RASKOL AND OLD BELIEVERS IN 19TH CENTURY RUSSIAN THOUGHT AND LITERATURE

Abstract

In the second half of the 17th century, Raskol that took place in the Russian church is one of the main events in the history of Russia. Raskol that initiated in order to change religious rituals and books becomes one of the main problems of Russia's social political life by the excommunication of those who oppose the reforms in the councils realized between the years of 1666-1667 and from these years Russia face the spirit of a strong religious struggle that named as old believers and leaked from the church life to the people. Raskol is perceived as a religious problem in the period in which took place and evaluated in relation to the ignorance of the people that oppose reforms in the context of religious knowledge. However the limited perspective on Raskol that is the subject of our study changes, Raskol and old believers begin to be discussed as a social and political problem. Thought movements of that period play an important role in the development of this perspective directed to Raskol. Parallel to the thought movements, the issue of Raskol and old believers takes place in the literature of that period. On this axis the aim of our study is to examine the issue of Raskol that is one of the main events of Russian history and the issue of old believers that emerged in the context of that problem in the framework of 19th century's Russian thought and literature, that period's social and political conditions within the scope of our study in the Russian thoughts of the 19th century Raskol and old believers have been examined in the context of approaches that dealt with that matter in the framework of revolutionary democrat thinkers, Slavic thinkers,those who approach to phenomenon of Raskol within the framework of official church and ideology of state and like Vladimir Solovyov in the terms of universal church values. In the 19th century Russian literature Raskol and old believers are discussed in the sample of N.Leskov and Fyodor Dostoevsky and in the conclusion section, a hollistic assessment has been made within the framework of Russian thought and literature