The Old Believers

December 23, 2009 5:18 PM

Riabina who come from near Augustow in NE Poland where established in 1988 are apparently the only musical group of "Old Believers."

Here are is a small selection of videos about Riabina by a filmmaker who stumbled across the singing group in a small town in Poland.
It looks like these are trailers for a full length documentary that doesn't seemed to have happened yet. However there is enough interesting stuff in the 15 or so minutes that are up on Youtube.

posted by djstig (11 comments total)

Awesome!

There's a russian choir at the university of chicago (whose website is currently down) that sings Old Believer songs.

I know there are some groups in Russia that perform Old Believer songs but I don't know if they're Old Believers themsleves.
posted by kenko at 5:36 PM on December 23, 2009

Oh ta kenko. I was going to post the wiki link but my post was more about the singing than the schisms of the 17th Century Russian Orthodox Church. Maybe next time!
posted by djstig at 5:44 PM on December 23, 2009

Cool stuff, but there are also several Old Believer groups in Romania, both in Moldavia and the Danuve Delta.
posted by Dee Xtrovert at 6:06 PM on December 23, 2009

One of the links actually just says they're the only Old Believers in Poland, which is easier to believe.
posted by kenko at 6:40 PM on December 23, 2009

So whatever happened to the Pennywhistlers?
posted by Faze at 7:37 PM on December 23, 2009

Link to the Pennywhistlers.
posted by Faze at 7:37 PM on December 23, 2009

So whatever happened to the Pennywhistlers?

Leader Ethel Raim is artistic director of the Center for Traditional Music and Dance in NY.
posted by neroli at 9:45 PM on December 23, 2009

Thanks for this. Absolutely lovely!
posted by TheCoug at 3:43 AM on December 24, 2009

Leader Ethel Raim is artistic director of the Center for Traditional Music and Dance in NY.

That's good to know, neroli. Thanks.
posted by Faze at 4:20 AM on December 24, 2009

The Old Believers wiki entry makes it seem as if there are still congregants in significant numbers, primarily in western Russia and Ukraine, Belarus, eastern Poland, and the Baltics.

Here's a town in Poland composed of many Old Believers - Sejny, near Suwałki and Augustów in the northeast, near the Lithuanian and Belorussian borders. Sejny's got a cultural center that tries to preserve the multi-faith, multi-ethnic heritage of the region.

If you're looking for more, try searching for "Old Believers" in regional languages:

Vecticībnieki - Latvian
Sentikiai - Lithuanian
Vanausulised - Estonian
Старообрядчество - Russian
Старообрядництво - Ukrainian
Staroobrzędowcy - Polish
Старообрядчество- Belorussian
posted by mdonley at 7:23 AM on December 24, 2009 [1 favorite]

Lipovani in Romanian.
posted by Dee Xtrovert at 10:49 AM on December 24, 2009