with two dozen horses, there are even pacers. And everyone is loved. Petr Grigorievich can talk about each foal for hours.

They parted with the Sasins like old friends. And again on the way, by boat up the Small Yenisei.

Until the next embarkation on the river, sail for half an hour with a motor. We found Choduraalyg on a rather high bank with a spacious, cornice-like valley; the outermost houses stand right above Kaa-Khem. The opposite bank is an almost steep mountain covered with taiga.

The place is convenient for farming, growing bread, keeping livestock. Fields for arable land. River, nurse and transport artery. In winter on the ice and up to Kyzyl is possible. Taiga - here it is, begins with hills at the edge of the hut.

We sailed, threw our backpacks ashore and went to look for where it is convenient to pitch tents so as not to interfere with anyone, and at the same time it is good to see everything around. We immediately met grandfather Eliphery, who treated him to freshly baked delicious bread and advised him to go to Baba Martha: “Martha will accept and help”.

Marfa Sergeevna, slender, small and mobile, about seventy years old, gave us a place for tents next to her small house, with a beautiful view of both the river and the village. Allowed to use the stove and kitchen utensils. For Old Believers, this is a difficult question - it is a sin to use dishes that were taken by worldly people. All the time Marfa Sergeevna took care of us. We also helped her - we picked berries, applied brushwood, chopped wood.

The youngest son, Dmitry, was on business in the taiga. The eldest daughter, Ekaterina, is married and lives in Germany, sometimes her mother comes to visit.

We had a satellite phone, they offered Marfa Sergeevna to call her daughter. “It's demonic,” Grandmother Martha refused. A couple of days later Dmitry returned, and we dialed his sister's number, turning the volume up. Hearing the voice of her daughter, forgetting about the demons and throwing the bow being sorted out, Marfa Sergeevna ran across the clearing towards Dima and me. It is a pity, then she still did not allow herself to be photographed, otherwise it would have turned out to be an interesting photo: a cute little village grandmother, in antique clothes, standing against the background of the taiga, beaming with a smile, talking to her daughter in distant Germany on a satellite phone.

Next to Martha Sergeevna, further from the coast, lives the large family of Panfil Petenev. The eldest of twelve children, Grigory, 23 years old, called the children to the place of play - a clearing in the forest outside the village. On Sundays, smartly dressed children come running and come on horses, bicycles and motorcycles from all nearby settlements, chat and play enough together. The guys were not shy for long, and after a dozen minutes we were playing ball with them, answering a sea of \u200b\u200bcurious questions and listening to stories about life in villages, pampering bears nowadays and a strict grandfather who chases all children for mischief. They made me laugh with bikes, were interested in technology, and even tried to photograph with our cameras, tensely posing for each other. And we ourselves enjoyed listening to Russian speech, pure as a trickle, and enjoyed photographing bright Slavic faces.

It turns out that we stopped in Choduraalyg, which is called Bolshoi, and not far, along the road past a clearing, there is also Small Choduraalyg. The children volunteered to show this second, from several courtyards in the depths of the forest, capture. They drove us merrily, on two motorcycles, along paths and paths, through puddles and bridges. As an escort, teenage girls dashingly rushed after us on well-equipped horses.

In order to get to know each other better, start communication and gain the necessary level of trust, allowing us to photograph people, we boldly joined the daily work of Old Believer families. They have no time to chat idly on a weekday, but in business, talking is more fun. So they just came to the Petenevs in the morning and offered Panfil help. His son Gregory thinks to marry, builds a house, and that's the job - caulking the ceiling. Nothing complicated, but painstaking. First, on the other side of the river, through the mountains between thickets, collect moss, put it in bags and throw it down down a steep slope. Then we take the boat to the construction site. Now go upstairs, and also here the clay must be fed in buckets, and the moss must be hammered into the cracks between the logs, covering it with clay on top. We are working briskly, the team is large: five older children of the Petenyovs and three of us, travelers. And the younger kids are around, watching and trying to help-participate. We communicate at work, we recognize them, they us. Children are curious, they want to know everything. And how potatoes are grown in big cities, where do we get milk at home, do all the children go to boarding schools, how far we live. Question after question, some are at a loss to answer clearly - our worlds are so different. Indeed, for children Saryg-Sep, the regional center is another planet. And for us, city people, the taiga is an unknown land with its subtleties of nature hidden from an unaware sight.

