Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Social History of the True Orthodox Christians Wandering in Russia: Capitalism, Communism, and Apocalypse, 1900-1930

Social History of the True Orthodox Christians Wandering in Russia: Capitalism, Communism, and Apocalypse, 1900-1930

Kuziner, Igor

Hardcover

Series: Imperial Transformations - Russian, Soviet and Post-Soviet H

General Racism & Ethnic StudiesRussian History

ISBN10: 1041101252
ISBN13: 9781041101253
Publisher: Routledge
Published: Nov 5 2025
Pages: 208
Weight: 1.08
Height: 0.56 Width: 6.14 Depth: 9.21
Language: English

This book explores the social history of the radical religious community of Old Believer-Wanderers during the period of rapid Late Imperial, Early Soviet, and Stalinist modernization.

The self-titled True Orthodox Christians believed the 17th-century reforms of the Russian Orthodox Church ushered in the reign of an invisible Antichrist. Rejecting the corrupted world, they advocated extreme asceticism -- renouncing property, marriage, and all contact with the state. Yet, despite their apocalyptic ideology, the Wanderers thrived in Late Imperial and Early Soviet society, engaging in capitalism, pioneering agricultural cooperatives, and even participating in Stalinist repression. Focusing on three key figures, this book examines how these seemingly isolated millenarians adapted to rapid modernization -- from imperial capitalism to Soviet revolution and Stalinist terror. Their surprising integration challenges assumptions about radical religious groups, revealing both the adaptability of fringe communities and the unexpected flexibility of modernizing regimes. Through their stories, this book offers new insights into the relationship between marginalized beliefs and societal transformation.

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