Old Believers:

The Old Believers were conservative religious dissenters who challenged the Russian Orthodox Church and defied the Imperial state. This book examines the relationship between Old Believers, religion, popular dissent and gender. It delves into the inner life of their priestless Old Believer communities in Moscow and St Petersburg between the reigns of Catherine the Great and Nicholas I, and examines religious views, economic activities and their social organisation. The narrative of Old Believer history is presented against the changing political climate in Russia from that of the Enlightened toleration to bureaucratic repression.