Sectarians and Their Singing as Perceived by the Orthodox (Based on Church and Secular Publications)

This article provides an overview of materials published from the mid-nineteenth to early twentieth centuries that testify to a growing crisis in the Russian Orthodox Church, manifested in the growth of sectarianism. It analyzes the reasons for the mass exodus of urban and rural populations from Orthodoxy based on the large body of spiritual periodicals which are still insufficiently considered in scholarship. The author suggests that the main reason for the mass outflow is that the common people did not know the basic elements of the Christian faith and did not understand the meaning of prayers and hymns that were performed in Church Slavonic in church. In contrast, the sectarians’ prayer meetings were conducted in Russian, and its leaders were good preachers who spoke simply and clearly. Psalms and kanty were also performed in Russian. In particular, the article describes the features of sectarian songs which attracted people’s attention, especially their melodies that harkened back to the forgotten folk song tradition. The sectarians’ desire to attract believers was underscored by the theatricality of their rituals and the emotional quality of their singing. These things made a strong impression on both missionary priests (such as F. Svetozarov), and on secular observers (like V. V. Vereshchagin and V. D. Bonch-Bruevich). As attested by many missionaries, sectarian propaganda was much more successful than the proselytizing of the Orthodox Church. While there are many reasons for the appearance and growth of sects in Russia, this article examines only one of the little-studied aspects of Russian sectarianism: the aesthetic impact of singing on Orthodox Christians.