Children Of The Schism (RT Documentary)

we're old believers we're not supposed to be public people we'd rather not be filmed or shown on television we're supposed to live a quiet life and keep distant from worldly matters that's what we need if we're to keep our traditions we'd be glad not to be disturbed too much this small community of Orthodox traditionalists returned to Russia just over a year ago their ancestors emigrated to Latin America in the 1940s coming back to their homeland has been their cherished dream ever since you good morning class sit down this year we've been joined by children from Bolivia let's trace the long journey that these students undertook to get to their new homeland they came to primordia through Moscow pretty cool hey but my only objects to my children going to that school because some of the school children their curse and smoke that they would if they don't in fact they're raised more by the school than by their own parents if we were to send our children to that school we wouldn't last long early on is the community's head the 47 year old man has nine children he was born in Latin America like many of the communities members he spent most of his life there Leon leads the community because he is the oldest of his siblings who came to Russia with him there was a falling-out with his younger brother over how their children should be educated we Nico thing we're not against education as such learning makes people wise ignorance is darkness we always teach our children how to read and write this is the school attended by the children of the Old Believers classes are still taught the way they were at the time of the schism of the Orthodox Church back in the 17th century children gather in the home of the teacher to learn to read religious books written in the old Slavonic language the teacher is one of Anne's brothers if s house became a family the children start with the ABCs at first they learn texts by heart and only then do they learn the letters we learn how to pray we pray in the morning when we wake up and in the evening when we go to bed all the rules are here the pupils are not divided into groups their progress depends on the set of religious books they read but I teach nothing but the old Slavonic language if the teacher is absent mother's teach their children to read and write instead the old believers take a simple view of Education since they are Christians and live in the countryside they need to learn religious rights and farming skills they have no use for the present-day system of schooling and instead follow their ancestors who strongly rejected of the 17th century reform of Orthodox liturgical Canon for the past 300 years they have taken pains to protect their traditions by staying as distant from the outside world as possible to resist the impact of civilization throughout their history they have wandered the globe in search of the most secluded retreats today auntie's family lives in a prefabricated apartment house which stands in the midst of a field near Kafka he has seven children Taran T was the only community member to send his children to a state school yes sir better give you some before they left for dev sue there was a row over that school they said to us if you don't send your kids to school you're welcome to go with us otherwise we'll do without you we haven't reached an agreement they left and didn't tell us I got me nothing without you well there are so many people with education who live in Russia well you and a lot of them well they don't even have jobs suddenly we've always tried to live and work in rural areas and we were just as comfortable as those learned people certainly we never went hungry have the cows come back Deniz I think this should be around here somewhere rocky soil makes a farming difficult in kata Fulco Teddy auntie no longer grows crops his cow helps his family make ends meet she is free to graze together with the cattle belonging to local people the trouble though is that she tends to stray towards evening Marta Marta Marta Marta come home now that the community has left calf Olga 3nt is toying with the idea of going to Russia's western part he believes the soil there is suited for farming but due to the resettlement program he is forced to stay in the Far East for another year I invited my brother to join us we even set aside a farmstead for him anyway it's up to him to decide vacant flats are all that is left of the community of cod Fulco what my lien of all that money we prayed in this flat it it's almost been emptied but there are a few things still there that's why there's a lock on the door this was my brother's flat Willian his family left before Easter I can't tell you exactly how many people lived here 11 maybe Jeffrey M Williams son is still here in this block he is going to collect some of the belongings left behind I live here alone I am planning to leave on Friday evening because I don't like this place there sue is a better place it's away from the hustle and bustle few secular people live there if M says he will not be missing his uncle turian t too much non Tamra eater NT wanted to come here when he was in Brazil so I bought tickets for his family he now is me around $20,000 that's almost six hundred thousand rubles but when he did come here he began to look for excuses not to give the money back they have virtually to the NT and family appeared to be stuck in this five-story building come in welcome I thought NASA kathira this is all flat oh whoa not though this is a bedroom it's for the girls but one of them's older than the other it's a nice woman this is our bedroom promise not smile indeed arishka we sleep there and two little girls sleep here two boys are in another flat we've packed up to go to the Kaluga region but we still can't bring