Settlement of the Vyg's suzemok by old believers

The purpose of the article is to study the socio-geographical issues of the early Old Belief using an integrated approach to sources. The origin of the Old Believers - the first settlers of uninhabited lands on the border of two pogosts of the Olonets Uyezd is considered. Over time, there was a gradual process of settlement of the Vyg River basin from west to east, depending on the number of fugitives and the availability of ready housing. The settlements were large (monastery) and small (hermitages). The censuses of 1678 and 1707 were used as sources on the history of the early Old Believers. A comparative analysis of the seventeenth-century census data and the first revision with the data from the Old Believers’ sources was made. New biographical data on some of the first Vyg settlers were obtained. The results of the study confirmed the conclusion made by M. L. Sokolovskaya that the overwhelming number of settlers came from the Olonets Uyezd pogosts, on the territory of which the settlements were founded. The social composition of the settlers (their peasant background) corresponds to the social composition of the inhabited village districts surrounding the unpopulated forest areas (suzemok).