Pavel Bzhitskikh, who invited him to visit, met in Maly Choduraalyg, where they went with the children on Sunday. The way to it, to the catch of Ok-Chary, is not a short one, nine kilometers along the rocky, wooded bank of the Small Yenisei. The estate of two courtyards impresses with its strength and economy. The high rise from the river did not create any difficulties with water - here and there there are many springs right in the yards, transparent water is supplied to the gardens through wooden gutters. The water is cold and tasty.

A surprise awaited in the house: two rooms, a prayer room and a kitchenette, retained the look and decoration from the days of the monastic community. Whitewashed walls, wicker rugs, linen curtains, homemade furniture, pottery. The entire household of the nuns was natural, they did not communicate with the world and did not take anything from outside. Pavel collected and saved the household items of the community, now he is showing the guests. Extreme tourists float along Kaa-Khem, sometimes they drop in, so Pavel even built a separate house and a bathhouse so that people could stay with him and relax on the route.

Pavel talked about the life and charter of the Old Believer monks. About prohibitions and sins. About envy and anger. Anger is an insidious sin, anger multiplies with anger and accumulates in the soul of a sinner, but it is difficult to fight, because a slight annoyance is also anger. Envy is not a simple sin; from envy, pride, anger, and deceit are fruitful. How important it is to pray and repent. And take on fasting, whether it is a calendar one, something secretly self-taken, so that it does not interfere with the soul's prayer and its sin deeper realizing

Not only severity reigns in the souls of local Old Believers. Paul spoke about forgiveness, about peacefulness towards other religions, about freedom of choice for his children and grandchildren. “They will grow up, go to study, whoever wants. Will go to the world. God willing - our ancient Orthodox faith will not be forgotten. Someone will return, with age they often think about the soul ”.

From ordinary members of the community, not monks, the outside world is not prohibited, Old Believers and the achievements of civilization, which help in work, are taken. Motors use guns. Saw a tractor, even solar panels. To buy, they earn money by selling the products of their labor to the laity.

He read to us selected chapters of John Chrysostom, translating from Old Church Slavonic. So I chose that you listen with bated breath. I remember the seal of the antichrist. Pavel explained in his own way that, for example, all official documents recording a person are his seal. So the antichrist wants to take control of us all. “Look, in America already every person is going to sew some electrical chips under the skin so that he cannot hide from the Antichrist anywhere.”

I went from the “museum” to the summer kitchen, treated me to honey mushrooms, smoked taimen, fresh bread and special homemade wine, on birch juice instead of water. Leaving, they bought a young turkey from Pavel, and plucked it until late at night, laughing at their ineptitude.

We met the children of the Popovs from Maly Choduraalyg on the day of their arrival at the playground. Curiosity led the kids to the tents every morning. They chirped merrily, asked incessantly. Communication with these smiling guys gave a charge of warmth and joy for the whole day. And one morning the children came running and from their parents invited us to visit.

On the way to the Popovs, fun - the younger three found the blackest puddle of liquid mud and enthusiastically jump in it and look for something. Laughing mother, Anna, meets us: “Have you seen such grimy ones? Nothing, the water has heated up, we will wash it! "

Children, already seven, the Popovs do not just love, they understand them. The house is bright with smiles, and Afanasy began to build a new one - more space for the children. The children themselves are taught, they do not want to send them to a distant boarding school, where there will be no parental warmth.

Over the treat, we quickly got into conversation, as if some invisible wave played with consonance and gave birth to lightness and trust between us.

The Popovs work a lot, the older children help. The farm is strong. They themselves carry products to sell to the area. With the money earned, they bought a tractor and a Japanese boat motor. A good motor is important here - on the Small Yenisei the rapids are dangerous, if an unreliable old one stalls, you can die. And the river both feeds and drinks, it is also a way of communication with other villages. In summer, by boat, and in winter on the ice on tractors and UAZ cars.

Here, in a distant village, people are not alone, they communicate and correspond with Old Believers throughout Russia, they receive a newspaper of the old faith from Nizhny Novgorod.

But communication with the state is trying to minimize, they refused pensions, benefits and benefits. But it is impossible to avoid contact with the authorities at all - we need the rights to the boat and the tractor, all kinds of technical inspections, permits. At least once a year, but you have to go for the papers.