ourselves to leave this place this is our kitchen and my wife she's cooking nobody's our community scolded us for sending them to that school for a whole year if we kept on living with them we'd have gone on suffering I feel hurt by what early on has done he tourists away from a cozy nest and abandoned us I can't bear it Sorrento has seven or eight children all do you find they'll find work I had a place to live but old believers don't lead a normal life outside their community if a family breaks away they'll learn secular ways after a time and if they'll no longer live in a way that befits old believers only two options are open to Chilean tea either he comes to terms with the community and pays his debt or waits for permission to go to Russia's West you feel is that your for him this is my son Julian meets his son a friend who has arrived by ferryboat the river separates the village of dead su from the rest of the world your frame has brought all kinds of things in his truck but the boat is too small the settlers will have to shuttle between the banks 15 times in order to get the cargo back to their village they would like the authorities to organize a better ferry service but the problem is that there are only two villages on the far bank it's the price that people have to pay if they want to live far away from civilization to me we're on our way to the killings and the merit offs they came all the way from Uruguay and Bolivia now there are more than 50 such people in there soon they will live here and build houses Alexander bulletins was a one-time head of the administration of one of the nearby villages now that he is retired he takes fishermen on guided tours of local forests and rivers he maintains good relations with the new Russians living in neighboring villages I visit them often right now I'm bringing a doctor too a doctor has arrived in dare sue old believers take an ambivalent view of medicine if medics come to them then it's fine but if they go to a doctor themselves it's problematic most diseases are treated with traditional methods like medicinal herbs we use some medical herbs drink tea with them dry herps to winter as well as roots there are a lot of good herbs in dish to the old believers do however allow some exceptions medication is allowed for severe pain while women go to hospital to give birth however there have been instances of expectant mothers escaping from hospital just before they were due to deliver but in general all believers have few health concerns let me examine your skin it's clean how are your legs let's listen to you heart Suzie there is nothing to worry about it's not scary mustn't you to move our children are not as healthy as theirs they're healthy from life in such an environmentally pure place the old believers settled in the village of Qatar phulka after their arrival in Russia but it felt too close to modern civilization Leone managed to find an uninhabited village in the country's Far East rolling hills and a river separate the village of dev sue from the rest of the world Fyodor Cillian is the community's spiritual leader he is 72 years old fedor can talk about his family for hours on end I have three daughters and one son in Russia one daughter lives in Australia another daughter and two sons are in Uruguay yet another daughter is in Argentina I think I have 53 grandchildren and 25 great-grandchildren I don't know the exact figure a reform of liturgical practice in the 17th century triggered a schism within the Russian Orthodox Church the old believers are so called because they never accepted the new rules worshippers were subjected to continuous persecution by church officials and authorities for 3 centuries throughout those years old believers had to either hide or flee the country today there is no more hostility but they still want to live in accordance with their own rules old believers don't accept gutted fish from laypeople because they've been gutted for their part they clean the whole fish themselves their plates and dishes that they use differ from those used by laypeople to they need to be clean even their knives need to be clean of sin the community's worst fear is the prospect of mingling with modern-day civilization the old believers are not supposed to live eat or pray together with the laypeople for example they can't buy meat sausage milk or bread from the shops whatever food is needed they make themselves that'll see clip so what it's a yeast is the main ingredient of bread made in accordance with Russian traditions but you're so ugly you add water and salt and mix the stuff with flour that takes half an hour then you might got used to disease then you leave the mixture too sour for about 5 hours didn't after that you bake it in a Russian stove because peaches we always do it this way agafia is teaching the girls the art of making bread she came to dosoo from Uruguay in 2008 although she is at 38 years old she already has six grandchildren skip you secretiy at the apostolate I don't know exactly the secret of the Russian stove but I do know that the bread baked in it tastes good we had rushed stove's back in uruguay having a russian stove in the household was considered a must agafia's younger daughters lived together with her but her sons are still in ordered why they keep a close eye on the life of old believers in Russia to decide whether they want to come here this huddle she nice tight with Slava it's very beautiful here aside everything we decided to stay and are not planning and moving anywhere no Missoula when we came here an old woman by the name of uh Liana lived in this house she was an old believer after she died one and a half years ago we moved into her house and we're happy to live here okay now it's time to place the dough in the stove the village of dersu received a