"Strangers" in traditional views of the Russian Old Believers of Ust-Tsilma

The views of the Russian Old Believers-bespopovtsians (Ust-Tsilma people) living in Ust-Tsilma region of the Komi Republic on the peoples of another ethnicity (the Komi, Nenets) of other confessions of faith are considered. The mechanisms for the preservation of a tradition as the factor of formation of religious and cultural identity are defined. The work is written on the basis of published sources and the author's field materials collected in Ust-Tsilma region in the period of 1990-2000. Special attention is given to the desire of Old Believers to keep the old Russian religious culture in terms of boundary living with the above-mentioned peoples that was promoted by their developed consciousness which influenced the formation of a system of behavioural skills passed on from generation to generation, that had predetermined the preservation of traditional culture in general. Contacts between the Russian Old Believers and their neighbors were purely rational and were limited to obvious cultural barriers. These barriers were constantly emphasized by the bearers of traditional knowledge and contributed to the marking of cultural boundaries. The stereotypes of perception of neighbors of another ethnicity created by the Old Believers had protective character and were aimed at the preservation, first of all, of their own confession of faith and the Russian culture in the region. Symbolic and cultural confrontation with the neighbors helped to consolidate confession, to strengthen its identity, to preserve cultural traditions. The stability of Ust-Tsilma people as an ethno-confessional group is due to the integrative effect on its development of a number of important factors of which the question of the existence between the two ethnic enclaves the population of which ethnically and religiously differed from the Ust-Tsilma people was quite important.