Interviewer: Do you accept the name “Old Believer?”

Metropolitan Andrian: Only reluctantly. The phrase appeared during Catherine’s time. It was a name created by the official church. We are merely Old Orthodox, we defend the age-old Russian tradition. We are the Russian Orthodox Church.

Why do you hold onto the old rites with such tenacity? Can’t things be simplified?

Simply, we refuse to compromise with the spirit of the age. From this comes schism, from this comes evil. We maintain not just the rite, but the virtues that go along with it. . . . Why was Nikon’s reform treated as so extreme. Why the intense resistance? What is wrong with correcting books?

Real corrections of Russian prayer books have occurred throughout Russian history. We never thought of that as a problem. Nikon was different. He sought to destroy the old books. He used the powerful uniates as the basis of his manipulations. It was a revolution, and was meant as such. The resistance to Nikon was national, the people overwhelmingly supported it. Little was left unchanged, unmanipulated. So many prayers were changed not just in form, but also in content. The prayers of the Great Entrance are a radical expression of this. Suddenly it was the state that was prayed for, not the people.

In school, we are taught that you are just fanatics. That the only reason your ancestors went to their deaths was over two verses three fingers. What’s the reality?

Nikon saw himself as a “Russian department” of the Phanar, of the Patriarchate in Turkey. Alexis, for his part, sought rapprochement with the west and dreamed of the Byzantine throne himself. It was power that tempted Alexis and Nikon. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, says that this was the starting point of all Russia’s ills, he says, "the great church crime, from which began the loss of Russia". It was power that sought the destruction of Old Russia. Many of the liturgical corrections were themselves reversed, and more added to them. The society was poisoned, the Old Ritual was destroyed.

Where did the division among the people begin?

It really began when the Kremlin clerical staff began to liturgize in Greek. They began to do nearly everything differently. We processed with the Sun, Christ, Nikon processed against him. This was terribly important to the Russian people. The symbol meant a lot. They listened to the Greeks.

Who really began the persecutions, clergy or the state?

I think it was the clergy. When the form of the Jesus prayer was changed, confessors began to ask if they did nor did not pray in this manner. From this came the arrests and tortures. It was the Sobor of 1666-1667 that began the formalization of all the changes, and Old Russia was lost. 500 monks at Solovetsk were subject to the most brutal tortures. The ideological basis for all of this came from the official church.

If the Old Rite was held by the majority at the time, why is it that the New Rite is now the majority?

Because the state rather consistently carried out persecutions and repressions. The false Tsarevna Sophia published the 12 articles, one of which was that the Old Faith “is to be executed without mercy.” If one hid an old believer, the owner of the house was subject to exile, confiscation of property, and his children were sent to live elsewhere. They destroyed the Orthodox people.

Are you parishioners then from a direct line of descent from the 17th century?

We really don’t worry about that. It remains that so many of the Old Believers today have surnames rather famous among Old Faith histories. It seems the case. In Kazan, where I served once, it was really the Tartars that maintained the Old Faith over the Russians.

Does the Old Rite succeed in transferring the faith to children? So many of us are drawn to the peace of the church. Many to the forbidden fruits of the world. It is difficult to maintain a balance. It is technology that lures the young people: music, television, videos. In school, this influence cannot be avoided. We do all we can to warn our children. We want them to know the church from childhood. We show the church as a quiet refuge from the world and its evil. Much depends on our own personal qualities. Respect for the family and parents, this is the essential thing.

Is it a problem that you do not have anything to do with modern ideas?

We don’t like contemporary technology. Our homes do not have television. We do not like hard liquor. No smoking. None of these things benefit man. But there is nothing new about these prohibitions. When the false patriarchs of the east came to Russia, they helped introduce these ways into Russia, the cult of newness. The first tobacco merchant in Russia was a relative of the “bishop” Paisus Ligardes. It was actually illegal, but sanctioned by the Greeks nonetheless. It was always illegal in Russia. Frankly, smoking derives from ancient pagan practices.