new lease of life with the arrival of old believers in the morning they go to church to pray after that it's time to get down to work children are given an early introduction to adult life to begin with and the boys are allowed to handle the simplest jobs married women here are obliged to cover their head agafia is split from her husband but she wears a scarf nonetheless there has been no formal divorce it's not ready yet it has to be baked for another 15 minutes or so wing was filled with cotton with scheffel's a Sorak my husband is about 43 years old now so little one is life was normal for us until once he went to Brazil but where she shaved off his beard he said he had lost it because of stress truly he was going crazy with the approach of old age did you know he had ill feeling towards the community he found everything about it a real grind please like today mt4 I'm carefully recovers have difficulty getting divorced as a rule their wedlock is not officially registered old believers don't think that official papers apply to them they can be divorced but only in the country where they got married it takes 40 minutes for dough to bake in a Russian stove that's the way we did it in Brazil and Uruguay this tradition is held up by a recipe handed down from generation to generation I don't I can't even remember how I learned this skill that's how bread was made all over Russia in the old days the girls are doing embroidery not all of the patterns are traditional given that they spent most of their young lives in Latin America some of the patterns reflect or egwin motifs however most of them are based on Russian folklore I get the pepitas kid these black tropical birds call to live in Brazil watching them fly is a sheer delight they have very beautiful beaks to the trouble though is that they play dirty tricks by stealing people's fruit some traces of their previous life in Latin America can be found in the households of the Old Believers home this Colombian machete has made a very good steel you can see a dove pictured on it others bear pictures of monkeys such machetes are no good at all machete is the weapon of South American tribes they have no guns a native picks up machete holsters adhere and off he goes I knew I thought that was machete especially came in handy when they were being deprived of their land they used it in a very effective way heads began rolling as they lopped them off with their machetes it takes a chicken's head off in one go clothing sends a readily identifiable social signal to community members they instantly know who's who whether the person is from their midst or an outsider the length of their dresses trousers and shirt sleeves is strictly regimented they should cover most of the body facial hair is another sensitive point no Old Believer is supposed to be beardless old believers consider that any deviation from Canon is indicative of spiritual weakness they maintain that anyone's appearance should conform to God's instructions fresh milk is so warm would you like to try it in actual fact however this rule doesn't cover those who are not members of the community alexander has allowed a family of young old believers to live in one of his two small houses in exchange for organic food on Sundays the old believers stay at home they don't sell or buy anything they don't even go fishing in the river because they don't want to kill fish or any other living creatures congratulations to everyone I wish you all good health and the Spirit of God in spite of various restrictions festive occasions and noisy merrymaking among the community is not affected alcohol is not frowned upon on such occasions but only if it's homemade just look at you already drinking it's not very strong it's only been brewing for two weeks hello everybody hello drink with us it's a holiday as the villagers move from house to house the celebrations go on until dusk he's my son-in-law Andrea and she's my daughter Anna Andrea Anna have three children two sons and one daughter all three were born in Russia she is a Russian woman she's not a woman she's a girl she'll be a woman one day happy reunions as well as splits occur in the communities of Old Believers some twenty years ago my mother fell in love with an Argentinean needless to say no one in the community liked it my mother and my father then decided to leave that was a terrible sin they spent the whole year outside the community my mother taught Russian to my father and eventually converted him to our faith after that she was absolved from her sin my father's name was Mario sister Pato now he's called Moses the old believers know that they don't keep up with the times but that's the only way for them to preserve their way of life yet despite their conservative views they are in fact committed to freedom of choice anyone is allowed to leave the community to join secular society and anyone can rejoin the community these people have voluntarily undertaken to live by their own rules all believers don't express disapproval of worldly life but they sincerely feel sorry for all those who don't follow their lifestyle maybe this idiom where settlers who came from Bolivia in Latin America we used to live there but decided to come back to Russia our traditional homeland now we're kindly asking the Russian Federation to help us to put down roots here by building homes and if at all possible we like to pass on our message to the President of the Russian Federation himself

Channel: RT

Views: 958,375

Rating: 4.757638 out of 5

Keywords: RT, Russia Today, latin America, civilization, Russia, roots, ancestors, history, heritage, traditions, mogration, demography

Id: pyxcS1DDzKQ

Length: 26min 13sec (1573 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 12 2016

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