OLD BELIEVER MILITARY PRIESTS DURING THE FIRST WORLD WAR

The article presents for the first time the history of the formation of the full-time Old Believer military clergy of the Russian Army and Navy during the First World War, which has become particularly relevant in recent years. The source base of the study comprises the documents of the Old Believer Archdiocese of archival storage and materials of the Old Believer periodicals of the era under study, as well as memoir literature and normative sources. The history of the Old Believers military clergy, which had begun during the Russian-Japanese War, continued during the First World War. The Old Believer military clergy went from a semi-official status, which gave only the right to visit military units and hospitals, to an official one, which implied enrollment in the staff of the offices of fronts and fleets. The revealed documents show the multifaceted work of Old Believer priests at the front, including directly on the front line, for which two out of ten of them were awarded military orders, including the St. George Cross. The article also examines their preaching activities, which in 1917 sometimes took on a political orientation. The peculiarity of the Old Believer military clergy was due to the fact that it was not subject to the regulation of the Holy Synod of the official Church. However, the control by the Archdiocese of Moscow of the Ancient Orthodox Church of Christ (now — Russian Orthodox Old-Rite Church) did not cease until the abolition of full-time military clergy by order of the People’s Commissariat for Military Affairs of the RSFSR dated January 16, 1918.