Can the Gospel only be read in Old Slavonic? In church we only use the Old Slavic text. One of our monks, Alimpii, who is a hermit, has translated a new psalter, partially by comparing it with Greek sources.

Do the Old Faith Orthodox hold that Ivan IV has been slandered?

It is difficult to prove the alleged “mass murders” of Ivan IV. As far as we are concerned, he was the next to last legitimate Tsar, and that counts for much. He defended Old Russia, and it was under his authority that the 100 Chapters Synod was held. Here, the three fingered sign was cursed forever. Ivan rejected the idea of a global, Orthodox empire, and rejected much of the Byzantine political inheritance in this regard. “By God, more of the earth for us is unnecessary,” he said to the papal nuncio in Moscow. We view this as attractive and peacable. We do venerate the memory of Philip, the archbishop murdered on Ivan’s orders. We hold him a martyr, and also, it should be said, was a major participant in the Stoglav Sobor.

Do you call the use of the bar code in Moscow the “Press of Antichrist?”

They call us insane for this. We had several sobory on this question. We reject all forms of modernity because so much of it is based on control over man, both by the state and by capital. We don’t call the Patriarchal Press in Moscow the “press of antiChrist,” and we also are moderate in our views of other modern things. But it is certain to us that such things are portents of the anti-Christ’s arrival. We do not accept the identification system, bar codes, etc. These things are not just of eschatological issues, but basic moral ones as well. In reality, all must be up to the conscience of each Christian. Many can run from these forms o control, and this we do not reject, but it seems that this can disturb the peace and cause tremendous dislocation. It’s a struggle on many levels. Was Seraphim of Sarov an Old Believer?

Seraphim always used the lestovka, the Old Faith prayer rope. There is much contradictory information on Seraphim. His monastic fraternity kicked him out of their monastery and beat him for this reason. Yet, he also said many things against the Old Faith. Where is the truth? Information on him right now causes many doubts. I’m just not sure.

What of the saints in the official church?

Sergius, of course, Cyrill, Boris and Gleb, all the old Russian saints we accept along with the New Rite church. We have our own, those monks of the Old Rite that were murdered, both by the state and by private agents, such as Constantine and Arkady. Boyarna Mozorova is another one, a very level headed woman, despite her treatment elsewhere. She was a young and stately woman. The famous painting is really false teaching. Certainly she was not a “frenzied old woman” as many have said. They actually tried to starve her to death. So many of the faithful women went to their deaths over the Old Faith, including their children.

Is it true that many Old Believers participated in the February Revolution?

Well, Aledander Guchkov, the Octoberist, was defense minister in the Provisional Government, and also from a long line fo Old Faith merchants. Many of them, however, had drifted far from the faith. Sometimes historians bring up Savva Morozov as an example of a revolutionary Old Believer merchant. But he is an eccentric. Many Old Faith merchants, especially, that of Pavel Pavlovich financed Kornilov. He was rather favorable to Tsar Nikolai II.

How did the Old Faith react to his canonization?

This is a big question. Few realize that of his personal bodyguard, many Cossack Old Believers were members. He gave Russia freedom of religion. This day can never be forgotten by Old Believers.

What of the Roman papacy, and his interest in Russia? [reference to John Paul II–MRJ]

It is rare that we have contacts with the papacy. The papacy, truth be told, accepts the legitimate line of our hierarchs, unlike the Russian patriarchy. In Kazan, the authorities there sought a plot of ground for building of a Papal Church next to our temple. My objections were ignored when I was bishop there. It was very disruptive, different faiths living side by side is a real problem. It was almost like the system was trying to provoke a confrontation. It was a way, maybe, to split the Christian witness to the many Muslims of the region. Old Believers do not allow contacts with the papal church, but that is not the case with the Patriarchal church.

Can Old Believers enter the Russian council? [i.e. the presidential council on religions]

Not really our call. The Russian state recognizes Catholics, Muslims, Baptists and Jews, but not us. We are not a “traditional confession” of Russia.