The Popovs are responsible for everything. Athanasius had a case when he was young. He served in the army, like many in the early 80s, in Afghanistan, as an armored personnel carrier driver. There was a misfortune, the brakes of a heavy car failed, an officer died. At first it was defined as an accident, but the situation was inflated by high officials, the guy was given three years in a general regime colony. The regimental and battalion commanders trusted Athanasius and sent him to Tashkent without an escort. Imagine the situation: a young guy comes to the gates of the prison, knocks and asks to let him in, serve his term. Later, the same commanders achieved the transfer of Afanasy to a colony in Tuva, closer to home.

We talked well with Anna and Athanasius. About life here and in the world. About the connection between the Old Believer communities in Russia. About relations with the world and the state. About the future of children. They left late, with a kind light in their souls.

The next morning we went home - the short trip was ending. We warmly said goodbye to Martha Sergeevna. "Come, another time I will settle in the house, I will make room, because as my relatives have become."

For many hours on the way home, in boats, cars, airplanes, I thought, trying to comprehend what I saw and heard, which did not coincide with my initial expectations. Sometime in the early 80s, I read fascinating articles by Vasily Peskov from the series “Taiga Dead End” in Komsomolskaya Pravda. About an amazing family of Old Believers who left people deep in the Siberian taiga. The articles are kind, like other stories by Vasily Mikhailovich. But the impression of the taiga recluses was left as poorly educated and wild people, shying away from modern man and afraid of any manifestations of civilization.

The novel "Khmel" by Alexei Cherkasov, read recently, heightened fears that it would be difficult to get acquainted and communicate. And photographing may not be possible at all. But there was hope, and I decided to go.

That is why it was so unexpected to see simple people with inner dignity. Carefully preserving their traditions and history, living in harmony with themselves and nature. Hardworking and rational. Peaceful and independent. Who gave me the warmth and joy of communication.

I took something from them, learned something, thought about something.

Thanks for attention!
Oleg Smoliy.

It is inhabited mainly by Russians. Here, in the upper reaches of the river, in the deep taiga, in the second half of the 19th century, the Old Believers fled from the royal and church persecutions in search of the unknown country "Belovodye".

Constantly persecuted Old Believers were forced to leave all the way upstream of the Yenisei. New settlements were established in the river valley, where there was even a tiny piece of land for plowing. Therefore, historically, all the villages were strung on a string of Kaa-Khem. It is here, in the upper reaches of the Maly Yenisei, that the life, way and traditions of Russian Old Believers have been preserved in their original form, with whom our team of travelers decided to get acquainted.

In two weeks, by cars, boats and on foot, we traveled 1200 km to reach the most remote villages in the upper reaches of the Kaa-Khem: Erzhey, Upper Shivey, Uzhep, Choduralig, Ok-Chary.

The first stop on our way was the Old Believer village of Erzhey, or rather the tourist base of the same name a couple of kilometers from it. The owner of the camp site Nikolai Vladimirovich Siorpas transported us to the other side of the Small Yenisei and placed us comfortably in wooden houses on the river bank. We spent a couple of days here, waiting for the rain to end and the road to dry, and at the same time sleeping off after a daily drive from Abakan airport through Kyzyl, Saryg-Sep to Erzhey.

In order not to waste time in vain, our team visited the village, where local residents, after meeting us, willingly sold their own products: pickled mushrooms, homemade milk, bread. To be honest, half a jar of mushrooms was eaten by us right there on the porch to the delight of the hostess, they turned out to be very tasty.

On the morning of the third day, Nikolai and I crossed back to the mainland, plunged into the UAZ “loaf” and headed east through the pass to meet the Verkhovskys, as the Old Believers are called here in the upper reaches of the river, which are distinguished by a particularly strict way of life. 40 kilometers of timber road, soggy from the rain, and we are at the Upper Shiwei hut.

Photo: Natalia Sudets / site Photo: Natalia Sudets / site Photo: Natalia Sudets / site

The head of the hut, Petr Sasin, a strong man with a thick beard, we met at the entrance to the field, where he and his fellow villagers supervised the hay harvesting.
- You live great! - with an emphasis on the second "o" shouted to him from the window Nikolai. - I brought you assistants!
- Do they know how to throw a germ? - answered Peter. - If the pitchfork was not held in hand, then it is better not to interfere, we need to cope before sunset.

