Measures and Old Believers

  "An uncharted chapter in our history, gradually becoming clearer. Initially, this referred to the schism that began in 1660. However, I have a feeling that these words are also applicable to modern history. It remains unexplored but tormented. This is the history I mention in my book, "Hell and Paradise." The wound inflicted took a long time to heal, if it ever did.

While Peter the Great was primarily concerned with modernization and relegated religious matters to the background, it was different for those who ruled after him. After Peter, Queen Anna attached great importance to religious matters. Following Anna Ivanovna, the era of Queen Elizabeth resembled a Russian Renaissance. Under her rule, Germans were pushed aside, giving Russian historians grounds to speak of the beginning of the Russian Renaissance.

"If things continue this way, soon there will be no one left to judge." (Words of Lomonosov about the departure of the Old Believers after the schism in 1660 and the strengthening of the dominance of the Polish-Ukrainian nobility). Then, Catherine the Second changed the situation of the Old Believers by removing their dual way of life and registration. In pursuit of progress, she equated their rights with others and ended their isolation.

Today, instead of moving forward and striving for equality, it seems we are engrossed in trivial matters, pursuing people for every word and protest.

"From an idol, she turned into an unloved child and a forgotten child, but this forgotten child will yet speak its mind." Here, Pyzhikov, the author of the book "On the Russian Schism," refers to the forgotten child of the oppressed Old Believers after the schism.

Therefore, in 1917, there will be grassroots support for Lenin's government. In my opinion, Lenin's support was also linked to the fact that when Alexander the Second abolished serfdom, peasants were freed without land, and even after the bourgeois February Revolution of 1917, land still belonged to the landowners. Lenin knew what the people needed, and he understood that having about three thousand people in his party without the support of the people, he would be overthrown immediately. He could only rely on the support of the people, as no foreign capital or Atlantes would help him. Therefore, he proclaimed simple slogans: "Bread for the hungry, peace for the soldiers, factories for the workers, land for the peasants." After coming to power as a result of the October Revolution of 1917, corresponding decrees were promptly issued, making peasants landowners and fulfilling other promises. This led to immense trust in the new regime, and by 1925, Soviet Russia was already feeding all of Europe with its grain, accounting for 50% of the world's grain exports. The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was also signed at Lenin's initiative, expediting the end of World War I. The Russian Civil War was primarily instigated by the Russian aristocracy, unable to accept the loss of their power and elite status. They couldn't bear that their French language and expensive attire would no longer have anyone to showcase them, and they would have to work to sustain themselves, rather than relying on the riches plundered by their ancestors through the exploitation of the people.

At the same time, when serfdom was abolished in Russia, almost simultaneously, slavery was abolished in the United States. However, African-Americans were also emancipated without any compensation and were deprived of the right to free education, healthcare, and much more. Moreover, they were subjected to segregation. Despite all these restrictions, it did not lead to a revolution, but it did lead to a high level of crime among the black population, which was due to objective circumstances.

This tradition continues in the United States to this day, as the place of freed slaves was taken by illegal immigrants. There are approximately twelve million illegal immigrants in the country. Granting them freedom but depriving them of the right to work and limiting their civil rights, as most illegal immigrants genuinely fled their countries out of extreme necessity, and the passports of their home countries, where they were persecuted, are rarely accepted, and they lack the strength for another immigration. Because emigration is not easy, to the extent that even Socrates preferred death over forced emigration."