Descendants of the old believers from the village of Makurino: practice of preserving identity (evidence of 2022 field research)

This article discusses the reasons for preservation of ethnic and cultural identity among the descendants of Old Believers from the village of Makurino in Yurga District of Kemerovo Region. A number of in-depth interviews with these people were conducted during the 2022 ethnographic expedition to the settlements of Yurga District of Kemerovo Region. The main source was interviews with representatives of two Old Believer families, born in the 1930s-1970s. Although the descendants of Old Believers, born in the 1930s-1970s, have not preserved main religious markers of their denomination, they still demonstrated a stable ethnic and cultural identity by calling themselves “the Kerzhaks.” At the level of everyday and spiritual culture, they manifest some elements of Old Believers ’ culture (making the sign ofthe cross using two fingers, ban on sharing dishware with those who are not Old Believers or the so-called “chashnichestvo,”, etc.) and preserve the memory of the history of their families, their village, and their Old Believer ancestors. The reason for broadcasting and preserving some fragments of everyday and spiritual culture of the Old Believers by their descendants was cultural environment in which the informants grew up. Unable to fully follow the Old Believer canons in the Soviet times due to the prohibition of religious education by the Soviet government, the descendants of the Kerzhak Old Believers in their childhood observed the behavior of their older relatives and partially adopted the transmitted cultural norms. An important factor in preserving ethnic and cultural identity by the descendants of Old Believers from the village of Makurino was the image of the Kerzhak ancestors, which was a moral guideline for the informants. Complying with that image through shared cultural norms is still a positive practice among the informants. This is why “being a Kerzhak” and preserving elements of the Old Believer culture is “honorable” for the informants.