Having received permission to participate in the common cause, we hastened to unload our things on the outskirts of the hut by the river and returned to the field, hiding our cameras in our backpacks so as not to frighten our new acquaintances.

We were not allowed to go to the embryo, the haystack, there the work was in full swing. We were "given the go-ahead" to collect the remains of hay in the field, which the horse pulled by the rake could not pick up. An hour of working in full force in the company of curious children - and all the dry grass from the ground were collected. We could take a break while waiting for the new assignment. We carefully took the cameras out of our backpacks, took a couple of shots and showed the result to the little ones. The experience turned out to be successful - we found a common language with the younger generation.

Photo: Natalia Sudets / site Photo: Natalia Sudets / site Photo: Natalia Sudets / site Photo: Natalia Sudets / site

The next morning was the feast of the Transfiguration, Sasin invited us into the house, talk and taste some berry mash. Dishes for the worldly are separate. Old Believers do not feed from their own, otherwise they will become secular, they will have to clean up from the house. According to the calendar - fasting, so there is nothing meat on the table, only potatoes and mushrooms, and talk about life.

Photo: Natalia Sudets / site Photo: Natalia Sudets / site

Peter and his wife Ekaterina moved to Shiwei from the regional center in 1999. He is a fourth generation hereditary Old Believer. His great-grandfather traveled half the country, from the Far East to Tuva, in search of a secluded place to preserve the faith. During the Soviet years, Peter himself worked as a forester at the Leskhoz, but after the collapse of the country he finally decided to leave the world and officials. He founded a settlement on the site of a village that died out in the middle of the last century, formalized the land, started a farm, breeds dogs and horses. I even tried to breed a rare breed of horse "golden". But twice during his departure to the village, the herds were taken away by alien people.

Photo: Natalia Sudets / site Photo: Natalia Sudets / site

The three daughters of the Sasins live in the village and send grandchildren for the summer. The kids poke their noses into all matters, strive to help in everything, master the instrument. Despite leaving everything worldly, Sasin, as a good business executive, although he lives by his own labor, does not hesitate to use the benefits of civilization. In addition to the tractor that was working in the fields yesterday and the motorcycle standing near the shed, we note solar panels on the wall of the house. There are only four of them, but the charge is enough for a separator and a VCR for grandchildren. Anything that fits into the concept of rational use is allowed. Hence the Japanese outboard motors for everyone whose hunt is on the shore. You can't go anywhere without a good motor: you can't go fishing or go to a village tens of kilometers away. And there is a need. You can't get away from the world at all.

A few days later, Sasin and his son-in-law took us to the bank of the Kaa-Khem to the ferry near the village of Zhalyp, hidden behind the island. We are 15 kilometers upstream to the remote village of Choduraalyg. The only way to get there is by water, so Peter called the boat from Uzhpa with three shots from a gun into the air.

Photo: Natalia Sudets / site Photo: Natalia Sudets / site Photo: Natalia Sudets / site

The once large Old Believer settlement Choduraalyg was emptied by the efforts of the authorities by the 70s of the last century. Only in a small monastery did the old nuns live. But after the collapse of the USSR, old people who wanted to preserve the faith flocked here from the city and lower villages, and after them their children and grandchildren began to move. Many children were born here already.

Photo: Natalia Sudets / site Photo: Natalia Sudets / site

In Choduraalyg people live according to the charter of the Old Believers, without a passport, registration, school and everything else "devilish". Knowledge in the form of old, pre-Nikon rules, Scriptures is obtained in Sunday school and from the caretaker of the monastic cell at the settlement of Ok-Chara with Pavel Bzhitskikh. Many cannot read and write. And they don't need it. The only children with three classes behind them were 23-year-old Grigory Pletenev and his younger sister Natalya, children of Panfil, the father of the most numerous family in the district.

Panfil has 12 children. One eldest daughter got married in a neighboring area, the second went to a monastery. Grisha is the last of the children who left the settlement for the city. And his five younger sisters and four brothers have never come into contact with the big world, except for the tourists-rafters, which in summer there are up to twenty groups per day.

Photo: Natalia Sudets / site Photo: Natalia Sudets / site Photo: Natalia Sudets / site

Old Believers have a small business with tourists in the form of selling milk, medicinal herbs, mash, bread, eggs and other products. But the main trade is with Kyzyl, where in summer by boat, and in the fall, when the ice rises, they take out goods and hunting supplies. Outboard motors, hunting guns, cartridges are being brought back. Something that Old Believers cannot do without.
Photo: Natalia Sudets / website

From the kids, the rumor about newcomer worldly people in a matter of hours spread throughout all the settlements. We were already known and greeted by some with undisguised interest, some with extreme caution.

During the expedition, we got acquainted with six families of Old Believers, lived side by side with them and actively participated in their daily hard work: helped with hay harvesting, caught fish, guarded cattle, milked cows, collected berries, brushwood, moss, participated in building a house ...

Photo: Natalia Sudets / site Photo: Natalia Sudets / site Photo: Natalia Sudets / site

Due to the peculiarities of faith and culture, the historically persecuted owners of the taiga did not immediately make contact. It was not always possible to melt the ice of mistrust, but when it did, the townspeople were warmly and cordially received. Two weeks passed quickly. And when it was time to go home, we were surprised to find that the initially distrustful Old Believers saw us off with sadness, supplying us with goodies and good wishes.

The liturgical reform of Patriarch Nikon in the 17th century led to a split in the Church and persecution of dissidents. The bulk of the Old Believers came to Tuva at the end of the 19th century. Then this land belonged to China, which protected the Old Believers from repression. They sought to settle in deserted and inaccessible corners where no one would oppress them for their faith.

Before leaving the old places, the Old Believers sent scouts. They were sent lightly, supplying only the most necessary: \u200b\u200bhorses, provisions, clothing. Then the settlers were sent in large families, usually along the Yenisei in winter, with all the animals, household belongings and children. Often people died, falling into a hole. Those who were fortunate enough to make it safe and sound, carefully chose a place for settlement so that they could engage in agriculture, arable farming, start a vegetable garden, etc.

Old Believers still live in Tuva. For example, Erzhey is the largest Old Believer village in the Kaa-Khem region with a population of over 200 residents. Read more about him in today's post ...

It takes a long time to get to the village. First, we sawed 200 km from Kyzyl. Along the way, there are a lot of banners reminiscent of a high-ranking fellow countryman Sergei Shoigu:

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We drove through small villages. Almost all of them lack such things as cafes or convenience stores, but there is Lenin:

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Village football stadium. Apparently cows are used to "cut" the grass in the field:

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We crossed the river. The cars were sent by ferry, they themselves boarded boats. Half an hour went upstream:

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A very fast flowing river:

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The views are very picturesque. Mountains, greenery, rare clouds:

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Our team:

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Fisherman on the shore:

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Finally, they sailed:

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At first glance, the Old Believers' village was no different from thousands of ordinary villages in Russia:

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At the second glance, nothing special was noticed either. Village and countryside.

The only thing that reminded of a special place was strict rules. You cannot shoot inside the house. You cannot record speech on a dictaphone. For some reason, Old Believers are catastrophically afraid of the word "interview" and everything related to mass information:

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Katerina, hostess, 24 years old. By the way, they don't mind taking pictures on the street. Her family came from the Urals after the war. Then there was a terrible famine, and there were legends that it was here that it was almost the promised land, where there is full prosperity:

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Son. The Old Believers do not really want their children to receive an education, since no one returns home after studying at the institute. Better without a profession, but close, with my family. To avoid incest, wives are taken from neighboring villages. Divorces are not accepted, the principle of "endure and fall in love" is practiced:

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We were invited into the house, fed okroshka with local kvass, which tastes more like water, and fish pie. The pie was peculiar: seven centimeters high on a thin dough, completely filled with lenok. I took a bite and realized that I had made a mistake. The fish was not only with bones, it was with a ridge. I washed down the fish bones with lemon balm.

Nevertheless, the reception left a warm impression. Allowed to rent a vegetable garden. They grow everything themselves, including watermelons and melons:

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Homestead with cans:

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The little car of the cub with which he drives around the yard:

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Dad's big car, which he drives to Kyzyl once a week. Delivers milk, sour cream and cottage cheese for sale. With the money raised, the father of the family buys flour and food. Still, despite the remoteness, the hermitage of the Old Believers is very conditional - their life is already woven into the neighboring society:

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In the next post I will tell you about the salt lake Dus-Khol. Stay Tuned!